The WORST episodes of Storyville

Every episode of Storyville ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Storyville!

Storyville has developed an enviable reputation since it was launched by the BBC in 1997 as a showcase for the best in international documentaries. Screening over 340 films, from some 70 different countries, the strand has garnered a staggering array of awards: five Oscars, 15 Griersons, three Peabodys and two International Emmys.

Last Updated: 10/11/2024Network: BBC FourStatus: Continuing
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#1 - Photographer

Season 1999 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/4/1999

In 1987, 600 colour slides depicting scenes in a wartime Jewish ghetto in Poland were found in a Vienna bookshop. Polish director Dariusz Jabłoński's film uses these photographs - which were taken by the Nazi's chief accountant at the Lodz ghetto, a large and notorious work camp - to provide a chilling testimonial to one of the Second World War's darkest chapters.

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#2 - East Side Story

Season 1998 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/3/1998

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's favourite film, which he viewed over 100 times, was the musical comedy 'Volga Volga'—it tells the story of a group of farm workers determined to prove themselves. His devotion is at least partly explained by the film's use of his favourite slogan: "Life is better, life is happier." Dana Ranga 's film recalls the often strange and forgotten attempts by Soviet film-makers to match Hollywood's popular appeal by entertaining the socialist masses with pieces that choreographed workers' unstinting physical labours.

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#3 - Kurt and Courtney

Season 1998 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/31/1998

Director Nick Broomfield investigates the circumstances in which grunge rock star Kurt Cobain died in 1994, looking at the conspiracy theories surrounding his death and delving into the drug culture of the West Coast rock scene. The film concludes with a confrontation between Broomfield and Cobain's widow, Hole singer Courtney Love.

Don't Look Back
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#4 - Don't Look Back

Season 1998 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/31/1998

Donn Pennebaker's acclaimed documentary of Bob Dylan's month-long 1965 tour of Britain, during which the star was accompanied by Joan Baez. An intimate portrait of the artist, the film includes concert footage and features other celebrities of the era, such as folk star Donovan and singer/songwriter Alan Price. Songs include "The Times They Are A-changin'" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

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#5 - 444 Days

Season 1998 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/14/1998

Leslie Woodhead's film about the Iranian hostage crisis of November 1979. Militant Islamic students - angered by US support for the Shah of Iran - invaded the American Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 diplomats hostage. For 444 days, the world watched helplessly as the United States attempted to free the diplomats in the face of Ayatollah Khomeini's fervent anti-Americanism. Only after a botched rescue attempt, and President Carter's election defeat by Ronald Reagan, were the hostages finally freed. The documentary hears from both hostages and their captors.

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#6 - Year of the Dogs

Season 1998 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/21/1998

Michael Cordell's film about an Australian-rules football team's struggle to triumph over adversity. The Footscray Bulldogs, whose ground is based in a rundown Melbourne suburb, have the odds stacked against them in several ways. Their difficulties - they last won a tournament in 1954, have injury problems and a chronic scoring record, and are facing near-bankruptcy - are compounded by the threat of a takeover which could see them merged with another team.

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#7 - Waco: The Rules of Engagement

Season 1998 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/28/1998

Director William Gazecki's Oscar-nominated investigation into the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The media reported that 76 members of David Koresh's sect committed mass suicide at Waco. Gazecki's film - which includes images that some might find disturbing - alleges they were murdered when FBI agents gassed and burned down the compound. It also challenges the widespread portrayal of the Davidians as promiscuous social outcasts.

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#8 - Gigi, Monica and Bianca

Season 1998 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/5/1998

This poignant film follows the fortunes of Gigi and his pregnant girlfriend Monica in post-communist Romania. The couple are first seen as teenagers living rough in a Bucharest railway station. Monica wants to keep her baby but the Romanian authorities insist she is too young. The film follows the pair over two years as they struggle to survive and adapt to life as new parents.

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#9 - Moon Over Broadway

Season 1998 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/21/1998

An account of American comedy actress Carol Burnett's turbulent return to the Broadway stage. It covers the uncertainties felt by the cast and production team as they prepare for their New York opening, including whether the audience will respond to the jokes and if the scenery will stay upright.

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#10 - A Small Town in Poland

Season 1999 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/21/1999

The small town of Bransk used to boast a large Jewish population before the Holocaust. As Bransk prepares to celebrate its 500th anniversary, the authorities debate whether to acknowledge the town's Jewish past.

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#11 - Resurrection

Season 1999 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/4/1999

Cuba's cemeteries are too small to hold all of the country's dead. This film chronicles the emotional scenes at the exhumation of bodies after they have been buried for three years, and the subsequent storing of their bones in a crypt - a process that is watched by the dead's relatives.

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#12 - Fragments: Jerusalem

Season 1999 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/4/1999

Director Ron Havilio intertwines a highly personal view of Jerusalem - where he has lived for nearly 50 years - with an overview of the Holy City's fascinating and litigious history. He also looks at life in the city as it approaches the new millennium.

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#13 - Paradise Lost

Season 1997 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/13/1997

Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's film probes doubts about the guilt of a trio of teenagers tried and convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas, Texas, in 1994.

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#14 - I Was a Slave Labourer

Season 1999 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/16/1999

For over five decades, German government and industry have resisted demands to pay compensation to the millions who worked as slave labourers under the Third Reich. This film follows retired businessman Rudy Kennedy - who survived slave labour as a teenager - as he tries to force German firms to acknowledge their links with Nazi atrocities.

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#15 - An American Love Story (Part 1): Welcome to America

Season 1999 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/30/1999

Seven-part documentary from director Jennifer Fox shedding light on the state of race relations in the US by following two years in the lives of a mixed-race married couple and their two children in New York. In the first part, which acts as an introduction to the family, Cicily leaves home to go to college. [Note: This Storyville series is a condensed, 310-minute version of the PBS original, which was formed of ten 60-minute episodes.]

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#16 - An American Love Story (Part 2): I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

Season 1999 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/31/1999

Daughter Cicily travels to Nigeria to spend a term with a group of students.

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#17 - An American Love Story (Part 3): It's Another New Year and I Ain't Gone

Season 1999 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/1/1999

The family celebrate Christmas, but Cicily contracts malaria.

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#18 - An American Love Story (Part 4): Chaney and the Boy

Season 1999 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/2/1999

Chaney introduces her first boyfriend to Bill and Karen. Is she too young for romantic matters?

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#19 - An American Love Story (Part 5): True Love

Season 1999 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/3/1999

The family faces a crisis when Karen is admitted into hospital for a hysterectomy.

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#20 - An American Love Story (Part 6): It's My Job

Season 1999 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/4/1999

Bill struggles to overcome his drink problem, while daughter Cicily - now a graduate - begins her search for a job.

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#21 - An American Love Story (Part 7): We Were Never Ozzie and Harriet

Season 1999 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/5/1999

In the conclusion to the series, Bill and Karen reflect on their courtship period during the 1960s.

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#22 - Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows

Season 1999 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/6/1999

Canadian grappler Bret "the Hitman" Hart became a huge attraction on US cable TV, his "tough but nice" persona securing him a $9m deal. But, when he refused to compromise his image for the sake of commercial interests, he faced the end of his career. Paul Jay's acclaimed film follows Hart for a year and explores the reality behind the theatre of wrestling.

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#23 - A Cry from the Grave

Season 1999 - Episode 14 - Aired 11/27/1999

Under the eyes of the United Nations, troops of the Bosnian Serb army massacred over 7,000 men from the town of Srebrenica in the summer of 1995. Leslie Woodhead 's film is the result of a year-long investigation into the killing and the aftermath of Europe's worst massacre since the Second World War.

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#24 - Grey Gardens

Season 1999 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/11/1999

Despite their aristocratic background - and the fact that they were aunt and cousin to Jackie Onassis - Edith Bouvier Beale and daughter Edie lived in anonymity in a decaying mansion on New York's Long Island. But, in 1976, when Albert and David Maysies's film appeared in US cinemas, it gave the pair the fame they longed for - and the public a glimpse into the interdependency and private language of their eccentric lives.

The Night Notre-Dame Burned
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#25 - The Night Notre-Dame Burned

Season 2020 - Episode 18 - Aired 11/16/2020

A Storyville documentary that tells the dramatic story of the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral on 15 April 2019. Blow by blow, it follows the team of brave firefighters - from the men and women on the frontline to the brigade chief - as they face the epic responsibility of saving one of the city's most emblematic and much–loved symbols from burning to the ground. As well as on-the-ground helmet cam and drone footage of the unfolding, dramatic events, the film-makers – the Naudet Brothers – who famously recorded the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 in New York – were themselves at the scene to record a moment in history in their own capital city. In one tense moment, after the collapse of the spire, we are inside the situation room where President Macron must decide whether to risk the lives of 40 firefighters by sending them into the burning towers to stop the fire bringing total devastation to the building. This observational footage is intercut with the testimony of the firefighters themselves, whose pride and heroic dignity in fulfilling their roles cannot fail to bring a viewer to tears.