Re: Documentaries You Like
The Beatles Anthology - This was really long (like, 8 DVDs or something), but was really interesting. And I say that as someone who likes the Beatles, but is not any sort of megafan or anything....
Seconded.
One documentary I can recommend to anyone is
TT3D: Closer To The Edge, which focuses on the highs and lows of the 2010 Isle Of Man TT, and the build-up and preparations by some of the motorcyclists involved. Thrilling, touching, and will doubtlessly appeal to non-bike fans (including myself) - although it does seem to focus mostly on the hilarious Guy Martin (yes, him from BBC One's "The Boat That Guy Built") which is still no bad thing.
It's still in some cinemas at the moment, and is definitely my favourite film of the year so far - that is, until I get around to seeing
Senna, which will hopefully be even better.
As for other documentary series, I've enjoyed the recent Brian Cox series "Wonders of the Universe" although arguably I've enjoyed Jim Al-Khalili's documentaries a little bit more, especially his recent "Everything and Nothing." I particularly like the way Khalili goes into the history of science in his programmes, which I find fascinating.
I also like most of the recent output from BBC Two's "Wonderland," BBC Four's "Storyville" (including their recent Kidult season) and More4's "True Stories" strands, which have also shown previously theatrically-released documentaries such as
Spellbound and
Waltz With Bashir.
BBC Four had also shown an occasional series of music documentaries by Tony Palmer which were very enjoyable, including
Bird on a Wire (about Leonard Cohen),
O Fortuna (Carl Orff),
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (Henryk Górecki) and
Holst - In The Bleak Midwinter.
I'll also mention radio documentaries, and (especially in the last few months) there have been some fascinating ones, such as Simon Mayo's
In My Life: John Lennon Remembered and (just this past week) Kris Kristofferson's Bob Dylan documentary series on BBC 6music, and Radio 4's
David Attenborough's Life Stories. Also, going back to Brian Cox, he also presented two interesting radio documentaries on Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman as part of Radio 4's "Archive on 4" strand.
