The BEST episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2006
Every episode of BBC Documentaries season 2006, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2006!
Documentaries produced by or for the BBC.
#1 - Jake Thackray: on the Box
Season 2006 - Episode 63 - Aired 10/6/2006
Examining the career of Leeds troubadour Jake Thackray, which saw him perform his unique style of satirical but hauntingly romantic music and poetry on television and radio, and live on stage, making appearances on The Frost Report, That's Life! and The Braden Beat.
#2 - Gorillas Revisited with David Attenborough
Season 2006 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/16/2006
David Attenborough recounts his very personal experiences with the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. Ever since they were discovered over a century ago, these remarkable creatures have been threatened by loss of habitat, poaching, disease and political instability. But despite all odds their numbers have increased. David tells the extraordinary tale of how conservationists like Dian Fossey have battled to save the mountain gorilla from the brink of extinction.
#3 - Krakatoa: The Last Days
Season 2006 - Episode 18 - Aired 5/7/2006
A historical drama documentary depicting the eruption of Krakatoa volcano in 1883. The volcano was located in the Sunda strait in Indonesia and its eruption resulted in tsunami, rains of coals and ash, and ended with a very hot tsunami. The eruption killed more than 36,000 people and those survived were left with burns.
#4 - The Red Arrows
Season 2006 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/28/2006
Insight into the recruitment for the RAF's elite formation flying team, as we follow nine eager pilots through the arduous selection procedure.
#5 - Frank Lloyd Wright: Murder, Myth And Modernism
Season 2006 - Episode 28 - Aired 5/11/2006
A documentary exploring Frank Lloyd Wright's visionary architectural works and relating the story of his turbulent personal life.
#6 - The Moon
Season 2006 - Episode 52 - Aired 2/27/2006
This film tells the epic story of our love affair with the moon - what inspired it, how it faded away and how we are now falling in love all over again.
#7 - The Story of Pulp's Common People
Season 2006 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/14/2006
The Story of Pulp's Common People takes a forensic look at the seminal track, and attempts to shed light on its inspiration, its lyrics, and the man who wrote them.Jarvis Cocker goes back to St Martin's College, where he met the girl who would inspire him to write a song that examines class, politics and Britain in the 90's. Pulp are reunited back at their old rehearsal rooms above a pottery shop to reminisce about the song's success and what the track means to them.
#8 - A Tudor Feast at Christmas
Season 2006 - Episode 39 - Aired 12/21/2006
Without the use of modern conveniences, a group of historians and archaeologists prepare a Tudor feast as it would have been over 400 years ago. They wear clothes from the period, source food from the land, and use recipes from the era. They turn the clock back to rediscover a way of life from an age gone by.
#9 - Richard Hammond and the Holy Grail
Season 2006 - Episode 38 - Aired 5/29/2006
Richard Hammond embarks on a quest to find the truth about the most famous relic of all time - the Holy Grail. From the Aegean to the Atlantic, Hammond's journey takes him to some of the most beautiful and intriguing places in Europe. It's a route littered with some of the most extraordinary stories in history: ancient scrolls in the Vatican's secret archive; holy relics in Constantinople; medieval knights and hidden treasure in the South of France; Templars, Cathars and Nazis; conspiracy theories and false clues. Thought by many to be the very cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper, the Holy Grail has haunted public imagination for centuries, but left many unanswered questions. What is fact and what is fiction? Does the Grail exist or not, and what exactly is it?
#10 - How to be 18th Century
Season 2006 - Episode 54 - Aired 7/6/2006
Nigel Planer recreates his spoof thespian Nicholas Craig for a look at the role of the actor in the 18th century, including tips on how to have a Georgian hissy fit, foppishness and acting with your bosoms.
#11 - The Dead Sea Scrolls
Season 2006 - Episode 42 - Aired 12/5/2006
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the biblical find of the age - they contain the earliest versions of the Hebrew Bible, maps to hidden temple treasure, and insight into the mindsets of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the early Christians. But the scrolls were soon embroiled in controversy with allegations of conspiracy and cover-up, rumours that persist today thanks to The Da Vinci Code.
#12 - The Sun
Season 2006 - Episode 53 - Aired 3/6/2006
A revealing portrait of our closest star - the sun. Responsible for all life on Earth, the sun has always been worshipped. In the Stone Age, monuments were built to its constancy and predictability. New ways of observing the sun are revealing another side to it - a dark and violent side of turbulent storms and huge explosions. As scientists learn to understand the forces that drive it, they are also trying to control its power. If we could harness the sun's power output for a single second it would supply the world's demands for the next million years.
#13 - Rain in my Heart
Season 2006 - Episode 51 - Aired 11/21/2006
Documentary which follows four alcohol abusers - Vanda, aged 43; Mark, 29; Nigel, 49 and Toni, 26 - from the impoverished Medway towns of north Kent. Filmed over the course of a year, Paul Watson's camera follows them from Gillingham's Medway Maritime Hospital to their homes, resulting in a film that illustrates the troubles they face and the impact of their behaviour on those around them. The fact that two of the four died during filming is grim testimony to the illness of alcoholism.
#14 - The Real Casino Royale
Season 2006 - Episode 50 - Aired 11/19/2006
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the inspiration behind Ian Fleming 's first James Bond novel.
#15 - The Story of Jackanory
Season 2006 - Episode 49 - Aired 2/19/2006
A look back at the history of the hugely popular children's series, Jackanory, in which a well-known actor would read a book to camera alongside specially-commissioned illustrations. With contributions from readers, writers and producers including Alan Bennett, Patricia Routledge and Quentin Blake.
#16 - Samuel Johnson: The Dictionary Man
Season 2006 - Episode 48 - Aired 6/26/2006
Drama-documentary telling the story of Samuel Johnson's creation of the first English dictionary, in an attic room just off Fleet Street in Georgian London. The depressive writer-for-hire with Tourette's syndrome did for the English language what Newton had done for the stars, classifying words, fixing their meaning and bringing order to the chaos of language. It took him nine years, but in the process an anonymous writer became a literary superstar.
#17 - Be My Baby - the Girl Group Story
Season 2006 - Episode 47 - Aired 8/31/2006
Over the last five decades, the girl group formula has yielded hit after hit. But this classic pop template is also guaranteed to deliver high drama and backstage rows. This nostalgic documentary examines the phenomenon as it applies to six celebrated girl groups - the Supremes, the Three Degrees, Sister Sledge, Bananarama, the Bangles and the Spice Girls - with contributions from artists, managers and producers.
#18 - The Last Duel
Season 2006 - Episode 73 - Aired 5/2/2006
Drama-documentary telling the story of one of the last trials by battle to be fought in Europe, a tale of sex, brutality and political machination set in 14th century medieval France. A knight, Sir Jean de Carrouges, accuses his former best friend, Jacques Le Gris, of raping his wife Marguerite. Unable to obtain justice from his feudal overlord, Carrouges appeals to the king for the ancient right to fight a duel to the death to find out God's truth. There is much at stake. If Carrouges dies in the battle, Marguerite will also be burned to death as a liar. This tense story, told from records of the day, is set against the backdrop of the 100 years war between England and France, 14th century attitudes towards women, crime and punishment and the political intrigues of the feudal system.
#19 - The World According to Google
Season 2006 - Episode 46 - Aired 1/20/2006
By Charles Miller BBC Money Programme Google's ad system earned the company $1.5bn during the July to September quarter of 2005, almost double what it made a year earlier. And ad income is the power behind Google's stock, whose apparently unstoppable rise makes the financial community's initial scepticism now look humiliatingly wrong. At the last count, Google was worth around $140bn, almost five times its value at flotation, and comfortably more than the likes of Coca-Cola and Time Warner. Google's canny founders are also all too aware that Silicon Valley has seen many high tech companies, from Netscape to Pets.com, which in their heyday appeared to be unbeatable, but are now all but forgotten.
#20 - Happy Birthday Broons!
Season 2006 - Episode 45 - Aired 7/1/2006
Celebrities including Elaine Smith, Ford Kiernan and Tam Cowan recall their favourite moments as the comedy strip family celebrates its seventieth anniversary.
#21 - Top of the Pops - The True Story
Season 2006 - Episode 44 - Aired 7/30/2006
Robbie Williams features as presenters and stars get misty-eyed reminiscing. Plus archive performances from the good, the bad and the ugly. Contributors include Sir Jimmy Savile, Pan's People, Robin Gibb, Noddy Holder, Blondie, Holly Johnson, Suggs, Noel Gallagher and Kylie Minogue.
#22 - If It Ain’t Stiff ...
Season 2006 - Episode 43 - Aired 9/15/2006
Stiff Records was founded by the visionary Jack Riviera and Dave Robinson. This documentary charts how the maverick label influenced the punk and new wave movements, championing such acts as Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Lene Lovich, Kirsty MacColl and the Damned.
#23 - The Piano: A Passion
Season 2006 - Episode 75 - Aired 9/26/2006
Alexander Waugh has been passionate about pianos ever since he was a small boy. Fuelled by an insatiable curiosity about the roots of his musical addiction, he sets out in search of other like-minded piano-obsessives to discover what it is about this instrument that has the power to turn seemingly rational people into compulsive lifelong piano junkies. Framed and punctuated by Alexander's effort to teach a novice to play the piano in a week, the film follows him on his quest around the concert halls and homes of classical and pop pianists like Paul Lewis, Jools Holland and Damon Albarn as well as a wide range of enthusiastic amateurs, including a child prodigy, a pilot and a national newspaper editor.
#24 - You Have My Full Confidence
Season 2006 - Episode 55 - Aired 5/10/2006
Eddie Mair presents the story of how governments spin their way out of personnel crises, from John Profumo to Peter Mandelson and David Blunkett.
#25 - Come Home Gary Glitter
Season 2006 - Episode 56 - Aired 2/19/2006
For the last nine months, Jamie Campbell and Joel Wilson have been on the trail of the fallen glam-rock star. Just what had he been doing in the years before his arrest in Vietnam?