The BEST episodes of Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries season 2014
Every episode of Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries season 2014, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries season 2014!
Channel 4, in common with the other main British stations, airs a highly comprehensive range of programming. It was established in 1982 with a specific intention of providing programming to groups of minority interests, not catered for by its competitors, which at the time amounted to only the BBC and ITV.
#1 - Meet the Mormons
Season 2014 - Episode 33 - Aired 6/26/2014
This documentary gains fascinating and extremely rare insight into a controlled world through the eyes of a young British Mormon dedicated to serving his church.
#2 - Woolly Mammoth: The Autopsy
Season 2014 - Episode 52 - Aired 11/23/2014
Can cloning bring mammoths back from extinction? This documentary follows a team of mammoth specialists and cloning scientists as they dissect the best-preserved mammoth ever found.
#3 - Dont Look Down
Season 2014 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/19/2014
Urban free climbers are a new breed of daredevils, young men and women who illegally climb cranes and buildings without any safety equipment, then hang from them, hundreds of metres above the ground, one slip from certain death... Free climbing originated in Eastern Europe, but has recently spread to Britain. James Kingston is a 23-year-old who lives with his mother near Southampton. In his spare time James scales the local 100m cranes and 200m radio towers. Now James embarks on a journey to the spiritual home of urban free climbing, Ukraine, where he teams up with the infamous Mustang Wanted, the craziest climber of them all. As Mustang and James explore Kiev, the pair push themselves to new extremes, climbing derelict buildings and tightrope-walking hundreds of metres above the city, before finally heading to the iconic Moscow bridge to attempt Mustang's latest death defying stunt. Don't Look Down is fascinating, revealing and nerve-wracking.
#4 - Kids and Guns
Season 2014 - Episode 34 - Aired 7/31/2014
The controversial right to bear arms is at the heart of American culture. In the USA there is a huge divide among parents. Some are against the sale of toy guns while others are buying the children the real thing. This documentary sheds light on the world of child shooters, illuminating the fascinating beliefs, ambitions and paranoia that underpin it. Teaching kids to shoot is seen as a fun family experience and yet over 3000 children are injured or killed every year in accidental shootings. This unique and moving film follows the stories of three American families tackling the difficult issues behind the American relationship with firearms and the compelling stories behind the horrifying statistics.
#5 - My Online Bride
Season 2014 - Episode 57 - Aired 8/18/2014
A view of British men looking for a wife overseas, from 'romance tours' in Bangkok to speed-dating in the Ukraine, while a Wakefield man prepares to welcome his new Thai bride to the UK.
#6 - Britain's Benefit Tenants
Season 2014 - Episode 40 - Aired 6/12/2014
Competition for social housing is soaring and many people are being forced to turn to the private market, where increasing numbers are falling behind on payments or finding rent a constant struggle. In some areas, specialist letting agencies have sprung up as the middle man between tenants and landlords. This programme follows the work of two firms - one that deals with the housing-benefit end of the market, and the other helping landlords with difficult customers
#7 - A&E in the War Zone
Season 2014 - Episode 56 - Aired 12/10/2014
This documentary follows the medical teams risking their lives to save others in Syria, where most doctors have fled, many hospitals have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people are injured.
#8 - America's Fugitive Family
Season 2014 - Episode 55 - Aired 12/11/2014
This observational documentary tells the incredible story of the Gray family, who live in a remote Texan compound, heavily armed and at odds with the police
#9 - The Billion Pound Base Dismantling Camp Bastion
Season 2014 - Episode 54 - Aired 12/7/2014
For eight years, Britain's biggest overseas base since the Second World War has been the powerhouse of UK and US military operations in Afghanistan, and now Camp Bastion has closed down for good. A town the size of Reading with a massive infrastructure, including an airport, hospital and fast-food restaurants, has been dismantled bolt by bolt - a huge project that faced a constant threat from the Taliban as defences and manpower depleted daily. This documentary follows the men and women assigned to the task
#10 - The Paedophile Next Door
Season 2014 - Episode 53 - Aired 11/26/2014
This brave and thought-provoking documentary sets out to discover why legislation to protect children from sexual abuse has failed, and explores radical and controversial alternatives
#11 - Asics Outrun the Sun
Season 2014 - Episode 51 - Aired 11/8/2014
Outrun the Sun is the extraordinary story of arguably the ultimate trail challenge. On Saturday June 21st 2014 - the longest day of the year - two teams of trail runners attempted to circumnavigate Mont Blanc between sunrise and sunset. This film documents this amazing relay event, as the runners faced the prospect of covering 152 kilometres of mountainous terrain in a little over 15 hours. During the course of the event they'd climb 8500 metres through France, Italy and Switzerland, in temperatures ranging from 27 degrees centigrade, down to the chill you'd expect with snow at high altitude.
#12 - The Great British Train Robbery - A Tale of Two Thieves
Season 2014 - Episode 50 - Aired 11/16/2014
Documentary about the infamous Great Train Robbery. Over 50 years ago a group of men pulled off one of the most famous heists in history. This film features interviews with Gordon Goody, one of the original robbers, who goes on record for the very first time. Goody reveals many unknown facts about the robbery as well as the identity of one of the masterminds behind the daring crime. Strong language.
#13 - How Rich Are You?
Season 2014 - Episode 49 - Aired 11/10/2014
In an age polarised between the rich and poor, this one-off special hosted by Richard Bacon illustrates where each of us stands on the great money map of Britain.
#14 - Extreme Brat Camp
Season 2014 - Episode 48 - Aired 10/8/2014
Brat Camps are an extreme youth disciplinary concept that's firmly embedded in American culture. Every year thousands of American children are transported to one of over 1000 private facilities dotted across the United States. In the USA today it's estimated the child intervention industry is worth over $2 billion, as parents send their kids away to residential programmes - often against their will - in an attempt to change their behaviour. This True Stories documentary aims to shed light on the world of behavioural modification camps and other child intervention programmes, illuminating the beliefs and ambitions that underpin this controversial industry, many of which contrast starkly with British norms. While these programmes appear well-run and organised with some form of regulation, there are concerns about the standards of other camps and the possibility of abuse, particularly when there is no federal body to regulate and monitor the quality of care in the child intervention industry.
#15 - Guy Martin's Spitfire
Season 2014 - Episode 47 - Aired 10/12/2014
In May 1940, while covering the retreat from Dunkirk, a Mark 1 Spitfire flown by RAF ace Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson was shot down and crash-landed on a beach in northern France, where it slowly sank into the sand. The wreckage was finally recovered in the 1980s and stored anonymously in France for more than 20 years. Guy Martin - speed junkie, motorcycle racer, lorry mechanic and Spitfire fanatic - joins a restoration team as it embarks on a two-year rebuild of this Spitfire. This extraordinary project provides a look at the amazing engineering and skills involved in building the aircraft, and is also a fitting homage to the bravery of everyone involved in its service: the male and female factory workers, the ground crews and the pilots. The story of Squadron Leader Stephenson, who would become the Queen's pilot, is like something from a Boy's Own paper, and his private diaries - which he wrote while he was imprisoned in Colditz - have been uncovered for the first time for the programme. Guy invites the pilot's two daughters for an emotional day at Duxford to witness their father's plane flying again.
#16 - The Paedophile Hunter
Season 2014 - Episode 46 - Aired 10/1/2014
This documentary follows online vigilante Stinson Hunter and his associates, who pose as children on social networking sites to draw out men who they assert have paedophilic predilections.
#17 - OJ Simpson: Caught on Camera
Season 2014 - Episode 45 - Aired 7/2/2014
A gripping examination of how the brutal murder of two human beings became the first nationally televised real-life drama; a flashpoint for debate, disagreement and disillusionment; and an allegory for tensions that continue in American society today. The People vs OJ Simpson was about wealth, power, sex and race. It was the first of its kind: trial as entertainment for the masses. But it was also a watershed in Americans' perception of their legal system, and a transformative event in the racial and social history of the country. When it was over no one was punished, and deep fault lines of bigotry and bias had been exposed in white and black America. For some it was a judicial catastrophe. For others it was merely confirmation that you get the kind of justice you can afford. Using only contemporaneous archive, much of it unseen before, and no interviews or narration, the story unfolds as a tight, compelling, true life drama. Without hindsight or analysis, OJ Simpson: Caught on Camera introduces a new generation of viewers to the stranger-than-fiction story that captivated the collective national conscience.
#18 - The Men with Many Wives
Season 2014 - Episode 44 - Aired 9/24/2014
This revealing documentary explores the world of polygamous marriages among British Muslims. While polygamy is illegal under British law, it is permitted under Sharia law, and while it's unusual, some estimate that there are as many as 20,000 polygamous marriages among Muslims in the UK today. The programme examines the daily challenges of polygamous life and the motivation of those who are looking for another wife. It considers whether they are compelled by desire or tradition and meets those who are trying to make polygamy acceptable to mainstream UK society. The film poses difficult questions, not only around reconciling Muslim values with modern British society but also on questions of duty, love and betrayal.
#19 - Peter Kay: Live and Back on Nights 2
Season 2014 - Episode 43 - Aired 9/13/2014
Peter Kay gives viewers a unique look behind the scenes of his mammoth 18 months on the road. Playing 140 shows to 1.2 million people, Peter Kay: Live and Back On Nights! also includes brand new material from what is the biggest and most successful stand-up comedy tour of all time.
#20 - Peter Kay: Live and Back on Nights 1
Season 2014 - Episode 42 - Aired 9/6/2014
Peter Kay gives viewers a unique look behind the scenes of his mammoth 18 months on the road. Playing 140 shows to 1.2 million people, Peter Kay: Live and Back On Nights! also includes brand new material from what is the biggest and most successful stand-up comedy tour of all time.
#21 - Europe's Immigration Disaster
Season 2014 - Episode 41 - Aired 6/24/2014
On 3 October 2013 a boat carrying more than 500 migrants from North Africa capsized off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. Three hundred and sixty people perished, many of them women and children. It was one of Europe's worst maritime disasters since the Second World War. Award-winning photographer Zed Nelson tells the inside story of the tragedy, through the testimony of survivors, and locals who were the first on the scene. Nelson follows the clandestine onward journey of the survivors as they navigate the illegal immigration route out of Italy into Northern Europe. At the centre of the programme is the story of one remarkable young woman: one of only five women who survived. Fanus, a teenager from Eritrea, tells of the desire to escape a life of military servitude that motivated her flight from the country. She recounts the extraordinary hardship she suffered crossing Africa and how, although she couldn't swim, she somehow survived for hours in the water after the boat went down. Fanus is caught up as a witness in an extraordinary court case involving a man accused of her kidnap. She then escapes and goes to incredible lengths to circumvent the European asylum system in order to reach the country she dreams of living in. A remarkable portrait of human determination, the programme raises questions about the strength of Europe's immigration barriers and the lengths desperate refugees will go to in order to breach them.
#22 - The Brighton Bomb
Season 2014 - Episode 74 - Aired 10/11/2014
The Brighton Bombing goes back to 1984, when the IRA detonated a massive bomb at Brighton's Grand Hotel in an attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and her government. With the devastated hotel near collapse, fire-fighters ignored the danger to help limit the death total to a mere five fatalities. Lord Tebbit, whose wife Margaret was seriously injured in the blast recounts his traumatic experience.
#23 - The Armstrong Lie
Season 2014 - Episode 66 - Aired 3/13/2014
Beginning in 2009, Alex Gibney followed Armstrong for four years chronicling his return to cycling after retirement, as he tried to win his eighth title. Unexpectedly, Gibney was also there in 2012 when Armstrong admitted to doping, following a federal criminal investigation, public accusations of doping by his ex-teammates, and an investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency, that led USADA's CEO, Travis Tygart, to conclude that Armstrong's team had run 'the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.’
#24 - Finding Mum And Dad
Season 2014 - Episode 73 - Aired 1/14/2014
A look behind the scenes of a bold new scheme designed to help children find adoptive parents. Connor and Daniel are brothers. For over 12 months, they've been in care, waiting to be adopted. But, as sibling boys, aged six and four, they are 'hard to place'.
#25 - Finding Mum And Dad
Season 2014 - Episode 72 - Aired 1/14/2014
A look behind the scenes of a bold new scheme designed to help children find adoptive parents. Connor and Daniel are brothers. For over 12 months, they've been in care, waiting to be adopted. But, as sibling boys, aged six and four, they are 'hard to place'.