Lost and forgotten documentaries

[Floogal]

As the title suggests, there are programmes I remember watching. But they can not be found on YouTube, or there's not much about them online. Especially as I want to know how the people featured progressed since broadcast. The ones I remember are:
1.I can't remember the name of the documentary, but it was about bipolar disorder. I saw it in the early 00s. A man with the condition was fired from his university job previously and was starting up his own kite business. I remember his wife was particularly verbally and emotionally abusive to him and, by the end of the program, left him for another man (who would bully him).
2.Another one was called 'Lost kids' (I think that was its name) shown on Channel 4 in October 1999. The one I saw was filmed in Leicester and Nottingham and followed a group of homeless (younger end of the teenage age spectrum) youths. It was harrowing seeing the bit where they were high on heroin or "downers'. Also the fact they were befriended by older men who in many ways protected them was also disturbing. I think there was another one filmed in Brighton. I really want to know if the youths featured managed to get proper help and lead better lives.
3.Another one I remember was called Amsterdamaged (1999). It was about British ex pats living in Amsterdam, who got caught up in the drug culture. It was harrowing but funny and warm at the same time.
4.Also, in the same year, 'Jailbirds' about a women's prison. There was one particular girl who was addicted to drugs and fell out with her parents prior to getting sent down. The thing I remember most about it was the prison governor. His message was along the lines of "any parents watching, watch out for your daughter's boyfriends. Because most of the women and girls are here because of a boyfriend!".
5.In summer 2003 there was a documentary about socioeconomic class. It featured a poor family and an upper middle class family who both lived on the same street. I particularly remember the oldest daughter of the poor family was so sad yet very intelligent. Regarding the richer family, the parents were well meaning but their kids seemed really bratty. The speech they gave their son when they found out he was smoking weed. And "I know I'll go to university and won't be a street cleaner! No offence." 😬😡. I can't remember the name of the program and what happened to the families featured.

Does anyone know where to find the documentaries, or what happened since they were broadcast. Also does anyone else remember any memorable but hard to find documentaries?

I watched this years ago and it stuck with me. It's about British children living in poverty, 1990s. Some really shocking scenes.

God, I just skipped through that in about 5 minutes, and saw some truly scary scenes. And even scarier is that nothing has changed since!

Have you tried searching Play For Today on YouTube? I'm pretty certain I saw dozens of episodes from various years when I searched last year. Not just the very well known ones either. Some were grouped where there were either 20 or 40 or so episodes all listed together.

Ones that have stuck with me are ‘Rain in my heart’ which another poster mentioned about alcoholism and ‘Protecting our Children’ about social services

Wow, thank you, thank you!!

I'm sure I searched before in vain in the past, but maybe I was doing something wrong. There seem to be a load that have only been put up in the last year, but also plenty that have been up much longer.

I shall have a great many hours of pleasure working through those - thank you!!!!

Not really a documentary but kind of is : Crown Court . Fictional cases but capture the essence and attitudes of the 1970s . Verdict day was electrifying.

Again I've found lots of these, just type Crown Court in YouTube search, can even try Crown Court Series 1, 2 etc as some are in chronological order. I watched a number of them.

There was one that I was an"extra" in about how girls were starting to outperform boys academically. And another I remember followed two girls in Africa (can't remember which country) getting married and starting families. One of them died between filming sessions. Both programmes were in the 90s.

@DizzyPuss

Thank you

I really loved ‘the family’ on channel 4, where families allowed cameras into their homes. It was filmed in 2008 so fairly recent and was on catch up until a few years ago ,(I think maybe a couple of special spin offs still are) but it was fascinating. I loved the ones with the Hughes family raising their teenage girls.

The one about Michael Aspel having an affair with Pamela Anderson and being Mel B's dad was brilliant.

The Dying rooms... about a Chinese Orphanage- absolutely heartbreaking , saw it in 1995.. have never forgotten it

One of my favourites from the early 1990s was Signs of the Times about people's tastes in home decor and I'm delighted to see it on iPlayer.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p03rfx32

Btw, there are a load of old docs etc on iPlayer.

I've seen this, it's heartbreaking.

I still have real nightmares about The Dying Rooms. I was pregnant at the time and had an awful dream that i had forgotten my baby in another room. They were all withered when i finally remembered them.. I have this nightmare in one form or another fairly regularly, now it is a pet though!

I’m glad someone else remembers it! I’ve tried searching for it online, but just end up getting lots of results for the Radfords tv series. It would be really interesting to follow up on the children and see what they’re doing now, and how they felt about growing up in a big family.

@TallulahBetty Just watched this. How heartbreaking. All of them kids were neglected. Crack smoking at 11 years old. Children being hit by mums partners because they tried to stop mum being hit. Wow. 🥺.

Another one I saw which was sad. I think it's called "the trouble with girls" it's on YouTube that was shocking.

I remember the large family documentary.
Some of the children seemed a bit sad. About all I can remember really
I do recall ' child of our time ' with Robert Winston. They axed it. it was very good
( bit like the world in action one , 7 up , 14 up etc)

Also, they're not necessarily documentaries, but I'd love to see all of the old episodes of Play For Today made available to watch. They were a great snapshot of life and art at the time, but apart from a few such as Cathy Come Home, Abigail's Party and Nuts In May, you hardly ever hear anything about them - even though they made hundreds of them altogether. A lot of the these have been on iplayer or bbc4 fairly recently I think.

I was obsessed with horses in my younger days, and one documentary I particularly remember from the 1970's was one about shire horses and their breeder - it was called Beauty, Bonny, Daisy, Violet, Grace and Geoffrey Morton.

I remember watching a documentary about social services. Two of the stories on there really stuck with me.
The first was a family who had a young boy, maybe 3 and the mum was pregnant again. The little boy didn’t have a bed and slept on the sofa, social services said he needed one or got him a mattress and it was just on the floor in the corner of a bare room. The mum had to go into hospital to have baby and dad brought the little boy to the social services office the next day and he hadn’t had his nappy changed. I think baby was taken away and the boy given up by dad, or similar, they were both in care at the end of the episode.

Another story showed social services and police go to a home and say to the woman that her partner was a known to have committed child sex offences and she needed to come with them and bring the baby or they would take the baby. There was audio footage of the conversation and then the social worker brought out a young baby in a car chair and took him away. He was just smiling away whilst his mother stayed with that evil man.
Those poor boys stay with me.

@EllieQ was that the one where the upper class family had chickens and one of the younger children used to go and talk to them, and basically just wanted some 1-2-1 time with someone to give him full attention?

There was an amazing one I watched as a child about a couple who lived on a farm and put on an "Animal Ballet" they had two student dancers come and they choreographed a ballet with the horses. I also remember a pony in the house and them feeding a horse through the living room window. To me it just looked absolutely magical. I think the farm was called Tubbledown Farm or Tumbledown Barn or something

I've never been able to track it down, but I'd love to watch it again.

I remember this one. I had to psych myself up to watch it as, at the time I had DS1, who was 3; DS2, who was nearly 2 & DS3 who was a few months old. It was tragic, but I'm glad I watched it.