Can we have a thread to share interesting and preferably old-ish TV documentaries? Anything goes! Please share.

[Snooks1971]

I love a documentary that you can only see on YouTube. I’m into 1970s ones atm. Then the algorithm goes so narrow and ONLY shows me 70s docs. I need to see more…
I like the BBC Archive ones.
During lockdown I watched an 80s Boarding School documentary but I’ve been unable to find it since.
Can we share good ones?

Here’s one of mine, love Olly Reed

Following

Some great suggestions and recommendations here. I keep re-reading then forgetting so I’m going to write a list for easy reference! (Old school)

I've just been 'accidentally' thrown into a 1985 documentary called Just Another Day: Soho (had been watching Eastenders on iPlayer and this immediately followed) .... and it was very enjoyable.

For any Londoners who remember a rather grubby (literally and metaphorically) Soho prior to it being - more or less - gentrified in more recent years, this is very nostalgic viewing. Not just for the individuals and establishments featured but for the broader 80s fashions, attitudes and cars etc. shown.

Have just found that Just Another Day was a series of 20 episodes about the British way of life originally broadcast in the mid 80s and particularly London centric in its topics ... am going to have to dig out the others now; sadly, it seems there's currently only one other episode about the Tower of London on iPlayer but will check YouTube.

Ooh @catsmother i think I’ve seen this one too! Thumbs up emoji!

Yes I’ve watched that. There’s a shot of West Norwood where I used to live, hadn’t changed too much. Also The Block about council housing that was in a terrible condition , one step up from homelessness. I particularly remember a girl on a stretcher lighting up a cigarette! A house in Bayswater which was directed by Ken Russell. All available on BBC iPlayer archive section.

Another documentary, but this time much more light hearted- On the Piste. BBC 1987.

I laughed so hard and always happy to rewatch. About a group of beginner skiers…

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlyopgd-H20tAyLENZmjUWJ4_yqDijz--&si=XsGpwZs3WCYB9kEi

Oh yes, this was brilliant!

Another Adam Curtis documentary, The Way of All Flesh about the human story and all the sexism and racism associated with the discovery of the Heela cell. In fact, just go on the Adam Curtis You Tube channel and watch everything! So fascinating, well put together with archive footage and often ace music

@JoanChitty I watched The Block too, shocking the living conditions and I remember the girl on the stretcher was clinically depressed

I should watch some more. I've only seen "Bitter Lake", which certainly gave me a new perspective on the politics of western involvement in Afghanistan.

7 Up.

I saw a brilliant 1960 s one about day trips by coach. Magical

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C9BKJAenGB857GB863&hl=en-GB&cs=0&scaaesv=160e23f215d5943b&sxsrf=AE3TifNKSzowGSdSrxDBbbvMVYbCRUWGlw%3A1752091468832&q=%22The+Golden+Age+of+the+Coach%22&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2hMqsybCOAxWIQEEAHTkxJbIQxccNegQIDBAB&mstk=AUtExfCXdnWN5qKVpBwmBas-4WS9LMNOw0OedSLBiUmT62l71aroYXGNeACNEUUFeagGQtFpC77SElqp9AZGTLMG4tWIrdBm1lQauVSL2WVA3bq1XwVNwYpvCyxxiv8VT5n6_6gmFxzwzaqPGiFN0mkJkzVMJmWvcALKribOl2W85i8OQA&csui=3

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xf6xk

Doctors to be. From the 80s I think. I’ve only found one episode online recently but it didn’t put me off going into medicine despite how frazzled they all were!

I loved that programme. It inspired me to visit China a few years later. 😁

There was another Phil Agland one that I loved Baka:The People of the Rainforest.

7 UP.

I’ve read that the latest update from 7up is out next year - 70up.

Gosh! That will be a milestone. Thanks for the heads up on that.

How many of the originals will take part I wonder?

Poor Man’s Eton, about a state boarding school, Woolverstone Hall School, which was part of the old Inner London Education Authority.

Ooh, just remembered another, Tribe with Bruce Parry. It was on about 20 years ago, before everyone had streaming and still watched live telly, and I remember talking about it with other parents on the school run.

Yes, this was amazing.

OP, i remember an Eton documentary a good few years ago, was it Eton?

Makes me think of Andrew Gosden and what happened to him, would have been/is his birthday today.

I do often think about Andrew Gosden, I’ve gone down rabbit holes.