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Synopsis
Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can be found on US cable channels without the branding.
Episode 14 : Chairman Mao the Last Emperor
December. 20,1993
Mao Tse-tung ruled China from 1949 until his death in 1976, and this film examines for the first time on television the true extent of his tyranny and the brutality of his regime. His rise to power, and the revolution that swept away the corruption of Chiang Kai-shek, was accompanied with optimism, but in the following 25 years he virtually destroyed China. Mao's promiscuity with young girls who "felt honoured to have sex with Mao" is revealed by his doctor Li Zhisui; and former Red Guard Zheng Yi reveals that cannibalism played a part in the Cultural Revolution.
Followed by CHRISTMAS IN SARAJEVO: As we enjoy Christmas, how are the inhabitants of the Sarajevo street coping with freezing conditions, starvation and shelling? Each night over the holiday period there will be further reports.
Episode 13 : The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald
November. 21,1993
Was Lee Harvey Oswald a mentally disturbed gunman acting alone, as the report of the Warren Commission suggested? Was he one of two gunmen, as the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded? Or was he, as he claimed, an innocent fall guy? This Timewatch investigative biography sifts through the mysteries of Oswald's life, from his troubled childhood and his Marine service to his dramatic defection to the Soviet Union in 1959 and his return to the USA.
Episode 12 : Children of the Third Reich
November. 10,1993
In April, a group of 18 people met in a small town halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Some were Jewish, the sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors; the rest were German, the children of Nazi war criminals. Producer Catrine Clay interviewed the participants as they faced up to a hitherto unspeakable shared history. One of them is the son of Martin Boorman, another is the son a woman found buried under a pile of corpses in Belsen.
Episode 11 : Hunger Strike: A Hidden History
October. 13,1993
On 5 May 1981, Bobby Sands died on hunger strike at the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. Nine more prisoners starved themselves to death. Using first-hand testimony, this programme tells the story.
Episode 10 : The Mother of All Battles
September. 29,1993
It cost more lives than the British Army lost in the entire Second World War. The Battle of Kursk, south of Moscow, was fought 50 years ago. It was the biggest armoured battle in history. If this is the case, why have few of us ever heard of it? Timewatch investigates.
Episode 9 : True Story of the Roman Arena
September. 15,1993
Julius Caesar courted popular support with spectacular displays of gladiatorial combat. But new archaeological research explains what really went on inside the Roman amphitheatre, and how cruelty and violence became the corner-stone of political and social life. Drawing on contemporary accounts and featuring computer reconstructions of the Colosseum, the historical documentary series returns with a disturbing insight into the eternal appetite for violence in entertainment.
Episode 8 : On Behalf of the State: Memories of Hanging
June. 02,1993
On 23rd August, 1964, the last person in Britain was hanged. To those involved in it, the process of judicial execution was a 'most secret business', never to be discussed, least of all with the media. But now they have broken their silence. This unique account strips away the mystery and reveals the truth about the State's ultimate punishment.
Episode 7 : Special: Battle of the Bombers
April. 07,1993
Fifty years ago Bomber Command launched a massive campaign against Nazi Germany - the Battle of the Ruhr. In this special edition Jonathan Dimbleby explores the military and moral issues posed by a form of warfare which, since the end of the war, has become a matter of great contention. Was Britain's area-bombing campaign a necessary strategy to defeat Hitler or was it a war crime? The film revisits the industrial city of Essen to hear from Germans who endured the unceasing night-time campaign and, in the studio, Dimbleby questions RAF veterans, victims of the bombing, military historians and those recently involved in policy-making.
Episode 6 : Buffalo Bill
March. 24,1993
A new look at the legend of William F Cody. From 1883 to 1916, millions of people throughout the world thrilled to the adventures of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show, where Indians danced to the rhythms of war and cowboys rode to the rescue. These vivid re-enactments of life on the plains were accepted as fact and handed down from generation to generation. Using rare film fragments and talking to those who remember Cody, Timewatch uncovers the true story behind the legend.
Episode 5 : The Pill: Prescription for Revolution
March. 10,1993
Described as "the greatest invention since the wheel" by novelist Angela Carter, the contraceptive pill played a crucial role in the sexual and social revolution of the 60s and 70s. With the help of archive footage from 'Up the Junction', 'Juliet Bravo' and 'Absolutely Fabulous', and interviews with women who talk frankly about the effect the pill has had on their sexual and working lives, Timewatch asks whether the introduction of the pill was a blessing or a burden.
Episode 4 : The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover
February. 24,1993
A new profile of the man who was director of the FBI for nearly 50 years. This investigation of Hoover's private life reveals that top gangsters had evidence of his secret, homosexual love life and used it to blackmail him. Tainted by ties to organised crime, Hoover turned a blind eye to the Mafia during the vital years of its growth.
Episode 3 : The Stolen Child
February. 10,1993
During the Second World War the Nazis snatched 200,000 Aryan-looking Polish children from their mothers to replenish the "master race" back in Germany. This film tells the extraordinary story of two cousins who were stolen on the same day, 4-year-old Alojzy and 10-year-old Leon. Alojzy was adopted by a "good" Nazi family and soon forgot his Polish past, becoming a model German. When Alojzy was told at age 12 of his Polish parentage, he was horrified, believing the Poles to be Untermensch ("less than human"). It was years before he could accept his real mother and years before the Polish people forgave him his German identity.
Episode 2 : The Sparks That Lit the Bonfire
January. 27,1993
Examines the origins of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and reveals startling new evidence of the Irish government's crucial role in the emergence of the Provisional IRA. With the help of interviews with Irish ex-cabinet ministers and former leading members of the Republican movement, it details Dublin's funding of the IRA, why it favoured its more radical elements, and how the Irish government secretly plotted to invade Northern Ireland in 1970. Peter Taylor reports.
Episode 1 : Allied to the Mafia
January. 13,1993
The extraordinary story of one of the war's most secret alliances - between the US Naval Intelligence and the Mafia. Denied for 50 years, the pact was in fact begun on the New York waterfront and sealed in the mountains of Sicily. Now the key players speak for the first time about the deal uniting US Intelligence with "Lucky" Luciano and Don Calò Vizzini - the most feared Godfathers of their day. In Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, head of Italy's newest political party and the Mafia's number one target, talks about the tragic legacy of this most unholy alliance. NEW SEASON.
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