The BEST episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2016
Every episode of BBC Documentaries season 2016, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2016!
Documentaries produced by or for the BBC.
#1 - Scruffts: Britain's Favourite Dog
Season 2016 - Episode 80 - Aired 3/16/2016
This warm, witty and entertaining documentary meets the pet dogs with the character and class to compete in the final of Scruffts, Crufts' competition for crossbreeds.
#2 - Britain's Biggest Superyachts: Chasing Perfection
Season 2016 - Episode 106 - Aired 4/15/2016
Welcome to Sunseeker, Britain's biggest superyacht builder who has been hand-building customised boats for the world's super rich for the past 50 years. For the first time ever, they have allowed the BBC behind the scenes of their extraordinary production line in Poole and into the rarefied world of the multi-millionaire's favourite plaything. The company built their reputation on making small to mid-size yachts, but the recession saw this market flounder as even the super-rich tightened their belts, seeing Sunseeker sink into the red. So in a high stakes move, they're sinking millions into building a larger opulent superyacht to reel in the uber-rich who still have cash to splash on life's ultimate luxuries to help sail them back into profit. The film follows the build of a new £20m, forty-metre superyacht and their most challenging specification to date when a customer takes full advantage of their made to measure service and asks for more extras than any other yacht in the history of the company. When it falls behind schedule we discover it's not all plain sailing when you're in the business of engineering luxury for the super-rich. Whilst the Poole shipyard works hard to meet the customer's exacting standards, the London sales team are working just as hard to fill the order book during the all-important Boat Show season where they hope to sell over £40m worth of boats in just thirty days. Every boat is built in Poole but is found basking in the international playgrounds of the rich and famous and, filming across the summer season, we also hop on board the charter side of the business to meet the people paying £60,000 for just a week's holiday.
#3 - Stacey Dooley in Greece: Migrant Kids in Crisis
Season 2016 - Episode 112 - Aired 4/19/2016
Stacey Dooley travels to Greece to follow children on the migrant trail, as they flee wars and seek new lives in Western Europe. From small toddlers travelling with families to unaccompanied teenagers journeying thousands of miles alone, Stacey witnesses their experiences first hand. During her trip, Greece closes its borders to migrants and Stacey sees the striking impact of this on the young and vulnerable.
#4 - Attenborough at 90
Season 2016 - Episode 128 - Aired 5/8/2016
In celebration of his ninetieth birthday, Sir David Attenborough shares extraordinary highlights of his life and career with broadcaster Kirsty Young, including the inspiring people he has met, the extraordinary journeys he has made and the remarkable animal encounters he has had across the globe. Joined by colleagues and friends, including Michael Palin and Chris Packham, Sir David shares some of the unforgettable moments from his unparalleled career, from capturing unique animal behaviour for the first time to the fast-paced advances in wildlife filming technology, as well as stories of the wonder and fragility of the natural world - stories that Sir David has spent his life exploring and championing.
#5 - Bodyhack: Metal Gear Man
Season 2016 - Episode 140 - Aired 5/18/2016
This powerful two part short-form documentary follows 25 year-old James Young as he tries to regain control of his body after a terrible accident - by becoming part Cyborg. Part 1 [14:28] Following his accident, the first short film sees James, an avid gamer, respond to an advert by gaming company Konami, who are looking for an amputee who is interested in wearing a futuristic prosthetic limb. Part 2 [16:28] After months of waiting, James receives his new arm and interest in the project with the media starts to grow; he is invited to be a key speaker in the first ever ‘Bodyhacking’ conference in Austin Texas.
#6 - The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl
Season 2016 - Episode 201 - Aired 7/23/2016
Fighter pilot, inventor, spy - the life of Roald Dahl is often stranger than fiction. From crashing his plane over Africa to hobnobbing in Hollywood and his remarkable encounters with everyone from Walt Disney to President Roosevelt - this is the story of his greatest adventures and how his real-life escapades find expression in his most famous books, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Matilda. Through a vast collection of his letters, writings and archive, the story is told largely in his own words with contributions from his last wife Liccy, daughter Lucy and biographer Donald Sturrock. Long-term collaborator and illustrator Quentin Blake also creates exclusive new drawings for the film which are specially animated to bring Dahl's marvellous world to life.
#7 - Murder Games: The Life and Death of Breck Bednar
Season 2016 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/26/2016
A teenage boy is targeted by an online predator after befriending him while gaming. Murder Games tells the true story of Breck Bednar, a 14-year-old schoolboy who was lured to his death after being groomed online by Lewis Daynes. For the first time, in this gripping docudrama Breck's young gaming friends have decided to tell their story - a tale of manipulation and deceit which engulfed their friend and sent shockwaves through the gaming community. The programme also follows Breck's parents and siblings as they struggle to come to terms with their son's murder, and hears from investigators tasked with piecing together the crime - working backwards from a chilling 999 call.
#8 - The Incredible Story of Marie Antoinette's Watch
Season 2016 - Episode 292 - Aired 10/6/2016
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.
#9 - Attenborough And The Giant Dinosaur
Season 2016 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/24/2016
David Attenborough tells the story of the discovery and reconstruction in Argentina of the world's largest-known dinosaur, a brand new species of titanosaur. Measuring 37m long - close to four London buses put end to end - and weighing 70 metric tons, it now holds the record as the biggest animal ever to walk the Earth. In 2014, a shepherd spotted the tip of a gigantic fossil bone sticking out of a rock in La Flecha Farm in the Chubut Province in the Argentinian desert. Palaeontologists soon uncovered a massive 2.4m long (femur) thigh bone, the largest ever found. By the end of the dig they had uncovered more than 220 bones. As the programme reveals, these all belong to a new species of the giant plant-eating titanosaur. Filmed over the next two years, the documentary follows the twists and turns of this forensic investigation. Attenborough witnesses the uncovering and examination of these stupendous fossils and the dramatic construction of the complete skeleton. And using state-of-the-art graphics, the film also reveals the internal secrets of this dinosaur and what it means to be a giant.
#10 - Swim the Channel
Season 2016 - Episode 194 - Aired 7/18/2016
In 1875, Captain Matthew Webb - with little more than some brandy, beer and beef tea to keep him going - became the first man to successfully swim from England to France. Since then more people have conquered Everest than successfully swum across the Channel. To this day, it remains the ultimate open water swimming challenge. This documentary tells the story of those who keep Captain Webb's vision alive - the volunteer coaches and the unlikeliest of athletes who they tirelessly support in their dream to swim from England to France. The rules are simple - no physical aids, no wimp/wet suits, just a swimsuit, goggles, the all-important swimming cap and a spot of grease to stop the chafing. At the heart of the community are pensioners Freda, Irene and Barry. They can be found in Dover every weekend from May to September come rain or shine, ready to train, feed and grease the wannabe Channel swimmers. The swimmers do not take on this arduous journey alone, and also rely on the skill of the pilots who navigate them safely to the other side of the busiest shipping lane in the world. The community share their highs and lows both in and out of the water as they train together on this small stretch of pebbled beach shadowed by the ferry port. Feasting on jelly babies, and fuelled by adrenalin and dreams, the modern-day swimmer continues to risk it all in this, the ultimate challenge of man versus nature.
#11 - Forest, Field & Sky: Art out of Nature
Season 2016 - Episode 124 - Aired 5/3/2016
Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy's beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell's extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists' interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art - and make us look again at the world around us.
#12 - The Mystery of Van Gogh's Ear
Season 2016 - Episode 209 - Aired 8/6/2016
Jeremy Paxman joins art sleuth Bernadette Murphy on her amazing quest to discover the truth about the December night in 1888 when Vincent van Gogh took a blade to his own ear.
#13 - Going Going Gone: Nick Broomfield's Disappearing Britain
Season 2016 - Episode 156 - Aired 5/25/2016
Two iconic British buildings are threatened with demolition and the intrepid Nick Broomfield is on the case. In a pair of documentaries, Broomfield profiles the Wellington Rooms in Liverpool and the Coal Exchange in Cardiff. The Wellington Rooms, built in 1815 by Edmund Aikin, was originally the social hub for the super-rich, slave traders, businessmen and the elite. The Prime Minister William Gladstone's family, themselves wealthy slave owners, invested heavily in this magnificent building with the most intricate detailing and proportions. A Wedgwood ceiling and sprung dance floor, with classical columns, create a building of love and light. Despite the depression in Liverpool's fortunes, it's a building that has brought enormous happiness to many different people over a couple of centuries. Countless people seem to have fallen in love and met their future partners in the assembly room. Now in a rundown state of faded glory, the question is - what to do with the Wellington Rooms? The Coal Exchange in Cardiff, built in 1883 by Edward Seward, is a magnificent celebration of the industry of coal and its immense wealth. A glass-ceilinged exchange room with galleries on three floors and a unique lowered floor are a remarkable monument to this time. Now in serious neglect, the whole building, the size of a city block, faces demolition. It signifies the serious lack of resourcefulness on the part of Cardiff Council to celebrate and regenerate not only this building but the whole area. The once great Butetown Docks and the magnificent buildings surrounding the Coal Exchange have also been allowed to crumble and disintegrate. Rather than redevelop the docks in a way that they have been so wonderfully done in Liverpool, the docks in Cardiff have been filled in. Magnificent warehouses have been torn down, and the whole history of coal and the uniqueness of this area have been almost obliterated.
#14 - David Attenborough's Zoo Quest in Colour
Season 2016 - Episode 141 - Aired 5/11/2016
Thanks to a recent remarkable discovery in the BBC's film vaults, the best of David Attenborough's early Zoo Quest adventures can now be seen as never before, in colour, and with it the remarkable story of how this pioneering television series was made. First broadcast in December 1954, Zoo Quest was one of the most popular television series of its time and launched the career of the young David Attenborough as a wildlife presenter. It completely changed how viewers saw the world, revealing wildlife and tribal communities that had never been filmed or even seen before. Broadcast ten years before colour television was seen in the UK, Zoo Quest was thought to have been filmed in black and white, until now. Using this extraordinary new-found colour film, together with new behind-the-scenes stories from David Attenborough and cameraman Charles Lagus, this special showcases the very best of Zoo Quest to West Africa, Zoo Quest to Guiana and Zoo Quest for a Dragon in stunning HD colour for the very first time.
#15 - Elizabeth at 90 - A Family Tribute
Season 2016 - Episode 114 - Aired 4/21/2016
A unique celebration of the Queen's ninety years as she reaches her landmark birthday in April. Film-maker John Bridcut has been granted special access to the complete collection of Her Majesty's personal cine films, shot by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen herself, as well as by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Much of it has never been seen publicly before. Various members of the Royal Family are filmed watching this private footage and contributing their own personal insights and their memories of the woman they know both as a member of their own close family and as queen. Among those taking part are the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent and his sister Princess Alexandra, who has never before given an interview.
#16 - Tom Jones' 1950s, The Decade That Made Me
Season 2016 - Episode 110 - Aired 4/16/2016
Unlike the 60s, says Tom Jones as he recalls his teenage years in Pontypridd, South Wales, people who lived through the 50s can usually remember them. Many of those interviewed in this enjoyably nostalgic documentary – including the Shadows’ rhythm guitarist Bruce Welch, broadcaster Joan Bakewell and journalist Michele Hanson – agree the early postwar years were grey, boring and flat. But what they experienced during this decade, whether it was American films, music, TV shows such as The Six Five Special, teddy-boy fashion or just being a teenager, excited and shaped them all. “I was 15 when rock ’n’ roll kicked in – perfect!” says Jones. It’s a glorious reminder of the cultural changes of the 50s. About this programme Former The Voice UK coach Tom Jones fronts the first of four retrospective documentaries in which celebrated musicians look back at the decades that defined them. For Tom, that decade is the 1950s, the era following the austerity of the Second World War that saw a boom in popular culture, which swept aside the old order and ushered in a new era of entertainment. The veteran singer provides a first-hand guide to his formative years in a small mining community in South Wales, revealing how he - much like many people of his generation - turned to TV, movies, radio and music to find a voice for himself. Revisiting Treforest and Pontypridd, where he spent his childhood and teenage years, Tom recalls his joy when rationing finally ended, his encounter with American GIs stationed near his home, and the arrival of rock `n' roll and the `Teddy Boys'. Includes contributions by writers Joan Bakewell, Katherine Whitehorn and Michele Hanson, and historians Alwyn Turner, Dr Martin Johnes, Tony Russell and Francis Beckett.
#17 - EMI: The Inside Story
Season 2016 - Episode 144 - Aired 5/20/2016
One record company has been a constant presence in popular music throughout our lives. EMI brought the Beatles to the world and in every decade since has been instrumental in producing some of Britain's most celebrated and enduring music. But behind the success lay a very British institution often at odds with the music it released. It had to come to terms with psychedelia, face punk head on and find huge sums of money to feed the excesses of the 1980s. Interviews with EMI artists including members of Queen, Pink Floyd, the Sex Pistols and Pet Shop Boys reveal how their demands for more and more control ultimately led to drastic changes at EMI. Former EMI employees share the gossip and goings-on in an industry infamous for its extravagance. The British music industry is world renowned. It has produced decades of memorable music that has reached all corners of the globe. EMI has always been at the forefront and has left an indelible mark on our culture forever.
#18 - Bublé at the BBC
Season 2016 - Episode 415 - Aired 11/3/2016
Claudia Winkleman meets Michael Buble in this entertainment spectacular. Michael performs classic tracks including Cry Me a River and Feeling Good alongside songs from his brand new album, including Nobody but Me. Michael also goes undercover as a sales assistant at a London department store to surprise a few unsuspecting fans.
#19 - The Age of Loneliness
Season 2016 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/7/2016
It has been said that this is the 'Age of Loneliness' and Britain was recently reported to be 'the loneliness capital of Europe'. This film by award-winning director Sue Bourne explores why the loneliness epidemic in Britain is affecting so many people of all ages with the problem so widespread and deep rooted that it is now seen as a major public health issue. Bourne travels the length and breadth of the country to find people brave enough to admit how lonely they are and go on camera and talk about how loneliness affects their lives. From Isobel, the 19-year-old student, Ben the divorcé, and Jaye the 40-year-old singleton, through to Olive, the 100-year-old who says she lives on 'lonely street', this film will strike a chord with many, many people. Each story in the film reveals the painful reality of loneliness, but these stories also offer hope because they also show how different people can and have alleviated their loneliness in some small, but hugely significant, way. Loneliness is a difficult subject to make a film about because no one really wants to admit they are lonely and, as a society, we are scared of being alone. But we are going to have to learn to deal with loneliness because more and more of us are now living alone and every year the numbers are rising. Loneliness is something we have to look at and understand better. This film could be the first important step in that process.
#20 - Workers or Shirkers? Ian Hislop's Victorian Benefits
Season 2016 - Episode 100 - Aired 4/7/2016
An entertaining, provocative film in which Ian explores the colourful history behind one of the most explosive issues of our times - welfare: who deserves to be helped, and who doesn't. With his customary mix of light touch and intelligence, Ian tells the stories of five individuals whose Victorian attitudes remain incredibly resonant, inspiring some revealing interviews. Iain Duncan Smith is visibly moved when describing the lack of aspiration he has encountered as minister in charge of benefits, Deirdre Kelly, also known as 'White Dee' from Benefits Street, gets on famously with Ian, teasing him for being middle class, and Owen Jones and Tristram Hunt MP provide illuminating food for thought on the questions that still haunt us. Pioneer of the workhouse Edwin Chadwick feared that hand-outs would lead to scrounging and sought to make sure that workers were always better off than the unemployed. That sounds fair - but was his solution simply too unkind? James Greenwood, Britain's first undercover reporter, made poverty a cause celebre through sensational journalism - but is the media voyeuristic when it comes to reporting on those on benefits? Helen Bosanquet, an early social worker, believed that poverty was caused by 'bad character'. Are some people genuinely more deserving than others? Bosanquet came to blows with Beatrice Webb, whose economic explanations for the causes of poverty led her to argue for the first foundations of a welfare state. Finally, even if we want to be generous, are there limits on how much we can afford to help? That question faced Margaret Bondfield, Britain's first female cabinet minister, who, despite her own working-class trade unionist credentials, controversially ended up advocating cuts at a time of national austerity.
#21 - Cunk on Shakespeare
Season 2016 - Episode 132 - Aired 5/11/2016
Comedy from Charlie Brooker starring Philomena Cunk, the witless commentator from Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe. Philomena knows absolutely nothing about Shakespeare, but that won't stop her attempting to present a groundbreaking documentary about him. Fresh from her triumphs on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe investigating time ('It'll always be an unknowable mystery, like how phones work' Winston Churchill ('Imagine how good his tweets would have been', and Donald Trump ('There's this amazing stuff on his head; it's not hair, it's like a sort of furry gas', Philomena Cunk has finally been given her own show - about William Shakespeare. Cunk will leave no stone unturned as she gets to the bottom of the Bard, visiting his birthplace, exploring the Globe, studying priceless artefacts and interviewing literally six different experts, including renowned actor Simon Russell Beale, Educating Yorkshire teacher Matthew Burton and top Shakespearean scholar Professor Stanley Wells. Shorter than Hamlet, funnier than King Lear and easier to spell than Cymbeline, Cunk On Shakespeare is absolutely the last word in Shakespeare documentaries.
#22 - Titanic's Tragic Twin: The Britannic Disaster
Season 2016 - Episode 349 - Aired 11/21/2016
The sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 was a tragedy unlike any other. Surely it could never happen again? But it did. Incredibly, Titanic had a sister - Britannic - who suffered a near-identical fate. In the wake of the Titanic disaster, Britannic was re-engineered to be even stronger. And yet, on 21 November 1916, she sank in just 55 minutes - three times faster than Titanic. It's one of Britain's greatest untold disaster stories. Now on the 100th anniversary, presenters Kate Humble and Andy Torbet piece together exactly what happened in those 55 minutes. While Andy makes a dangerous dive to the wreck, Kate speaks to descendants of the survivors, tracked down for the very first time on TV. The characters she uncovers include Violet 'Miss Unsinkable' Jessops, who survived both Titanic and Britannic, Captain 'Iceberg Charlie' Bartlett and look-out Archie Jewell, who miraculously survived when those around him died. Using rarely seen and unpublished diaries and letters of the captain and crew, Titanic's Tragic Twin recreates what it was like for Britannic's survivors to fight for their lives and investigates how and why Britannic's victims died horribly - and avoidably.
#23 - Britain's Most Wanted Motorbike Gangs?
Season 2016 - Episode 212 - Aired 8/9/2016
Britain’s Most Wanted Motorbike Gangs? takes us inside a new underground phenomena involved in the “Bike Life” scene, which sees young men performing stunts on motorbikes on public roads. The bikers say that are part of a movement that showcases their skills and keeps young people away from gangs. The police say that they are dangerous criminals and are reacting by deploying increased resources to shut down the scene and lock up the most notorious riders. Our cameras follow the riders from London and the Thamesmead estate in Kent as they play a game of cat and mouse with the police, and say that they’ll never stop riding even though they run the risk of arrest, injury and even death.
#24 - The Banker's Guide to Art
Season 2016 - Episode 206 - Aired 7/14/2016
Documentary taking an inside look at the high-stakes and sometimes murky world of art collecting. In recent years, the value of London's art market has soared to unprecedented heights, driven by the nouveau riche of the financial world, whose money has poured into the bank accounts of dealers, galleries and auction houses.
#25 - Black Power: America's Armed Resistance
Season 2016 - Episode 139 - Aired 5/17/2016
Filmmaker Dan Murdoch spent last summer documenting clashes between a resurgent Ku Klux Klan, and a growing Black Power movement. Now in a follow up to ‘KKK: The Fight for White Supremacy’ he returns to America to revisit some of the people he met from the KKK and also meet members of the Black Liberation Movement: to find out what black power means, what their motivations are and why their movement seems to be gaining traction. With rare access to members of the Black Liberation Movement, Murdoch quickly finds himself in the midst of an armed black militia, outraged at the treatment of black people at the hands of police, patrolling the streets of their communities and calling for change.