Timeshift Season 6 Episodes

Episode 1

Switch Off Something: Britain and the Three Day Week

Philip Glenister narrates a documentary about Britain and the Three-Day Week. In the winter of 1973-74, a confrontation between the big unions and the government took the country to the brink - and the government lost. Contributors include George Galloway, Tony Booth, Tony Benn and Simon Hoggart.

Episode 2

Creating 'Life on Mars'

20 mins

The creators of Life on Mars (2006) discuss the series and how it was made.

Episode 3

The Da Vinci Code: The Greatest Story Ever Sold

After Dan Brown's publishing phenomenon The Da Vinci Code was cleared of plagiarism charges, this documentary explores the climate which has permitted a fictional story to make such an effective challenge to conventional history that it has forced a counter-attack from the Church, the art world and academics. Has Brown cracked the most difficult code of all our 21st-century cultural DNA? Contributors include Richard Leigh, author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, art critic Brian Sewell, novelist Sarah Dunant, columnist David Aaronovitch and Opus Dei director Jack Valero.

Episode 4

Carry on Campus

Nigel Planer narrates a documentary taking a fond look at the growing pains of the university through the eyes of the writers who immortalized it in the campus novel.

Episode 5

Machine Men

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.

Episode 6

Oz and Them

60 mins

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.

Episode 7

Spy Stories: British Espionage in Fact and Fiction

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.

Episode 8

Planet Ping Pong

The story of table tennis and how it became the most popular sport in Asia. The program revisits the glory days of the 30s and 40s, when thousands would cram into Wembley to watch top players do battle. Contributors include British world champion Johnny Leach, China's former World and Olympic women's champion Deng Yaping, and writers Howard Jacobson and Matthew Syed.

Episode 9

Parallel Worlds: A User's Guide

60 mins

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.

Episode 10

Transylvania Babylon

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.

Episode 11

The New Middle Classes

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.

Episode 12

Rover: The Long Goodbye

40 mins

This documentary traces the rise and fall of a great British brand. In the days when Britain's car industry was the envy of the world, Rover epitomized everything to which the driver of taste aspired, but in 2005 it reached the end of the road. The film explores how Rover cars went from defining their eras to becoming victims of their times, telling the story behind the key models to the controversial joint ventures with Japanese and Indian manufacturers in later years.

Episode 13

First Rites: From the Cradle to the Prom

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.

Episode 14

Wedding Rites: In Sickness and in Health

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.

Episode 15

Goodbye Children Everywhere: The Changing World of Children's Television

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 programs for under-11s.