Jessie Matthews
40 Minutes (1981)
Season 6
40 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994. The documentaries could be on any possible subject, the only connection being that they last forty minutes. Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On.
Released Sept. 30, 1981
Episode 40 min
None+
Genres: Documentary
Keywords: imdb.running-time-in-the-title, imdb.two-word-title
Network: BBC Two
Country: United Kingdom
Languages:
English
S6E1 - Ten Days in Holloway
An inside view of Holloway Prison, reflecting the immense problems and tensions of Britain's largest and toughest women's jail.
Oct. 9, 1986, midnight
S6E2 - Dancing in the Rain
The glittery world of ballroom dancing - behind the scenes at the World Ballroom Dancing Championships, held this year in Blackpool.
Oct. 16, 1986, midnight
S6E3 - Rescue
The lives of the men who make up the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team - a voluntary body of men who help those in difficulty on Ben Nevis and the surrounding mountains.
Oct. 23, 1986, midnight
S6E4 - Olga Goes to Hollywood
In 1978 David Lomax secretly interviewed a Russian couple in Moscow after they had been refused exit visas. They were filmed a year later as they arrived in the West. Now they live in Los Angeles. What price have they paid for their freedom?
Oct. 30, 1986, midnight
S6E5 - The Englishwoman's Wardrobe
Angela Huth asks why is it that as a nation, we have such a rotten reputation as dressers? What are we trying to say about ourselves through our appearance? 'Oh not black again, dear,' says Denis - but Margaret Thatcher knows a secret or two about old faithfuls and reliable standbys. Tonight the Prime Minister reveals, for the first time, the inside story of her wardrobe. Selina Scott always wanting 'to look a bit different from everyone else'; the probation officer who last wore a dress when she danced with the Prince of Wales; the bubbly society hostess who seems to wear only party dresses; the housewife with an eye for the 20p bargain with a designer label - these are just some of the extraordinary and ordinary women who unlock their wardrobes and tell all, proving that the only thing in vogue is individuality.
Nov. 20, 1986, midnight
S6E6 - Special: The Dump
Plans for dumping nuclear waste in rural Lincolnshire - and how traditionally conservative villagers were aroused to protest against them.
Nov. 25, 1986, midnight
S6E7 - Botham's Out
England cricket hero Ian Botham at home and at work during his Test Match ban.
Nov. 27, 1986, midnight
S6E8 - The Chosen Few
The Civil Service Selection Board has never been filmed before. The first of two programmes concentrates on two candidates, one an ex-employee of the Greater London Council, the other a "near miss" of last year.
Dec. 4, 1986, midnight
S6E9 - The Final Board
The second film tells of two hopefuls at the last round, one hoping to enter the Foreign Office, the other aiming for the Home Office. Filmed from the points of view of both the candidates and the selectors. The final result is a shock.
Dec. 11, 1986, midnight
S6E10 - Dear Sister
Eight sisters talk frankly and movingly about the complex relationship of sisterhood.
Dec. 18, 1986, midnight
S6E11 - Just for William
Ten-year-old William, suffering from leukaemia, undergoes a successful bone marrow transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London
Jan. 8, 1987, midnight
S6E12 - Short Stories
The small world of dwarves and midgets.
Jan. 15, 1987, midnight
S6E13 - Home from the Hill
Documentary about Colonel Hilary Hook, formerly of the Indian cavalry and leader of extravagant safaris in Kenya. Hook returned home to England after being evicted from his home in the Kenya Hills, and is finding it hard to readjust to the English way of life.
Jan. 22, 1987, midnight
S6E14 - Struggle for Stonebridge
Young blacks in deprived Brent struggle for a community centre in a bus garage.
Jan. 29, 1987, midnight
S6E15 - Stirring Stuff
Tea, Britain's national beverage - and the ladies who stir it.
Feb. 5, 1987, midnight
S6E16 - Do You Still Love Me?
Uneasy relationships between step-parents and step-children.
Feb. 12, 1987, midnight
S6E17 - A Cabinet of Curiosities
Lucinda Lambton reveals strange and amusing tales from the dusty corners of museums.
Feb. 19, 1987, midnight
S6E18 - Bad Blood
The annual re-union of thousands of bikers in South Dakota.
Feb. 26, 1987, midnight
S6E19 - Fire!
Kingston-upon-Hull (Yorks.) fire station in action.
March 5, 1987, midnight
S6E20 - The Quest for Sergeant Miller
The son of a wartime aviator traces his father's remarkable survival and escape in France.
March 12, 1987, midnight
S6E21 - House of Spirits
Spiritualists in London's Belgravia communing with "the other side".
March 19, 1987, midnight
S6E22 - A New Girl
Moral problems facing a mother who has taken a pregnancy drug and whose child has suffered.
March 26, 1987, midnight
S6E23 - Fly Me
The training of British Airways hostesses and cabin crew.
April 2, 1987, midnight
S6E24 - The Mighty Leek
World championship competitive leek-growing in the North-East of England - with dirty deeds in the greenhouses.
April 9, 1987, midnight
S6E25 - Troublesome People
Caroline Moorehead inquires if pacifists have ever achieved anything over the years.
April 16, 1987, midnight
S6E26 - Street Girls
Child and juvenile prostitutes in Balsall Heath, Birmingham.
April 23, 1987, midnight
S6E27 - Bombay Hotel
Upstairs and downstairs at the famous Taj Mahal Hotel - a luxurious establishment surrounded by poverty.
April 30, 1987, midnight
Network: BBC Two
Episode Runtime: 40 min.
Season Runtime: 40 min.
Released: Sept. 30, 1981
Last Air Date: April 19, 1994, midnight
Status: Ended
Certification: NR
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