Best BBC iPlayer Documentaries to Watch in the UK

26.2 to Life

This deeply moving film follows the maximum-security detainees training to run a marathon. It’s a troubling portrait of masculinity, but one which offers hope.

The Age of Stupid

A man living in the devastated world of 2055, looking at footage from 2008 and asks: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Amazing Grace

A documentary presenting Aretha Franklin with choir at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles in January 1972.

André Is an Idiot

André, who, despite receiving a terminal diagnosis, is determined to die with humour, curiosity and defiance.

Atomic People

First-hand accounts from surviving 'Hibakusha', the only people left to have survived a nuclear bomb, recall the destruction left in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Attica

This unnervingly vivid dive into the 1971 uprising sheds new light on the enduring violence and racism of the prison system and highlights the need for reform 50 years later.

Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story

Armed with just a typewriter, Mary Whitehouse began a 30-year campaign to turn back the tide of the permissive culture she saw sweeping through society.

Becoming Frida Kahlo

Becoming Frida Kahlo strips away the myths to reveal the real Frida – a passionate and brilliant artist living through extraordinary times.

Billie

The definitive story of Billie Holiday, the world's greatest and most controversial jazz singer, is now revealed through a wealth of never-before heard interviews and research.

Birdsong

Ornithologist Seán Ronayne from Cobh, Co. Cork is on a mission to record the sound of every bird species in Ireland – that’s nearly 200 birds.

Black Box Diaries

A documentary that follows 25-year-old journalist Shiori Ito’s courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in 2015 and attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender.

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

Filmmaker Stanley Nelson examines the rise of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and its impact on civil rights and American culture.

Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley

Using incredible colour archive film capturing ordinary moments of people on the streets, Blitz Spirit shows the remarkable resilience and terrible suffering that people endured.

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

The life and career of the hailed Hollywood movie star and underappreciated genius inventor, Hedy Lamarr.

A Bunch of Amateurs

Bradford Movie Makers is one of the oldest amateur clubs in the world. Once a thriving community, these days the membership is dwindling and the group struggles to keep afloat.

Collective

Journalists uncover health care fraud in the wake of a deadly nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania, in 2015.

Copa 71

The pioneering footballers of the 1971 Women's World Cup tell their story, giving insight into a tournament that witnessed record crowds but is written out of sporting history.

Dolly Parton: Here I Am

Dolly Parton leads a moving, musical journey in this documentary that details the people and places who have helped shape her iconic career.

Duran Duran: There's Something You Should Know

Celebrating Duran Duran with exclusive backstage access, interviews with the band and rare footage charting their rise to fame, and the highs and lows of their career.

Dynasties

Delve into the secret lives of charismatic, captivating animals as they fight for their families against the odds.

The Eagle Huntress

Aishol-pan, a 13-year-old girl, trains to become the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter.

Ella Fitzgerald - Just One of Those Things

From a 1934 talent contest at the Apollo theatre in Harlem, the film follows Ella's extraordinary journey across five decades.

Face to Face

Series of interviews from the late 1950s and early 1960s, with leading personalities of the day.

Flee

Amin Nawabi grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband.