The WORST episodes of BBC Documentaries
Every episode of BBC Documentaries ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of BBC Documentaries!
Documentaries produced by or for the BBC.
#1 - Secrets of the Super Elements
Season 2017 - Episode 355 - Aired 5/24/2017
Forget oil, coal and gas - a new set of materials is shaping our world and they're so bizarre they may as well be alien technology. In the first BBC documentary to be filmed entirely on smartphones, materials scientist Prof Mark Miodownik reveals the super elements that underpin our high-tech world. We have become utterly dependent on them, but they are rare and they're already running out. The stuff that makes our smartphones work could be gone in a decade and our ability to feed the world depends mostly on a mineral found in just one country. Mark reveals the magical properties of these extraordinary materials and finds out what we can do to save them.
#2 - 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
#3 - Searching for Shergar
Season 2018 - Episode 122 - Aired 6/7/2018
The story of one of the world's most valuable racehorses, Shergar, who disappeared in 1983 at the height of the Troubles. Thirty-five years on, Alison Millar sets out to see if changed times will help her unearth the secrets of this famous mystery.
#4 - Ugly Me: My Life With Body Dysmorphia
Season 2018 - Episode 121 - Aired 6/6/2018
Documentary exploring body dysmorphic disorder, a condition which causes people to believe they are extremely ugly. The film follows 29-year-old Liane and her boyfriend Mitch over a year as Liane starts therapy to try and conquer this crippling condition. Each week Liane meets Professor David Veale, one of the world's leading experts on BDD, who attempts to undo some of her deeply entrenched habits, often leading to uncomfortable and revealing realisations. The documentary also hears from a range of people who are in recovery from BDD. Talking movingly about their own personal experiences helps illuminate Liane's journey and reveals more about this illness
#5 - The Collins Variety Agency
Season 2018 - Episode 120 - Aired 5/29/2018
A colourful history of the Collins family who founded the first theatrical agency in Scotland, nurturing some of the greatest stars of the 20th century for over 60 years
#6 - 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.
#7 - Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley
Season 2018 - Episode 118 - Aired 6/4/2018
2018 marks 100 years since the first women over the age of 30, who owned property, were allowed to vote in the UK. The fight for the vote was about much more than just the Pankhurst family or Emily Davidson's fateful collision with the king's horse. In this film, Lucy is at the heart of the drama, alongside a group of less well known, but equally astonishing, young working-class suffragettes who decided to go against every rule and expectation that Edwardian society had about them. Lucy explores the actions of these women as their campaign becomes more and more dangerous, while their own words are delivered in simple but strikingly emotive pieces of dramatised testimony. Lucy also tells this story from a range of iconic original locations, from the Houses of Parliament and 10 Downing Street to the Savoy Hotel, and has access to an amazing range of artefacts, from hunger-striking medals to defused bombs and private letters between the government and the press. In this Edwardian history drama, Lucy and her group of suffragettes from the Women's Social Political Union reveal what life was like for these young women, as she follows the trail of increasingly illegal and dangerous acts they would end up committing. For while they would start with peaceful protests, but they would go from to obstruction to vandalism and finally to arson and bomb making. Lucy investigates what drove them to break the law, to the prison conditions they experienced, including violent force feedings and the subsequent radicalisation of these women that occurred, driving them to more and more extreme actions. Lucy looks at the ways in which the press responded to the suffragettes and their own use of PR and branding to counteract the negative portrayals - from WSPU postcards to pennants and exhibitions. The decisive and largely negative role that members of Parliament played is unpacked, as they would throw out numerous attempts to give women the vote. The role of the police is explored, bo
#8 - The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal
Season 2018 - Episode 117 - Aired 6/3/2018
In 1979, Panorama reporter Tom Mangold led an investigation into the trial of Jeremy Thorpe and others for the alleged conspiracy to kill Thorpe's former lover, Norman Scott. Convinced that the former Liberal Party leader would be found guilty, a special post-trial programme was prepared. This was scrapped, however, when the jury returned its verdicts of not guilty for all defendants, and the programme has remained unseen for almost 40 years. Edited and updated with new information about a fresh 2017 police inquiry into the case, Tom Mangold finally presents his story about how powerful political forces tried to protect Thorpe. The programme features revealing interviews from 1979 with Norman Scott, chief prosecution witness Peter Bessell and the alleged hitman Andrew 'Gino' Newton.
#9 - 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
#10 - Giant in the Sky: The Jumbo Jet at 50
Season 2018 - Episode 115 - Aired 5/26/2018
Unveiled in 1968, this is the story of the iconic 747 jumbo jet - from its nail-biting launch to a teary eyed crew on a final flight to the Arizona desert scrap yard.
#11 - Killed By My Debt
Season 2018 - Episode 114 - Aired 5/29/2018
In January 2015, Jerome Rogers, a popular nineteen year old from a council estate, finally got what he’d been working for – a new motorbike and his first real job, as a courier. But in the hands of bailiffs, two £65 traffic fines rose to over a thousand pounds. Some weeks, take-home pay in his zero hours job was as low as £12. Under the pressure of his debt, Jerome went to the woods where he’d played as a kid, and took his own life. This is his story…
#12 - 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.
#13 - D-Day 6.6.1944
Season 2004 - Episode 45 - Aired 6/5/2004
Dramatised documentary, based on the experiences of the soldiers who invaded France in the D-Day Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944 which were instrumental in ending World War II.
#14 - 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.
#15 - Jonathan Meades on Jargon
Season 2018 - Episode 111 - Aired 5/27/2018
In this provocative television essay, writer and broadcaster Jonathan Meades turns his forensic gaze on that modern phenomenon that drives us all up the wall - jargon. In a wide-ranging programme he dissects politics, the law, football commentary, business, the arts, tabloid-speak and management consultancy to show how jargon is used to cover up, confuse and generally keep us in the dark. He contrasts this with the world of slang, which unlike jargon actually gets to the heart of whatever it's talking about even if it does offend along the way. With plenty of what is called 'strong language', Meades pulls no punches in slaying the dragon of jargon.
#16 - Wild Escapes
Season 2018 - Episode 110 - Aired 5/25/2018
Anita Rani and JJ Chalmers journey to Italy's stunning Dolomite Mountains for a raucous three-day mini adventure. Incredible food, stunning hiking, a bit of bottom slapping and a rather itchy alpine spa experience await. Stepping off the tourist trail completely, Anita and JJ want to uncover the true Dolomites experience, ditching the tourist guides and uncovering the hidden gems the locals know about. While former Royal Marine JJ is keen to get stuck into the 'Via Ferrata' high mountain walkways built during WW1, Anita delves into the rich food culture of the region - which borrows from both Italian and German influences - as well as discovering some rather peculiar traditions - notably a very itchy alpine spa experience and the schuhplattler, a violent dance that mimics the courting ritual of the wild grouse. With a guide itinerary that packs in a week's worth of activities into just one long weekend, the travel-mad duo want to show us that you don't have to go to the ends of the Earth and spend a fortune to have the holiday adventure of a lifetime. Follow their lead and you can find everything you could ever want at the end of a short hop flight.
#17 - The Toddlers Who Took on Dementia
Season 2018 - Episode 109 - Aired 5/23/2018
Could a lively bunch of three- and four-year-olds be the surprising key to tackling dementia? In a bold new experiment, the first of its kind in the UK, a group of toddlers head to a dementia day-care centre to share three days of time and activities with adults in their 70s and 80s. Overseen by expert psychologists from Bangor University, north Wales, this ambitious project tests if children might be the secret weapon in helping fight the sometimes crippling effects of dementia. Despite an age gap of eight decades, the two groups have one thing in common, they both ordinarily receive day-care support. But for the adults there is one significant difference - each person has a formal diagnosis of dementia or significant memory loss. The latest research reveals that one in every three children born this year in the UK will later develop a form of dementia, for which there is currently no cure. Can these little kids crack the way we all deal with dementia? Can they find the person behind the diagnosis? The psychologists set a series of specially designed activities to see if the young children can bring the adults back from their memory loss. Using rigged cameras at the centre in Colwyn Bay, they observe every moment of this unique social experiment unfold. They tap into the passions of the adults' younger years: a vintage-car ride for chauffer David alongside four-year-old Leo, song for musicals star Iris and talk of the beautiful game for a former footballer. The aim is to trigger memories and good moments but not all older participants are immediately convinced.
#18 - The Village
Season 2018 - Episode 108 - Aired 2/25/2018
A view of rural life set in the village of Ballycarry. Hidden away on the north Antrim coast is a village with a 400-year history. It's a place with strong Ulster-Scots traditions and close family ties but, with housing developments on the rise and services declining, they must work hard to keep their village community alive.
#19 - Manchester: The Night of the Bomb
Season 2018 - Episode 107 - Aired 5/22/2018
A powerful retelling of the 2017 terrorist attack for BBC2. On 22 May 2017, a Manchester-born man detonated a homemade bomb at an Ariana Grande pop concert, killing 22 people and himself. It was Britain's deadliest terrorist attack since 7/7. The documentary tells the story of that night in forensic detail, through the eyes of teenage girls who survived the attack and key members of the emergency services. It features unseen mobile phone video and unheard audio recordings. The film also explores the identity and motives of the suicide bomber. Featuring interviews with counter-terrorism police and Manchester residents, the film sheds light on what may have led Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Manchester boy of Libyan parentage, to target a group of children attending a concert celebrating the independence and empowerment of young women.
#20 - Robbie's War: The Rise and Fall of a Playboy Billionaire
Season 2018 - Episode 106 - Aired 5/21/2018
Property tycoon Robbie Tchenguiz was once among Britain's super-rich. As one of the 'one per cent', this flamboyant tycoon amassed a fortune worth billions in the days when it was possible to have £16bn of assets - and yet £13bn of debt. But over the last ten years, Iranian-born Robbie's once gilded life - complete with superyacht, private jets and fast cars - has been in meltdown. He lost billions in the financial crash and then faced professional humiliation when arrested on suspicion of fraud. Though he was exonerated of any wrongdoing, today his empire is in tatters, and he is now fighting to save his home - a mansion next to London's Royal Albert Hall, worth an estimated £20million. Ten years ago, Robbie's success in the City meant he was viewed as something of a god - a dealer with the Midas touch. Robbie and his brother Vincent were notorious for their extraordinary deals, each worth hundreds of millions. But it was an empire based on debt, and these were the boom years. What goes up, often comes down. Robbie lost around 80 per cent of his net worth in the 2008 financial crash - though his real problem was to be a £1.4bn loan from an Icelandic bank that collapsed. It was this that led to his arrest in 2011. Since then, Robbie has been at war, fighting everyone from the Icelandic bank Kaupthing to the bank's receivers, Grant Thornton, who swooped across his empire, trying to recoup money for the creditors of the bank. And then there are his former trustees, Investec Trust Guernsey, who ran his offshore empire - and last but not least, the Serious Fraud Office, who arrested him. It took three years for the brothers to clear their names. They successfully sued for wrongful arrest, receiving a public apology and millions in compensation. But it is far from over. Robbie claims he is the victim of injustice, and he has been fighting the consequences for his business and family over the years. Robbie's war is run from his Mayfair office. It used to be f
#21 - The Town That Floored The World
Season 2018 - Episode 105 - Aired 5/21/2018
How did the Scottish east coast port town of Kirkcaldy become the world centre for linoleum? The Town That Floored the World traces the history of that 'magic material' to its origins in the mid 19th century, and tells how one town built its fortunes on its manufacture. Current and former linoleum workers, and Kirkcaldy bairns including crime writer Val McDermid, share their stories of a life in flooring. Lino's role in high art and design is also traced.
#22 - Balls of Steel
Season 2018 - Episode 104 - Aired 5/21/2018
In the shadow of the steelworks lies Taibach Rugby Club. For more than 100 years it has been the foundation stone of the community. The club is a cross-section of the town. All Port Talbot life is here. It's a place where people come together for the important things in life - rugby, weddings, birthdays and funerals. The club hosts them all. But there is one event that is the highlight of the year - the annual Christmas pantomime, written and performed by the men of the club.
#23 - The Voices In My Head
Season 2018 - Episode 133 - Aired 5/22/2018
A hybrid of observational documentary and audio reconstruction takes viewers in to the world of three people who hear voices as a result of mental illness.
#24 - Scotland 78: A Love Story
Season 2018 - Episode 145 - Aired 6/6/2018
Documentary chronicling Scotland's performance in the 1978 World Cup, when the team was under the aegis of manager Ally MacLeod. In 1978, Scotland had a team of brilliant footballers and mercurial manager in Ally MacLeod. Featuring rare archive footage, this is the story of when a nation dared to dream
#25 - The People VS The NHS: Who Gets The Drugs?
Season 2018 - Episode 144 - Aired 6/27/2018
PrEP is a drug that experts believe could end the HIV and AIDS epidemic. But in 2016, after 18 months of consultation, the NHS made the controversial decision that they could not fund it. Thirty five million people have died from HIV and AIDS, but today advancements in medical science mean that HIV no longer has to be a death sentence, as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) prevents the virus developing in the body. This is the incredible story of the battle for PrEP on the NHS: a legal fight which saw doctors, activists and AIDS charities come together to overturn the NHS decision. It was the start of an emotive battle which would see the cost of the treatment publicly pitted against the cost of prosthetic limbs, blood cancer drugs and drugs for children with cystic fibrosis. At the heart of the story is one man, Greg Owen, pictured, who helped stop thousands becoming HIV positive by setting up a website which allowed people to buy generic PrEP from drug manufacturers in India. Despite being homeless and without a wage, Greg found himself running Britain’s main gateway to PrEP from his mother’s kitchen in Belfast.