About this season
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.
Episodes (24)
1. The Thawing of a Cold War Warrior
Aired 25 October 1990 • 40 min
2. Fit to Drop
Aired 1 November 1990 • 40 min
3. It's Eileen
Aired 8 November 1990 • 40 min
4. A Summer in the Country
Aired 15 November 1990 • 40 min
5. Battleship Beach
Aired 22 November 1990 • 40 min
6. Brief Encounters
Aired 29 November 1990 • 40 min
7. Malika's Hotel
Aired 6 December 1990 • 40 min
Malika Shawa is an old girl of Cheltenham Ladies College. She's also a Palestinian aristocrat, who owns the only hotel in the Gaza Strip. In the refugee camp next door, the Palestinian intifada - an uprising against Israeli occupation - began three years ago this week. Today, Malika's guests are a strange collection of journalists, diplomats and foreigners on fact-finding tours. For them, her hotel is 'an oasis from the filth, smells and violence that surrounds it'.
8. Chocolate!
Aired 20 December 1990 • 40 min
9. Whatever Happened to Susi?
Aired 3 January 1991 • 40 min
10. Clever Trevor
Aired 10 January 1991 • 40 min
The BBC 40 Mins documentary team follow Trevor Smith, owner of Trevor Smith's Animal World, a company that supplies animals for film and television.
11. Around Midnight
Aired 24 January 1991 • 40 min
12. Where There's Hope
Aired 31 January 1991 • 40 min
13. The Prisoner
Aired 7 February 1991 • 40 min
14. Welcome to Surbiton
Aired 14 February 1991 • 40 min
15. A Cruel Ritual
Aired 21 February 1991 • 40 min
'I was born and brought up in Britain. I was 8 years old when I was circumcised. I really thought I was going to die, because of the pain, having no anaesthetic. You have a lady holding your mouth so you cannot scream, you have two ladies on your chest and the other two holding the legs.'. Seven years ago, 40 Minutes' first film on female circumcision led to the law which banned it in this country. Today's film reveals that the practice of genital mutilation of young girls is still flourishing in Britain today.
16. Children of the Fire
Aired 28 February 1991 • 40 min
Five young Russian survivors of the Soviet Union's worst rail disaster arrive in Manchester for medical treatment. Badly burned in the explosion in 1989, they hope plastic surgeon Stewart Watson can help. Bewildered, without a word of English, they face major surgery and the unfamiliar west. Immediately they're the centre of attraction, with a press conference on their first day in hospital and an invitation to Downing Street before they leave.
17. The Big Game
Aired 7 March 1991 • 40 min
18. Our Brilliant Careers
Aired 14 March 1991 • 40 min
19. Battered Men
Aired 21 March 1991 • 40 min
20. The Entertainers
Aired 28 March 1991 • 40 min
21. Video Vultures
Aired 4 April 1991 • 40 min
22. Beyond the Crystal Ball
Aired 11 April 1991 • 40 min
23. Suburbs in the Sky
Aired 18 April 1991 • 40 min
24. Fly Me to Dunoon
Aired 25 April 1991 • 40 min