Timeshift

- Season 8

(2008)

Journalist and author Jonathan Freedland asks, in a quick tour through the history of the US presidency, what qualities a great president needs and what can be learnt from the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, JFK, or perhaps even Richard Nixon, about what it takes to make a mark in the White House. He is helped by notable contributors, including James Naughtie, Shirley Williams, Douglas Hurd, Simon Hoggart, and Bonnie Greer, who each give their frank assessments of some of America's greatest presidents.

Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers. At the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural - Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted -Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers- until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of ...

Documentary which tells the surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end. After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains? The new British locomotives were designed to stay in ...

To mark 100 years of romance publishers Mills and Boon, literary novelist Stella Duffy takes on the challenge of writing for them. Romantic fiction is a global phenomenon, and Mills and Boon are among the biggest names in the business. The company welcomes submissions from new authors, but as Duffy soon finds out, writing a Mills and Boon is harder than it looks. Help is at hand from the publishers themselves, a prolific Mills and Boon author and some avid romance fans, as Duffy's quest to create the perfect romantic novel takes her from London to Italy on a journey ...

A look at the world of cryptic crosswords, offering up the secrets of these seemingly impenetrable puzzles. Crossword setter Don Manley, AKA Quixote, reveals the tricks that compilers use to bamboozle and entertain solvers using a crossword he created especially for the programme. We also find out why Britain became home to the cryptic crossword, how a crossword nearly put paid to the D-Day invasion and why London Underground is elevating the crossword to an art form. Author Colin Dexter explains why Inspector Morse loved his crossword, Martin Bell reveals how his ...

Documentary celebrating Britain's tradition of rich and much-loved comic songs, revealing the skill involved in creating them. Ranging from "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" by Noel Coward to "Ernie" by Benny Hill. Contributors include Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, Neil Innes, Bill Oddie, Mitch Benn (the Now Show), producer Cameron Mackintosh, Nicholas Parsons, Ed Stewart, and Kit and the Widow.

Documentary which takes a provocative and entertaining journey through the BBC's own fashion collection. For 50 years the BBC has often treated fashion as a frivolous, decadent diversion from the serious matters of life, but now a 'style council' of fashion writers and commentators including Peter York, Colin McDowell, Ted Polhemus and Hilary Alexander turns the tables and lets British fashion take on the BBC. In the 1950s we find programmes debating whether men should decide what women wear. In the 1960s we see Alan Whicker unleashed upon the 'silly, superficial ...

Journalist John Harris travels around England to find out why the north-south divide is still an economic reality and if anything can be done to close it. Oasis v Blur, Manchester United v Chelsea, Old Labour v New Labour and pies v polenta - Harris wonders whether it is a light-hearted rivalry about accents, music, sport, food and politics or something deeper. Our high streets look the same, we drive the same cars, we eat at the same chains, but beneath the surface lies a more troubling story of economic inequalities that define a divide that won't go away. The ...