Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.
Timeshift (Season 6)
Switch off Something - Britain and the Three Day Week (Episode 1)
Air date: 2006-04-01
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Welcome to 1973 - the year that saw the three-day week and the arrival of a fictional character from 2006 in the BBC1 drama Life on Mars. The success of the latter has acted as a springboard for a week-long BBC4 season. This excellent Time Shift concentrates on the winter of strikes and power cuts.
Creating 'Life on Mars' (Episode 2)
Air date: 2006-04-02
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: The creators of Life on Mars (2006) discuss the series and how it was made.
The Da Vinci Code - The Greatest Story Ever Sold (Episode 3)
Air date: 2006-05-01
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: After The Da Vinci Code was cleared of plagiarism, this documentary explores the climate which has permitted it to make such an effective challenge to conventional history.
Carry On Campus (Episode 4)
Air date: 2006-05-10
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Nigel Planer narrates a documentary taking a fond look at the growing pains of the university through the eyes of the writers who immortalised it in the campus novel.
Machine Men (Episode 5)
Air date: 2006-05-13
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Documentary looking at the history of robots, androids and cyborgs in both fact and fiction. Contributors include sci-fi visionary Brian Aldiss and writer Kim Newman.
Oz and Them (Episode 6)
Air date: 2007-01-16
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Documentary on the relationship between Australia and the UK since the Second World War, beginning with the Queen's 1954 visit to Australia and ending with the 2005 Ashes.
Spy Stories: British Espionage in Fact and Fiction (Episode 7)
Air date: 2006-08-30
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Bill Nighy narrates a documentary telling the story of the long and often extraordinary relationship between fact and fiction in the mysterious world of British espionage.
Planet Ping Pong (Episode 8)
Air date: 2006-09-11
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: The story of table tennis and how it became the most popular sport in Asia. The programme revisits the glory days of the 30s and 40s, when thousands would cram into Wembley to watch top players do battle.
Parallel Worlds: A User's Guide (Episode 9)
Air date: 2006-11-29
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Playful viewer's guide to entering another dimension, narrated by Richard Ayoade, featuring some of TV and cinema's best-known alternate universes, from the likes of Star Trek, Sliders, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Futurama and Doctor Who.
Transylvania Babylon (Episode 10)
Air date: 2006-12-28
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: A comic exploration of the cult of Dracula. From Bela Lugosi to bloodsucking bikes, with a Mexican tag-wrestling version thrown in for good measure, this ghoulish compilation is an entertaining homage to the vampire tradition gifted us by Bram Stoker's famous Count.
The New Middle Classes (Episode 11)
Air date: 2007-03-04
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Where has a decade and more of rising prosperity across the social spectrum left Britain's middle class? Much bigger certainly. But does that mean we're all middle class now? Novelist Tim Lott takes a quirky and humorous journey through the new social landscape of Britain in search of some answers.
Rover: The Long Goodbye (Episode 12)
Air date: 2007-03-20
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Documentary which traces the rise and fall of a great British brand, exploring how Rover cars went from defining their eras to becoming victims of their times.
First Rites: From the Cradle to the Prom (Episode 13)
Air date: 2007-03-24
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Documentary which looks at how the rituals that mark our milestones in life - baptism, the first day at school, the first drink - are changing in today's society.
Wedding Rites: In Sickness and in Health (Episode 14)
Air date: 2007-03-25
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Documentary looking at how and why weddings are on the increase and divorce rates in decline in the UK, and if it's the end for traditions and rituals which go back centuries.
Goodbye Children Everywhere (Episode 15)
Air date: 2007-05-26
Runtime: 60 min
Overview: Documentary which celebrates the high and lows of children's TV and asks if the future of mainstream television be one where children are neither seen nor heard, as ITV cuts back on its commitment and the BBC now only makes programmes for under-11s.
