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22 Episodes 2005 - 2006
Episode 1
Time Shift looks at how satirists have portrayed politicians in such television creations as Yes Minister Spitting Image and The New Statesman.
Episode 2
Sixty years ago, postwar Europe was seen as a dirty, chaotic place where you couldn't drink the water. Now Brits dream of restoring crumbling chateaux in rural France - so what happened to change our minds?
Episode 3
Time Shift examines the history of English football fans travelling to Europe, and the attendant sub-culture of drinking and violence.
Episode 4
A member of OJ Simpson's "dream team", plus the lawyer who defended nanny Louise Woodward , are among contributors to Time Shift's history of the camera in the courtroom.
Episode 5
Since King Kong broke box office records, apes have been big business. Time Shift takes a wry look at a neglected genre, from Tarzan and Planet of the Apes to B-movies and cult films, like Bedtime with Bonzo.
Episode 6
40 mins
Adam Hart-Davis explores the world of Britain's 40,000 amateur astronomers. While the last century saw amateurs eclipsed by high technology, increasingly sophisticated home equipment has seen the amateur community enter a new collaborative relationship with the professionals. Contributors include bestselling novelist Terry Pratchett, Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project and the godfather of popular astronomy Patrick Moore.
Episode 7
Time Shift takes a look at the now notorious show, whose blacked-up singing and dancing routines ruled the weekend schedules for 21 years.
Episode 8
Time Shift charts the devastating effect on children - some as young as five - who care for infirm parents.
Episode 9
Documentary recalling the social revolution which swept across Britain from 1946. A new dance craze, the Jitterbug, captured the mood of the country as years of war and austerity were cast off. The film uses archive footage and a soundtrack of classic hits, including music by Louis Jordan, Alma Cogan, Billie Holiday and Ray Charles.
Episode 10
Remembering the golden age of the TV panel game as What's My Line?, The Name's the Same and Ask Your Dad make their debuts during the years 1945-55. Narrated by Hugh Dennis.
Episode 11
The changing sporting fortunes of England and Australia as recounted in this Time Shift documentary.
Episode 12
Time Shift investigates how Life magazine's opposition to Attlee's radical Labour government inspired them to suppress Eugene Smith's photographs of the 1950 general election.
Episode 13
40 mins
Documentary about the birth of the BBC's Third Programme (which later became Radio 3). From 1946, the Third Programme embodied the post-war ideal that High Culture could be brought to everyone -- a vision shared, briefly, by both Left and Right in post-war British politics.
Episode 14
In 1955 young producer of Travellers' Tales David Attenborough was persuaded by six Oxbridge undergraduates to give some money and filmstock so they could film their unique overland journey by Land Rover from London to Singapore. The team fly across the Channel, travel through France, brewing tea at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Then onward through Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. They inspect ancient ruins in Syria, learn to waterski in The Lebanon and spend time in a Nairn Bus workshop in Iraq. They demo the landrovers to the Iranian Army, travel through Pakistan to India where they visit the Taj Mahal and the tea plantations of Darjeeling. Onto previously inaccessible Nepal and through fairly inaccessible Burma. There they are escorted by soldiers whose jeep they have to repair. Then through Malaya and onto the Singapore causeway where a welcoming committee awaits.
Episode 15
40 mins
The history of Sherlock Holmes.
Episode 16
Time Shift presents clips of the strangest Sherlocks, with pastiche and parody from Roland Rat to John Cleese.
Episode 17
39 mins
Robert Lindsay and Miranda Richardson guest in Time Shift's profile of the TV dramatist.
Episode 18
Daniela Nardini narrates a documentary exploring why the British funeral has acquired a new spirit of informality. Today's departed are just as likely to be sent on their way to the strains of Robbie Williams as they are to a classic hymn. A bewildering array of coffin styles is available, with even an environmentally-friendly wicker casket for the organically-minded. Are we improvising new rituals to fill a more profound vacuum in our secular society?
Episode 19
Jimmy McGovern and Ken Loach are among those reflecting on left-wing drama of the 1960s and 70s, looking at works as diverse as Take Me Home and Our Friends in the North.
Episode 20
While the British are known for their politeness, there have always been a notable few who have stood out for their plain-speaking. This trawls the archives to show prime examples.
Episode 21
A quirky Time Shift compilation of TV appearances by these two heavenly bodies, including Patrick Moore 's meeting with a vicar who refuses to believe the Sun is hot.
Episode 22
40 mins
How the Central Office of Information developed its tone and style in order to keep up the flow of public information films from the Second World War onwards.