BBC Two

Hippies

Swinging London, 1969. From his flat in Notting Hill Gate, Ray Purbbs edits an 'underground' (that is, counterculture) magazine, Mouth, assisted by his fellow hippies Alex, Jill and Hugo. Ray is passionate about protest, ludicrously enthusiastic about every hip trend and convinced he is (or could be) a major player in the battle between the Establishment and the alternative society. Alex - though he comes from a wealthy background and seems more interested in golf than altering society - is coolness personified, a man so laid-back he seems to exist outside of reality. Jill embraces all the new-found liberty afforded her gender and claims to espouse free love, though this attitude doesn't stretch to her 'boyfriend', Ray, long been deprived of her carnal interest. Hugo is spectacularly vague, almost brilliant in his obliqueness. Led by Ray, the quartet jump on every trendy bandwagon and comprehensively fail to make the slightest bit of difference in all they do. The gang are pretty useless at everything - in fact, they're not even that good at being hippies.

Secrets of the Ancients

Whenever people today see wonders of the ancient world, like Stonehenge or the Pyramids, the question that always comes up is "how'd they do that? These are the questions that this documentary series tries to answer, and one thing is clear ? it wasn't easy!

Living Britain

Living Britain is a six-part nature documentary series, made by the BBC Natural History Unit, transmitted from October to December 1999. It was produced by Peter Crawford. It examines British wildlife over the course of one year. Each of the programmes takes place in a different time of year.

War of the Century

The War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin, is a BBC documentary film series that examines Adolf Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and the no-holds-barred war on both sides. It not only examines the war but also the terror inside the Soviet Union at the time due to the paranoia of Joseph Stalin - the revenge atrocities, the Great Purge of army officers, the near-lunacy orders, and the paranoia of being upstaged by others, especially Marshal Zhukov. The historical adviser is Ian Kershaw.

People Like Us

People Like Us was a British radio and TV comedy programme, a spoof on-location documentary written by John Morton, and starring Chris Langham as Roy Mallard, an inept interviewer. Originally a radio show for BBC Radio 4 in three series from 1995 to 1997, it was made into a television series for BBC Two that aired from September 1999 to June 2000.

Eureka Street

Eureka Street is a BBC Northern Ireland 1999 adaptation to mini-series of Robert McLiam Wilson's 1996 novel of the same name. Set in Belfast in the six months before and after the 1994 ceasefire, it commences with an anonymous hand typing the words, "All stories are love stories." The novel opens with the same text. The story follows the lives of two friends: the Catholic Jake Jackson – struggling with a failed relationship, his job as a repossession agent and the effect of the Troubles on the world around him – and the Protestant Chuckie Lurgan, "fat" and unemployed until circumstances and a previously untapped entrepreneurial spirit lead him to a world very different from Eureka Street. The adaptation was scripted by Donna Franceschild, directed by Adrian Shergold and starred Vincent Regan as Jake and Mark Benton as Chuckie.

Human, All Too Human

Human, All Too Human is a three-part 1999 documentary television series co-produced by the BBC and RM Arts. It follows the lives of three prominent European philosophers: Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre. The theme revolves heavily around the school of philosophical thought known as Existentialism, although the term had not been coined at the time of Nietzsche's writing and Heidegger declaimed the label. The documentary is named after the 1878 book written by Nietzsche, titled Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits.

The Mayfair Set

The Mayfair Set is a series of programmes produced by Adam Curtis for the BBC, first broadcast in the summer of 1999. The programme looked at how buccaneer capitalists of hot money were allowed to shape the climate of the Thatcher years, focusing on the rise of Colonel David Stirling, Jim Slater, James Goldsmith, and Tiny Rowland, all members of London's Clermont Club in the 1960s.

Haywire

Comedy series spoofing television in the year 2020.

Rock Profile

Rock Profile is a British television comedy show written by and starring comedy partnership Matt Lucas and David Walliams, both later widely known for the sketch show Little Britain. Rock Profile first appeared on the channel UK Play in 1999, before moving to BBC Two in 2000. The show comprises a series of spoof interviews, involving Jamie Theakston questioning Lucas and Walliams, who play famous musicians. The interviews are often bizarre and involve broad, unflattering caricatures or just downright fictional characteristics. They are often interspersed with videos by the featured artist, including humorous captions and congratulations from other impersonated celebrities. The first series was broadcast in 1999, comprising 13 episodes, on digital channel UK Play. The series was then picked up by BBC Two, with a second series of 13 episodes following in 2000. Series one was later shown on BBC Two. In Christmas 2000, a special 45-minute episode of the series was broadcast, entitled Rock the Blind. The episode followed Gary Barlow and Ronan Keating as they recorded a charity single. Ted Robbins appeared as Pete Waterman, and Sara Cox as herself. Following the episode, the series saw a break of two years.

Ray Mears' Extreme Survival

Ray Mears has spent his life developing a brand of survival skills he calls Wilderness Bushcraft, a philosophy that humans should live closer to nature, as the Bushmen do. In Extreme Survival he demonstrates his wilderness skills and shares amazing tales of survival from some of the world's most menacing environments.

Battle of the Sexes - In the Animal World

The sexual behaviour and intriguing reproductive strategies of the animal world.

Sir Bernard's Stately Homes

Sir Bernard's Stately Homes was a series of British TV comedy series first shown in 1998 on BBC Two and later re-run on Play UK. Only six 10 minute programmes were produced, all written by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. It bore many similarities to the more well-known Rock Profile. The series was directed by Edgar Wright, one of the creative minds behind Asylum, Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz, and produced by Myfanwy Moore, who would become the producer of Little Britain. The central character was Bernard Chumley, played by Matt Lucas, who was already a regular stand-up character of Lucas's and would go on to be a fixture of Little Britain. The show was transmitted from 12 May to 16 June 1998, on BBC2, Wednesdays at 10.20 p.m. In each edition, Sir Bernard and murderer/friend Anthony Rogers would investigate a number of country estates while searching for the Golden Potato, an advertising stunt which would win them a year's supply of Allen's Crisps. ⁕Episode 1 – Baxter Grange, home of Lord Horatio Nelson ⁕Episode 2 – Browning Abbey, home of the archbishop of Mexford ⁕Episode 3 – Yates Castle, former home of the Chumleys ⁕Episode 4 – Bronson House, country retreat of Princess Anne

The Planets

Documentary series tracing mankind's exploration of our solar system.

Great Expectations

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

Rebellion!

As a young reporter, David Dimbleby made three Panorama films on Rhodesia between 1967 and 1968, following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence. This three-part series tells the inside story of white Rhodesia's revolt against the British crown and the long battle to bring full democracy to an independent Zimbabwe.

Have I Got Buzzcocks All Over

Midlands Report

A look at events in the Midlands

Births, Marriages and Deaths

The lives of long-time friends Alan, Terry and Graham are turned around after they play a drunken prank on their old headmaster.

Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age

Documentary series celebrating Britain's rich industrial heritage.