The BEST episodes of Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries season 2020
Every episode of Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries season 2020, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries season 2020!
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 - The Truth About Your Sandwich
Season 2020 - Episode 58 - Aired 10/8/2020
Helen Skelton investigates Britain's sandwich industry, investigating the hygiene conditions in high street chains and sandwich production plants, and how cuts to hospital budgets and food inspection budgets could be putting the public at risk. She also asks whether consumers can trust the nutritional levels advertised on the sandwiches they buy.
#2 - Building the World's Fastest Car
Season 2020 - Episode 69 - Aired 11/14/2020
Documentary following the Bloodhound team, a group of British engineers who are trying to build the fastest car on Earth: a car that can go at supersonic speeds and get into the record books
#3 - Extreme Combat: The Dancer and the Fighter
Season 2020 - Episode 68 - Aired 11/8/2020
Documentary following Akram Khan, one of the world's most acclaimed contemporary dancers and choreographers, as he enters a very different arena - of mixed martial arts, or MMA. He meets three of Britain's leading fighters - Terry `The Dominator" Brazier, Michael `Seabass" Shipman and Michael `Venom" Page - as they prepare for career-defining fights at Wembley Arena. Akram tries to understand the hold this violent spectacle has for so many, and as he becomes involved in the fighters' training and learns more about their lives, he's forced to confront his own relationship with violence and the events that traumatised him as a teenager.
#4 - Alton Towers: A Rollercoaster Year
Season 2020 - Episode 67 - Aired 11/3/2020
Documentary following the reopening of the theme park after a long period of closure due to Covid-19. Staff have only 12 days to ensure that the rides are both fully operational and comply with new health and safety guidelines, which requires some major rethinking. The programme follows both employees returning to work after months on furlough as well as families visiting the park for some much-needed escapism after being in lockdown.
#5 - American Nightmare: Trump's Breadline Kids
Season 2020 - Episode 65 - Aired 11/1/2020
On the eve of the US election, with the backdrop of Covid and racial tension, this documentary examines the experience of poverty through the eyes of three children in the battleground state of Ohio
#6 - Deliveroo: Secrets of Your Takeaway
Season 2020 - Episode 66 - Aired 11/2/2020
The behind-the-scenes story of how Britain's fastest-growing food delivery company has revolutionised the takeaway industry and how they, and their restaurant partners, are navigating the storm of the coronavirus pandemic. Cameras follow the teams of computer programmers, app developers and salespeople as they manage a network of restaurants and delivery riders that together have transformed the takeaway experience.
#7 - Sing It Loud: Black and Proud
Season 2020 - Episode 64 - Aired 10/28/2020
From the legendary Ronnie Scott's venue, Maya Jama presents a one-off celebration for Black History Month, with some of the UK's finest gifted young jazz musicians. Zara McFarlane, Ashley Henry, Poppy Ajudha, Reuben James and Ayanna Witter-Johnson all take to stage to perform their own interpretations of iconic black protest anthems from Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye and James Brown.
#8 - Hair Power: Me and My Afro
Season 2020 - Episode 62 - Aired 10/27/2020
Academic Emma Dabiri presents a documentary about the importance of afro-textured hair in black British history and culture. Black people from across the country share their personal experiences, discussing how what they do with their hair has been a rite of passage, a source of empowerment, or a focus of otherness and rejection.
#9 - Damilola: The Boy Next Door
Season 2020 - Episode 63 - Aired 10/28/2020
Yinka Bokinni was a friend of Damilola Taylor growing up in Peckham. On the 20th anniversary of his death she confronts the impact of his killing and conflicting thoughts of their childhood community.
#10 - President Trump: Tweets from the White House
Season 2020 - Episode 61 - Aired 10/26/2020
Donald Trump has tweeted tens of thousands of times since becoming US president, giving the American people unique access to his innermost, unedited thoughts, and giving him access to his base without the interference of the traditional media. This programme looks at the impact on US politics of his use of Twitter, and whether they have caused problems and controversies, or, seemingly, solved intractable foreign policy problems.
#11 - The Unremembered - Britains Forgotten War Heroes
Season 2020 - Episode 56 - Aired 9/26/2020
David Lammy MP reveals the shocking story of how 100,000 or more Africans who died in their own continent serving Britain during World War I were denied the honour of an individual grave
#12 - Guy Martin's War Machines
Season 2020 - Episode 60 - Aired 10/17/2020
The presenter looks back on some of his favourite engineering projects involving military vehicles. The programme features the restoration of a Mark 1 Spitfire, the recreation of a First World War tank which was one of the earliest armoured vehicles the final flight of an Avro Vulcan, and a reenactment of a paratrooper drop from D-Day.
#13 - Kirstie's Christmas Quick & Easy Craft
Season 2020 - Episode 70 - Aired 11/22/2020
Kirstie Allsopp creates quick and easy crafts for the festive season. She is joined by Phil Spencer, who gets the party started with some cocktail magic. Kirstie's sister, florist Sofie, helps with some festive florals that can be scaled up or down for any size of gathering. And in the kitchen, baker Nancy Birtwhistle has a raft of recipes, tips and tricks for all things foodie and festive.
#14 - Sex on the Beach
Season 2020 - Episode 57 - Aired 9/28/2020
Seyi Rhodes heads to Gambia to investigate the West African country's reputation as a destination for British sex tourists, looking at the truth behind the tabloid headlines. He meets 58-year-old Michelle, who recently married a younger Gambian man, and her 60-year-old friend, who regularly visits on holiday for a bit of `fun".
#15 - Lost at Sea: My Dad's Last Journey
Season 2020 - Episode 55 - Aired 9/16/2020
Following Louis Bird's journey to piece together the life of his father, Peter Bird, after he disappeared on a voyage at sea in 1996. In 1983, Peter Bird was the first person to row the Pacific Ocean single-handed. Crossing 8,000 treacherous miles in a row-boat, turned Peter into an international legend. On a 1996 voyage, he disappeared, and his empty boat was recovered with a film camera still attached, but he was never found. This programme follows Louis on a personal journey to understand his father, as he and his mother come to terms with feelings of loss and abandonment.
#16 - Superhuman Summer: The Paralympic Rewind
Season 2020 - Episode 54 - Aired 9/12/2020
Johnny Vegas and Jonnie Peacock present a celebration of some of the most memorable moments from the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games in London and Rio. With guests including Clare Balding, Ade Adepitan, Alex Brooker, Adam Hills and Josh Widdicombe, as well as members of Britain's Paralympics team.
#17 - The Black Full Monty
Season 2020 - Episode 53 - Aired 9/10/2020
Documentary going on the road with The Chocolate Men, Britain's first all-black touring strip dancing group. Filmed during their 2018 nationwide tour, the film meets the managers Louis and Dante - who thought up the idea after hosting a Magic Mike-themed show - and explores what motivates each of the dancers to bare all night after night.
#18 - Can We Beat Kids' Cancer?
Season 2020 - Episode 52 - Aired 9/9/2020
Following three children and their families as they undergo both cutting-edge and traditional treatments at the Royal Marsden in London. Cameras follow three-year-old Charlotte, who is one of the first children in the UK to take a pioneering new targeted drug that has saved her life, while toddler Artemis must undergo a stem cell transplant, first done over 50 years ago, as this is the best option available to her. Elsewhere Lily, who is 14, takes on a cocktail of chemotherapy and newer immunotherapy drugs.
#19 - Me and My Penis
Season 2020 - Episode 51 - Aired 8/31/2020
Documentary in which men talk openly about their penis and how it feels to be a man, while artist Ajamu makes intimate photographic portraits based on the sitters' experiences to help them rethink the way they see their bodies and themselves. The men talk about the pleasures and physical realities of the penis, including sex, masturbation and erections, but also tell stories of infertility, violence, sexual abuse, homophobia and mental health, questioning taboos and the definitions of masculinity.
#20 - Dirty Secrets of Britain's Takeaways
Season 2020 - Episode 50 - Aired 8/31/2020
More than 1,000 restaurants have a hygiene rating of zero and five million Brits get serious food poisoning every year, so chef April Jackson and food hygiene specialist Gareth Jones set out on a mission to clean up the nation's fast-food outlets. Gareth joins council food inspectors and discovers filth, dangerous levels of bacteria and evidence of rodent infestations, while he and April tackle a chip shop in Harrow, west London, in desperate need of a makeover, helping it to achieve a five-star hygiene rating.
#21 - Peter: The Human Cyborg
Season 2020 - Episode 49 - Aired 8/26/2020
The extraordinary story of the scientist Peter Scott-Morgan, as he turns himself into a cyborg in an attempt to overcome the Motor Neurone Disease that will otherwise kill him. With unprecedented access to Peter and an international group of doctors, scientists, engineers and designers, the programme follows 18 months of one of the most audacious transitions ever undertaken, employing radical surgery, artificially intelligent computers and robotics technology.
#22 - How to Avoid a Second Wave
Season 2020 - Episode 48 - Aired 8/25/2020
Dr Xand van Tulleken and Dr Guddi Singh meet experts and scientists to find out whether a second wave of Covid-19 is coming, how it can be avoided and how to prepare for it.
#23 - Swingers
Season 2020 - Episode 47 - Aired 8/24/2020
There are as many as one and a half million people on the British swinging scene. This documentary takes an honest look at one of the country's most popular swingers' clubs.
#24 - Inside KFC at Christmas
Season 2020 - Episode 80 - Aired 12/15/2020
Behind-the-scenes at the fast food chain in the run-up to Christmas, as a brand new festive burger is launched in a bid to keep regular customers coming back during lockdown. The programme follows the daily struggles of the franchise owners keeping their businesses going against all odds, and the staff pulling out all the stops to end the year as a success.
#25 - The Boy Who Climbed The Shard
Season 2020 - Episode 90 - Aired 12/18/2020
The true story of how teenage urban free climber George King made headlines around the world in 2019 when he climbed the UK's tallest building, The Shard, without ropes