Catch up TV
The Trials of Oppenheimer
J Robert Oppenheimer was one of the most celebrated scientists of his generation. Shy, arrogant and brilliant, he is best known as the man that led the Manhattan Project to spectacular success.\n\nAs the years progressed he also grew into a scientific statesman, leading a government agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, which was trying to develop ways to avoid a nuclear arms race. His attempts at politics, though, were a lot less successful than his scientific endeavours. As he grew more powerful, he started to make serious enemies amongst the establishment, particularly a friend of President Truman's - Lewis Strauss.\n\nThis film tells the extraordinary story of the rise and fall of Robert Oppenheimer. David Straithairn, whose previous recreation of this era in Good Night and Good Luck was Oscar-nominated, plays Oppenheimer trying to defend himself as he was effectively put on trial for being a communist. Re-creation is mixed with expert testimony from a definitive range of commentators, ranging from Oppenheimer's Manhattan Project colleagues to academics like Martin Sherwin and Priscilla MacMillan.\n\nNarrated by Zoe Wanamaker, whose own father experienced the virulent anti-communism of McCarthyism first-hand, it weaves Oppenheimer's biography with the dramatic events of his trial and its tragic aftermath. Emotional and compelling, it is a film that, in a time when non-proliferation is firmly back on the agenda, tells us a lot about the perils of mixing science and government.
Source: BBC 4
Most recent episodes of Storyville
Storyville
The Farthest: Voyager's Interstellar Journey
Twelve billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our solar system and entering the void of deep space. It is the first human-made object ever to do so. Slowly dying within ...
07-07-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Dogs Of War
A Storyville documentary that tells the untold story of a seemingly ordinary Englishman who spent more than 40 years as a mercenary, fighting other people’s wars for money ...
28-04-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Speechless: 2. The Pendulum Swings
This two-part documentary is a personal journey by award-winning film-maker Ric Esther Bienstock that delves into the heart of the culture wars and freedom of speech conversatio ...
21-04-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Speechless: 1. The New Campus Revolution
This two-part documentary is a personal journey by award-winning film-maker Ric Esther Bienstock that delves into the heart of the culture wars and freedom of speech conversatio ...
14-04-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
André Is An Idiot
A Storyville documentary that follows André, who, despite receiving a terminal diagnosis, is determined to die with humour, curiosity and defiance.
07-04-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Three Dads And A Baby
This intimate and pioneering documentary explores a three-way relationship and a radically different approach to fatherhood. In Norway, trans people were subjected to forced ste ...
31-03-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Khartoum
A Storyville documentary, set against the backdrop of conflict in Sudan, that follows five Khartoum residents as they search for freedom amid revolution and war.
24-03-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Portrait Of A Confused Father
Filmed over more than 20 years, this deeply personal documentary charts an extraordinary father–son relationship that takes an unexpected and tragic turn.\n\nNorwegian fil ...
17-03-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Mistress Dispeller
An intimate and candid film that follows the course of an extramarital affair in modern China from the perspectives of the couple, the mistress and the woman hired to save the m ...
10-03-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Red Light To Limelight
In a red-light district of Kolkata, a group of women reclaim their voices through the power of storytelling.\n\nGiven unprecedented access, this film follows Rabin, Bilkis, Afsa ...
03-03-2026
BBC 4
Most popular episodes of Storyville
Storyville
Speechless: 1. The New Campus Revolution
This two-part documentary is a personal journey by award-winning film-maker Ric Esther Bienstock that delves into the heart of the culture wars and freedom of speech conversatio ...
14-04-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Three Dads And A Baby
This intimate and pioneering documentary explores a three-way relationship and a radically different approach to fatherhood. In Norway, trans people were subjected to forced ste ...
31-03-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
Speechless: 2. The Pendulum Swings
This two-part documentary is a personal journey by award-winning film-maker Ric Esther Bienstock that delves into the heart of the culture wars and freedom of speech conversatio ...
21-04-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
The Darkest Web
For US agent Greg Squire and a dedicated network of specialist undercover investigators around the world, the mission is clear: track and catch serial paedophiles who operate ac ...
17-02-2026
BBC 4
Storyville
The Gullspång Miracle: A Nordic Mystery
When two sisters buy an apartment in the small Swedish town of Gullspång, they experience their own divine premonition. To their surprise, the seller is identical to their ...
21-05-2024
BBC 4
Storyville
Tango With Putin
In Putin’s Russia, former music radio producer Natasha Sindeeva dreams of becoming famous and decides to build her own TV station to focus on pop culture. \n\nTango with P ...
24-03-2022
BBC 4
Storyville
United Skates
When America's last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battles in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture - one ...
02-10-2021
BBC 4
Storyville
The Fire Within
On 3 June 1991 at 3.18pm, a pyroclastic flow erupted from Mount Unzen in Japan. A cloud of superheated gases and particles descended at more than 100mph from the peak of the vol ...
22-10-2022
BBC 4