British Documentary TV Shows

Current affairs programme, featuring interviews and investigative reports on a wide variety of subjects.

Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.

The World's Greatest Classical Music Festival. The BBC Proms is a classical music festival held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and in recent years has explored an innovative series of Proms around the UK with concerts in all four nations. Its aim: to bring the best in classical music to the widest possible audience, which remains true to founder-conductor Henry Wood’s original vision in 1895. Whether you are a classical connoisseur or think classical music isn’t for you, there is something for everyone in the eight-week stretch of concerts.

The people, places and stories making news in the British countryside.

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.

Natural World is a nature documentary television series broadcast annually on BBC Two and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history brand. It is currently the longest-running series in its genre on British television, with more than 400 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World is produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, but individual programmes can be in-house productions, collaborative productions with other broadcasters or films made and distributed by independent production companies and purchased by the BBC. Natural World programmes are often broadcast as PBS Nature episodes in the USA. Since 2008, most Natural World programmes have been shot and broadcast in high definition.

World in Action was Granada Television’s flagship ITV current affairs series, running from 7 Jan 1963 to 7 Dec 1998, and built a reputation for film-led investigative reporting and a forceful editorial stance. Its journalism produced major public and political repercussions—including investigations associated with miscarriages of justice such as the Birmingham Six—and it also served as a platform for landmark documentary projects, including the first broadcast of “Seven Up!” as part of the strand in 1964.

Your user-friendly guide to the latest technology news, issues, gadgets and apps.

Artists from the UK and Ireland compete by creating portraits of famous people.

An intimate look into the personal lives of pop music's greatest and most influential artists.

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

Drivers, managers and team owners live life in the fast lane — both on and off the track — during each cutthroat season of Formula 1 racing.

Tomorrow's World was a long-running BBC television series on new developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003.

This is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American show of the same name. It was hosted by Eamonn Andrews from 1955 until 1964, and then from 1969 until his death in 1987 aged 64. Michael Aspel then took up the role of host until the show ended in 2003. It returned in 2007 as a one-off special presented by Trevor McDonald, which to date was its most recent airing. In the show the host surprises a special guest, before taking them through their life with the assistance of the 'big red book'. Both celebrities and non-celebrities have been 'victims' of the show. The show was originally broadcast live, and over its run it has alternated between being broadcast on the BBC and on ITV.

A magazine-style television series on BBC1 which was broadcast from May 1973 to June 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen, with various changes of co-presenters. The show presented hard-hitting investigations alongside satire and occasional light entertainment.

Your monthly journey through the fascinating world of space and astronomy with the latest thinking on what's out there in space and what you can see in the night sky.

An in-depth look at news stories. Documentaries that take you behind the scenes giving an insight into people's lives or institutions.

A British genealogy documentary series in which celebrities trace their ancestry, discovering secrets and surprises from their past.

Antiques Roadshow is a British television show in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979. There are also international versions of the programme.

Motoring programme featuring reviews of and reports about cars of all types.

Have you ever wondered how the products you use every day are made? How It's Made leads you through the process of how everyday products, such as apple juice, skateboards, engines, contact lenses, and many more objects are manufactured.

Celebrities are given a unique insight into their lives using innovative DNA science and technology to trace their ancestors.

Globe Trekker is an adventure tourism television series produced by Pilot Productions. The British series was inspired by the Lonely Planet travelbooks and began airing in 1994. Globe Trekker is broadcast in over 40 countries across six continents. Each episode features a host, called a traveller, who travels with a camera crew to a country—often, a relatively exotic locale—and experiences the sights, sounds, and culture that the location has to offer. Special episodes feature in-depth city, beach, dive, shopping, history, festival, and food guides. The show often goes far beyond popular tourist destinations in order to give viewers a more authentic look at local culture. Presenters usually participate in different aspects of regional life, such as attending a traditional wedding or visiting a mining community. They address the viewer directly, acting as tourists-turned-tour guides, but are also filmed interacting with locals and discovering interesting locations in unrehearsed sequences. Globe Trekker also sometimes includes brief interviews with backpackers who share tips on independent travel in that particular country.

Experienced car dealer Mike Brewer is joined by multi-talented mechanics in a monumental motoring mission: to find and restore iconic cars to later sell for a profit at their LA-based shop. In the series, Mike has the challenging job of finding vehicles that have money-making potential. He then hands them over to a mechanic, who tackles everything from bare metal re-sprays to gearbox swaps to bring them back to their former glory.

The Gadget Show is a British television series which focuses on consumer technology. The show, which is broadcast on Channel 5 is currently presented by Jason Bradbury and Rachel Riley with Jon Bentley and Pollyanna Woodward. Originally a thirty-minute show, it was extended to forty-five minutes, then later to sixty minutes. Repeats have also aired on the digital channel 5*, syndicated broadcasts on Discovery Science and Dave, and Channel 5's Internet on-demand service Demand 5. In Australia, it is aired on The Lifestyle Channel.

Getting viewers up to speed on all the latest automotive information, with new car reviews, second hand bargains and industry tidbits being the focus of this magazine show.

Welcome to the official Sidemen channel. The home of #SidemenSundays - We post new Sidemen videos every single Sunday!

Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly television episode on BBC One. The running time of the first two series was 30 minutes, being extended to 45 minutes in the third. BBC Three also broadcast a cut-down edition of the programme, lasting 15 minutes, shown after the repeats on Sundays and Fridays and after the weekday evening repeats of earlier seasons.

British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects.

Springwatch is an annual BBC television series which charts the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom.

Watchdog is a BBC television series that investigates viewers' reports of problematic experiences with traders, retailers, and other companies around the UK. It has had great success in changing the awareness consumers have of their purchasing rights and in changing policies of companies, closing down businesses, and pushing for law changes. It is shown on BBC One and is available for online viewing or download via BBC iPlayer.

A documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.

Monitor was a BBC arts programme that was launched on 2 February 1958 and ran until 1965. Huw Wheldon was the first editor from 1958 to 1965. He was also the principal interviewer and anchor. Wheldon set about moulding a team of talents, including John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Patrick Garland, David Jones, Humphrey Burton, John Berger, Peter Newington, Melvyn Bragg, Nancy Thomas and Alan Tyrer. Monitor ranged in subject over all the arts. Wheldon's Monitor lasted until he had "interviewed everyone I am interested in interviewing", and he was succeeded by Jonathan Miller for the series' last season.

What are the secrets of our favourite TV shows? Famous names from both sides of the camera reflect on making some of the most popular and influential programs of all time.

Looking at these major artists, we discover the story of their lives and the impact they made on popular culture. Interviews with well known music critics, news archive and performance.

Cash in the Attic, also Cash in the Celebrity Attic, is a United Kingdom television show on the BBC. The show, made by Leopard Films, premièred in 2002 and has run for sixteen series; as of February 2010, the seventeenth series is currently in production, along with the fifth celebrity series. The programme's tagline is The show that helps you find hidden treasures in your home, and then sells them for you at auction. Now Cash in the Attic has also launched an online version of the TV show. This is an innovative site which allows the general public to upload items for online valuations by a team of experts from the show, and then people can proceed to sell their item through the site.

Antiques experts travel across the country, competing to make a profit at auction.

The Human Animal: A Personal View of the Human Species is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by Desmond Morris, which focuses on the behaviour of homo sapiens, examining areas such as love and sex, baby rearing, the importance of urban habitat and the roots of our creativity.

David Attenborough celebrates the amazing variety of the natural world in this epic documentary series, filmed over four years across 64 different countries.