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Original poster

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

206 replies

Snooks1971 · 03/07/2025 20:31

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

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/xVLXrWFoGiU?si=XI69kBIYi4PdaLMc

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
PersephonePomegranate · 26/07/2025 20:51

Johaanah · 15/07/2025 09:07

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 loved that back in the day!

LadyLucksalot · 26/07/2025 20:54

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I recently discovered the Victorian Kitchen Garden episodes are on YouTube.

The music transports me back to when I was little. Such a lovely series. Feeling a bit teary now!

AutumnLover1989 · 26/07/2025 21:22

Thank you to this thread. I've watched Gale is dead and Johnny go home recently. Fascinating and sad 😢

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

TV
DuesToTheDirt · 26/07/2025 21:23

PersephonePomegranate · 26/07/2025 20:49

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.

Oh, I remember Nick Broomfield's documentary on Aileen Wournos. Very disturbing.

Original poster
Snooks1971 · 27/07/2025 08:40

Redheadedstepchild · 26/07/2025 19:47

Brilliant! Thank you @Redheadedstepchild !

OP posts:
Original poster
Snooks1971 · 04/11/2025 20:10

this has appeared on my YT feed, from 1969 and it’s like nothing has changed!

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/S05gEklAL5E?si=xBxumaHuS6uaD8vR

OP posts:
Gattopardo · 05/11/2025 00:04

mrswhiplington · 09/07/2025 21:58

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

Show quote history

It was so great, wasn’t it? Wish I’d been as adventurous as you.

Handeyethingyowl · 05/11/2025 00:12

I am watching one on BBC at the moment about the old East End, filmed in 1968. I love an old doc.

OP posts:
Original poster
Snooks1971 · 05/11/2025 19:38

Handeyethingyowl · 05/11/2025 00:12

I am watching one on BBC at the moment about the old East End, filmed in 1968. I love an old doc.

Can you link @Handeyethingyowl pretty please 🤓

OP posts:
Nitgel · 05/11/2025 20:11

This was on the weekend. Its fab Man Alive, The Office Party: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002lvj6 via @bbciplayer

Fgfgfg · 05/11/2025 21:04

The Block 1972 a film about housing and poverty by Paul Watson. Hes most famous for his 1970 series called The Family - reality show about a family.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cvJr39Ionc8&pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD&v=cvJr39Ionc8

ageingdisgracefully · 05/11/2025 21:20

Gale is Dead is heartbreaking. R

Rain in my Heart is pretty interesting: follows 4 alcoholics. Think it's on iplayer.

placemats · 06/11/2025 14:11

Snooks1971 · 11/07/2025 21:07

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.

I remember watching this as a teenager on the 70s and it was so sad seeing her in the hospital nearly the same age as myself. Drug taking terrified me after that.

Handeyethingyowl · 06/11/2025 19:56

Snooks1971 · 05/11/2025 19:38

Can you link @Handeyethingyowl pretty please 🤓

Show quote history

This is the one!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00t3mkz/one-pair-of-eyes-georgia-brown-who-are-the-cockneys-now

Cockneys doc

HorribleHisTories15 · 07/11/2025 17:50

That’s a brilliant suggestion @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g! I remember loving that series. The secrets of our streets.

try the Shop Girls @OP,and the Secret Llife of Downstairs (or something similar), with Dr Pamela Cook. She looked at life for servants and maids, and then how later how shop work opened up life from the druggery for lots of working class girls. I’m from a completely different heritage, but have found Dr Pamela Cook’s studies into life of the working girl in the UK circa 1890 onwards very informative.

absolutely fascinating stuff ❤️

CrystalSingerFan · 07/11/2025 22:04

Brefugee · 03/07/2025 21:10

only the best ever documentary series (and i will fight anyone who doesn't agree)

James Buerke - Connections. (and then James Buerke - The Day The Universe Changed)

Gotta love James Burke. I'm unloading books after moving and found the book of The Day the Universe Changed. Looking forward to re-reading/rewatching.

CrystalSingerFan · 07/11/2025 22:06

orangewasp · 03/07/2025 21:37

Not strictly a documentary but Dennis Potter's final interview is a piece of TV that made an impression on me at the time.

Is that the one where he had a glass bottle of liquid morphine that he sipped?

CrystalSingerFan · 07/11/2025 22:11

mathanxiety · 04/07/2025 17:12

All of the Ken Burns documentaries are excellent. The Vietnam War is gripping - obv many of the people whose war experiences were part of the documentary (both American and Vietnamese) are still living, and seeing how their lives went on after the war ended was very interesting. I also saw a really good one on Ernest Hemingway (I believe by KB).

Ken Burns is truly fantastic. Personally my favourite is the one on the history of American Country Music. Episodes used to be on YouTube ,although every time I re-watched something there was less of the actual music included as clearly the lawyers had got to them.

CrystalSingerFan · 07/11/2025 22:20

Bit niche, but I noticed the super 1987 documentary on Western philosophy by Bryan Magee is hiding on iPlayer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002l506/the-great-philosophers-series-1-15-wittgenstein

Can't imagine that being remade these days! Also fascinating to see the tweedyness and ties.

The Great Philosophers - Series 1: 15. Wittgenstein

Bryan Magee discusses the work of British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) with Professor John Searle.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002l506/the-great-philosophers-series-1-15-wittgenstein

User14March · 07/11/2025 22:45

Snooks1971 · 05/11/2025 19:38

this was Bethnal Green in 1958.

I wonder what became of the Gladdens (?) Will see if I can find out. I wonder if the daughter emigrated…(?)

OP posts:
Original poster
Snooks1971 · 01/12/2025 21:33

This!!!
Good God wtf

OP posts:
marmaladeteal · 01/12/2025 21:57

Following