Season 9

2011-01-04 · 44m

Documentary about Herman Goering's brother Albert.

2011-01-20 · 44m

Documentary exploring how morale was monitored in the Blitz.

2011-01-27 · 44m

The remarkable story of Nicholas Winton.

2011-03-31 · 44m

Documentary focusing on former US president John F Kennedy's alleged obsession with sex.

2011-05-03 · 44m

Mark Logue, grandson of Lionel Logue – the pioneering speech therapist celebrated in ‘The King’s Speech’ – goes on a cross-continental journey to discover the life of his fascinating grandfather and the unique experiences he had with the royal family. As curator of the Logue family archive, Mark has a wealth of material at his fingertips, including family photographs and letters between Lionel and King George VI. All of these intriguing timecapsules unlock a past that was completely hidden until recently. Mark investigates every period of Lionel’s life, from his early stage career in Australia to his arrival in London, and his tutorship of an amazing royal patient. Lionel witnessed King George VI’s rise – from his time as Duke of York, through the abdication crisis, to his unexpected elevation to king. Throughout this period Lionel was aware that he was witnessing history unfold and he meticulously kept diary notes of every time he visited the royal couple – recording everything from what Queen Elizabeth was wearing, to jokes the king made. He also kept personal letters between himself and the king, showing their tender friendship, trust and loyalty. Mark then visits the acclaimed actor Geoffrey Rush – who portrays Lionel in the film – to find out how he used the diary entries to interpret the character. He also meets the movie’s screenwriter David Seidler to find out how he carved the story from the mass of materials available, and the method he used to tell the wider story of the abdication crisis through the story of the two men’s relationship.

2011-08-23 · 44m

On August 8 1963, a Royal Mail train was making its way to London from Glasgow. It was intercepted at Ledburn, Bucks by a gang of masked men who escaped with £2.6million, equivalent to at least £50million in today’s money. The incident would enter British folklore as 'The Great Train Robbery'. The police took just a few weeks to find the gang members, arrest them and put them behind bars, and their work was hailed as the pinnacle of policing. However, three months into a 30-year sentence, Ronnie Biggs, one of the gang members, escaped from Wandsworth prison and overnight became Britain’s most wanted man. The police and the establishment were left embarrassed, and ordinary people started to root for this antihero. The media rolled out the Biggs story like a soap opera – and he has rarely been out of the media ever since. Despite his notoriety, the truth behind his escape has remained a mystery. Biggs has been involved with a number of heavily managed appearances and sensationalised interviews for the tabloid press. However, none of these has revealed anything new or got remotely close to finding out what Ronnie really got up to in his years in exile. Now, over four hours of previously unheard tapes recorded by ‘Daily Express’ journalist Colin Mackenzie – who tracked him down in Rio, Brazil in 1974 – reveal the real Ronnie Biggs for the first time.

2011-09-06 · 44m

Ninety-one-year-old veteran soldier Alistair Urquhart opens up about his experiences during the Second World War - an astonishing story of determination and stamina that saw him survive while so many others perished. Having been captured by the Japanese, the former Gordon Highlander was tortured, starved and put to work on Burma's infamous `Death Railway', bundled onto a Japanese `hell ship' that was sunk by an American torpedo and imprisoned near Nagasaki as the atom bomb fell.

2011-08-30 · 44m

In this special film commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, children who lost a parent speak for the first time as adults. All of them experienced the same tragedy; each has responded in a remarkably different way. The film features four families who, between them, lost three fathers and a mother.

2011-09-13 · 44m

With exclusive access to the latest finds, archaeologists piece together intriguing and often gruesome evidence that our fear of vampires goes back thousands of years.

2011-09-20 · 44m

In the 200 years since the American Revolution, the United States and Great Britain have moved from enemies to firm allies. This documentary follows military experts and historians as they work through the top secret 'War Plan Red' to see how a hypothetical battle between America and Great Britain might have unfolded.

2011-10-27 · 44m

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the world’s biggest bomb blast, this documentary draws on new forensic investigation and meteorological analyses to reveal the true story behind the Cold War race to build the world's most powerful weapon. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States led the way - but then left the field clear for the Soviet Union to set off the world’s biggest ever explosion,which took place on October 30th, 1961. Along the way billions of dollars and roubles were spent, Pacific islanders were driven from their homes, and military and civilians alike were unwittingly exposed to huge doses of radiation. With first-hand testimony from American eyewitnesses and inhabitants of the islands, and modern scientific forensics, it is revealed for the first time what happened and the real reasons why the US scientists misjudged the potential power behind their early H bomb tests, resulting in three small islands being vaporised and severe radioactive fallout spreading over nearby inhabited islands.

2011-11-10 · 44m

Documentary revealing how German hatred of the men they dubbed 'Terror Fliers' led to some downed pilots being sent not to POW camps, but to concentration camps.