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The Best Episodes of Timeshift

Every episode of Timeshift ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Timeshift!

Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.
Genre:Documentary
Network:BBC Four

Best Episodes Summary

"The Kneale Tapes" is the best rated episode of "Timeshift". It scored 8.8/10 based on 6 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 10/15/2003. This episode scored 0.4 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Golden Age of Liners".

  • The Kneale Tapes
    8.8/106 votes
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    #1 - The Kneale Tapes

    Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 10/15/2003

    Time Shift profiles Nigel Kneale, the brains behind such disconcerting chillers as The Stone Tapes and The Ouatermass Experiment.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Golden Age of Liners
    8.4/1011 votes
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    #2 - The Golden Age of Liners

    Season 9 Episode 2 - Aired 10/22/2009

    Paul Atterbury travels around Britain finding out how the great ocean liners made such a mark on the popular imagination and why they continue to enchant.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Klezmer
    8.4/108 votes
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    #3 - Klezmer

    Season 12 Episode 3 - Aired 10/14/2012

    Michael Grade narrates the story of klezmer, from its origins in Jewish folk music performed at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs to a musical sensation enjoyed by millions worldwide.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Penny Blacks & Twopenny Blues: How Britain Got Stuck on Stamps
    8.4/105 votes
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    #4 - Penny Blacks & Twopenny Blues: How Britain Got Stuck on Stamps

    Season 16 Episode 3 - Aired 11/14/2016

    A look at how the introduction of the penny post changed Britain, and how enthusiasm for the first stamps led to the emergence of stamp-collecting as a popular hobby.

    Director: Matthew Thomas

    Writer: Matthew Thomas

  • Last Days of Steam
    8.3/1010 votes
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    #5 - Last Days of Steam

    Season 8 Episode 3 - Aired 10/16/2008

    Documentary that tells the surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Retrial by TV: The Rise and Fall of Rough Justice
    8.2/105 votes
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    #6 - Retrial by TV: The Rise and Fall of Rough Justice

    Season 11 Episode 1 - Aired 4/3/2011

    Documentary about the BBC's Rough Justice series, which began investigating miscarriages of justice in the early 1980s and helped overturn the convictions of 18 people in 13 cases.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • How to Be Sherlock Holmes: The Many Faces of a Master Detective
    8.2/1045 votes
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    #7 - How to Be Sherlock Holmes: The Many Faces of a Master Detective

    Season 13 Episode 7 - Aired 1/12/2014

    Film charting the evolution of Sherlock Holmes on screen, from silent movies to the latest film and television versions. Featuring contributions from Sherlocks past and present.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Engine That Powers the World
    8.2/1012 votes
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    #8 - The Engine That Powers the World

    Season 15 Episode 3 - Aired 9/23/2015

    The story behind the invention of the diesel engine in the 19th century that later became the workhorse of the 20th and 21st century.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • A Study in Sherlock
    8.1/107 votes
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    #9 - A Study in Sherlock

    Season 5 Episode 15 - Aired 12/24/2005

    Documentary explores the continuing appeal of Sherlock Holmes through his various screen incarnations, from early silent films through the classic portrayals by Basil Rathbone and Peter Cushing to the BBC's most recent Rupert Everett version. Contributors include Minette Walters, Kim Newman and Edward Hardwicke.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Bouffants, Beehives and Bobs: The Hairstyles That Shaped Britain
    8.1/107 votes
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    #10 - Bouffants, Beehives and Bobs: The Hairstyles That Shaped Britain

    Season 13 Episode 3 - Aired 11/13/2013

    Timeshift takes a loving and sometimes horrified look back at the iconic hairdos and 'must have' haircuts that both men and women in Britain have flirted with in the past 60 years.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Flights of Fancy: Pigeons and the British
    8.0/107 votes
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    #11 - Flights of Fancy: Pigeons and the British

    Season 16 Episode 5 - Aired 2/7/2017

    Timeshift ventures inside places of sporting achievement, scientific endeavour and male obsession - the lofts of pigeon fanciers - to tell the story of a remarkable bird.

    Director: Jake Hayes

    Writer: N/A

  • Crime and Punishment - The Story of Capital Punishment
    7.9/1014 votes
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    #12 - Crime and Punishment - The Story of Capital Punishment

    Season 10 Episode 9 - Aired 4/5/2011

    Documentary tracing the story of the ultimate sanction, examining such matters as the protocols of the public execution and the 'science' of hanging.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Booze, Beans & Bhajis: The Story of the Corner Shop
    7.9/108 votes
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    #13 - Booze, Beans & Bhajis: The Story of the Corner Shop

    Season 16 Episode 4 - Aired 12/19/2016

    Babita Sharma traces the history of the corner shop in Britain, from its Victorian suburban origins, its crucial role serving the home front in World War Two, and its fortunes in the hands of successive waves of immigration. She and her parents visit the corner shop which was once run by them as a family, and discuss how it shaped her upbringing.

    Director: Linda Sands

    Writer: Babita Sharma

  • The Joy of (Train) Sets
    7.8/106 votes
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    #14 - The Joy of (Train) Sets

    Season 12 Episode 7 - Aired 1/23/2013

    The Model Railway Story: Documentary which explores how the British have been in love with model railways for over a century, with unique archive and contributions from modellers.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Ladybird Books Story: The Bugs that Got Britain Reading
    7.8/108 votes
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    #15 - The Ladybird Books Story: The Bugs that Got Britain Reading

    Season 13 Episode 5 - Aired 12/22/2013

    Timeshift documentary about Ladybird books, which once informed people on such diverse subjects as how magnets work and what to look for in winter, but also helped to teach many to read.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Full Throttle: The Glory Days of British Motorbikes
    7.7/1011 votes
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    #16 - Full Throttle: The Glory Days of British Motorbikes

    Season 13 Episode 1 - Aired 10/28/2013

    Documentary which explores the British love of fast, daring and sometimes reckless motorbike riding during a period when home-grown machines were the envy of the world

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Sailors, Ships and Stevedores: The Story of British Docks
    7.7/106 votes
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    #17 - Sailors, Ships and Stevedores: The Story of British Docks

    Season 16 Episode 2 - Aired 10/26/2016

    How Britain's docks in cities like Liverpool, London and Cardiff were commercial portals and gateways for the arrival of sounds, styles and cultures.

    Director: Eve White

    Writer: N/A

  • Emmylou Harris's Ten Commandments of Country
    7.6/105 votes
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    #18 - Emmylou Harris's Ten Commandments of Country

    Season 7 Episode 5 - Aired 10/12/2007

    Live performance in which Emmylou Harris presents her ten rules of what makes a great country song, personally chosen from her own extensive repertoire. Filmed in Los Angeles in an intimate venue, the show features songs with Emmylou accompanied by her blue grass band. Each track illustrates one of her 10 Commandments, with a short introduction to explain why it was chosen and what element of country music it best represents.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • How to Win at Chess
    7.6/1013 votes
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    #19 - How to Win at Chess

    Season 9 Episode 5 - Aired 12/21/2009

    In a programme showing how to play better chess, British grandmasters Dan King and Ray Keene go through a demonstration game from opening gambit to checkmate.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • How Britain Won the Space Race: The Story of Bernard Lovell and Jodrell Bank
    7.6/1011 votes
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    #20 - How Britain Won the Space Race: The Story of Bernard Lovell and Jodrell Bank

    Season 15 Episode 6 - Aired 11/16/2015

    How Bernard Lovell's telescope was used by both the Americans and the Russians to track their competing spacecraft and put Britain at the forefront of radio astronomy.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Live on the Night: The Story of Live TV Drama
    7.5/106 votes
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    #21 - Live on the Night: The Story of Live TV Drama

    Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 10/14/2004

    In the days before editing ensured slick production values and blemish-free performances, TV drama was a live medium. Bill Nighy narrates a Time Shift retrospective on a time when things didn't always go to plan on screen.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Bread: A Loaf Affair
    7.5/107 votes
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    #22 - Bread: A Loaf Affair

    Season 9 Episode 8 - Aired 3/24/2010

    Documentary about the rise of the popular loaf in Britain. After the holy grail of affordable white bread was achieved, dietary experts began to trumpet the virtues of brown.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • When Coal Was King
    7.5/1012 votes
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    #23 - When Coal Was King

    Season 13 Episode 2 - Aired 11/4/2013

    Documentary which explores the lost world of coal mining and the rich social and cultural lives of those who worked in what was once Britain's most important industry.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • A Very British Map: The Ordnance Survey Story
    7.5/106 votes
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    #24 - A Very British Map: The Ordnance Survey Story

    Season 15 Episode 2 - Aired 9/9/2015

    For over 200 years, Ordnance Survey has mapped every square mile of the British Isles, capturing not just the contours and geography of our nation, but of our lives. Originally intended for military use, OS maps were used during wartime to help locate enemy positions. In peacetime, they helped people discover and explore the countryside. Today, the large fold-out paper maps, used by generations of ramblers, scouts and weekend adventurers, represent just a small part of the OS output. As Ordnance Survey adjusts to the digital age, Timeshift looks back to tell the story of a quintessentially British institution.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Dial B for Britain: The Story of the Landline
    7.5/1011 votes
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    #25 - Dial B for Britain: The Story of the Landline

    Season 17 Episode 3 - Aired 4/20/2017

    From early call boxes to the Post Office Tower, Timeshift tells the story of how Britain's phone network was built over the course of 100 years, and its impact on the public.

    Director: Andy Hall

    Writer: N/A