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Private Notes
Sir David Attenborough investigates the discovery of a lifetime: the giant skull of a prehistoric sea monster, known as a pliosaur – the Tyrannosaurus rex of the seas!
Peaky Blinders writer and creator Steven Knight and choreographer Benoit Swan Pouffer of the celebrated Rambert Dance Company discuss the collaboration that resulted in one of the most unexpected and tantalising stage productions of recent years: Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby.
Award-winning wildlife cameraman Vianet Djenguet has been invited by a team of conservationists from the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in Democratic Republic of the Congo to closely document their effort to protect the eastern lowland gorilla, a critically endangered great ape and the largest primate on earth.
By living amongst this group of our primate kin for three months, will the habituation of this gorilla family, coupled with Vianet’s extraordinary journey, succeed in the effort to save the eastern lowland gorillas from extinction?
In 2017, a routine archaeological dig is taking place on the site of a proposed housing development in the village of Fenstanton in the Cambridgeshire Fens. When human remains are found alongside a variety of Roman artefacts, none of the team at Albion Archaeology see anything out of the ordinary. But once the bones are washed back at HQ, something highly unusual is uncovered: a nail through the heelbone of one of the individuals. Could this be evidence of a Roman crucifixion? When they do some research, they find that only one confirmed example has ever been unearthed before, discovered in the 1960s in Jerusalem. To find out more, they call in renowned osteoarchaeologist Dr Corinne Duhig to investigate.
Twenty-two-year-old Ellie Williams was jailed for lying about being trafficked and raped by a vicious Asian grooming gang. Now, for the first time, the truth is laid open.
With the Doomsday Clock the closest it's ever been to midnight, Jane Corbin investigates the proliferation of nuclear weapons across the globe and the breakdown of systems of constraint.
BBC Arabic's Nawal Al-Maghafi reveals how the UAE hired mercenaries to conduct targeted assassinations of its political enemies in Yemen, with American mercenaries starting the killings in 2015.
How and why has Pep Guardiola been able to revolutionise football?
This documentary offers a deep dive into Pep’s relentless pursuit of perfection and the methods and motivations that have led him to leave a lasting imprint on the beautiful game.
Dougray Scott delves into Scotland's pivotal role in creating modern football. He examines how Scotland laid the groundwork for the modern style of football and uncovers the story of the early pioneers who created passing and running as a game-changing strategy that would see Scotland dominate football.
The documentary also brings to the fore those iconic Scottish players and influential figures who were instrumental in shaping football’s modern framework. From the pioneering tactics of influential clubs such as Queen's Park FC to the inspirational leadership of players like Andrew Watson, Scotland's first black international footballer, who captained the Scotland squad in 1881.
A film profile of Belfast poet Michael Longley, offering insights into his work, friendships, working process, the places that have inspired him and his relationship with the natural world.
A film exploring how growing up in post-Second World War Belfast, the city’s thriving music scene in the 1960s and the onset of the Troubles shaped Gerald Dawe's life and work.
Úna Monaghan explores the opportunities that arise when traditional folk music is confronted with new ideas, breaking all the rules.
A new feature-length documentary follows the Belfast harpist, composer and sound engineer as she records her latest experimental album, Aonaracht. Úna has spent a lifetime steering the course between science and art, examining the intersections between Irish traditional music, experimental music, improvisation and interactive technologies. Influenced by the work of John Cage, Úna has made the form her own.
Aonaracht is one of her most ambitious projects to date, and Úna must now convince other top traditional musicians to embrace the art form she is pioneering: recording an album of solo performances with electronics.
This is the story of 15 men and women and one life-changing year on the front line of the most divisive conflict of a generation: the 1984 miners' strike. This documentary tells the story of this year-long conflict by combining archive footage with deeply personal testimony from striking and working miners, their families and the police - with many speaking for the first time.
Colin Harper’s books, music and record company work are more or less unrecognised for their significance to world music in his homeplace of Northern Ireland. Colin works mostly from a tiny box room in east Belfast, and his studio collective, The Legends of Tomorrow, have never played live. This quietly brilliant writer and musician has many fans in the music world, including Bono, Johnny Marr, John McLaughlin and Martin Hayes, as well as a host of other great local and international musicians.
An uplifting insight into the lives of seven-year-old conjoined twins, who weren’t expected to live more than a few days. Cared for by their devoted father, the girls have defied all medical expectations and now attend mainstream primary school.
Chronicling the story that transfixed the world in 2018 – the daring rescue of 12 boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand. This film shines a light on the high-risk world of cave diving, the astounding courage and compassion of the rescuers and the shared humanity of an international community that united to save the boys.
The murder of a young woman. A botched police inquiry. And the BBC Disclosure investigation that helped catch the killer. As the man who murdered Emma Caldwell is finally brought to justice, reporter Samantha Poling reveals a catalogue of missed opportunities by police to catch him. The inside story on how this left Emma’s murder unsolved for nearly two decades, while a dangerous predator was free to continue raping and assaulting other women.
Dame Siân Phillips is very much still a working actor, even at the remarkable age of 90. Now, the star of television series I, Claudius and ex-wife of Peter O’Toole opens her heart on camera for the first time about her life and career.
When a music score is uncovered deep within the storerooms of the Louvre, musical historians scramble to realise the potential of this piece of papyrus. The text's grammatical features give us a clue to the composer's identity: Carcinus, an author cited by Aristotle in his Rhetoric. His name is engraved on a wall in the Parthenon, and the story of his life offers an insight into the history of Greek musicians, who were revered like gods and welcomed across the Mediterranean to take part in competitions modelled on the Olympic Games.
The murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police officer who abducted her as she walked to her home in south London in March 2021 was a watershed moment for the nation. It brought to the fore the devastating issue of male predators within the country's police forces and highlighted the extent of violence against women and girls in British society - an issue recently declared a national priority alongside terrorism and organised crime.
This documentary looks at the Met’s investigation into Sarah’s murder, how this devastating crime unfolded and its impact - told by those closely involved in the case from the outset, many of whom are speaking on camera for the first time, including the senior investigating officer, Katherine Goodwin, the prosecuting barrister, Tom Little, and Sarah’s local MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Ten years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board on 8 March 2014, the BBC’s award-winning This World strand looks at whether new radio technology may finally help locate the missing aircraft and asks what lessons can be learned to make aviation safer.
Comedian Geoff Norcott investigates universities to find out if a degree is still worth it. He meets students at war with their institutions and those suing for a refund.
A huge collection of the Russian and Ukrainian art was put on sale in Europe. Paintings were sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds and made their way into European and American museums.
It was said to include over 200 oil paintings of some of the most treasured Russian and Ukrainian constructivist artists, such El Lissitzky, Exter,
Goncharova, Popova and others, putting it among the largest in the world.
Forty years ago, one of the longest and most hostile industrial disputes Britain had ever seen erupted across the country. Coal miners from all over Wales took to the picket lines to save their pits and their jobs. But it wasn’t just the men who decided to fight.
Chabuddy G has some tremendous news for Kurupt FM. Tracking MC Grindah to his post round and DJ Beats at the bowling alley where he works, he informs them of the success of Bang, Bang, their most popular track. It is being used as the theme tune for a Japanese TV game show, and the gang have been offered a tour in Japan.
Zara McDermott heads to the USA and the small town of Moscow, Idaho to find out about the tragic murders of four students and the global online manhunt that followed their deaths.
In 1980, two Cork outsiders, Cathal Coughlan and Sean O’Hagan, met at a New Year's Eve party. Bonding over music, a friendship and songwriting partnership was ignited; the band they formed, Microdisney, was one of the best bands of the 1980s that you’ve probably never heard. Mixing Sean’s stunning melodic arrangements with Cathal’s poetic, angry lyrics, they recorded three brilliant LPs, gained critical adulation and an obsessive cult following. But a hit single eluded them, as did radio play and LP sales. By 1988, frustrated by their lack of progress, the band crashed and burned, leaving a trail of acrimony and broken friendships.
The story of a teenage road death told by his family and first responders.
Jordan North asks, should I quit vaping? Is it bad for me or not? To find out, he uncovers the truth about vaping, and discovers there’s a lot he didn’t know.
Anita Brookner, art historian, TV presenter and author of the Booker Prize-winning Hotel du Lac, added to her accomplishments in the 1980s by sharing with television audiences her understanding and appreciation for some of the finest works by the world’s greatest ever painters.
Forty years after the miners' strike, this documentary tells the story of Polmaise Colliery, whose workers were the first to walk out and the last to go back to work. Hearing from miners who were on the frontline, and family members and journalists who covered the strike, this documentary reveals the inside story of the miners who went on strike for 56 weeks to save the last village pit in Scotland.
A single Ukrainian infantry company find themselves in a life or death battle to defend the eastern front against intense Russian attacks. This is an extraordinary portrait of lives compromised by the turmoil of Europe’s bloodiest war in living memory, filmed by Ukrainian soldiers.
With exclusive access to a tightly controlled frontline, the film follows the mission of a special battalion as they undertake a single deployment on one of Ukraine’s most violent battlefronts, a snow-covered forest near Kupyansk. Their mission is to defend a railway line, a key strategic asset that, if captured, will enable Russia to mount a direct attack on Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv.
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of same-sex marriage in England and Wales, Tom Allen explores the fight for equal marriage and arranges a dream wedding for one lucky couple.
The true story of a strange, lost film. In 1972, the IRA allowed an unusual documentary crew to film its members carrying out attacks. Right at the bloodiest point of the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA bombers were filmed unmasked, and most of its underground leadership appeared on camera. The film looked like a propaganda coup, before disappearing and going largely unseen for almost 50 years, with the IRA never allowing anything like it to happen again. The unearthing of the film sets Darragh MacIntyre off in search of the men who made it, the bombers who willingly showed their faces on camera, and the reason for its disappearance. In doing so, he finds himself following the footprints of spies.
The Assembly sees a cast of 35 interviewers who are autistic, neurodivergent or learning disabled, question an A-list celebrity for one extraordinary TV interview.
With previously unheard interviews with the band and new interviews with those who met them, this is the story of ABBA’s love affair with the UK since their Eurovision triumph.
New research in India suggests heat can double the risk of stillbirth and miscarriage. It comes as the World Health Organisation warns that pregnant women and babies face some of 'the gravest consequences of all' as a result of climate change. The BBC's global health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar reports from southern India.
With unique insights in epic locations and interpretations of ancient inscriptions and artefacts, Mary Beard uncovers the hidden world of the emperors of Rome.
Mother, fighter and visionary photographer - Tish Murtha emerged from the north east in Thatcher's Britain to expose the struggles and triumphs of her local community.
Tish's daughter, Ella, uncovers her poignant story in this heartfelt documentary, piecing together a portrait of a woman who wielded her camera as a tool to celebrate overlooked working-class lives and to strive for social change.
Tragically, Tish died aged 56, her work relatively unknown, but now, Ella unlocks the doors to her mother's long-hidden archive. Inside, a treasure trove of unseen images, personal artefacts, letters and diaries awaits, revealing the true essence of this enigmatic artist.
Marking the 30th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death, this documentary uses powerful and unseen archive footage to demystify the tragic moment when the Nirvana frontman took his own life.
Chef and rapper Big Zuu makes a pilgrimage to Mecca on a personal spiritual journey to try and understand more about his faith and what it means to be 'a good Muslim'.
Comedian, actor and writer Paul Black is also one of Scotland's biggest stars, thanks to his 350,000+ ardent followers. For this programme, Paul has taken the brave decision to hand his influencing powers over to all of them. They have enthusiastically answered his online post, suggesting an array of wild, wonderful and dangerous challenges that they want to see him undertake – all with the aim of generating some hilarious content.
Victoria Uwonkunda returns to Rwanda for the first time since fleeing the 1994 genocide. Tracing back her escape route from the capital Kigali to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Victoria speaks to survivors of the violence - both victims and perpetrators - to find out how the country is healing through reconciliation and forgiveness.
Penelope Keith casts an affectionate eye back on the much-loved sitcom To the Manor Born and her role as upper-class Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, who finds herself down on her luck and forced to change her circumstances and home after the death of her husband.
Penelope tells the story behind how the comedy came into being, what it was like working with fellow cast members Angela Thorne and Peter Bowles, and the challenges she faced taking on a new role after the huge success she’d enjoyed playing Margo in The Good Life.
In 1965, a young Waris Hussein was perhaps the only experienced Indian director working in British television and was horrified when he discovered that the BBC was planning a TV adaptation of EM Forster’s A Passage to India without him at the helm. As luck would have it, a twist of fate meant he did end up in the director’s chair. Waris shares fond memories of his experiences, describing the filming challenges involved in portraying a true sense of India, recalling what it was like working with a stellar cast that included the likes of Dame Sybil Thorndike, Cyril Cusak and Virginia McKenna, and outlining the pressure to do full justice to one of the great novels of the 20th century.
A truth universally acknowledged is that screenwriter Andrew Davies is one of television’s great ‘adapters’, and here he discusses one of his most successful literary challenges and how he turned Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice into the costume drama series that had a whole nation of viewers gripped.
Andrew looks back on how he first approached the novel, describes his processes and explains how he came to make Colin Firth’s Mr Darcey take a swim in a lake without taking his shirt off, thereby creating one of television’s most iconic scenes.
Actors William Gaunt and Marcia Warren reunite for a look back at No Place Like Home, the BBC sitcom that ran from 1983 to 1987, and which made them two of the most popular TV stars of the day.
William played Arthur Crabtree, a father of four who is looking forward to the freedom of having his children finally leave home, now struggling to come to terms with the realisation that their fleeing the nest seems increasingly unlikely to ever happen. Marcia was the Crabtree’s nosey, noisy and animal-obsessed neighbour Vera Botting – another fly in Arthur’s ointment.
Off screen, William and Marcia were firm friends, who now come together to remember their experiences of making the series and share some fond memories of life behind the scenes on a hit TV comedy.
Acclaimed screenwriter Paul Abbott tells the story behind the creation of his 2000 Bafta-winning drama series Clocking Off, which ran for four series until 2003.
Set in a Manchester textile factory, each episode focused on the home life, relationships and struggles of a different individual character. The series was notable for its incredible casting, featuring an ensemble of some of the biggest stars of the day and an impressive selection of young actors who would go on to become some of television’s most recognisable faces.
Among a long list of acting talent were the likes of Sarah Lancashire, Siobhan Finneran, Christopher Eccleston, John Simm, Philip Glenister, Maxine Peake, Diane Parish, Lesley Sharp and Sophie Okonedo.
Paul looks back on how he and the team managed to bring them together with a collection of stories that captured the experiences of the north of England at the turn of the century, and made for truly compelling viewing.
Orson Welles was the genius who changed the face of cinema with his 1941 directorial debut, Citizen Kane, and who became one of the key artistic figures of the 20th century – a great raconteur as well as a great artist, and larger than life in every sense.
In 1982, Welles was the focus of a two-part BBC documentary that told the story of his life, The Orson Welles Story, and here, its producer, Alan Yentob, looks back on his encounters with this giant of a man, telling the tale of their behind-the-scenes dealings and explaining why he believes Welles’s legacy is still significant today and why he will always deserve his reputation as a genius of cinema.
Alan Yentob shares the fascinating story of how the 1974 broadcast of the great Ella Fitzgerald singing in Ronnie Scott’s nightclub came about.
In a tale of tenacity combined with new camera technology, Alan recounts how, as a young TV producer, he managed to persuade Ella’s manager to let the BBC film Ella in full flight at London’s home of jazz, capturing forever what is now considered to be a performance of true musical significance.
From daring landings to rescuing plane crash survivors, here are nine nail-biting moments
In the Sonoran Desert, between Arizona and California, hundreds of migrants crossing from Mexico into the United States lose their way and die, mostly from dehydration, under the 50 degree temperatures of the hottest desert in North America. This border region is the most dangerous land-crossing in the world, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
BBC Mundo followed a group of volunteers, the 'Aguilas del Desierto,' on one of their missions to search for stranded migrants and reach them while alive. The results are not always happy ones.
Exploring community, tradition, love and friendship, this warm, compelling and ultimately moving documentary – with unprecedented access to the UK’s south Asian community – follows aunties Rubina, Ghazala and Tahera attempting to pull out all the stops as they head towards an all-singing, all-dancing coach trip.
All in the name of preserving their Asian culture for the next generation.
Four young people on the cusp of adulthood prepare for one of the biggest nights of their lives – their Bar and Bat Mitzvah – balancing culture, religion and the chance to party.
The numbers of people using and getting addicted to ketamine has more than doubled since 2016 in England and Wales, with other countries around the world reporting similar increases. Many of them are under 25.
In this film, Rachel Stonehouse finds out more about why are so many young people getting addicted to ketamine, and what support is available to help them.
Passionate about boxing's transformative power, Sikh coach Pops trains men and women at the MLSS Boxing Academy in Walsall, West Midlands, to combat street crime and bullying.
Isobel Yeung navigates gun battles, combat raids and secretive meetings deep inside the occupied West Bank. What she finds raises serious questions about the conduct of the Israeli military.
2024 is the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s iconic performance and victory at Eurovision. With the contest taking place in Sweden, this film celebrates that historic occasion by telling the epic story of ABBA’s greatest period of musical achievement.
