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

Moomin no not Eton, it was this this one. What’s great about it (as a documentary not that’s it’s good viewing, it’s sad viewing imo) was that it shows the
pupils as they are grownup. Many are so damaged.

I saw a lovely one the other day about a girl in Galway who wanted to be a nun when she grew up. I got to the end and wondered if she changed her mind or took orders. Quite often with these sort of things there's a post in the comments telling you how it turned out for them, but not in this case:

Thanks for starting this thread OP, I've just looked at Christian the Lion, it's cuteness overload.

I've just watched this. Utterly gut wrenching. If you want a raw and thought provoking documentary please watch it. Rest in peace Gale Parsons.

This is on YouTube. I'll watch over the weekend.

I have watched this this evening after reading this comment. God it is so sad. I work with children like Gail and it’s hit hard. Very insightful though, thank you for the recommendation!

Thanks for this. I've just watched the first episode - hooked!

I watched Gale is dead today. That poor, poor girl, absolutely broken and crying out for someone to love her and take her in to their home.

The interviews with her in the white hospital bed, she looks so much like my DD.

Gale never stood a bloody chance

We are going to watch this at the weekend because of the many compliments.
I can't remember individual episodes but remember Man Alive didn't hold back I was early teens at the time.

Comments not compliments.. bloody autocorrect.

It’s ok, knew what you meant x

Re Gale is dead,
she was sent to prison wasn’t she? WTF
The Children’s Home/Community she was sent to when she was small now has investigations of abuse. Oh, what a surprise.

Public School, a ten-part fly-on-the-wall documentary set in Radley College and filmed in 1979, followed by Public School Update, which caught up with some of the boys as young adults in 1987, and finally A Very English Education, which was a quite in-depth set of interviews of six of the boys as middle-aged men in 2013.
Very interesting, thought-provoking and sometimes rather sad. And how times have changed.

Three Identical Strangers about identical triplets separated at birth and adopted , who were part of a psychology experiment looking at nature v nurture

I saw that a few years ago. Extraordinary story.

Oh my God, I wanted James Burke to be my dad. I thought he was fantastic and I still do.

We accidentally watched a documentary about Julia Grant from the 1980s. She was a lady who transitioned from male to female in about 1980. She had a difficult and complicated life. She spoke very candidly about being very glad that she went through her transition and it being the right thing for her. However, she was also very clear that it did not solve all of her problems and it definitely did not fix any of the mental health problems she had. She died a few years ago.

Anyone remember the documentary called Paddington Green? It followed various residents of the area - quite a few eccentrics, it was great viewing, I think it was around the late 90’s

I’ve just watched the first episode of Series 1 on YouTube and I’m hooked, but can only find other episodes from series 3. Any idea if there are subsequent first series episodes available somewhere? It’s fascinating and I’m over-invested in the outcome of the Sylvia Young Annie musical audition girls!!

Sorry meant to quote @Johaanah re Paddington Green series, I was in my late 20s at the time and it wasn’t on my radar.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW4HAr4oDA-Sh7-TSzNfh96kBeFlP24G_&si=9y_h7k2Z-qHgni8u

Here's Paddington Green.

Don’t remember that one specifically, but Man Alive was a very good documentary series in general. Similar to World in Action. Might have to do some YouTubing myself now…

It isn't super old but The Woman With 7 Personalities.

The parallels with the whole trans epidemic is mad.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsxZS65ZZOF1q5C54KyOVRNWb6Fv3WYmw&si=81fUqWZA44chwAms

Here's a playlist of old Crimewatch Files (if it works)

@MeringueOutang how spooky a clip of this came up on my Facebook reels earlier today! Apparently she became a journalist, married and had kids and is 72 now.

I randomly found this old documentary on BBC iplayer about Soho in the 80s one night when I couldn't sleep. Not earth shattering, but quite interesting if you know Soho and/or were a child or older in the 80s!

There was a Nick Broomfield doc in the 90s about death row that was brilliant at the time. I remember watching that as a media studies A Level student.