The BEST episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2018
Every episode of BBC Documentaries season 2018, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2018!
Documentaries produced by or for the BBC.
#1 - Bacchus Uncovered: Ancient God of Ecstasy
Season 2018 - Episode 72 - Aired 4/11/2018
Professor Bettany Hughes investigates the story of Bacchus, god of wine, revelry, theatre and excess, travelling to Georgia, Jordan, Greece and Britain to discover his origins and his presence in the modern world, and explore how 'losing oneself' plays a vital role in the development of civilisation. In this fascinating journey, Bettany begins in Georgia where she discovers evidence of the world's oldest wine production, and the role it may have played in building communities. In Athens she reveals Bacchus's pivotal role in a society where his ecstatic worship was embraced by all classes, and most importantly women. On Cyprus she uncovers startling parallels between Bacchus and Christ. Finally, Bettany follows the god's modern embrace in Nietzsche's philosophy, experimental theatre and the hedonistic hippie movement to conclude that, while this god of ecstasy is worthy of contemporary reconsideration, it is vital to heed the warning of the ancients - "MEDEN AGAN" - nothing in excess.
#2 - Can Science Make Me Perfect? with Alice Roberts
Season 2018 - Episode 124 - Aired 6/13/2018
Is the human body perfect? Professor Alice Roberts doesn’t think so. Alice has been challenged by the Science Museum to embark on a bold scientific stunt: to find solutions for our anatomical flaws and design a human body that’s perfect for life in the 21st century. Millions of years of evolution have helped to make humans one of the most successful species on the planet. We have some incredible adaptations, but we’ve also inherited plenty of physical flaws. That’s why we have ears that go deaf, knees that ache, and skin that’s easily damaged. Through natural selection animals have evolved incredible biological designs, from super-sharp senses to super-powered limbs. By meeting leading medical and animal experts, Alice learns what the human body’s biggest problems are and discovers how amazing anatomical adaptations found in the animal kingdom could provide inspiration for designing a perfect human body. With the help of a virtual anatomical artist and an expert prosthetics sculptor, Alice redesigns her own body into a hyper-realistic new form - but is banished from the studio as the life-size model is made. Then, in a big reveal in front of 150 people at the Science Museum, Alice comes face to face with her ‘perfect’ self for the first time – has she really designed a body better than evolution could? Ambitious, audacious and packed with cutting-edge science, Can Science Make Me Perfect? With Alice Roberts challenges everything you thought you knew about the perfect body.
#3 - Mackintosh's Tea Room
Season 2018 - Episode 181 - Aired 8/7/2018
In 2014, Glasgow businesswoman Celia Sinclair decided that she wanted to rescue the old Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street and restore them to their former glory. They were one of the earlier works of artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Celia was inspired by pioneering Glasgow businesswoman Miss Cranston, who in 1903 commissioned the young and still largely unknown Mackintosh to design the luxurious, cutting-edge tea rooms with iconic chairs, tables, wall decorations and chandeliers. Celia bought the remains of the old Willow Tea Rooms building on Sauchiehall Street to save it for Glasgow and had a grand vision to reopen in time for Mackintosh's 150th birthday in 2018. This hour-long documentary follows Celia on her mission to raise the money to push the £10m capital building project forward, waiting anxiously to find out if her Willow Tea Rooms Trust will be granted the heritage lottery funding they need, and organising VIP events for the private donors who have given generously to her ambitious project. Celia also meets with historian Perilla Kinchin and, over a cup of tea, she learns how women came out of their homes in 1903 to take tea in the new respectable drinking establishments, and how Miss Cranston expanded her franchise. Also featured are some of the expert craft makers under pressure to deliver to tight deadlines as they attempt to exactly recreate some of the 400 pieces of Mackintosh furniture needed for the reopening of the tea rooms.
#4 - Lost Boys? What's Going Wrong For Asian Men
Season 2018 - Episode 188 - Aired 8/12/2018
Over the last few years, the story we have been hearing about British Asian men has been overwhelmingly negative. But for some British Asian communities there are real problems. In this personal film, Mehreen Baig, a British-Pakistani woman, goes behind the headlines and meets a range of young men to understand their experiences of growing up in modern Britain. As a state school teacher, Mehreen saw British Asian boys from some communities falling behind. Now she wants to know why there are such huge disparities in how well different communities have integrated into the UK, why some are faring better than others in jobs and education, and why women from South Asian backgrounds are now outstripping their male peers. Mehreen begins her journey with British-Pakistani men. She travels to Bradford, which has the highest proportion of Pakistani residents of any British city. Here, there are signs that young British-Pakistani men are struggling - youth unemployment stands at 26% (nationwide the figure is 12%), and drug crime has risen in recent years, with British-Pakistani men making up a disproportionate number of convictions. Mehreen meets young men such as 17-year-old Luqman, who lives in one of the most deprived areas of the country, and who has been supporting his family since the age of 13 by working six days a week. And she talks to Nav, who grew up locally and left for university before dropping out. He gives Mehreen an insight into some of the attitudes that prevail around education in the community, and suggests some reasons why British-Pakistani boys are one of the worst performing groups at GCSE, and British-Pakistani girls are now outperforming them. And she meets some of the young recruits to a new business enterprise which is attracting lots of British-Pakistani men in the city. Setting the statistics in a historical context, Mehreen explores the story of Pakistani immigration to the northern towns of Britain, and how the closure of the mills and f
#5 - The Joy of Winning
Season 2018 - Episode 209 - Aired 8/28/2018
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 co-operation 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 suppos
#6 - Beats, Bass and Bars: The Story of Grime
Season 2018 - Episode 242 - Aired 10/12/2018
Almost 20 years on from its first beginnings, grime dominates the music charts and awards ceremonies, and even influences politics. Here, rapper Rodney P examines how grime rose from the council estates of east London to become the most important British musical movement since punk. He discovers that its success rests upon the original styles and contributions of previous generations of artists and learns that grime can only be truly understood when viewed as part of a broader social narrative and ever-evolving musical culture that goes back to the 1980s.
#7 - Reggae Fever: David Rodigan
Season 2018 - Episode 277 - Aired 11/16/2018
David Rodigan's unlikely career as a reggae broadcaster and DJ has developed in parallel with the evolution of Jamaican music in the UK. His passion and his profession have given him a privileged, insiders' view of the UK's love affair with Jamaican music that began in the 1950s. His constant championing of it has afforded him national treasure status with generations of British Jamaicans and all lovers of reggae music. This is a film about the career of David Rodigan but it's also a window through which to see a wider human story about social change in the UK: a story of immigration and integration, and music's role within it. The beginning of his career conjures up a forgotten era when reggae was reviled by liberal, hippyish music fans because of its association with skinheads. At one point, his fellow students agreed to share a house with him only if Rodigan agreed not to play reggae. Instead, he would haunt London's specialist record shops and sneak out to Jamaican clubs alone. His break first came on BBC Radio London, where his knowledge and infectious enthusiasm won him the gig. Since that first break, he's had shows on Capital, Kiss and now BBC Radio 1Xtra and BBC Radio 2. In the 80s, his radio show became such a Sunday lunchtime fixture in London's West Indian households that it was colloquially known as 'rice 'n' peas'. Bob Marley personally chose Rodigan's show to play out the world exclusive of Could You Be Loved. As well as being a DJ, Rodigan also began to 'soundclash' on a global stage. This musical competition where crew members from opposing sound systems pit their skills against each other involves the playing of records in turn, with the crowd ultimately deciding who has 'killed' the other crew, by playing the better chosen track. But standard versions of tracks don't cut it in a clash, where the true currency is 'dubplates' - versions of tracks recut, often by the original artist, with lyrics changed to praise the playing crew or diss
#8 - Driven: The Billy Monger Story
Season 2018 - Episode 279 - Aired 11/18/2018
Following the remarkable story of 18-year-old Billy Monger, one of Britain's most exciting young racing drivers, who in April 2017 was involved in a devastating crash, resulting in the amputation of his legs. Incredibly, soon after his accident, Billy resolved to get back to racing, in the hope of becoming the first ever amputee to race competitively in a single-seater racing car. This film follows the extraordinary story of Billy and his family, as he pursues his dream to one day race in Formula One. With the support of the racing community and his hero Lewis Hamilton, Billy has to change the rules of motorsport and learn to drive again without legs, all while coming to terms with life as a disabled person - a term Billy is reluctant to accept. This heartwarming and inspirational story is about the incredible will of one young man, but also the extraordinary support his family provides during the toughest time of their lives.
#9 - Andrew Davies: Rewriting the Classics
Season 2018 - Episode 328 - Aired 12/30/2018
Controversial, witty, irreverent – Britain’s best known screenwriter, Andrew Davies, has created some of the most iconic small-screen dramas of the past 50 years. At the age of 82 he is following his smash hit adaptation of War and Peace with another global epic, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. As he watches the production come to life during 2018, he looks back at the influence of his childhood in Cardiff. And he explores how he boils down and spices up his dramas – transforming our best-loved novels into prime-time television. Contributors include Sarah Waters, Helen Fielding and Dominic West.
#10 - Sir Bruce: A Celebration
Season 2018 - Episode 48 - Aired 3/11/2018
A very special event honouring one of this country's biggest and best-loved entertainers, Sir Bruce Forsyth. Join host Tess Daly, Sir Bruce's Strictly Come Dancing co-star of more than a decade, at the London Palladium, the theatre which helped propel him to stardom, for this tribute to the renowned broadcaster. The evening features some of Sir Bruce's favourite songs performed by a wealth of artists, including Dame Shirley Bassey, Alexandra Burke and Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, as well as dance performances from the Strictly professionals and Adam Garcia.
#11 - Secrets of the Masons
Season 2018 - Episode 53 - Aired 3/19/2018
In Secrets of the Masons, cameras for the first time go behind the doors of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Scotland, in Edinburgh, the home of freemasonry, and lift the veil on the inner secrets of this normally closed world. With exclusive access to its 400-year-old archive, its members around the country and its grand master, who presides over 1,000 lodges and 100,000 Scottish Freemasons worldwide, we film at lodge meetings, the selection of new candidates and the installation of grand masters. This documentary explores the truth about an organisation characterised by many for funny handshakes and rolled trouser legs, and by others as a dangerous, secret society, "the hidden hand that has shaped Scotland". We discover famous Scots whose careers have been "helped" by being masons, including Robert Burns and leading light in the Scottish Enlightenment, James Watt. Deputy Scottish Grandmaster Ramsay McGee, ex assistant chief constable of Northern Constabulary, remembers when, in the 1970s, 50 per cent of the force under him were masons. But he defends the close links between freemasonry and the police - "I could argue all policemen should be masons, it would make them much better men!" In the bomb-proof safes below the grand lodge in Edinburgh's George Street, archivist Robert Cooper, in white gloves, finds the original minutes of the first lodge meeting in 1598. We trace how this organisation grew from stonemasons to freemasons, became enshrined in America, where 40 per cent of presidents have been masons, was banned by the Pope and Hitler, and "done in", in Robert Cooper's words, by Dan Brown. And we ask if its lasting legacy is less its influence and more its secrecy.
#12 - Pump Up The Bhangra
Season 2018 - Episode 205 - Aired 8/24/2018
Pump up the Bhangra is the story of how British Asians came of age as they found their voice and celebrated their identity through Bhangra music. Fronted by BBC Asian Network DJ Bobby Friction, the film recounts how a simple folk tradition from India was transformed in the 1980s to become a unique part of the British club music scene, outselling many mainstream UK acts. It’s a story of cassette tapes, corner shops and glitter-clad musical heroes; of teenagers bunking school to attend secret daytime gigs and music that soundtracked battles against racism and discrimination.
#13 - Ken Dodd: How Tickled We Were
Season 2018 - Episode 321 - Aired 12/26/2018
A celebration of the life and work of Sir Ken Dodd, as told in his own words and with testimony from friends and family. For over six decades Sir Ken Dodd was one of Britain's favourite entertainers - a comedian whose surreal world of tickling sticks, jam butty mines and Diddymen kept generations of audiences entertained, from his professional debut in 1954 to his final curtain call in December 2017. This revealing documentary film tells the story of his incredible life and long career, which included a record-breaking run at The London Palladium in the 1960s, numerous television series and specials, countless summer seasons and variety shows, a string of hit records and a touring one-man show that continued right into his ninetieth year. Sir Ken's wife Lady Anne talks about his love of being on stage and their life spent together in Knotty Ash, and his friends and peers discuss his unique and enduring relationship with the British public.
#14 - Escape from Dubai: The Mystery of the Missing Princess
Season 2018 - Episode 302 - Aired 12/6/2018
In February 2018, the 32-year-old daughter of the ruler of Dubai boarded a boat and set sail for India with a plan to start a new life in America. But within days her boat was stormed by Indian commandos - she was captured and presumably returned to Dubai. No one has heard from her since. But Princess Latifa had made a video in case she was caught and entrusted it to a lawyer in America. Days later it was released on YouTube. This programme pieces together Princess Latifa's life and reveals how she had been planning the escape for more than seven years. Far from living the charmed life of a princess, she was watched and restricted by her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The princess claims she had been imprisoned and tortured for a previous attempt to leave. The programme investigates the mystery of her older sister Shamsa, who disappeared from the streets of Cambridge in 2000 after fleeing the family's British mansion in Surrey. And it asks if the image of Dubai we are sold - of winter sunshine and luxury hotels, is actually hiding a brutal dictatorship of human rights abuses - where surveillance, imprisonment and torture are systematic and where tourists can easily be imprisoned for the slightest infringements of their ultra conservative laws.
#15 - Aretha Franklin: Respect
Season 2018 - Episode 195 - Aired 8/18/2018
This tribute pays respect to the voice and life of Aretha Franklin, who died on 16 August 2018 aged 76. The daughter of legendary preacher CL Franklin, who hailed from the same Deep South as many of the blues legends, Aretha was raised in Detroit where her father preached at the New Bethel Baptist Church and where she grew up singing gospel. She had her first child at 13 and signed to Columbia in 1960, and her career ignited when she signed to Atlantic in 1967. Global hits such as I Say a Little Prayer and Respect then quickly established her as the queen of soul, while her majestic delivery and regal presence made her an iconic figure in the emerging civil rights movement. Aretha enjoyed renewed success in the 1980s when she collaborated with Luther Vandross, had a cameo in The Blues Brothers and duets with the likes of Annie Lennox and George Michael. She was also the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and has sold over 75 million records. As recently as 2015 she stunned audiences with her extraordinary performance of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman in front of President Barack Obama and the song's co-writer Carole King at the Kennedy Center.
#16 - Japan's Secret Shame
Season 2018 - Episode 153 - Aired 6/28/2018
This film tells the moving story of 29-year-old Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, who in May 2017 shocked Japan when she went public with allegations that she was raped by a well-known TV journalist. Through Shiori's testimony, the film outlines her allegations against Noriyuki Yamaguchi, on the night the two met for a business dinner in Tokyo. Mr Yamaguchi, the biographer of Japan's prime minister, strenuously denies her claims. It recounts what led Shiori to take the unprecedented decision to go public with her allegations in a country where speaking about sex crimes remains strictly taboo. Following Shiori over the next year, the film tells the story of how criminal charges against Mr Yamaguchi were never brought, and her decision to pursue a civil case against him - a case which he is defending. It also portrays the consequences Shiori faced by speaking out in Japanese society. While the #MeToo movement saw women coming forward in solidarity across the globe, in Japan, Shiori was met with hate mail and public humiliation. Interweaving in the wider social issues of gender and traditional attitudes in Japan, the film follows Shiori on her personal journey, as she visits the institutions she believes failed her, meets with other women who are too frightened to even report assaults, and fights to affect change in Japan.
#17 - Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
Season 2018 - Episode 44 - Aired 2/25/2018
Documentary telling the extraordinary story of the international musical collective created by legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma. This uplifting film follows this group of diverse instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers as they explore the power of music to preserve tradition, shape cultural evolution and inspire hope. Named for the ancient trade route linking Asia, Africa and Europe, the Silk Road Ensemble is an international collective drawn from an ever-changing line-up of more than 50 performers. Blending performance footage, personal interviews and archival film the film focuses on the journeys of a small group of Silk Road Ensemble mainstays to create a vivid portrait of a bold musical experiment and a global search for the ties that bind.
#18 - R. Kelly: Sex, Girls and Videotapes
Season 2018 - Episode 62 - Aired 3/28/2018
Ben Zand explores allegations surrounding the sex life of R&B legend R Kelly, including accusations of holding women against their will in his home in Atlanta and running a degrading sex cult - allegations he denies.
#19 - Mackintosh: Glasgow's Neglected Genius
Season 2018 - Episode 119 - Aired 6/5/2018
Glasgow artist Lachlan Goudie examines the life, work and legacy of Scotland's most celebrated architect and designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh - the man Lachlan Goudie calls "The greatest genius in the history of Scottish art". The film examines Mackintosh's iconic buildings, notably the Glasgow School of Art. Interwoven with his architecture, design and watercolours is the personal story of Mackintosh. Little known at home, his work found favour on the continent. In later years he struggled for work, and came to endure real poverty, but continued to create remarkable pieces of art.
#20 - Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas
Season 2018 - Episode 175 - Aired 7/28/2018
Drama set in the 16th century. Horse trader Michael Kohlhaas is wrongfully taxed by a corrupt baron, his horses taken from him and his servant attacked. Thwarted in his attempts to seek compensation through the courts, he raises an army and begins a revolt in search of justice.
#21 - The Coronation
Season 2018 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/14/2018
On June 2nd 1953, on one of the coldest June days of the century, after 16 months of planning, Her Majesty the Queen set out to be crowned at Westminster Abbey, watched by millions of people throughout the world. A ceremony dating back more than 1000 years was to mark the dawn of a new Elizabethan age. Now, in what has become the longest reign of any British monarch, the Queen shares her memories of that day as well as the coronation of her father, King George VI, in 1937. Exploring the role and symbolic meaning of the Crown Jewels in the centuries-old coronation ceremony, The Coronation shows these objects of astonishing beauty in new high-resolution footage. A combination of HD cameras and special 4K lenses reveal the incredible secrets and forensic details of a set of regalia that have a rich history of their own. Amongst the many glorious objects revealed, the film tells the extraordinary story of St Edward's Crown, which was destroyed after the English Civil War and remade for the coronation of Charles II in 1661. It has only been worn by Her Majesty once, at the moment she was crowned. Shedding an entirely new perspective on this world-famous event, The Coronation brings together, the eyewitness accounts of those who participated, including the maid of honour who nearly fainted in the Abbey and the 12-year-old choirboy who was left to sing solo when his overwhelmed colleagues lost their voices. Viewing rarely seen private and official film footage of the day, Her Majesty the Queen recalls the day when the weight of both St Edward's Crown and the hopes and expectations of a nation recovering from war were on her shoulders, as the nation looked to their 27-year-old Queen to lead them to a new era. Using the Queen's recollections and new footage of the Crown Jewels, The Coronation reveals the story of this glittering ceremony.
#22 - Rich Hall's Working for the American Dream
Season 2018 - Episode 157 - Aired 7/4/2018
Award-winning comedian Rich Hall explores the American dream and the dictum that came over with the very first pilgrims who set foot on Plymouth Rock - work hard and you will succeed. With his sharp wit and acerbic insight, Rich looks at how Americans strive to achieve this dream and how it's been explored and perpetuated by politicians, industrialists, artists, writers and film-makers. Rich also looks at the dark heart of the American dream and considers what happens when the dream turns into a nightmare, including the Great Depression of the 1930s, the boom and bust of Detroit and the modern demise of America's shrinking middle class. The land of opportunity has attracted all comers to live the American dream, and Rich Hall explains if it actually exists or if it's just a myth that's become unobtainable for Americans.
#23 - Duran Duran: There's Something You Should Know
Season 2018 - Episode 159 - Aired 6/29/2018
With exclusive access, Duran Duran open up about their extraordinary career and talk candidly about the highs and lows they have endured together over four long decades. This is the band at their most relaxed, intimate and honest. The film spends time with John at his LA home, Simon pays a visit to his former choir master, Roger goes back to where it all started in Birmingham, and Nick dusts off some of the 10,000 fashion items that the band have meticulously catalogued and collected over the course of their career. Features fellow singer Boy George, fan and record producer Mark Ronson, friend, fan and supermodel Cindy Crawford and Highlander film director Russell Mulcahy.
#24 - Attenborough and the Sea Dragon
Season 2018 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/7/2018
A remarkable 200-million-year-old fossil - the bones of an ichthyosaur, a giant sea dragon - has been discovered on the Jurassic coast of Britain. David Attenborough joins the hunt to bring this ancient creature's story to life. Using state-of-the-art imaging technology and CGI, the team reconstruct the skeleton and create the most detailed animation of an ichthyosaur ever made. Along the way, the team stumble into a 200-million-year-old murder mystery - and only painstaking forensic investigation can unravel the story of this extraordinary creature's fate.
#25 - The Great Game: Iran v USA
Season 2018 - Episode 149 - Aired 6/21/2018
In the football World Cup 20 years ago, Iran and the USA came face to face in one of the most politically charged matches in history. Relations between the two countries had been hostile for two decades. Pressure on the players to prove themselves on the pitch was intense and would result in a thrilling game watched by millions. But what aren't widely known are the stories behind the scenes - an al Qaeda plot, the attempted sabotage of the game by an anti-Iranian government group and an intervention by Iran's Supreme Leader that caused a headache for match officials. In this film we bring together the players, coaches, FIFA officials and the referee to hear their untold stories and emotions as they reflect on the match of their careers.