The BEST episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2001
Every episode of BBC Documentaries season 2001, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2001!
Documentaries produced by or for the BBC.
#1 - Marilyn on Marilyn
Season 2001 - Episode 2 - Aired 12/28/2001
Documentary on Marilyn's life told by herself from the taped interviews she gave to Life magazine and French Marie Claire less than a month before she died accompanied by rare and previously unseen footage.
#2 - The Mosque
Season 2001 - Episode 56 - Aired 8/14/2001
For the first time a British mosque - Birmingham Central - has opened its doors to cameras. The result is a documentary that offers a unique insight into the life of Britain's Islamic community and reveals the increasing struggles of women for reform.
#3 - Hack the Planet
Season 2001 - Episode 57 - Aired 8/18/2001
Documentary on the hackers who wrote a programme capable of hijacking million computers.
#4 - Hajj - the Journey of a Lifetime
Season 2001 - Episode 55 - Aired 8/11/2001
Documentary following several British pilgrims astheyjoin three million Muslims from around the world to perform the Hajj -the annual pilgrimage to the sacred shrine at Mecca. The Islamic faith decrees that every Muslim who has the means should make this epic journey at least once in their lifetime and, this year, more than 20,000 travelled from various parts of Britain to Saudi Arabia for the event.
#5 - A Pocketful of Posies
Season 2001 - Episode 54 - Aired 7/13/2001
A documentary in which some of Britain's older citizens recall the circumstances of their childhoods early last century in a series of moving stories accompanied by rare archive film, stills and dramatic reconstructions.
#6 - America, America - the Films of Ken Burns
Season 2001 - Episode 53 - Aired 6/9/2001
A profile of celebrated film-maker Ken Burns, showing as a prelude to the first episode of his epic musical series "Jazz". At his home in the New Hampshire town of Walpole, the man who has been hailed as America's greatest documentary maker talks about his formative influences, his fascination with history and his previous award-winning series, "Baseball" and "The Civil War".
#7 - Are You Captain Corelli?
Season 2001 - Episode 52 - Aired 5/19/2001
As the biggest British film of the year opens in London, this documentary recalls the shocking wartime events that inspired the original novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin. On the Greek island of Cephalonia, 90-year-oid Amos Pampaloni , who like the fictional Captain Corelli survived the worst military massacre of the Second World War, recalls how German reprisals left 9,000 of his fellow Italians dead. He also talks candidly about his relationship with a young Greek girl. The programme includes contributions from the novel's author, Louis de Bernieres , and the film's director John Madden. Narrated by Sean Pertwee.
#8 - Forgotten Heroes: Korea Remembered
Season 2001 - Episode 51 - Aired 4/20/2001
Fifty years ago this weekend, a heroic last stand was fought against the Chinese Army by British troops serving with the UN in Korea. Veterans of the Battle of the Imjin river recall the event and the cruel aftermath in PoW camps.
#9 - Magic - Art of Darkness
Season 2001 - Episode 50 - Aired 4/19/2001
A documentary which shows that arcane wizardry is not just the preserve of horror films and Harry Potter novels. For accounts assistant Andrew Stockall , it is a serious pursuit. Over the years he has taught a band of magicians for whom casting spells, conjuring up demons and putting curses on people are all part and parcel of everyday life.
#10 - Like a Hurricane: the Alex Higgins Story
Season 2001 - Episode 49 - Aired 4/17/2001
A profile of one of the most exciting players that the game of snooker has ever produced, recalling the career of the twice world champion and crowd favourite and examining his turbulent life off the table.
#11 - Positive Women
Season 2001 - Episode 48 - Aired 4/10/2001
There are now more new cases of HIV infection among heterosexuals each year than among homosexual men, and most of the 10,000 HIV-positive heterosexuals in Britain are women. In this moving documentary, three infected women talk openly about their experience of, and ways of living with, the virus.
#12 - Little Women - a Day in the Life of the Tweenager
Season 2001 - Episode 47 - Aired 3/29/2001
There is a new generation of pre-teen girls who possess the confidence, sense of style, and to some degree, the emotional complexities of a teenager, but who are aged between 7 and 11 years old. The marketing industry, who has recognised their spending power, coined the term "tweenagers" to describe them. This documentary follows three sets of best friends of this age group, from diverging backgrounds, through an average day.
#13 - Fertility Tourists
Season 2001 - Episode 46 - Aired 3/6/2001
A documentary following a small but growing band of would-be parents who, in their pursuit of the child they desire, refuse to be bound by their country's laws, rendering fertility an international business. Alan and Louise Masterton hope to use a controversial technique which can predetermine the sex of a child after losing their young daughter in an accident, while sixtysomething Jenny is seeking help abroad to become pregnant after being refused fertility treatment in the UK.
#14 - The Life and Lyrics of Kirsty MacColl
Season 2001 - Episode 45 - Aired 3/3/2001
Documentary tribute to the singer-songwriter who died in a freak boating accident last year. The daughter of choreographer Jean Newlove and folk singer Ewan MacColl , she will be best remembered as the foil to a drunken Shane MacGowan on the Pogues Christmas hit Fairytale of New York. Contributions come from her partner James Knight , her mother and brother, and a host of music industry stars, including Bono, Billy Bragg , Johnny Marr and Janice Long.
#15 - Challenger
Season 2001 - Episode 44 - Aired 1/23/2001
Documentary recalling the events of 28 January 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded soon after its launch killing the crew of seven outright. The programme includes expert opinion and interviews with Nasa's senior manager at the time, Jud Lovingood , engineer Roger Boisjoly , and Grace Corrigan , mother of school teacher turned-astronaut Christa McAuliffe.
#16 - My Little Pony
Season 2001 - Episode 43 - Aired 1/1/2001
In a documentary exploring the bond between a child and its pony, eight children talk about their feelings for their equine pets.
#17 - Threads of Life
Season 2001 - Episode 42 - Aired 12/16/2001
The human genome contains the secret of human life, recording our evolution and holding the key to our future. In this one-off documentary, Robert Winston shows how the genome demonstrates how to build and run a person, thereby offering us the potential to interfere with fate.
#18 - Bigamy
Season 2001 - Episode 41 - Aired 12/12/2001
With the help of candid interviews, this documentary helps shed light on the shady world of marriages based on deceit and duplicity, including the case of a bigamous union that lasted for decades.
#19 - Tamzin Outhwaite Goes Wild with Dolphins
Season 2001 - Episode 40 - Aired 12/6/2001
The EastEnders actress and dolphin-lover trades Walford for the sunnier climes of the Bahamas and Florida in this documentary where she comes face to face with the mammals in the wild.
#20 - Police 2001
Season 2001 - Episode 66 - Aired 11/25/2001
Nearly 20 years on from his series Police, criminologist and film-maker Roger Graef pays a return visit to Thames Valley Police to see how the service has evolved against the backdrop of social change. New problems have emerged over the years but, as this documentary shows, the service has responded with initiatives of its own to tackle them.
#21 - War Grave
Season 2001 - Episode 75 - Aired 11/8/2001
Intimate and moving stories of loss and remembrance are told by friends and relatives of those killed in some of the major conflicts of the 20th century, from the First World War to the Falklands.
#22 - The Tories: the Curse of the Mummy
Season 2001 - Episode 74 - Aired 11/3/2001
Film revealing the inside story of William Hague 's doomed attempt to engineer a recovery after the Tories' landslide defeat four years ago. Nick Robinson asks whether Hague's successor, lain Duncan Smith , can fare any better, and if Thatcherism will always loom large over the Conservative Party.
#23 - Cruikshank: 1,000 Ways of Getting Drunk in England
Season 2001 - Episode 73 - Aired 6/2/2001
Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals a fascinating history of the nation's love affair with the bottle as George Cruikshank 's forgotten masterpiece The Worship of Bacchus goes on show in the Tate Modern. Cruikshank's little known work depicts Victorian society's ambivalent relationship with the "demon drink" and still hits a nerve in contemporary Britain because it pinpoints the moment in our nation's history when going out to become intentionally drunk became the British leisure activity of choice.
#24 - Profile: The World of Philip Pullman
Season 2001 - Episode 72 - Aired 12/28/2001
In this documentary, originally screened on BBC Knowledge, author Philip Pullman explores Oxford, where he was a student in the 1960s. The city provided the inspiration for the fictional Jordan College in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The writer explains how his childhood and student days have fed into the imagined worlds of his books. Critics and literary experts also contribute, sharing their own insights into Pullman's work, including I Was a Rat! and the Sally Lockhart adventures.
#25 - Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
Season 2001 - Episode 71 - Aired 9/3/2001
Tom Cruise narrates a penetrating documentary, which explores the many sides to Stanley Kubrick - film director, producer, writer, photographer, husband and father.