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 - 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.
#3 - 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
#4 - 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.
#5 - 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.
#6 - 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.
#7 - 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.
#8 - 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.
#9 - 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.
#10 - 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.
#11 - 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.
#12 - 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.
#13 - 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.
#14 - Fighting for Air
Season 2018 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/10/2018
Imagine if you could change the quality of the air we breathe - in just one day. Air pollution in the UK has been declared a 'public health emergency' and Dr Xand van Tulleken is seeing what can be done about it. Enlisting the help of enthusiasts and sceptics from the Kings Heath community in Birmingham, Xand stages the first ever large-scale experiment of its kind - using people power to try and bring about a quantifiable improvement in air quality for a single day. With the pollution levels on the high street at the cusp of legal limits, the odds are stacked against Xand and his team. Can they achieve the improbable? Can the power of communities - with the help of some ingenious tech and some of the best experts in pollution science - succeed where governments have failed? Xand also becomes a case study in his own experiment. As he carefully tries to rid his body of the effects of pollution, he measures how his body functions are affected after exposing himself to a typical city street. The results are shocking.
#15 - 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.
#16 - Managing England: The Impossible Job
Season 2018 - Episode 142 - Aired 6/17/2018
BBC Sport traces the history of one of the toughest jobs in sport - the England football manager. Using rare archive and new interviews with current manager Gareth Southgate and former England managers Sven-Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello, Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce, we hear first-hand the personal toll the so-called impossible job has taken on some of the game's most successful club managers. With contributions from former England captains Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand, along with key decision makers from within football, we take a closer look at what it will take to end England's years of hurt.
#17 - Grenfell
Season 2018 - Episode 123 - Aired 6/11/2018
This documentary from Bafta-winning director Ben Anthony brings together multiple stories from the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy - the most devastating tower block fire in British history. It was made over the course of one year, with filming starting on the day after the fire. The meticulously crafted film draws from hundreds of hours of interview, archive, social media content and observational footage to form a compelling, moving and lasting record of the events before, during and after the fire. It features intimate accounts from many of the men, women and children whose lives were forever intertwined and irrevocably changed that night - some of whom have never spoken publicly before. The film remembers those who tragically died, while hearing from survivors, the bereaved, members of the local community, faith leaders, the police and the local councillors from Kensington and Chelsea. The documentary contains the largest collection of interviews with people connected to the tragedy to be gathered together in one single film. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the documentary team were in the area around Grenfell Tower recording the effects on the community - in the emergency relief centres, on the streets, in temporary accommodation, in hotels and in people's homes. Over the following months, the team spent significant amounts of time filming with many of the people who were most affected, documenting both their immediate experiences and the longer-term challenges they faced as they waited to be rehoused and attempted to rebuild their lives. The documentary captures the trauma, tragedy and grief alongside extraordinary moments of courage, unity and resilience. The film tells the story from within the community with unique access to Grenfell United - the campaign group set up by the survivors in the wake of the fire - and Grenfell Speaks, the online streaming news channel created by one local resident and his iPhone which now has over five million v
#18 - Nothing Like a Dame
Season 2018 - Episode 116 - Aired 6/2/2018
A chance to hang out with Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright and enjoy sparkling conversation spliced with a raft of astonishing archive Together, they are 342 years old. They are in their seventh decade of cutting-edge, epoch-defining performances on stage and on screen. Funny, smart, sharp, competitive, tearful, hilarious, savage, clever, caustic, cool, gorgeous, poignant, irreverent, iconic, old... and unbelievably young. Special friends, special women and special dames - and this special film is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hang out with them all, at the same table, at the same time, and enjoy sparkling and unguarded conversation spliced with a raft of astonishing archive. Atkins, Dench, Smith, Plowright. The dream dame team. Don't miss it
#19 - Ads on the Frontline
Season 2018 - Episode 112 - Aired 5/23/2018
Narrated by Eamonn Holmes, Ads on the Frontline looks at a controversial series of adverts produced by the Northern Ireland Office during the last 10 years of the Troubles. The aim was to encourage people to pass on information to a confidential phoneline to help end the violence. To some, the ads were British government propaganda, to others a cultural snapshot of Northern Ireland's brutal past. Ads on the Frontline hears from people on different sides of the debate.
#20 - Sex Robots and Us
Season 2018 - Episode 71 - Aired 4/8/2018
Cyborg presenter James Young journeys across the world to meet the makers and users of sex robots who have plans for a Westworld future where sex bots live amongst us. In Barcelona, James visits Dr Sergi Santos and his wife Maritsa, creators of one of the world’s most advanced sex robots and the answer, they suggest, to many couples' miss-matched libido. Sergi tests out his latest robot and James finds out how Maritsa copes with Sergi using the dolls himself. Elsewhere in Barcelona James also finds simple versions of the robots - not yet fitted with AI - being used in a brothel, and visits a professional sex toy tester who tries out one of the latest male sex dolls to hit the market. Back in the UK, James visits Sergi’s business partner Arran who has been demo’ing a Samantha robot in a sex shop near Liverpool. Arran tells James about his latest plan - to offer his sex robots to elderly people’s homes. In Japan, James meets two of the most human-like robots to have been created before discovering a darker side to the sex robot industry when he visits a factory mass-producing ultra-realistic dolls. So do we really want sex robots in our lives?
#21 - RAF at 100 with Ewan and Colin McGregor
Season 2018 - Episode 57 - Aired 3/25/2018
To celebrate the centenary of the Royal Air Force, Ewan and Colin McGregor take to the skies in some of the world's most iconic planes which were involved in aerial combat at every stage of the RAF's story.
#22 - Lucy Worsley's Fireworks For A Tudor Queen
Season 2018 - Episode 46 - Aired 3/7/2018
Historian Lucy Worsley teams up with artist and materials scientist Zoe Laughlin to explore the explosive science and fascinating history of fireworks, using an original pyrotechnics instruction manual, and other 400-year-old historical documents, to recreate one of the most spectacular fireworks displays from the Tudor era. Lucy and Zoe are joined by a team of top class pyrotechnicians to replicate a mind-blowing fireworks display especially designed for Queen Elizabeth I - one of the first documented firework displays in England. Lucy pieces together clues from some of the earliest instruction manuals for making fireworks in England, as well as eyewitness accounts of the display laid on in 1575. Armed with this information, the team apply their understanding of cutting-edge pyrotechnics to recreate it in the grounds of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, where it was originally staged. Using hands-on experiments to test their designs, the team construct Tudor rockets, firework fountains and a fire-breathing dragon, as well as discovering the secrets of Elizabethan gunpowder. Throughout the show, Lucy explores the history of the three-week extravaganza laid on by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in his final attempt to win the queen's hand in marriage - from the elaborate food the Tudor audience would have eaten, to the colours that the set might have been painted in. She also reveals the important role fireworks had during the Tudor era - from the firework effects used on stage at the Globe Theatre to the pyrotechnical experimentation that took place at the Tower of London, the MI5 of its day. But not all the clues can be found in England - some of the fireworks described need to be tracked down further afield. Lucy travels to Italy to recreate the mysterious Girandola - a horizontal spinning wheel of fire - whilst Zoe flies to South Korea to witness the ancient, and rather terrifying, rocket box launcher in action. The danger and technical challe
#23 - Julius Caesar Revealed
Season 2018 - Episode 35 - Aired 2/12/2018
Mary Beard is on a mission to uncover the real Caesar, and to challenge public perception. She seeks the answers to some big questions. How did he become a one-man ruler of Rome? How did he use spin and PR on his way to the top? Why was he killed? And she asks some equally intriguing little questions. How did he conceal his bald patch? Did he really die, as William Shakespeare put it, with the words Et tu, Brute on his lips? Above all, Mary explores his surprising legacy right up to the present day. Like it or not, Caesar is still present in our everyday lives, our language, and our politics. Many dictators since, not to mention some other less autocratic leaders, have learned the tricks of their trade from Julius Caesar.
#24 - Contagion! The BBC Four Pandemic
Season 2018 - Episode 52 - Aired 3/22/2018
Contagion! The BBC Four Pandemic creates the first ever life-saving pandemic in an ambitious citizen science experiment for BBC Four, fronted by mathematician Dr Hannah Fry and emergency medic Dr Javid Abdelmoneim. The government has ranked pandemic flu as a serious threat to the UK. To predict the impact of the next pandemic more accurately than ever before, new data is needed - and lots of it. Dr Hannah Fry is on the case. The groundbreaking BBC Four experiment uses app technology to ‘infect’ users whilst tracking their movements and social interactions over 24 hours. The information collected from the app could inform public health policy and help save lives during the next pandemic. But will Hannah persuade enough people nationwide to download it? If she does, this will allow a team of mathematicians from the University of Cambridge to create a simulation of how a deadly flu virus could spread across the UK, predicting how many of us will be infected - and how many might die. Whilst Hannah masterminds the experiment and adopts the role of Patient Zero - walking the streets of Haslemere in Surrey to launch the outbreak - Javid finds out why flu is such a danger to society. He meets the researchers trying to discover what makes some people more contagious than others and visits a factory that will produce vaccine when the next pandemic virus emerges. Armed with the information gathered and the results of the BBC Four experiment, Hannah and Javid make a shocking revelation.
#25 - Rhod Gilbert: Stand Up to Shyness
Season 2018 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/24/2018
Stand-up comedian Rhod Gilbert is painfully shy. He might hide it well, but he can't even go into a cafe to buy a coffee. No joke. In fact, his social anxiety has had a massive effect on his life. In this documentary, Rhod's going to try find out why and what can be done. Talking to fellow shy comedian Greg Davies, other shy sufferers, and scientists, Rhod comes up with a radical solution for how we can all stand up to shyness. Rhod can stand up in front of 20,000 people and make them laugh for two hours solid. But he has always found it virtually impossible to talk to people one to one. From childhood, it has been a life-limiting condition. And in this Rhod is certainly not alone. It is estimated that nearly half the population in the UK have some manifestation of shyness and social anxiety. For many it is a minor irritation, for some it is a condition that can virtually destroy a life.