BBC Four

Doctors to Be: 20 Years On

Doctors to Be: 20 Years On is a biographical documentary series first broadcast on BBC Four by the BBC in 2007. It is a sequel to the series about ten medical students Doctors to Be, and gives an update on the careers and lives of the same people after they had qualified.

Nightmare in the City That Never Sleeps

Today New York is America's greatest city. But 30 years ago this summer, they couldn't even keep the lights on. A blackout plunged seven million people into darkness. Then the nightmare began. Anarchy exploded on the streets: thousands of shops were looted, whole neighbourhoods were burned, it seemed the civilisation of the city had come to an end.

100 Years of Girl Guides

100 Years of Girl Guides is a BBC television documentary. It was shown on the digital television station BBC Four on Sunday 16 August 2009 at 21:00. The programme was presented by Dominic West and followed the story of the girl guides from its beginnings up to the centenary in September 2009. The show interviews a number of former Girl Guides from veterans to such household names as Kelly Holmes, Clare Short, Kate Silverton and Rhona Cameron.

Legends

A look at some true legends from the world of music.

Wilderness Explored

How to Be a Composer

Journalist and critic Paul Morley spends a year learning the art of musical composition

Living with Modernism

Living with Modernism is a television documentary series first broadcast on BBC Four in 2006. It is a companion series to Marvels of the Modern Age on BBC Two, and was followed by a sister series Living with the Future in 2007. In each of six episodes, presenter Simon Davis visits a private family house designed by an architect associated with the modern movement.

Living with the Future

Living with the Future is a television documentary series first broadcast on 15 January 2007 on BBC Four. It is a follow-up series to Living with Modernism, also on BBC Four. In each episode, presenter Simon Davis visits the owners of a private house, then stays overnight so he can comment on what the building is like to actually live in. The preceding series visited older "classic" buildings where modernity was the key feature. In this series, buildings have been constructed in the last few years and often rely on cutting-edge materials and have "green" elements of re-use and efficiency.

Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea is a British television adaptation of Jean Rhys's 1966 novel of the same name. Produced by Kudos Film & Television for BBC Wales, the one-off 90-minute drama was first broadcast on digital television channel BBC Four on 9 October 2006. It was repeated on BBC One on Sunday, 22 October 2006, the week following the conclusion of BBC One's adaptation of Jane Eyre, to which Wide Sargasso Sea is a prequel. The adaptation was scripted by playwright Stephen Greenhorn, produced by Elwen Rowlands and directed by Brendan Maher. It starred Rebecca Hall as Antoinette Cosway and Rafe Spall as Rochester.

In Love with Barbara

In Love with Barbara is a 2008 drama which was inspired by the life of the romantic novelist Barbara Cartland and tells the story of what made her the Queen of Romance. It was written by Jacquetta May and shown on BBC Four at 9:00pm on Sunday 26 October 2008.

The Worst Journey in the World

The Worst Journey in the World is a 2007 BBC Television docudrama based on the memoir of the same name by polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard. The narrator Barry Letts, best known for his tenure as the producer of Doctor Who, played Cherry-Garrard in the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic.

The Battle That Made Britain

The Battle That Made Britain is a 2006 BBC Television documentary telling the Battle of Culloden.

Heist

Heist is a one-off 2008 television comedy-drama, written by Peter Harness and directed by Justin Hardy. It was completed at the end of 2006 and first broadcast on 23 April 2008 on BBC Four as part of its Medieval season. Loosely based on real events surrounding Richard of Pudlicott, it is a parody of and/or homage to heist films, set in medieval England, using several of that genre's conventions, and trailed under the same tagline as the 2003 remake of The Italian Job. As per the medieval setting, the film dialogue contains several Middle English and pseudo-Middle English expressions and insults. Marshall as lead character narrates several parts of the backstory to the audience during the film.

Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!

Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! is a 2006 BBC Four television play starring Michael Sheen as the English comic actor Kenneth Williams, based on Williams' own diaries. Cheryl Campbell plays Williams' beloved mother, Lou. The drama received good reviews, The Observer singling out Sheen's performance as "a characterisation for which the description tour-de-force is, frankly, pretty faint praise". The Times compared Sheen's performance to "a diamond that is so dazzling as a result of the expertise deployed in its cutting that you can’t fully focus on the underlying shape of the stone, which is what actually enables it to glitter so spectacularly." Viewing figures were 860,000, including timeshift, making it by far the most popular BBC Four broadcast of March 2006. Sheen's performance won a Royal Television Society award for Best Male Actor, and the play also won two BAFTA nominations.

The Britpop Story

The Britpop Story is a British television documentary about the Britpop movement which occurred in Britain during the 1990s. Hosted by John Harris, it was first broadcast on BBC Four in August 2005. It features interviews with Blur's Graham Coxon, Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann, Louise Wener of Sleeper and Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records.