Great Romances of the 20th Century

Episode 1

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood

26 mins

Two of the most handsome stars of the 1950s who fell in, out and in love again. Their nine-year second marriage was tragically cut short by a boating accident.

Episode 2

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

26 mins

Episode 3

Paul and Linda McCartney

26 mins

Episode 4

Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay

26 mins

The romance between the massively-cantilevered star and her champion muscleman was one of the most oddball stories of Hollywood.

Episode 5

Claire Bloom and Rod Steiger

26 mins

Claire Bloom shot to fame as a beautiful but paralysed young girl in 'Limelight'. Her marriage to one of the greatest method actors of his generation lasted through a turbulent decade.

Episode 6

Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder

26 mins

When two of Hollywood's zaniest comic talents were married, it seemed like the start of a great movie partnership, but cancer claimed Gilda after five short years.

Episode 7

John and Bo Derek

26 mins

John Derek was one of the most handsome leading men of the Fifties but never became a major star, perhaps because he was always in the shadow of his first wife, Ursula Andress. But in the early 1980s, as a director and producer, he made a star of his third.

Episode 8

JFK Junior and Carolyn Bessette

26 mins

Episode 9

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward

26 mins

Their enduring marriage is an antidote to cynics who claim that genuine romance cannot flourish in Tinseltown.

Episode 10

Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland

Episode 11

Shirley Temple and Charles Black

26 mins

Since 1950, former child star and diplomat Shirley Temple has been married to businessman Charles Black. In contrast to most child stars who prove unable to grow up, her adult life has been crammed with achievements.

Episode 12

Dorothy Dandridge and Otto Preminger

26 mins

Episode 13

Henry and Shirlee Fonda

26 mins

Hollywood patriarch Henry Fonda was five times married and often at odds with his equally stellar children. But his romance with Shirlee proved in a rock in a stormy private life.

Episode 14

Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh

Episode 15

Fernando Lamas and Esther Williams

26 mins

Episode 16

Betty Grable and Harry James

26 mins

Episode 17

Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville

26 mins

Episode 18

Oleg Cassini and Gene Tierney

26 mins

When one of the most beautiful leading ladies from Hollywood's heyday married the doyen of New York fashion, a glittering future beckoned. But then their hopes of happiness were dashed by the birth of a severely retarded daughter.

Episode 19

Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester

26 mins

Theirs was one of the most touching and adult relationships in Hollywood, which survived the tortured emotional life of one of Britain's greatest actors.

Episode 20

Douglas Fairbanks Jnr and Joan Crawford

26 mins

Episode 21

John Huston and Evelyn Keyes

26 mins

Huston was one of Hollywood's greatest directors and libertines - but he met his match in feisty Evelyn Keyes.

Episode 22

Gary Merrill and Bette Davis

26 mins

For a brief period, Gary Merrill basked in the shadow cast by one of Hollywood's greatest divas. The tensions this caused inevitably doomed the marriage.

Episode 23

Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev

26 mins

The world was genuinely moved when the former Soviet first lady died of leukaemia. Raisa had stood by her husband's side throughout an extraordinary career which changed the face of world politics.

Episode 24

Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft

Episode 25

Dashiel Hammett and Lillian Hellman

26 mins

One of the most fascinating romances between two of America's greatest literary rebels.

Episode 26

Candice Bergen and Louis Malle

26 mins

Her career began as 'sister' to the world's most famous dummy, and blossomed as model, actress and photojournalist. Her marriage to one of France's leading directors who also established himself in Hollywood was cut short by his premature death.