The BEST episodes directed by John Maclaverty
#1 - The Incredible Story of Marie Antoinette's Watch
BBC Documentaries - Season 2016 - Episode 292
Nicholas Parsons, Just a Minute host, and stalwart of the entertainment world explores his life-long enthusiasm for clocks when he goes in search of the most valuable and famous watch in the world. The so called Marie Antoinette, once the target of one of the biggest museum heists in history, was the masterpiece made by 18th-century genius Nicholas Breguet, for that doomed queen. Tracing the enthralling story of Breguet's rise to fame, Parsons visits Paris and Versailles, and the vaults of today's multimillion-pound Breguet business. Exploring the innovative and dazzling work of the master watch maker, Parsons unravels the mystery behind the creation of his most precious and most brilliant work. Parsons heads to Irsael to discover how in the 1980s the world's most expensive watch was then stolen in a daring heist, and went missing for over 20 years. Revealing a little-known side of one of our favourite TV and radio hosts, the film offers a glimpse into Parsons's own private clock collection, whilst also telling an enthralling tale of scientific invention, doomed decadence and daring robbery.
#2 - Coming Oot! A Fabulous History of Gay Scotland
BBC Documentaries - Season 2015 - Episode 297
Celebrating the post-war history of Scotland's gay community which, over 70 years, has seen gay men and lesbians transform from Scotland's pariahs to Scotland's pride. Using a rich mix of eye-witness testimony, jaw-dropping archive and historical research, the documentary charts radically changing attitudes. Scotland was over a decade behind England and Wales in decriminalising homosexuality but now has the best gay rights in Europe: nothing short of a revolution.
#3 - Rex Appeal
BBC Documentaries - Season 2011 - Episode 175
From the beginnings of film-making to the triumph of Jurassic Park - the dinosaur has always been a movie star. Over 60 minutes, BBC4's Rex Appeal takes a bite out of the Cretaceous cinema and reveals the truth about T-Rex. It's a story that stretches from the charming cartoon apatosaurus Gertie (1914), to the vicious and cunning velociraptors of Spielbrerg's imagination. But it's not all teeth and trashing city centres - as our critics explain, dinosaur movies are always about more than just dinosaurs. The 'nature finds a way' DNA argument in Jurassic Park directly mirrored the arguements about GM crops in the early 90s. Godzilla - the radioactive-breathed dinosaur emerged from the seas of Japan just nine years after the nuclear attack on Hiroshima. King Kong and his dinosaur pals on Skull Island have sparked a million film school theories. Of course, not all dino dramas are so high minded - in the Hammer film One Million Years BC, the audience were just as fascinated with Racquel Welsh's fur tops as they were with the Triceratops. Despite Hammer's claim that 'This is the way it was', the science was a little dubious- the last dinosaur died 64 million years before the first modern human appeared. Whatever cultural anxieties dinosaurs represent, they've always been a cinematic spectacle that has thrilled audiences on a instinctual level - with each new breakthrough in special effects giving us ever more real Rex's. Willis O'Brien gave us the legendary Kong v Rex fight that taught us to love Kong, Ray Harryhausen invented 'dinomation' and put dinosaurs and cowboys together in The Valley of Gwangi. And since the 90s - CGI has banished the man in the dino suit, and made prehistoric protagonists are more real than ever. Contributors include film critics James King and Kim Newman, science broadcaster Adam Rutherford, comedian Susan Calman and broadcaster and film historian Matthew Sweet.
#4 - The Curse of The Omen
Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries - Season 2005 - Episode 10
Documentary examining the alleged jinx said to have plagued the filming of The Omen, including eyewitness accounts of bizarre accidents, injuries and deaths during the production. From mid-air terror as consecutive flights carrying members of the production encounter disaster to crazed dog attacks, bizarre car crashes and hotel bombings, plus a host of tragic accidents that defy coincidence.