The BEST episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2019
Every episode of BBC Documentaries season 2019, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of BBC Documentaries season 2019!
Documentaries produced by or for the BBC.
#1 - Grace Jones - Bloodlight and Bami
Season 2019 - Episode 125 - Aired 6/22/2019
Documentary film-maker Sophie Fiennes follows the star Grace Jones behind the scenes - in the recording studio, backstage and at home with her extended family in Jamaica - and intersperses this candid, revealing footage with live performances by Jones. Still an iconic, uncompromising performer, Jones uses all her legendary stagecraft to perform classic hits like Pull Up to the Bumper and Slave to the Rhythm, alongside newer material like Williams Blood. Alongside the intimate scenes of Jones backstage and discussing her past with her family, the film gives a real sense of what made her the artist and performer she is.
#2 - The Brexit Storm: Laura Kuenssberg's Inside Story
Season 2019 - Episode 54 - Aired 4/1/2019
Over nine tumultuous months, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg takes us inside the most extraordinary political story of our time – Brexit.
#3 - Inside the Cage: The Rise of Female Fighters
Season 2019 - Episode 214 - Aired 10/13/2019
Annie Price meets the women fighting to the top in Mixed Martial Arts or MMA - one of the fastest growing sports in Britain. Molly McCann is the first English woman to win in the top league, the UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship, and invites Price to train and hang out with her as she prepares for her biggest fight yet, in the USA. 18 year old Shanelle Dyer fights at amateur level and sees MMA as the ticket to big earnings and a way to escape the street violence around her west London family home. Cory McKenna is 19, a straight A student turned full time fighter, now hotly tipped for the top. Training and traveling with Britain’s brightest MMA stars, Price finds out what drives them and whether the risks are really worth the rewards.
#4 - Spitfire
Season 2019 - Episode 196 - Aired 9/26/2019
The story of the fighter aircraft that became an international icon, told in the words of the last-surviving World War II veterans combined with stunning contemporary and historical aerial footage.
#5 - Mark Ronson: From the Heart
Season 2019 - Episode 213 - Aired 10/12/2019
Mark Ronson, hit songwriter and producer openly discusses his life and musical influences. With interviews from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Broadcast on National Album Day.
#6 - Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes
Season 2019 - Episode 212 - Aired 10/11/2019
A treasure trove of tapes from the golden age of reggae has been salvaged and provides the soundtrack to the compelling story of the family behind the legendary Randy's Studio 17.
#7 - Million Dollar Wedding Planner
Season 2019 - Episode 211 - Aired 10/10/2019
With Asia now home to more billionaires than the USA or Europe, this film follows Lelian Chew, who organises nuptials for the super-rich in the Far East, taking on ten just ceremonies a year at an average cost of $1million each. Bespoke Cartier jewellery, hundreds of thousands of dollars of flowers and multiple designer wedding dresses are nothing out of the ordinary. But Lelian's job also involves navigating the clash between age-old Chinese marriage customs and the desires of the young, often with outlandish solutions - multiple weddings are becoming the norm for the Chinese super-rich.
#8 - Van Meegeren: The Forger Who Fooled the Nazis
Season 2019 - Episode 210 - Aired 10/9/2019
Andrew Graham-Dixon investigates the story of the 20th century's greatest art forger, Han van Meegeren, who made millions during World War II selling fake Vermeers in Nazi-occupied Holland. Following a trail of evidence across Europe, Graham-Dixon pieces together how van Meegeren fooled the art establishment - and even swindled Hermann Göring, selling him what was then one of the most expensive paintings in the world. Looking at this tale of intrigue and double-dealing against the backdrop of Europe’s darkest hour, Graham-Dixon tries to uncover the motives of the master forger. Was he a Dutch folk hero, outwitting the Nazi occupiers? A cynical opportunist? Or even ruthless collaborator? As Andrew Graham-Dixon discovers, this is a tale about much more than simply art forgery: a twisted, timely morality tale about the blurred lines between truth and fiction that poses uncomfortable questions about deception - and collusion. About what happens when we want to believe something a little too much, even when the evidence of fakery is before our eyes.
#9 - Ian Hislop's Fake News: A True History
Season 2019 - Episode 209 - Aired 10/7/2019
Ian Hislop's sharp, provocative take on 200 years of fake news and its consequences - from Victorians on the moon to 21st-century deepfake, and Hislop as never seen before.
#10 - Upstream
Season 2019 - Episode 207 - Aired 9/29/2019
Upstream is a new film by the writer Robert Macfarlane and the director Rob Petit. The film, which is shot entirely from the air, follows the course of the River Dee in Scotland all the way to its source in the Cairngorm mountains, the highest of any river in Britain. With a prose poem written especially for the film by Macfarlane (voiced by Julie Fowlis) and an original score by the Oscar-nominated composer Hauschka, the film takes as it epigraph the words of the Scottish writer Nan Shepherd (1893-1981): "One cannot know the rivers till one has seen them at their sources", wrote Shepherd, "but this journey to sources is not to be undertaken lightly." (The Living Mountain, 1977). Eerie, hypnotic and experimental, this groundbreaking polyphonic film weaves together field-recordings of the river, and the birds and creatures which live along it, the place-names and stories - dark and light - of the Cairngorms, creating a 'songline' that draws the viewer up, against the flow, into wildness, winter and strangeness.
#11 - Betty Davis: Godmother of Funk
Season 2019 - Episode 206 - Aired 10/4/2019
Funk Queen Betty Davis changed the landscape for female artists in America. She 'was the first', as former husband Miles Davis said. 'Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince'. An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty arrived on the 70s scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion and outrageous funk music. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores, and married Miles – startlingly turning him from jazz to funk on the album she named 'Bitches Brew'. She then, despite being banned and boycotted, went on to become the first black woman to perform, write and manage herself. Betty was a feminist pioneer, inspiring and intimidating in a manner like no woman before. Then suddenly - she just vanished. Betty Mabry Davis is a global icon whose mysterious life story has until now, never been told. Creatively blending documentary and animation, this movie traces the path of Betty’s life, how she grew from humble upbringings to become a fully self-realized black female pioneer the world failed to understand or appreciate, revealing the mystery of her 35-year disappearance and her battle with mental illness and poverty. After years of trying, the elusive Betty finally allowed the film-makers to creatively tell her story based on their conversations.
#12 - The Dynamic Duo
Season 2019 - Episode 204 - Aired 10/10/2019
Meet Tony Flatman and Julian Meek, Wales's two most unlikely press barons. Four years ago they launched the Abertillery Dynamic, a free local newspaper, with the aim of holding power to account. Combining opinion pieces with regular features such as 'Sheep of the Week’ and 'The Pub Review’, this is no ordinary paper. After 36 editions, worn out and broke, they were forced to close down. But now they are back and ready to relaunch. This wry, warm-hearted documentary celebrates these two lovable characters, as their old-fashioned approach to local journalism collides with the modern world.
#13 - Undercover with the Clerics: Iraq's Secret Sex Trade
Season 2019 - Episode 205 - Aired 10/3/2019
In this undercover investigation, Nawal Al Maghafi exposes a secret world of sexual exploitation in Iraq. Some Shia clerics are using a controversial practice called 'pleasure marriage' to groom vulnerable girls and young women and pimp them out.
#14 - Joan Armatrading: Me Myself I
Season 2019 - Episode 203 - Aired 9/27/2019
Granting unprecedented access, Joan Armatrading tells her life story, both as a songwriter and as a performer. Features key performances from Joan and many of the musicians she has influenced.
#15 - Rock and Roma
Season 2019 - Episode 208 - Aired 9/17/2019
21-year-old Roma woman Rahela and 35-year-old Scottish man Neil are both residents of Govanhill, Glasgow. But even though they live in the same neighbourhood, their lives could not be more different. Rahela takes this opportunity to introduce Neil to her culture and people, and Neil confronts her about issues in their community that the majority of residents are not happy about.
#16 - Addicted: America's Opioid Crisis
Season 2019 - Episode 202 - Aired 10/2/2019
A compelling insight into the growth of America's devastating relationship with opioids that has destroyed millions of lives.
#17 - Fleetwood Mac's Songbird - Christine McVie
Season 2019 - Episode 201 - Aired 9/20/2019
Christine McVie is undoubtedly the longest-serving female band member of any of the enduring rock ‘n’ roll acts that emerged from the 1960s. While she has never fronted Fleetwood Mac, preferring to align herself with ‘the boys’ in the rhythm section whom she first joined 50 years ago, Christine is their most successful singer-songwriter. Her hits include ‘Over My Head’, ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Everywhere’. After massive global success in both the late 1970s and mid-1980s, Christine left the band in the late 1990s, quitting California and living in semi-retirement in Kent, only to rejoin the band in 2013. In this 90-minute film, this most English of singers finally gets to take centre-stage and tell both her story and the saga of Fleetwood Mac from her point of view.
#18 - Churchill and the Movie Mogul
Season 2019 - Episode 200 - Aired 9/25/2019
Documentary about the extraordinary friendship and collaboration between Winston Churchill and film producer Alexander Korda that helped to bring America into the Second World War.
#19 - Gareth Thomas: HIV and Me
Season 2019 - Episode 199 - Aired 9/18/2019
Rugby legend Gareth Thomas lifts the lid on living with HIV. In an emotional and hard-hitting documentary he finally goes public about his condition and reveals how hiding the truth about his health left him feeling depressed and contemplating taking his own life. Now he is on a journey to change perceptions about HIV by raising awareness, fighting prejudice and taking on the biggest physical challenge of his career - running the world’s toughest Iron Man. With the help of family, friends, medical experts and others with HIV, he sets about tackling the stigmas, myths and misunderstandings surrounding the condition. Modern medicine may have made the virus treatable and non-transmittable, but old ideas about HIV still persist and Gareth is on a mission to smash the stereotypes and show that 'he has HIV and it’s OK'.
#20 - Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
Season 2019 - Episode 198 - Aired 9/21/2019
When legendary writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying of Aids, his friend and collaborator Werner Herzog made a final visit to say farewell. As a parting gift, Chatwin gave Herzog the rucksack that had accompanied him around the world. Thirty years later, carrying the rucksack, Herzog sets out on his own journey, inspired by Chatwin’s passion for the nomadic life. Along the way, Herzog uncovers stories of lost tribes, wanderers and dreamers. He travels to South America, where Chatwin wrote In Patagonia, the book that turned him into a literary sensation, with its enigmatic tales of dinosaurs, myths and journeys to the ends of the world. In Australia, where he and Chatwin first met, Herzog explores the sacred power of the Aboriginal traditions that inspired Chatwin’s most famous book, The Songlines. And in the UK, in the beautiful landscape of the Welsh borders, he discovers the one place Chatwin called home. Told in Herzog’s inimitable style - full of memorable characters and encounters - this is a portrait of one of the 20th century’s most charismatic writers, which also offers a revealing insight into the imagination and obsessions of one of the 20th century’s most visionary directors.
#21 - 1944: Should We Bomb Auschwitz?
Season 2019 - Episode 197 - Aired 9/19/2019
In 1944, two prisoners miraculously escaped from Auschwitz. They told the world of the horror of the Holocaust and raised one of the greatest moral questions of the 20th century.
#22 - The Fear of God: 25 Years of the Exorcist
Season 2019 - Episode 233 - Aired 10/31/2019
Mark Kermode revisits his 1998 cult documentary on The Exorcist. In this exclusive extended version never seen before on TV, Kermode traces the extraordinary history of The Exorcist, the novel by William Peter Blatty that William Friedkin turned into a popular and controversial film. He examines the aura of mystery that still surrounds the film, the making of which claimed several lives. Alongside extracts and outtakes from the movie, there are interviews with Blatty, Friedkin, and actors Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair and James Ferman, director of the British Board of Film Classification in 1998.
#23 - Cops on the Frontline
Season 2019 - Episode 224 - Aired 10/21/2019
Using first-hand testimony and extensive archive, this documentary reveals what it was like to be an RUC officer during the Troubles. In the 1980s, Northern Ireland was described as the most dangerous place in the world to be a cop. At its peak, the RUC employed 8,500 full-time officers with 4,500 reservists. A total of 319 officers were killed, with 9,000 injured during the conflict – some died at work while others were killed while off duty. As well as dealing with everyday crime the RUC was at the forefront of State’s efforts to tackle terrorism. While investigating burglaries and sex crimes, they dealt with the aftermath of bombings and paramilitary shootings. Officers were predominantly Protestant but some came from Catholic backgrounds – many rose to senior level. Despite witnessing some horrific scenes, at the end of each shift they returned to their homes and tried to live normally. Cops on the Frontline tells their memories and stories. It reveals the day to day realities of what it was like to hold the rule of law in one of the most vicious conflicts of the 20th Century. This documentary is a candid and no-holds-barred chronicle of what it was like to be an RUC Officer dealing with ordinary crime and terrorist incidents. This documentary is unashamedly from the police perspective – it is their uncensored testimonies. It’s an invaluable addition to the Troubles at 50 Archive and to BBC NI’s “….on the Frontline” strand.
#24 - A Fresh Guide to Florence with Fab 5 Freddy
Season 2019 - Episode 158 - Aired 7/27/2019
In this revelatory documentary, hip hop legend and art lover Fab 5 Freddy (aka Fred Brathwaite) saddles up to explore 15th-century Italian renaissance art in 15th-century style – on horseback. Amidst superstar artists such as Michelangelo, Giotto, Ghiberti and Carpaccio, Fab discovers groundbreaking images of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society that have slipped through the cracks of art history.
#25 - Get Rich or Try Dying: Music's Mega Legacies
Season 2019 - Episode 232 - Aired 11/1/2019
Both Bob Dylan and Nick Cave have testified in song that death is not the end. But, not all stories from the musical afterlife are created equal. Death may have its obvious downside. However, in the world of pop, shuffling off your mortal coil could be a unique business opportunity. In this documentary, Scissor Sisters star Ana Matronic goes on a journey into the afterlife of pop. Think of her as music’s pearly gatekeeper of making it big in the ever after. But here’s the rub: this isn’t about the music; no, this is about the many other ways dead pop stars earn a living when they’re gone. So join her as she books in with the agents, publicists, producers and families to discover the dos and don’ts of keeping the dream alive. Using a combination of interview, archive and investigation, Get Rich or Try Dying peels back the complicated mechanics of the pop music industry, showing how it really works and who ultimately profits from it. Once the mansions, yachts, luxury cars, private jets and entourages are dispensed with, death ushers in a new cast of characters, not all of whom were party to creating the wealth in the first place, but all of them are interested in profiting from it. The documentary reveals how Elvis was the architect of the entire legacy industry and how his lawyers, working on behalf of his family, changed American law to permit the surviving family members to benefit from his rights of publicity. It shows Prince’s story to be a cautionary tale for those without a will, and ponders how Bob Marley has retained his dignity despite attaching his name to everything from bath salts to electric goods and Californian marijuana. Linda Ramone professes her love of ‘merch’ and explains how her dead husband’s influential but niche NY punk act, The Ramones, continues to stand for something way beyond their music. Finally, Frank Zappa’s son delves into the morality of hologram tours, as illustrated by his father’s, before the immacul