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 (27)
1. Ten Days in Holloway
Aired 9 October 1986 • 40 min
An inside view of Holloway Prison, reflecting the immense problems and tensions of Britain's largest and toughest women's jail.
2. Dancing in the Rain
Aired 16 October 1986 • 40 min
The glittery world of ballroom dancing - behind the scenes at the World Ballroom Dancing Championships, held this year in Blackpool.
3. Rescue
Aired 23 October 1986 • 40 min
The lives of the men who make up the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team - a voluntary body of men who help those in difficulty on Ben Nevis and the surrounding mountains.
4. Olga Goes to Hollywood
Aired 30 October 1986 • 40 min
In 1978 David Lomax secretly interviewed a Russian couple in Moscow after they had been refused exit visas. They were filmed a year later as they arrived in the West. Now they live in Los Angeles. What price have they paid for their freedom?
5. The Englishwoman's Wardrobe
Aired 20 November 1986 • 40 min
Angela Huth asks why is it that as a nation, we have such a rotten reputation as dressers? What are we trying to say about ourselves through our appearance? 'Oh not black again, dear,' says Denis - but Margaret Thatcher knows a secret or two about old faithfuls and reliable standbys. Tonight the Prime Minister reveals, for the first time, the inside story of her wardrobe. Selina Scott always wanting 'to look a bit different from everyone else'; the probation officer who last wore a dress when she danced with the Prince of Wales; the bubbly society hostess who seems to wear only party dresses; the housewife with an eye for the 20p bargain with a designer label - these are just some of the extraordinary and ordinary women who unlock their wardrobes and tell all, proving that the only thing in vogue is individuality.
6. Special: The Dump
Aired 25 November 1986 • 40 min
Plans for dumping nuclear waste in rural Lincolnshire - and how traditionally conservative villagers were aroused to protest against them.
7. Botham's Out
Aired 27 November 1986 • 40 min
England cricket hero Ian Botham at home and at work during his Test Match ban.
8. The Chosen Few
Aired 4 December 1986 • 40 min
The Civil Service Selection Board has never been filmed before. The first of two programmes concentrates on two candidates, one an ex-employee of the Greater London Council, the other a "near miss" of last year.
9. The Final Board
Aired 11 December 1986 • 40 min
The second film tells of two hopefuls at the last round, one hoping to enter the Foreign Office, the other aiming for the Home Office. Filmed from the points of view of both the candidates and the selectors. The final result is a shock.
10. Dear Sister
Aired 18 December 1986 • 40 min
Eight sisters talk frankly and movingly about the complex relationship of sisterhood.
11. Just for William
Aired 8 January 1987 • 40 min
Ten-year-old William, suffering from leukaemia, undergoes a successful bone marrow transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London
12. Short Stories
Aired 15 January 1987 • 40 min
The small world of dwarves and midgets.
13. Home from the Hill
Aired 22 January 1987 • 40 min
Documentary about Colonel Hilary Hook, formerly of the Indian cavalry and leader of extravagant safaris in Kenya. Hook returned home to England after being evicted from his home in the Kenya Hills, and is finding it hard to readjust to the English way of life.
14. Struggle for Stonebridge
Aired 29 January 1987 • 40 min
Young blacks in deprived Brent struggle for a community centre in a bus garage.
15. Stirring Stuff
Aired 5 February 1987 • 40 min
Tea, Britain's national beverage - and the ladies who stir it.
16. Do You Still Love Me?
Aired 12 February 1987 • 40 min
Uneasy relationships between step-parents and step-children.
17. A Cabinet of Curiosities
Aired 19 February 1987 • 40 min
Lucinda Lambton reveals strange and amusing tales from the dusty corners of museums.
18. Bad Blood
Aired 26 February 1987 • 40 min
The annual re-union of thousands of bikers in South Dakota.
19. Fire!
Aired 5 March 1987 • 40 min
Kingston-upon-Hull (Yorks.) fire station in action.
20. The Quest for Sergeant Miller
Aired 12 March 1987 • 40 min
The son of a wartime aviator traces his father's remarkable survival and escape in France.
21. House of Spirits
Aired 19 March 1987 • 40 min
Spiritualists in London's Belgravia communing with "the other side".
22. A New Girl
Aired 26 March 1987 • 40 min
Moral problems facing a mother who has taken a pregnancy drug and whose child has suffered.
23. Fly Me
Aired 2 April 1987 • 40 min
The training of British Airways hostesses and cabin crew.
24. The Mighty Leek
Aired 9 April 1987 • 40 min
World championship competitive leek-growing in the North-East of England - with dirty deeds in the greenhouses.
25. Troublesome People
Aired 16 April 1987 • 40 min
Caroline Moorehead inquires if pacifists have ever achieved anything over the years.
26. Street Girls
Aired 23 April 1987 • 40 min
Child and juvenile prostitutes in Balsall Heath, Birmingham.
27. Bombay Hotel
Aired 30 April 1987 • 40 min
Upstairs and downstairs at the famous Taj Mahal Hotel - a luxurious establishment surrounded by poverty.