Documentaries

Break Point for Tennis
How seriously is professional tennis taking the mental health of its young players?
19 Jun 2023,28 mins
The Soul of Ireland
Sean Rocks discovers how soul music and blues first gained an audience in 1960's Ireland.
01 Aug 2014,30 mins
The Courage of Ambivalence
Mark O'Connell makes the case for ambivalence.
12 Aug 2019,28 mins
Frontline
Ophelia Byrne asks why more Catholics aren’t joining the police in Northern Ireland.
21 Feb 2022,28 mins
Max: The Literary Kingmaker
Lennie Goodings on the skills of the editor who nurtured Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway.
26 Jan 2021,28 mins
The Shock
Kidnapping, robbery or an accident are common moments of shock. How do our brains cope?
18 Apr 2017,28 mins
Does Trade Matter?
Economist George Magnus unpicks the trade wars and deals re-shaping the global economy
04 Dec 2018,28 mins
They Made Our World
John Logie Baird
A wireless with pictures.
18 May 1995,9 mins
More episodes
William Burroughs: Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted
Laurie Anderson profiles one of the most original writers and thinkers of the 20th century
04 Mar 2008,30 mins
Saffron Censorship: India's Culture Wars
Zareer Masani asks if censorship and religious fanaticism are threatening India's freedom.
30 Mar 2015,28 mins
Ecce! Fife! or Rediscovering the Lost Latin of Fife
School kids in Fife are learning Latin for the first time. Natalie Haynes investigates.
09 Aug 2013,30 mins
The Double War
22/09/2016
Alvin Hall explores an LP of African-American soldiers discussing fighting in Vietnam.
22 Sep 2016,30 mins
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Bleached Bone and Living Wood
Christine Finn visits the house that was the poet Wilfred Owen's final refuge in France.
10 Nov 2011,30 mins
Gay on the Inside
Stephen Fry investigates the reality of being gay in prison.
26 Sep 2012,28 mins
Tools of the Trade
X-Rays
The oldest surviving X-ray equipment was made in 1896 by Dr John Reynolds
13 Aug 1998,13 mins
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The Stately Pleasure Dome
Michael Symmons Roberts gives a poet's perspective on Manchester's Intu Trafford Centre.
23 Mar 2017,30 mins
The Walk: For Richer, For Poorer
How do rich and poor live together side by side? Mesmerising real-life London encounters.
02 Jun 2018,60 mins
Ibiza: Britain's Balearic Soul
Dr Kate O'Brien explores Ibiza's subtle influence over British youth culture and nightlife
27 Aug 2011,30 mins
A Cold War Dance
The Martha Graham Dance Company's US State Department tour of Southeast Asia, 1974.
30 Jul 2015,30 mins
Three Wishes
Janet Ellis celebrates that most unpredictable of mythological beings, the genie.
05 Dec 2011,28 mins
Down the Generations
Kat Arney reports on how what happened to your grandparents may affect your own health.
20 Jul 2016,28 mins
Print Me a New Body
Jolyon Jenkins explores the ways in which it is now possible to replace most of his body.
30 May 2017,28 mins
Personalised Medicine: Dose by Design
Vivienne Parry asks if the NHS can deliver the benefits of genomic medicine for all.
16 Aug 2016,38 mins
What Does Ed Miliband Really Think?
Steve Richards talks to Ed Miliband, his friends and critics about his political ideas.
19 Nov 2012,28 mins
The Entrepreneur's Wound
Top business people discuss the effect that their traumatic childhood had on them.
30 Oct 2009,30 mins
The Perfumed Mountaineer
Hayden Lorimer explores the double life of Walter Poucher: photographer and perfumer.
14 May 2012,30 mins
Green Ears
Professor Trevor Cox explores the world of sonic design applied to our outdoor spaces
27 Jun 2011,30 mins
Will AI Kill Development?
Will artificial intelligence lead to a more unequal world?
02 Apr 2019,37 mins
Birds and the Bees 2.0
Is a new era in Relationships and Sex Education set to begin in English secondary schools?
03 Sep 2019,37 mins
I Work for the Government, and Let's Leave It at That
Julia Langdon uncovers how women spooks have been recruited over the years.
04 Jul 2016,28 mins