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: 4/19/2025Network: BBC FourStatus: Continuing
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#1 - R.U.E.U?

Season 2001 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/15/2001

Nick Fraser travels to Brussels in an effort to understand the European Union.

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#2 - Out of Phoenix Bridge

Season 1999 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/21/1999

For Ah Feng, Jialing, Xiazi and Ziao, their years working as maids while sharing a room in a Beijing slum may be the freest of their lives. In their rural home of Phoenix Bridge, the young Chinese women were under their parents' control; on their return, they will belong to new husbands. Struggling against harassment, they remain intent on achieving their dream: a metropolitan life.

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#3 - The Last Cigarette

Season 2000 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/26/2000

A look at America's love-hate relationship with cigarettes over the course of the century.

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#4 - My Best Fiend

Season 2000 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/18/2000

Biographical documentary directed by Werner Herzog, about his turbulent relationship with long-time collaborator Klaus Kinski. Herzog recalls the actor's brilliant yet troubled personality, and revisits Peru, where the pair first worked together on "Aguirre, Wrath of God".

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#5 - Genocide, the Judgement

Season 2000 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/2/2000

Jean Paul Akayesu , once the respected mayor of his village in Rwanda, is brought in front of the UN International Criminal Tribunal. He faces a charge of genocide, perpetrated against his neighbours, and is convicted. This film tells the painful story that leads to his conviction, the first in an international court for genocide and crimes against humanity. Contains video footage that viewers may find upsetting.

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#6 - One Day in September

Season 2000 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/5/2000

Oscar-winning documentary recounting the events of the Munich Olympics hostage crisis. On 5 September 1972, 12 Israeli athletes are taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists in Munich's Olympic village. As attempts at negotiation flounder, the authorities prepare to launch a rescue bid. But their efforts will lead to tragedy. Narrated by Michael Douglas.

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#7 - Norman Mailer - Oh My America (Part 1): Farewell to the Fifties

Season 2000 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/11/2000

The first of a two-part programme in which writer Norman Mailer profiles life in America since the Second World War. Mailer fought for his country in the Second World War - an experience that inspired his novel "The Naked and the Dead" - but, disappointed by post-war America, he grew to despise the 1950s.

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#8 - Norman Mailer - Oh My America (Part 2): Beyond the Revolution

Season 2000 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/12/2000

In this second and final episode, writer and social critic Norman Mailer describes the revolution in attitudes during the 1960s, the impact of the Vietnam war, and the Reagan and Clinton years.

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#9 - Donald and Luba

Season 2000 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/22/2000

Film-maker Don Boyd's parents were an unlikely couple. His mother, the youngest of 12 children, was born into a poverty-stricken Ukrainian family in China. His father Donald grew up in the death throes of the British Empire, with all the trappings of colonial wealth. Their meeting in Shanghai heralded a strange and tumultuous relationship. Don Boyd charts the truth about his parents as he travels around the world following the course of their lives.

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#10 - I Loved You

Season 2001 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2001

Award-winning film-maker Viktor Kossakovsky examines the nature of human love in three stories which together look at his mentors, a shot-gun wedding outside Moscow, and the relationship of two St Petersburg kindergarten children.

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#11 - Black and White in Colour

Season 2001 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/4/2001

Documentary focusing on Vera Bila, the most successful Romany singer in Europe. Born in Slovakia, she travels around Europe in search of places to perform, all the while awaiting her son's release from prison. The film also sheds light on the plight of Europe's neglected Romany communities.

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#12 - The Sweetest Sound

Season 2001 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/14/2001

Film-maker Alan Berliner is tired of being mistaken for one of the many people who share his name. In this film, he goes in search of others who share his problem. After visiting same-name societies all over America, he attempts to come to terms with his alter egos when he holds a dinner party where invites are confined to people called Alan Berliner. There they explore the links that have resulted in them having the same name.

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#13 - 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.

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#14 - Joseph Desire Mobutu

Season 2001 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/22/2001

The story of the cook's son who became a feared, tyrannical leader in Zaire

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#15 - Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam

Season 2001 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/2/2001

A documentary crew from the BBC arrives in L.A. intent on interviewing Heidi Fleiss, a year after her arrest for running a brothel but before her trial. Several months elapse before the interview, so the crew searches for anyone who'll talk about the young woman.

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#16 - Romancing the Throne

Season 2001 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/30/2001

Prince Mohato becomes King of Lesotho and must face the many burdens of office and the commitment of marriage.

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#17 - Vision Man

Season 2001 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/7/2001

An 87-year-old Inuit hunter looks back on his life in Greenland.

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#18 - The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack

Season 2001 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/14/2001

Co-written by his daughter Aiyana, a Storyville profile of the American folk hero Ramblin' Jack Elliott.

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#19 - Cod Wars

Season 2001 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/28/2001

During the 1950s and 60s, Britain consumed 430,000 tons of cod each year - but as the stocks started to diminish, the livelihoods of fishing communities in both countries were at stake. Iceland took steps to protect their fishing industry - the mainstay of their economy - resulting in the three so-called "Cod Wars". This was a David and Goliath struggle, where the small fleet of Icelandic gunboats were pitted against the British trawlers and the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic. This Icelandic film, made in 2001, tells the story from both sides and reflects on the impact of the Cod Wars in Grimsby and Hull.

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#20 - The 50 Years War (Part 1)

Season 2001 - Episode 11 - Aired 6/4/2001

First of a two-part film on the bitter history of conflict between Israelis and Arabs.

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#21 - The 50 Years War (Part 2)

Season 2001 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/5/2001

Concluding the two-part film about the enmity between Israeli and Arab.

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#22 - Jazz Man from the Gulag

Season 2001 - Episode 14 - Aired 8/27/2001

The life of the Jewish jazz musician Eddie Rosner, who fled Nazi Germany and settled in Russia, only to be arrested and imprisoned there after the war.

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#23 - Rats in the Ranks

Season 2001 - Episode 16 - Aired 9/3/2001

Documentary giving an insight into the dubious strategies employed in Australian politics.

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#24 - Picasso Days

Season 2001 - Episode 17 - Aired 9/10/2001

A documentary charting the turbulent life of Catalan artist Pablo Picasso.

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#25 - 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.