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.
Showing Season 6 of 14
Season 6
1986
No overview available.
01. Ten Days in Holloway
1986-10-09
An inside view of Holloway Prison, reflecting the immense problems and tensions of Britain's largest and toughest women's jail.
02. Dancing in the Rain
1986-10-16
The glittery world of ballroom dancing - behind the scenes at the World Ballroom Dancing Championships, held this year in Blackpool.
03. Rescue
1986-10-23
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.
04. Olga Goes to Hollywood
1986-10-30
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?
05. The Englishwoman's Wardrobe
1986-11-20
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.
06. Special: The Dump
1986-11-25
Plans for dumping nuclear waste in rural Lincolnshire - and how traditionally conservative villagers were aroused to protest against them.
07. Botham's Out
1986-11-27
England cricket hero Ian Botham at home and at work during his Test Match ban.
08. The Chosen Few
1986-12-04
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.
09. The Final Board
1986-12-11
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
1986-12-18
Eight sisters talk frankly and movingly about the complex relationship of sisterhood.
11. Just for William
1987-01-08
Ten-year-old William, suffering from leukaemia, undergoes a successful bone marrow transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London
12. Short Stories
1987-01-15
The small world of dwarves and midgets.
13. Home from the Hill
1987-01-22
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
1987-01-29
Young blacks in deprived Brent struggle for a community centre in a bus garage.
15. Stirring Stuff
1987-02-05
Tea, Britain's national beverage - and the ladies who stir it.
16. Do You Still Love Me?
1987-02-12
Uneasy relationships between step-parents and step-children.
17. A Cabinet of Curiosities
1987-02-19
Lucinda Lambton reveals strange and amusing tales from the dusty corners of museums.
18. Bad Blood
1987-02-26
The annual re-union of thousands of bikers in South Dakota.
19. Fire!
1987-03-05
Kingston-upon-Hull (Yorks.) fire station in action.
20. The Quest for Sergeant Miller
1987-03-12
The son of a wartime aviator traces his father's remarkable survival and escape in France.
21. House of Spirits
1987-03-19
Spiritualists in London's Belgravia communing with "the other side".
22. A New Girl
1987-03-26
Moral problems facing a mother who has taken a pregnancy drug and whose child has suffered.
23. Fly Me
1987-04-02
The training of British Airways hostesses and cabin crew.
24. The Mighty Leek
1987-04-09
World championship competitive leek-growing in the North-East of England - with dirty deeds in the greenhouses.
25. Troublesome People
1987-04-16
Caroline Moorehead inquires if pacifists have ever achieved anything over the years.
26. Street Girls
1987-04-23
Child and juvenile prostitutes in Balsall Heath, Birmingham.
27. Bombay Hotel
1987-04-30
Upstairs and downstairs at the famous Taj Mahal Hotel - a luxurious establishment surrounded by poverty.