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 - Usain Bolt: Born to Run
Season 2016 - Episode 363 - Aired 12/3/2016
He's been called the 'greatest of all time' and the most compelling athlete in modern sport. Katie Gornall travels to Jamaica to meet the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, fresh from his Rio 2016 Olympics success. On her journey across the island, she speaks to some of the people who have helped shape his life along the way, from his devoted family and his best friend-turned-manager, to his first school teacher. She discovers what life is like off the track for the man who has become Jamaica's national treasure, how he hopes to influence the next generation of sprinters and what the future holds for him post-retirement.
#2 - Am I Included?
Season 2016 - Episode 380 - Aired 12/21/2016
We have now had 16 years of mainstream education for children with disabilities in Scotland. After decades of struggle for a more equal society, it is now presumed that every child will go to a mainstream school where at all possible. But does this mean real inclusion, or are we letting disabled children drift to the back of the class?
#3 - Darcey Bussell: Looking for Margot
Season 2016 - Episode 378 - Aired 12/20/2016
Margot Fonteyn has inspired generations of ballerinas. She was beautiful, brilliant, talented and never put a foot wrong on stage. Her late flowering partnering with a much younger man, Rudolf Nureyev, created the most dazzling ballet partnership in history. And yet behind the scenes, as Darcey Bussell discovers, Margot's life was marked by tragedy and disappointment. She barely knew her father and was dominated by her well-meaning, yet fiercely ambitious, mother. She couldn't find love and never had children. And when she finally did marry, to a man she loved from afar for many years, he turned out to be very different from what she expected: a hero to his people, but not always to his wife. Darcey Bussell goes behind the scenes at the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet and travels from London to New York and Panama looking for Margot. She finds how Margot lost out in love, got drawn into a failed foreign revolution, danced on for far too long and died alone and in poverty, miles from home. Along the way, Darcey speaks to many people who have not spoken out before about Margot. In the end, Darcey learns that by following her heart, Margot did find a kind of happiness, even though it came at a very high price.
#4 - Aly Bain's America
Season 2016 - Episode 377 - Aired 12/20/2016
Alex Norton talks to Shetland fiddler Aly Bain, now in his 70th year, about his love for American folk and roots music.
#5 - The Cost of Cute: The Dark Side of the Puppy Trade
Season 2016 - Episode 376 - Aired 12/19/2016
Celebrity dogs are taking Instagram and YouTube by storm, fuelling a massive rise in demand for ‘must have’ breeds like the Pug, the French Bulldog and the Dachshund. Grace Victory investigates the dark side of the designer dog industry – from the smuggling of sick and underage puppies from puppy farms in Europe, to the crippling health problems endured by some of the internet’s most loved breeds. She explores the myths and the misconceptions, and finds out how much we really know about where our dogs come from.
#6 - A Very British Crisis
Season 2016 - Episode 371 - Aired 12/11/2016
Politics, press silence and a playboy king: Carolyn Quinn tells the story of the Abdication crisis of 1936, when Edward VIII quit his throne to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.
#7 - No Fixed Abode with Charlotte Church
Season 2016 - Episode 370 - Aired 12/8/2016
Christmas is supposed to be a time for family, friends and festivities. But for thousands of people, Christmas is spent living rough – either in a hostel or on the streets. Singer and broadcaster Charlotte Church explores homelessness this Christmas in her native Cardiff. She meets the people who donate their time and energies to feeding and helping the most vulnerable in society, as well as hearing stories from some of the thousands of people who find themselves without shelter this winter. Charlotte sees the difficult reality of life on the streets, but also witnesses the power of music to give voice to those with no place to call home.
#8 - Danielle de Niese: The Birth of an Opera
Season 2016 - Episode 375 - Aired 12/18/2016
2016 sees the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Rossini's masterpiece The Barber of Seville, one of the greatest comic operas ever written. In this documentary, internationally acclaimed soprano Danielle de Niese provides a unique backstage pass to her preparations for the role of Rosina in Glyndebourne's 2016 production. With extraordinary access, this documentary gives an unparalleled insight into how a top opera professional shapes a performance, both musically and dramatically. As well as actuality filming of all stages - from singing to warm-ups to costume fittings, lighting and set-building on stage, through to hair and make-up - there are masterclass sessions with director Annabel Arden, conductor Enrique Mazzola and other key cast members to explore key scenes in depth. Danni also visits the Rome theatre where the disastrous premiere took place in 1816. The film also features interviews with Arden, Mazzola, designer Joanna Parker and other key figures in the production, and footage from the staged version of the opera throughout.
#9 - Classic Cellists at the BBC with Julian Lloyd Webber
Season 2016 - Episode 369 - Aired 12/9/2016
Julian Lloyd Webber takes an extraordinary musical journey through the BBC archives from the 1950s to the present to celebrate the world of the cello through some of its greatest interpreters. From dazzling performances by legendary masters such as Paul Tortelier, Jacqueline du Pre and Mstislav Rostropovich to some of today's leading interpreters including Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis and Mischa Maisky, Julian gives us a cellist's perspective on an extraordinary virtuoso tradition.
#10 - How To Be Sci-Fi
Season 2006 - Episode 60 - Aired 8/1/2006
Examining the lighter side of being in a British science fiction television series, Nigel Planer plays classically-trained "actawr" Nicholas Craig in a one-hour special, How To Be Sci-Fi, which looks at the perils and pitfalls that lie ahead for anyone brave enough to grapple with that most demanding of mistresses – "outer-space acting".
#11 - The Cook Who Changed Our Lives
Season 2016 - Episode 382 - Aired 12/22/2016
Nigella Lawson leads a tribute to food writer Anna Del Conte, who helped transform Britain's understanding and appreciation of Italian cooking. Born in Milan in 1925, Del Conte moved to England in 1949, an era when foreign cuisine was a something of a mystery to many British people. Through her books, she raised awareness of Italian cooking's subtlety and sophistication, paving the way to the foodie culture of today. With contributions from Giorgio Locatelli, Antonio Carluccio, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Prue Leith and Tom Parker Bowles.
#12 - Promises and Lies: The Story of UB40
Season 2016 - Episode 362 - Aired 12/2/2016
One of the most commercially successful acts of all time, UB40 enjoyed decades of huge success, selling over 70 million records with global hits including Red Red Wine, Can't Help Falling in Love and I Got You Babe. But stardom and fame came at a price and the band found themselves victims of their own success; bankrupt and penniless. Featuring newly filmed interviews with Ali Campbell, Robin Campbell, Astro, Brian Travers, Mickey Virtue and Jimmy Brown, the band recount their phenomenal rise to fame and speak with candour on their ongoing dispute that has split a family and a band, as they continue to tour as two separate groups - both using the name UB40.
#13 - 50 Places To See Before You Die
Season 2002 - Episode 22 - Aired 11/10/2002
Earlier this year 20,000 members of the public cast their vote on what they saw as the locations everyone should visit at least once. The result is a definitive wishlist of global hotspots. In addition to the top 50, four viewers file a report from their favourite place.
#14 - After the Deluge: A Year on from the Floods
Season 2016 - Episode 361 - Aired 11/28/2016
A year on from last winter's devastating floods - how is the recovery operation going? We follow families and businesses in Cumbria and Lancashire through a tough year.
#15 - Dan Snow on Lloyd George: My Great-Great-Grandfather
Season 2016 - Episode 368 - Aired 12/7/2016
At the end of the First World War, Britain's prime minister David Lloyd George was a national hero, hailed as 'the man who won the war'. A hundred years after he became PM, Lloyd George's great-great-grandson Dan Snow explores his famous forebear's life and asks why he's not better remembered, why he's not as famous a wartime leader as his friend and protege Winston Churchill. It's a tale of sex and scandal, success and failure, with Dan discovering some home truths from his family's history. Dan's journey starts in north Wales in the village of Llanystumdwy, where Lloyd George was raised by his uncle after his father's death. It's an area Dan knows well from childhood holidays visiting his grandmother. He climbs Moel y Gest, a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea, a view virtually unchanged since Lloyd George's day. Taking the Ffestiniog railway up into the mountains Dan travels in Lloyd George's own railway carriage, reputedly a place when he would enjoy some private time with his secretary. Like Lloyd George, Dan journeys from Wales to Parliament, filming in the House of Commons where his ancestor made such an impact. Initially Lloyd George was a radical Liberal, causing outrage by opposing the Boer War in 1899, but ten years later he was chancellor of the exchequer, introducing some of the most important legislation of the early 20th century. His budget of 1909 brought in national insurance and old age pensions and, as his biographer Roy Hattersley tells Dan, laid the foundations of the welfare state. When Britain went to war in August 1914, Lloyd George was a pivotal member of the cabinet. Historian Margaret Macmillan, an expert on the First World War and another descendant of Lloyd George, points out that if he'd come out against the war the Liberal government would have fallen. Once war was declared Lloyd George was important in recruiting the new citizen's army, making speeches across the country. But in private he was making sure his sons didn't volun
#16 - The Sikhs of Smethwick
Season 2016 - Episode 360 - Aired 12/1/2016
Midlands filmmaker Billy Dosanjh celebrates 50 years of the Sikhs in his hometown of Smethwick, from their arrival in the late 1950s and early 60s to the present day. Using rare archive and the frank personal testimony of different generations of Smethwick's Sikhs, he explores the experiences of the changing traditions and the challenges to centuries old traditions - especially in love and marriage - that life in modern Britain brings. Using rare and unseen archive Billy goes on a moving journey through space and time - from farm life in northern India to the searing heat of work in the steel factories of Britain's Black Country; from extreme rural poverty to the have-it-all consumer culture of today; from strict traditions to a world of tolerance and the modern permissive society. Billy tells of the hostility and tough working conditions the first Sikhs experienced when they arrived in Smethwick. He shows the old customs that they tried to keep from their impoverished villages in the Punjab. Examining the challenges of the modern world and how their traditions have evolved, especially when it comes to love and marriage, Billy gives a personal insight to the world of his community, and the way its culture has adapted across the generations to the challenges of life in modern Britain.
#17 - How Quizzing Got Cool: TV's Brains of Britain
Season 2016 - Episode 358 - Aired 11/30/2016
We all love a good quiz. So here's a question - when did ordinary contestants turn into the pro-quizzers of today? Giving the answers are Victoria Coren Mitchell, Judith Keppel, Chris Tarrant, Mark Labbett, Nicholas Parsons and many more. Narrated by Ben Miller.
#18 - Whites vs Blacks: How Football Changed a Nation
Season 2016 - Episode 356 - Aired 11/27/2016
On the 16 May 1979, an extraordinary game of professional football took place that if played today, would very possibly cause an uproar, mass protest and a media frenzy. As part of Len Cantello's testimonial at West Bromwich Albion, an all-white team took on a side comprised solely of black players - 'whites against blacks'. For the white team, it was nothing more than a lighthearted gimmick, but for the black players, it represented so much more. It was a game they had to win. Racism was rife and black people were far from welcome on the pitch, in the stands or in the boardroom. In this film, presenter Adrian Chiles journeys across England to discover the truths, taboos and the real meaning behind this remarkable game. He uncovers rarely seen footage and reunites players from both teams, including Ally Robertson, Tony 'Bomber' Brown, Cyrille Regis and Brendan Batson. Today, around 30 per cent of English professionals are black. They are role models and superstars, some earning in excess of £100,000 a week. On the surface, everything seems rosy, but how far have we really come? Through encounters with stars like Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand and Dion Dublin, Adrian contrasts the attitudes and conflicts that swirled around that infamous game with the reality of being a black player in the modern era.
#19 - FKA twigs: Soundtrack 7
Season 2016 - Episode 355 - Aired 11/27/2016
Shot on location for the Manchester International Festival, this film shows the work twigs created and filmed one per day during her week-long residency. Conceptualized as an abstract autobiographical piece, Soundtrack 7 includes performances set to How's That, Ultraviolet, and Good to Love among others, and is bound together by a striking, repeated recitation of Thomas Wyatt's poem I Find No Peace (an excerpt from which opened twigs's critically acclaimed LP1).
#20 - In My Life: George Martin
Season 1998 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/12/1998
Documentary about the making of former Beatles' producer George Martin 's final album In My Life, featuring Beatles' songs performed by a host of actors, comics and musicians. Tracks include: Come Together - Robin Williams & Bobby McFerrin, A Hard Day's Night - Goldie Hawn, A Day In The Life - Jeff Beck, Here There & Everywhere - Celine Dion, Because - Vanessa Mae, I Am The Walrus - Jim Carrey, Here Comes The Sun - John Williams, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite - Billy Connolly, The Pepperland Suite - George Martin, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, the End - Phil Collins, Friends And Lovers - George Martin, In My Life - Sean Connery
#21 - Tell Me the Truth about Love
Season 2009 - Episode 167 - Aired 5/17/2009
Documentary film looking at the poetry of W H Auden, revealing how it came not just from inspiration but from a rigorous scientific analysis of love itself. When he died in 1973, he left behind some of the greatest love poems of the 20th century. Most of his unpublished material was destroyed, apart from two short journals and a series of jottings, containing diagrams and notes about the nature of love.
#22 - The Addictions of Sin: WH Auden in His Own Words
Season 2009 - Episode 166 - Aired 5/17/2009
To commemorate the centenary of the birth of one of Britain's most influential and best-loved poets, this film combines dramatisations of telling events in the life of WH Auden with interviews from the TV and radio archives and extracts from Auden's poetry, notebooks, letters and journals.
#23 - Queens of Disco
Season 2007 - Episode 136 - Aired 3/6/2007
Graham Norton profiles the leading ladies of the disco era, including Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Madonna and 'honorary disco queen' Sylvester. Includes contributions from the queens themselves, plus Antonio 'Huggy Bear' Fargas, choreographer Arlene Phillips, songwriters Ashford and Simpson, disco artists Verdine White from Earth, Wind and Fire, Bonnie Pointer of The Pointer Sisters and Nile Rodgers of Chic.
#24 - Stacey on the Frontline: Girls, Guns and ISIS
Season 2016 - Episode 399 - Aired 11/15/2016
Stacey Dooley embeds herself on the frontline with the extraordinary all–female Yazidi battalion, who are fuelled to take revenge against the so-called Islamic State for what the UN has condemned as the ‘largest mass kidnapping this century’. As the battle to take nearby Mosul out of ISIS hands moves into its final phase in Northern Iraq, in this extraordinary film for BBC Three Stacey finds these young women’s lives have been transformed by a desire to avenge ISIS and shows what daily life is like in these war zones. In 2014 50,000 Yazidi people fled their ancestral lands in Kurdish Northern Iraq to Mount Sinjar away from the advance of ISIS. Without food and water thousands died on the mountain and the ones left behind were massacred or captured. More than 5,000 women were taken to be used as sex slaves, with an estimated 2,000 women remain in captivity. Two years after the genocide, Stacey spends a tough and moving two weeks with this battalion of brave young women. Formed by the renowned Yazidi singer Xate Shingali they have transformed into brave fighters. Many of them have escaped the incomprehensible horrors of ISIS and are determined to rescue Yazidi women still under ISIS control. These female fighters strike fear into the heart of the Jihadists as they believe if they are killed by a woman they will not make it the heavenly afterlife. Stacey meets cadets at their training camp, a former secondary school, as they prepare to join the ranks of this powerful military force. She then journeys with them in their military get up to the frontline as they prepare to fight. Along the way these women share with Stacey happy memories of their previous lives then the unimaginable trauma they have endured at the hands of ISIS. With extraordinary access, Stacey Dooley for BBC Three finds young lives transformed by a desire to avenge ISIS and shows what daily life has really become in these war zones threatened by ISIS control.
#25 - Life in the Snow
Season 2016 - Episode 393 - Aired 12/29/2016
Wildlife cameraman and television presenter Gordon Buchanan travels to northern Norway and the Austrian Alps to search for animals that have adapted to the snowy conditions and cold weather. The programme features polar bears raising their cubs, owls keeping their food supplies hidden under a layer of snow, penguins that huddle together for warmth, black bears battling against a storm and wolverines and ravens working together to find food. Gordon also takes a look at the lives of animals which are associated with Christmas, including robins trying to find food when the ground is frozen and reindeer, revealing the truth behind the story of Rudolph's red nose.