7.8/109 votes#1 - Forgotten Heroes
Season 13 Episode 1 - Aired 1/12/1994
One In four British merchant seamen died during the Second World War. Life on board ship was dangerous, poorly paid and carried a far higher casualty rate than any of the armed services. Yet their bravery and sacrifices have barely been recognised. In this programme the merchant seamen who faced the North Atlantic storms and the deadly U-boat menace to keep Britain supplied during the war years tell their own brave and moving story.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#2 - The Real Rasputin
Season 13 Episode 2 - Aired 1/26/1994
When Grigorii Efimovich Rasputin was murdered in 1916, rumour and political expediency set to work to paint him as a villain, responsible for the downfall of the Romanov empire, an insane alcoholic capable of any sexual extravagance. This film biography reappraises the myth of the "Mad Monk", using new information as well as first-hand accounts to rescue Rasputin from unjust historians.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#3 - Spies in the Sky
Season 13 Episode 3 - Aired 2/9/1994
Since 1949, dozens of planes and up to 200 US, British and allied air-crew have been lost in an undeclared aerial espionage war between the western powers and the Soviet Union. Many of them were believed to have been captured, tortured and imprisoned by the Soviets. TIMEWATCH reveals the true extent of British and US casualties, and the extraordinary personal stories of those who took part in the secret air war.
Director: Mark Anderson
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#4 - Presumed Guilty - A Women's History of Divorce 1945-1969
Season 13 Episode 4 - Aired 3/9/1994
In the decades leading up to reform of the divorce laws in 1969, thousands of women suffered the injustices of a system that treated a failed marriage as a criminal offence. Timewatch tells the stories of some of these women, and the terrible price they paid to end their marriages.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#5 - Racism or Realism? - A History of Immigration
Season 13 Episode 5 - Aired 4/6/1994
While the British government publicly operated an open-door policy to immigrants, in private it was terrified about the growing black population. Documents released under the 30-year rule and obtained by Timewatch reveal the government's true concerns were for interbreeding and therefore diluting the essential British character, rising crime, and health problems as immigrants came from colonies riddled with disease. Jonathan Dimbleby hosts a debate with representatives from the government and civil service in the 50s and 60s including Enoch Powell and John Bean, a founder member of the British National Party.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#6 - Seeds of War
Season 13 Episode 6 - Aired 6/26/1994
The question of how the First World War was started has been one of the great controversies of the 20th century. The flashpoint was the assassination in Sarajevo of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Hapsburg throne. But it was the reaction to his death of a handful of imperial warlords that led to four years of fighting and the death of over eight million people. The producers of this documentary, marking the 80th anniversary of Franz Ferdinand's death, have been round Europe - from Sarajevo to St Petersburg - culling archive film from eight countries to piece together the mysteries and intrigues that led to the Great War.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/109 votes
#7 - The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition
Season 13 Episode 7 - Aired 11/6/1994
An entire popular mythology has made the Spanish Inquisition a byword for human evil - sadistic, fanatical and omnipotent. But in reality it was none of these things. How did the truth come to be so distorted? Through special access to the secrets of the Inquisition's own archives, Timewatch presents a very different version of history's most notorious institution. NEW SERIES.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#8 - Hitler's Secret Weapons
Season 13 Episode 8 - Aired 11/13/1994
In the final few months of the Second World War, Hitler's revolutionary V1 and V2 missiles terrorised southern England. In London alone, 25,000 homes were levelled and 8,000 people killed as this country became the first to suffer major ballistic missile bombardment from beyond its borders. In remarkable film footage, screened for the first time, of the weapons in various stages of planning and production, Nazi archives reveal how Germany established a technological advantage that could have changed the outcome of the Second World War.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#9 - Flames of War
Season 13 Episode 9 - Aired 11/20/1994
A film about the horrors of the English Civil War, using letters, diaries and memoirs of ordinary people in 17th-century England. The historical characters of Parliamentarian Lord Saye and Sele, and Royalist Sir Edmund Verney, are represented by their own descendants. Other characters - a soldier, a lawyer, and a political activist - are represented by their modern day counterparts.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#10 - Age of the Sphinx
Season 13 Episode 10 - Aired 11/27/1994
The tale of one man's attempt to rewrite the history of the world by redating Egypt's greatest mystery, the Sphinx. Until now, no one can say for sure why, when or by whom the famous statue was carved. The experts think it is Egyptian and 4,500 years old, but maverick investigator John West claims to have new and conclusive evidence that the Sphinx was constructed many thousands of years before the Pharaohs.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#11 - Khrushchev - The Peasant Premier
Season 13 Episode 11 - Aired 12/4/1994
In the centenary year of his birth, and using previously unseen home movies, this film explores the contradictions of the Ukrainian peasant's son. He contributed to the crises in Berlin and Cuba, yet he hated the arms race. As Stalin's henchman he had plenty of blood on his hands, yet he denounced his former master and ensured that the terror would never return.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#12 - Memo from Machiavelli: How to Succeed in British Politics
Season 13 Episode 12 - Aired 12/11/1994
Niccolo Machiavelli's name is synonymous with political intrigue, but recent analysis of his work suggests that he was a political pragmatist whose best-known book 'The Prince' is as relevant today as it was in the 16th century. Reading extracts from 'The Prince' is Ian Richardson, who played Francis Urquhart in House of Cards.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#13 - Typhoid Mary
Season 13 Episode 13 - Aired 12/18/1994
Story of the woman judged to be such a danger to public health that she was incarcerated by the city of New York for 23 years. In the winter of 1906, Dr George Soper was summoned to Oyster Bay, Long Island, to investigate a mystery. Why had typhoid fever broken out in the house of a rich New York banker? He uncovered an extraordinary trail of sickness and death left by roving Irish cook Mary Mallon. Two of the people who met Typhoid Mary in her isolation hospital speak for the first time about their mysterious friend. Her story quickly became a medical legend which still has resonance today. Faced with an AIDS epidemic, does the state have a right to lock up people for the good of society? SERIES END.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#14 - Episode 96
Season 13 Episode 96 - Aired Unknown
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#15 - Episode 98
Season 13 Episode 98 - Aired Unknown
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#16 - Episode 99
Season 13 Episode 99 - Aired Unknown
No description available
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Timewatch Season 13
Every episode of Timewatch Season 13 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Timewatch Season 13!
Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and...
Genre:Documentary
Network:BBC Two
Season 13 Ratings Summary
"Forgotten Heroes" is the best rated episode of "Timewatch" season 13. It scored 7.8/10 based on 9 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 1/12/1994. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "The Real Rasputin".