The Beatles: Love Me Do - A Documentary

The Beatles: Love Me Do - A Documentary 2005

8.00

On October 5th 1962, the Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do. It was a moment that changed music history and popular culture forever. It was also an extraordinary year in social and cultural history, not just for Liverpool but for the world, with the Cuban missile crisis, John Glenn in space and beer at a shilling a pint. Stuart Maconie explores how the Beatles changed from leather and slicked back hair to suits and Beatle mops, and how their fashion set the pace for the sixties to follow. Pop artist Sir Peter Blake, Bob Harris and former Beatles drummer Pete Best join friends to reflect on how the Beatles evolved into John, Paul, George and Ringo - the most famous band in the world.

2005

Public Service Broadcasting - BBC Proms - This New Noise - Live At The Royal Albert Hall

Public Service Broadcasting - BBC Proms - This New Noise - Live At The Royal Albert Hall 2022

1

Public Service Broadcasting – a band who bring wit, invention and multimedia spectacle to the stage – return to the Proms after their previous, staggeringly innovative, 2019 outing, The Race for Space. This time, Public Service Broadcasting join conductor Jules Buckley and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for This New Noise, a world premiere specially commissioned for the BBC’s centenary The band’s use of archive footage, sampling and imaginative musical techniques travels back through a hundred years of broadcasting history, making this a musical event like no other.

2022

Under Milk Wood

Under Milk Wood 2014

6.10

An all star cast unite to perform a distinctive BBC Wales Television adaptation of Dylan Thomas's radio play, presented in collaboration with National Theatre Wales, to mark the centenary of Dylan Thomas' birth. The plot reveals the innermost thoughts of the residents of the small, Welsh fishing village Llareggub as it delves into the dreams of various townspeople including blind sailor Captain Cat, who is haunted by visions of drowned shipmates, Mog Edwards and Myfanwy Price, who dream of each other, and Mrs. Ogmore Pritchard, who dreams of her former husbands.

2014

Ian Rankin Investigates: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Ian Rankin Investigates: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde 2007

8.00

Crime writer Ian Rankin investigates The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Starting with Robert Louis Stevenson's nightmare in September 1885, Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretches back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, hallucinatory drugs and prostitution all play their part in the disturbing account of Henry Jekyll's double-life, as Rankin's journey takes him into the yeasty draughts and unlit closes of the city that inspired the tale - Edinburgh.

2007

Robbie Coltrane at the BBC

Robbie Coltrane at the BBC 2022

1

A look back at the life and career of Robbie Coltrane, one of Britain's best-loved stars and a giant of both the big and the small screen, through a selection of interviews and special moments from his appearances on BBC shows over the decades.

2022

Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!

Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! 2006

6.00

Kenneth Williams was the star of the Carry Ons and Round the Horne. Despite his fame, he led a life full of mental torture as he tried to overcome his homosexuality in 1950s Britain. This film follows his life and eventual death based on the many diaries he kept

2006

The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse

The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse 2011

5.80

The extraordinary story of comedian Bob Monkhouse's life and career, told through the vast private archive of films, TV shows, letters and memorabilia that he left behind.

2011

Roy Orbison: Love Hurts

Roy Orbison: Love Hurts 2017

10.00

Roy Orbison's legacy as a beloved rock legend and a devoted father is revealed through intimate interviews with Roy's three surviving sons, featuring previously unseen home videos.

2017

Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop

Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop 2009

6.80

Fleetwood Mac are one of the biggest-selling bands of all time and still on the road. Their story, told in their own words, is an epic tale of love and confrontation, of success and loss. Few bands have undergone such radical musical and personal change. The band evolved from the 60s British blues boom to perfect a US West Coast sound that saw them sell 40 million copies of the album Rumours. However, behind the scenes relationships were turbulent. The band went through multiple line-ups with six different lead guitarists. While working on Rumours, the two couples at the heart of the band separated, yet this heartache inspired the perfect pop record.

2009

Hughie Green, Most Sincerely

Hughie Green, Most Sincerely 2008

1.00

Drama about the secret life of Opportunity Knocks and Double Your Money presenter Hughie Green, based on the inside story from his family, friends and peers. It tells of the destructive power of success and celebrity from Green's earliest days as a child star, and explores what family and fatherhood meant to this iconic character, who harboured an explosive secret that would rock the entertainment world after his death in 1997.

2008

The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci

The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci 2018

9.00

Janina Ramirez explores the BBC archives to create a TV history of Leonardo Da Vinci, discovering what lies beneath the Mona Lisa and even how he acquired his anatomical knowledge.

2018

Joan Rivers at the BBC

Joan Rivers at the BBC 2024

1

Katherine Ryan presents a celebration of one of the biggest comedy talents to ever appear on the small screens – the razor-sharp-tongued first lady of laughter, Joan Rivers.

2024

Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays

Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays 2007

7.70

Documentary celebrating the triumph, tragedy and human comedy that was Manchester record company, Factory. Started by the late Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus, Peter Saville and Martin Hannett in the late 1970s, it became known as the home of Joy Divsion, New Order and Happy Mondays and for creating the Hacienda club. The label pioneered Britain's independent pop culture, creating a new Manchester and blowing a shed-load of money. Includes interviews with all the main players in the Factory story.

2007

Everything and Nothing

Everything and Nothing 2011

8.50

what is everything, and what is nothing? Professor Jim Al-Khalili explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness. EVERYTHING: what the universe might actually look like and the remarkable stories of the men and women who discovered the truth about the cosmos. NOTHING: science at the very limits of human perception, where we now understand the deepest mysteries of the universe lie. The quantum world of the super-small shaped the vast universe we inhabit today, and Jim Al-Khalili can prove it.

2011

The Man Who Shot Tutankhamun

The Man Who Shot Tutankhamun 2017

6.80

This is the story of an unsung hero of photography: Harry Burton, the man whose images of the Tutankhamun excavation created a global sensation in the 1920s. Explore the spectacular locations where Burton worked, including Tutankhamun’s tomb and the surrounding temples.

2017

Measure for Measure: Live from The Globe

Measure for Measure: Live from The Globe 2004

1

William Shakespeare's darkest comedy, Measure for Measure. Live from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, this television production of the play was broadcast on BBC4 on Sept 4, 2004. Directed for stage by John Dove and for television by Janet Fraser Cook. Presented by Andrew Marr and with comment from historian David Starkey, actress Juliet Stevenson and the production’s director John Dove. Starring Mark Rylance, Liam Brennan and Sophie Thompson.

2004

Emmylou Harris: From a Deeper Well

Emmylou Harris: From a Deeper Well 2003

1

Profile of veteran country singer Emmylou Harris, witnessing the heady success of her career while also discussing her late flowering of intensely personal and groundbreaking music, dealing with loss and the passing years.

2003

The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities

The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities 2015

4.50

This musical celebration charts the lives and careers of some of the biggest selling acts in Irish rock, punk and pop from Van Morrison and Thin Lizzy to The Undertones and U2. From the pioneers of the showbands touring in the late 50s through to the modern day, the film examines their lineage and connections and how the hardcore, rocking sound of Belfast merged with the more melodic, folky Dublin tradition to form what we now recognise as Irish rock and pop.

2015

The Spy Who Went Into the Cold

The Spy Who Went Into the Cold 2013

6.40

A documentary about Kim Philby, a British member of MI6 who was in reality a spy and defected to the U.S.S.R.

2013