The BEST episodes directed by Chris Cottam
#1 - Rich Hall's Working for the American Dream
BBC Documentaries - Season 2018 - Episode 157
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.
#2 - The Itchies
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 8
Bella invites Harper, a fashion vlogger, to visit, to boost her fashion cred. But she has another problem - splintered Bog Lice have escaped causing an itchy problem.
#3 - Race to Stink Island
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 9
Ludo remembers he was filming on his phone the night he was shattered. They race to the island to find it. But betrayal and heartbreak also await.
#4 - Little White Big Fat Lie
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 10
Bella's determined to end Iggi's deception and uses splinter magic to make a truth ray. But Bella hits Alice with the ray, as she needs to pull off a lie.
#5 - Vampire Luau
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 12
Unaware that Davorin is free, Bella celebrates being accepted to fashion school and the gang arrange a party.
#6 - Showtime
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 11
It's the opening night of the school play, but Bella has bigger worries.Iggi has discovered the last cryptstone and he's determined to raise it.
#7 - El Monsignor's Last Stand
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 7
Jed asks Crimson on a date, Alice is determined to stop it. She uses splinter magic to bring to life El Monsignor, Crimson's favourite romantic hero.
#8 - Splintered
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 1
Bella is set to leave for fashion school, but when a mysterious man in a magic mirror shatters Ludo into magical splinters, she realises she must stay to fix Ludo.
#9 - No Life Crisis
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 3
It's Ludo's birthday. Bella wants to make it the best ever and arranges for Jake to turn up. But Jake wants to hang out with Lacie, making Ludo feel invisible.
#10 - Love (Really) Hurts
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 4
Otto tries to impress Bella by joining Cameron's wrestling team. He uses a magic splinter to make him a champion wrestler but Bella finds out he has cheated.
#11 - Rags to Riches
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 5
Iggi mislays the map of the cryptstones. Alice was the only other person to see it so Iggi asks her on her first ever date to get the cryptstone locations from her.
#12 - Dogsbody
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 6
Bella stages a fashion show to save her fashion school application. Meanwhile splinter magic causes Jake to inadvertently swap brains with Ludo's dog.
#13 - The Things They Say About Alice
The Evermoor Chronicles - Season 2 - Episode 2
Alice is nervous on her first day at Evermoor High. A magic splinter causes rumours about her to come true and she becomes a rampaging rock star.
#14 - Rich Hall's Presidential Grudge Match
BBC Documentaries - Season 2016 - Episode 330
An examination of the sordid machinations involved in becoming president of the United States. Rich Hall looks back at some of the dirtiest and nastiest presidential campaigns of the past, proving that the 2016 race to the White House is not the first time the contest has got personal.
#15 - Rich Hall's 'The Dirty South'
BBC Documentaries - Season 2010 - Episode 44
Rich Hall sets his keen eye and acerbic wit on his homeland once again as he sifts truth from fiction in Hollywood's version of the southern states of the USA. Using specially shot interviews and featuring archive footage from classic movies such as Gone With The Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire and Deliverance, Rich discovers a South that is about so much more than just rednecks, racism and hillbillies.
#16 - Rich Hall's 'How the West Was Lost'
BBC Documentaries - Season 2008 - Episode 32
Comedian Rich Hall goes west to find out what killed off that most quintessentially American of all film genres, the western. Through films such as The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Little Big Man, The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven, Rich charts the rise and fall of America's obsession with its own creation myth - the Wild West. He explores how the image of the cowboy as a moral, straight-talking heroic figure was created by Hollywood but appropriated by Washington, as one president after another sought to associate themselves with this potent symbol of strength and valour. From Tombstone to Texas, Montana to Wyoming, Rich travels across a landscape that is both actual and mythic in the minds of not just Americans, but all of us. With his customary wit and intelligence he unpicks the truth from the fiction of Hollywood's version of frontier life, draws parallels between popular western narratives and America's more questionable foreign policy, and celebrates the real heroes of the west - John Ford, John Wayne, Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn and Clint Eastwood. Filmed on location in Arizona, Montana and Wyoming and incorporating interviews and archive clips of some of the best-loved westerns of all-time, the film is Rich Hall's personal salute to a genre of film he feels passionate about.
#17 - Rich Hall's Continental Drifters
BBC Documentaries - Season 2011 - Episode 203
Comedian Rich Hall hits the road as he takes us on his personal journey through the road movie, which, from the earliest days of American cinema has been synonymous with American culture. With his customary wit and intelligence, Rich takes us through films such as Bonnie and Clyde, The Grapes of Wrath, Thelma and Louise, Vanishing Point, Five Easy Pieces and even The Wizard of Oz. He explores what makes a road movie and how the American social, economic and political landscape has defined the genre. Filmed on location in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, the film incorporates interviews, archive footage and clips of some of cinemas best-loved films as it gives us another of Rich Hall's unique insights into American culture.
#18 - Rich Hall's You Can Go To Hell, I'm Going To Texas
BBC Documentaries - Season 2013 - Episode 127
Comedian Rich Hall goes to the Lone Star state in search of the real Texas and asks what it means to be a Texan. From the Alamo to the oil industry and everything in between, Rich explores the landscape, the people and the true heart of this historic state.
#19 - Rich Hall's California Stars
BBC Documentaries - Season 2014 - Episode 160
California has always been an empty sales pitch. Its first settlements were borne of missionary zeal. It promised a haven from marauders, banditos and mercenaries. Since then it has wiled us with unlimited gold, boundless harvests, silver screen-stardom, dotcom salvation and hi-tech silicon marvels. It has always been a place that promises a good chance of success-if you're youthful or white. And if you're Mexican, it at least promises a decent chance of survival. It is a place that instantly forgets its past so it can reinvent it for tourists and dreamers. True reality has never been good enough for Californians. They are always vaguely dissatisfied with themselves, their bodies, their spirituality, their government and their present car. Yet they still believe they shape both American culture and American character. And to a large degree, they have. In his unique and sardonic way, Rich takes the viewer on a skewed but keenly-eyed journey to the place built on a tectonic faultline, but still calls itself the Land of Dreams.