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The Bradford Aunties (2024) #1538
DOCUMENTARY
Main
50 mins. BBC One. Tahera, Rubina and Ghazala are charming, opinionated and determined ladies from Yorkshire, with one major thing in common – they‘re all Asian aunties, women who use their lifetimes of experience to impart wisdom, pass judgement and glue their communities together. This engaging and insightful documentary follows this trio of Bradford women as they embark on their latest mission – to ensure their language, food, music and values are handed to the next generation. Aunties Tahera, Rubina and Ghazala believe passionately in the preservation of their culture for their communities' young people. However, in the wake of today’s digital world, they fear this is in danger of being eroded as the next generation of Asian youth adopt more western ways. Rolling up their sleeves, the aunties embark on the biggest challenge of their lives – a unique and bespoke community project looking to bring the young and old of Bradford together. And to cap it all, they’re planning to take everyone on a big coach trip to Blackpool at the end of the project. The aunties’ master plan is to run a series of workshops to teach young people a host of skills and provide a chance for the generations to get to know each other better. From music to poetry, cooking and the importance of family, the aunties look to connect the youth with the old ways and ideals. But along the way, will they discover they have just as much to learn from the young cohort? This isn’t a boot camp for the faint-hearted. And helping them at every step will be their army of trusted, elderly aunties. With their reputation preceding them, our aunties hit the streets of Bradford to recruit young people to their cause – but will they be able to engage a tough crowd? Or is the gap between the generations just too wide to be filled? As the countdown to the coach trip to Blackpool gets under way, the aunties have a lot to organise, with their reputations and culture on the line. Can they connect with today’s youth, or will it be a bumpy ride, with the old ways driving a wedge between them? 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. |
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The Secret History of Writing (2020) #1321
DOCUMENTARY
Special
3x1 hour. BBC. How the invention of writing gave humanity a history. From hieroglyphs to emojis, an exploration of the way in which the technology of writing has shaped the world we live in. 1/3 From Pictures to Words. Revealing the link between ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the letters we use every day. 2/3 Words on a Page. How the changing technology of writing has shaped the course of world history. 3/3 Changing the Script. As technology and politics force changes to the way we write, what happens to who we are? |
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Pilgrimage (2020) #1354
DOCUMENTARY
Main
Pilgrimage (Series 3) BBC 1 hour The Road to Istanbul Episode 1 of 3 Seven well-known personalities, all with differing faiths and beliefs, put on backpacks and walking boots and, on foot and by road, set out to cover sections of the Sultans Trail - a modern-day, 2,200km pilgrimage across Eastern Europe, which starts in Vienna and ends in the historic city of Istanbul. With only 15 days to complete their pilgrimage, the group begin their adventure in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade. From here, they make their way to Bulgaria, travelling over the mountainous Balkans before arriving in Istanbul. But will this journey of a lifetime change the way they think about themselves and their beliefs? Journalist Adrian Chiles, former politician Edwina Currie, Olympian Fatima Whitbread, comedian Dom Joly, actor Pauline McLynn, broadcaster Mim Shaikh and television presenter Amar Latif live as modern-day pilgrims, staying in basic hotels and often sleeping in shared rooms. Formed just over ten years ago, the Sultans Trail retraces an ancient path taken by the Ottoman armies from late medieval times as they looked to expand their empire into Europe. From their base in Istanbul, armies made it to the city of Vienna twice before being repelled. Now, this former route of war has been turned into a path of peace, designed to promote tolerance between people of all faiths and none. In this first episode, the seven pilgrims arrive in Belgrade, Serbia, and find out for the first time who they are sharing their pilgrim adventure with. Leaving the city behind, they head into the countryside and away from the hustle and bustle. Relying on the Sultans Trail app to help guide them across Europe, Adrian, a converted Catholic, and Mim, a practising Muslim, are the first to plot their way as they look for the fortified Manasija monastery hidden in the hills. As they progress through the Serbian countryside, Amar, who has been blind since the age of 18, leads the pilgrims in the ancient tradition of scrumping. After a 5km hike, they make it to the monastery, which was fortified to protect it from the Ottoman armies. Adrian leads the group in exploring the 15th-century Orthodox Christian church. Inside, Edwina, a non-practising Orthodox Jew, and Mim discuss the existence of God. Meanwhile, outside on the ramparts of the fortress, Dom, an atheist, takes Amar, raised a Muslim, to the very top of the battlements with some nerve-racking moments! They move on and, with the sun setting, the pilgrims arrive at their overnight accommodation, a simple woodland hostel, and, in line with pilgrim tradition, bed down in shared rooms. In the morning, it becomes clear the boys have had a restless night thanks to Dom and Adrian snoring. Mim takes himself off to pray in a field near the hostel before breakfast, where Pauline, an atheist, tells the group about her upbringing as an Irish Catholic. Before they set off, the pilgrims collect their first pilgrim stamp, a record of their journey along the trail. Later that day, the group arrive in the city of Nis, where Dom and Mim explore a 16th-century mosque built during the reign of Sultan Suleiman, after whom the pilgrimage trail is named. Edwina takes Amar and Pauline to a memorial of a more recent conflict, the Crveni Krust concentration camp, a Second World War Nazi camp that held people of Jewish, Romani and Serbian origin. Here, they witness the horrors of religious and cultural persecution. After a challenging day, the group discuss the difficulties with faith and religion in the face of conflict. The next day, the pilgrims head back into rural Serbia, where Fatima, a Christian, takes the lead with the app, but the pilgrims end up lost and separated in a forest as they lose the trail, much to new hiker Mim’s annoyance. After reuniting, the pilgrims pick up the trail again and it brings them to The Church of the Virgin Mary on a special day in the Orthodox Christian calendar, the birth of the Holy Virgin Mary. The Saint’s day is celebrated with a Slava, a day-long festival that comprises of a service and meal. The pilgrims settle into the service but it is not long before Dom decides to leave. Adrian however finds the service comforting, and after it is completed, the group are invited to join the locals’ celebration meal at the priest’s top table. The experience of seeing this local community come together in the name of faith resonates with Amar, while for Mim, being surrounded by people embracing their faith gives him a new outlook on his own. |
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The Fall of the Berlin Wall with John Simpson (2019) #1268
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. It’s said that journalists write the first draft of history. To mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, John Simpson, the BBC’s world affairs editor and longest-serving correspondent, goes back to his reports on what he believes is the most important story he ever covered – the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Back in 1989, John thought this event would change the world for the better, forever. But history has not turned out quite the way he expected. Russia is yet again an enemy of the West, and the Cold War battle that built the Berlin Wall has been replaced with other destabilising global power struggles - even more dangerous and much harder to understand. Three decades on, John wonders if he was wrong to have been so optimistic. Using the anniversary as an opportunity to re-examine how he told the story, John watches the BBC’s extensive archive and talks with historians and other experts to try and understand just how accurate his reporting was. At the heart of the documentary is an intense and personal interview with John. He begins by describing how he grew up in the shadow of the Cold War battle between the capitalist West and the communist East, and how he - like everyone else - believed that this global stand-off would continue for many more decades, ending sooner or later in nuclear war. On 9 November 1989, John, like the rest of the world, in shock at reports that the Berlin Wall’s checkpoints had been opened up, rushed to Berlin to cover the incredible story. With great emotion, John recalls his happiness as he reported from in front of the Wall as Berlin’s people tore it down, until his broadcast was cut off midway by technical failure – giving him by far the most humiliating moment of his long career. After the technical meltdown, John describes how he walked into the crowd feeling utterly depressed. But, surrounded by the thousands of people who had streamed through the checkpoints from East Berlin, untouched by the once trigger-happy border guards and greeted with delight by West Berliners, he could barely believe his own eyes and found himself overwhelmed with joy. So, why has the legacy of the Wall not turned out the way John hoped and expected? He examines why he did not predict that the pace of change across Europe would lead to the terrible war in Yugoslavia, nor that Russia, with Vladimir Putin – a former KGB agent – as its president, would find a new guise in which to become a bitter enemy of the West. John also reflects on the terrifying uncertainty of global politics today, which has left him with a certain nostalgia for the decades of the Cold War – a period that was certainly frightening, but arguably less so than the uncertainty and complexity of global politics that we live with today. |
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Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley (2018) #1110
DOCUMENTARY
Main
90mins. BBC. 2018 marks 100 years since the first women over the age of 30, who owned property, were allowed to vote in the UK. The fight for the vote was about much more than just the Pankhurst family or Emily Davidson's fateful collision with the king's horse. In this film, Lucy is at the heart of the drama, alongside a group of less well known, but equally astonishing, young working-class suffragettes who decided to go against every rule and expectation that Edwardian society had about them. Lucy explores the actions of these women as their campaign becomes more and more dangerous, while their own words are delivered in simple but strikingly emotive pieces of dramatised testimony. Lucy also tells this story from a range of iconic original locations, from the Houses of Parliament and 10 Downing Street to the Savoy Hotel, and has access to an amazing range of artefacts, from hunger-striking medals to defused bombs and private letters between the government and the press. In this Edwardian history drama, Lucy and her group of suffragettes from the Women's Social Political Union reveal what life was like for these young women, as she follows the trail of increasingly illegal and dangerous acts they would end up committing. For while they would start with peaceful protests, but they would go from to obstruction to vandalism and finally to arson and bomb making. Lucy investigates what drove them to break the law, to the prison conditions they experienced, including violent force feedings and the subsequent radicalisation of these women that occurred, driving them to more and more extreme actions. Lucy looks at the ways in which the press responded to the suffragettes and their own use of PR and branding to counteract the negative portrayals - from WSPU postcards to pennants and exhibitions. The decisive and largely negative role that members of Parliament played is unpacked, as they would throw out numerous attempts to give women the vote. The role of the police is explored, both in the ways in which the suffragettes' demonstrations were handled and the covert and sometimes violent tactics that were used against them. As the actions of the suffragettes became increasingly extreme, it would take a world-changing event to stop their campaign in its tracks and allow some form of equality at the ballot box. |
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The Joy of Winning (2018) #1161
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. How to have a happier life and a better world all thanks to maths, in this witty, mind-expanding guide to the science of success with Hannah Fry. Following in the footsteps of BBC Four's award-winning maths films The Joy of Stats and The Joy of Data, this latest gleefully nerdy adventure sees mathematician Dr Hannah Fry unlock the essential strategies you'll need to get what you want - to win - more of the time. From how to bag a bargain dinner to how best to stop the kids arguing on a long car journey, maths can give you a winning strategy. And the same rules apply to the world's biggest problems - whether it's avoiding nuclear annihilation or tackling climate change. Deploying 'The Joys Of...' films' trademark mix of playful animation alongside both oddball demos and contributions from the world's biggest brains, Fry shows how this field of maths - known as game theory - is the essential key to help you get your way. She reveals ways to analyse any situation, and methods of calculating the consequences of getting what you want. Expect tips on taking advantage of what your opponents do, but also pleasing proof that cooperation might get you further than conflict. Fry also hails the 20th-century scientists like John von Neumann and John Nash who worked out the science of success. They may not be household names, but they transformed economics, politics, psychology and evolutionary biology in the process - and their work, Hannah demonstrates, could even be shown to prove the existence and advantage of goodness. Along the way the film reveals, amongst other things, what links the rapper Ludacris, a Kentucky sheriff, a Nobel Prize winner and doping in professional cycling. And there's an irresistible chance to revisit the most excruciatingly painful and the most genius scenes ever seen on a TV game show, as Hannah unpacks the maths behind the legendary show Golden Balls and hails Nick Corrigan, the contestant whose cunning gameplay managed to break the supposedly intractable 'Prisoner's Dilemma'. Other contributors to The Joy of Winning include European number one professional female poker player Liv Boeree, Scottish ex-pro cyclist and anti-doping campaigner (banned for 2 years in 2004 for doping) David Millar, Israeli game theory expert Dr Haim Shapira - who shows why it is sometimes rational to be irrational - and top evolutionary game theorist Professor Karl Sigmund from the University of Vienna. |
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Frank Lloyd Wright: The Man Who Built America (2017) #1022
DOCUMENTARY
Main
Frank Lloyd Wright is America's greatest ever architect. But few people know about the Welsh roots that shaped his life and world-famous buildings. Now, leading Welsh architect Jonathan Adams sets off across America to explore Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces for himself. Along the way, he uncovers the tempestuous life story of the man behind them, and the secrets of his radical Welsh background. In a career spanning seven decades, Frank Lloyd Wright built over 500 buildings, and changed the face of modern architecture. Fallingwater, the house over the waterfall, has been called the greatest house of the 20th century. The spiralling Guggenheim Museum in New York reinvented the art museum. Wright's Welsh mother was born and raised near Llandysul in west Wales, and emigrated to America with her family in 1844. Her son Frank was raised in a Unitarian community in Wisconsin. The values he absorbed there were based on a love of nature, the importance of hard work, and the need to question convention and defy it where necessary. Wright's architecture was shaped by these beliefs. He built his lifelong home in the valley he was raised in, and he named it after an ancient Welsh bard - Taliesin. It was the scene of many adventures, and of a horrific crime. In 1914, a servant at Taliesin ran amok and killed seven people. They included Wright's partner, Mamah Cheney, and her two young children. 150 years after his birth, Adams argues that Frank Lloyd Wright is now a vitally important figure who can teach us how to build for a better world. Wright's belief in what he called organic architecture - buildings that grace the landscape and respond to people's individual needs - is more relevant than ever, in Wales and around the world. |
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Goodbye Cassini - Hello Saturn (2017) #1031
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Horizon. A billion miles from home, running low on fuel, and almost out of time. After 13 years traversing the Saturn system, the spacecraft Cassini is plunging to a fiery death, becoming part of the very planet it has been exploring. As it embarks on its final assignment - a one-way trip into the heart of Saturn - Horizon celebrates the incredible achievements and discoveries of a mission that has changed the way we see the solar system. Strange new worlds with gigantic ice geysers, hidden underground oceans that could harbour life and a brand new moon coalescing in Saturn's magnificent rings. As the world says goodbye to the great explorer Cassini, Horizon will be there for with a ringside seat for its final moments. |
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Humans S2 (2016) #985
TV DRAMA
Special
With Katherine Parkinson, Lucy Carless, Gemma Chan, Tom Goodman-Hill. In a parallel present where the latest must-have gadget for any busy family is a 'Synth' - a highly-developed robotic servant that's so similar to a real human it's transforming the way we live. 8x50 min episodes. C4. |
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Finding Dory (2016) #1229
FILM
Main
Directed by Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane. With Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson. Friendly but forgetful blue tang Dory begins a search for her long-lost parents, and everyone learns a few things about the real meaning of family along the way. |
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Face of Britain by Simon Schama (2015) #902
DOCUMENTARY
Main
2x1 hour episdoes. BBC. Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture, revealing the stories behind the most compelling images in British art and examining the ways portraiture is used to make a statement. 1/5 The Face of Power. Simon explores the external power of portraiture. 2/5 Faces of the People. Simon explores how every face has its own story to tell. |
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Face of Britain by Simon Schama (2015) #903
DOCUMENTARY
Main
2x1 hour episodes. BBC. Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture, revealing the stories behind the most compelling images in British art and examining the ways portraiture is used to make a statement. 3/5 The Face of Fame. Simon examines what the celebrated faces of Britain's past and present tell us. 4/5 The Look of Love. Simon explores how portraits allow us to keep the ones we love close to us. |
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Face of Britain by Simon Schama (2015) #904
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1x1 hour episode. BBC. Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture, revealing the stories behind the most compelling images in British art and examining the ways portraiture is used to make a statement. 5/5 The Face in the Mirror. Simon Schama explores the complex motivations behind Britain's famous self-portraits. |
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Humans S1 (2015) #984
TV DRAMA
Special
With Katherine Parkinson, Lucy Carless, Gemma Chan, Tom Goodman-Hill. In a parallel present where the latest must-have gadget for any busy family is a 'Synth' - a highly-developed robotic servant that's so similar to a real human it's transforming the way we live. 8x50min episodes. C4. |
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100 Seconds to Beat the World: The David Rudisha Story (2014) #856
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Documentary telling the story of Kenyan athlete David Rudisha, the greatest 800m runner the world has ever seen, and his highly unusual coach, the Irish Catholic missionary Brother Colm O'Connell. Shot over ten years, the film begins in 2005 when we first meet David as a shy 16-year-old arriving at a training camp with nothing but a dream of emulating his father's 1968 Olympic silver medal. The camp is run by the unlikeliest of coaches, missionary and amateur athletics trainer Brother Colm, who quickly spots his talent. Together they embark on a journey through injury, disappointment and terror when violence sweeps through the country in the aftermath of the 2008 election, all the way to the 2012 Olympics and the greatest 800m race the world has ever seen. With unprecedented access and featuring interviews with Seb Coe and Steve Cram, this is an epic, magical and uplifting tale that reaches far beyond sport. |
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Imagine: Zaha Hadid: Who Dares Wins (2013) #767
DOCUMENTARY
Main
75 mins. BBC. Alan Yentob's profile of the late Zaha Hadid, first shown in 2013, three years before her recent death. Born in Baghdad in 1950 and based in London, Hadid was perhaps the most successful female architect there has ever been. She was one of a handful of global superstar designers who have changed the way people think about the world through buildings. Yet this wasn't always the case - Hadid once had a reputation as unbuildable, a 'paper architect' whose projects began as vivid paintings of gravity-defying shapes exploding into the void. How did this extraordinary and pioneering woman - by turns charming, stubborn, visionary yet exacting - come to build the impossible? Imagine visits her buildings across the globe, from Austria to Azerbaijan, to find out. |
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Struck by Lightning (2012) #390
FILM
Main
Directed by Brian Dannelly. With Chris Colfer, Rebel Wilson, Christina Hendricks, Dermot Mulroney. A high schooler recounts the way he blackmailed his fellow classmates into contributing to his literary magazine. |
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Her Master's Voice (2012) #566
FILM-DOCUMENTARY-COMEDY
Main
Directed by Nina Conti. With Nina Conti, Jim Broadbent, Daisy Campbell, Ken Campbell. Internationally acclaimed ventriloquist Nina Conti, takes the bereaved puppets of her mentor and erstwhile lover Ken Campbell on a pilgrimage to 'Venthaven' the resting place for puppets of dead ventriloquists. She gets to know her latex and wooden travelling partners along the way, and with them deconstructs herself and her lost love in this ventriloquial docu-mocumentary requiem. Ken Campbell ... |
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Voyager: To the Final Frontier (2012) #719
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. This is the story of the most extraordinary journey in human exploration, the Voyager space mission. In 1977 two unmanned spacecraft were launched by Nasa, heading for distant worlds. It would be the first time any man-made object would ever visit the farthest planets of the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. On the way the Voyagers would be bombarded by space dust, fried by radiation and discover many of the remarkable wonders of the solar system. At the end of 2012, 35 years and 11 billion miles later, they are leaving the area of the sun's influence. As they journey out into the galaxy beyond they carry a message from Earth, a golden record bolted to the side of each craft describing our civilisation in case of discovery by another. This is the definitive account of the most intrepid explorers in Earth's history. |
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A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Masters Voice (2012) #733
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Internationally acclaimed ventriloquist Nina Conti, takes the bereaved puppets of her mentor and erstwhile lover Ken Campbell on a pilgrimage to Vent Haven, the resting place for puppets of dead ventriloquists. She gets to know her latex and wooden travelling partners along the way, and with them deconstructs herself and her lost love in this ventriloquial docu-mocumentary requiem. Ken Campbell was a hugely respected maverick of the British theatre, an eccentric genius who would snort out forgotten artforms. Nina was his prodigy in ventriloquism and has been said to have reinvented the artform. This film is truly unique in genre and style. No one has seen ventriloquism like this before. Nina Conti's funny, highly original and poignant documentary, takes us on two journeys. A personal journey, and a professional one, through the strange, surprising and often hilarious world of ventriloquism. When Nina was just another twenty-something wannabe actress, Ken presented her with a teach-yourself ventriloquism kit. This set her on a path to becoming a sell-out act in Britain and abroad, with a clutch of major awards. On the road, Nina brings all the puppets to life as struggles to meet the conflicting demands of her old acerbic partner Monkey, and the new characters she has been bequeathed. But one puppet remains silent. Ken's doll of himself sits mournful and judgemental in the hotel bedroom. Nina cannot find her master's voice and until she does, she will not be able to lay her old life to rest. Never has watching someone talk to themselves been this interesting. |