Documentaries
Documentaries is a documentary on BBC1. Historian Simon Schama recounts the story of eight moments of high drama in the making of eight artistic masterpieces. The program has been available since 2024. A total of 295 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in June 2025.
Last episode
Documentaries
New
5. Turner
Simon Schama tells the extraordinary story of how Britain's greatest painter, JMW Turner, created one of his most powerful paintings, The Slave Ship.
Catching up on Documentaries?
Don't want to miss an episode anymore? Set up a free alarm and receive an email when new episodes are available. Handy!
Dougie is in Skye to find out how crofters are providing a summer home for corncrakes. Meanwhile, Shahbaz sails to Ailsa Craig to see how conservationists are protecting the island's seabird colony.
In his favourite city, Alexander Armstrong explores the secret underground treasures that made Rome the powerhouse of the ancient world.
Engineer Rob Bell explores the new inventions - from giant troop-carrying gliders to tanks that could operate on water - that made the Normandy invasion in 1944 possible.
Simon Schama recounts the story of eight moments of drama in the making of eight great works of art. He looks at Jacques Louis David's revolutionary painting Death of Marat.
Dougie reports on the bluetongue virus and meets the Scottish scientists studying its spread. Meanwhile, Shahbaz meets Belgian vet students getting hands-on experience on Scottish farms.
Pulp perform an intimate and exclusive show for BBC Radio 2 In Concert, playing some of their most-loved classic hits as well as exclusive tracks from their album More.
May 2025
Why did one of the world's greatest artists cut up his own masterpiece? Simon Schama tells the story of Rembrandt van Rijn's rise and fall in glittering 17th-century Amsterdam.
Dougie is in Glen Clova to find out how a shooting estate is balancing biodiversity and flood resilience. Meanwhile, Anne joins a team of firefighters learning how to tackle wildfires with fire.
Jason Mohammad presents all the latest scores, results and reaction from the final day of the Premier League season, including the game between Nottingham Forest and Chelsea.
Wartime drama. A small group of Royal Marines carry out a covert canoe raid on the docks of Bordeaux during World War II in a mission to destroy the blockade-busting Nazi ships.
Documentary charting the rise and fall of the pop group synonymous with 1980s glamour. Hits featured include Girls on Film, Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf.
In the final part of Dennis Potter's classic drama serial with music, as fiction and fact fight for the same space, the plots and narratives head to their conclusions.
Dennis Potter's classic drama serial with music. Marlow as a child visits London, but is not impressed. A film option on Marlow's novel thickens the plot.
Dennis Potter's surreal drama with music. Marlow is getting better and the different strands of his fiction and reality begin to occupy the same time and place.
Simon Schama wonders how Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Ecstasy of St Thereza, which depicts a nun in the state of orgasmic bliss, was ever allowed to get past the censors.
Dougie is at Loch Ness to learn about plans to develop a pumped hydro storage scheme. Meanwhile, Cammy meets a family in Galloway who are forging their future through contract farming.
Kate Bush performs songs such as Wuthering Heights, Babooshka and Running up That Hill on BBC TV shows, alongside other intriguing and lesser-known material in the BBC studios.
Thriller set in the underworld of London's Russian mafia, starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. A midwife sets out to discover the truth behind the death of a prostitute.
Dennis Potter's drama serial with music. Marlow thinks back to the war when he was a little boy and remembers seeing his mother having illicit sex in the Forest of Dean.