The Dictator's Playbook

Biography

Biography is a documentary television series. It was originally a half-hour filmed series produced for CBS by David Wolper from 1961 to 1964 and hosted by Mike Wallace. The A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987. The older version featured historical figures such as Helen Keller and Mark Twain, or long-dead entertainment figures such as Will Rogers or John Barrymore. The A&E series has placed the emphasis on such people as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Plácido Domingo, Freddie Mercury, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Eric Clapton, Pope John Paul II, Gene Tierney, Selena, Diego Rivera, Mao Zedong and Queen Elizabeth II, and fictional characters like The Phantom, Superman, Hamlet, Betty Boop, and Santa Claus. The program ended up profiling enough figures that in 1999, A&E spun it off into an entire network, The Biography Channel.

American Experience

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Top Gear

Motoring programme featuring reviews of and reports about cars of all types.

The Story of Film: An Odyssey

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

American Masters

American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.

Baseball

The history of the sport of baseball in America, told through archival photos, film footage, and the words of those who contributed to the game in each era. Writers, historians, players, baseball personnel, and fans review key events and the significance of the game in America's history.

The Men Who Built America

Influential builders, dreamers and believers whose feats transformed the United States, a nation decaying from the inside after the Civil War, into the greatest economic and technological superpower the world had ever seen. The Men Who Built America is the story of a nation at the crossroads and of the people who catapulted it to prosperity.

Earth at Night in Colour

Filmed across six continents, this docuseries uses cutting-edge camera technology to capture animals' nocturnal lives, revealing new behaviours filmed in full color like never before.

How Do They Do It?

An insider's look at the engineering and scientific miracles behind the things that form the modern world.

Leaving Neverland

Explores the experiences of James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who were both befriended and sexually abused by singer Michael Jackson, and the complicated feelings that led them both to confront their experiences.

MegaStructures

MegaStructures is a documentary television series appearing on the National Geographic Channel in the United States and the United Kingdom, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, France 5 in France, and 7mate in Australia. Each episode is an educational look of varying depth into the construction, operation, and staffing of various structures or construction projects, but not ordinary construction products. Generally containing interviews with designers and project managers, it presents the problems of construction and the methodology or techniques used to overcome obstacles. In some cases this involved the development of new materials or products that are now in general use within the construction industry. MegaStructures focuses on constructions that are extreme; in the sense that they are the biggest, tallest, longest, or deepest in the world. Alternatively, a project may appear if it had an element of novelty or are a world first. This type of project is known as a Megaproject.

30 for 30

30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This currently includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series under the ESPN Films Presents title in 2011–2012, and a series of 30 for 30 Shorts shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include Soccer Stories, which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and audio podcasts. This entry refers to the main Volumes of the series presented by ESPN

Natural World

Natural World is a nature documentary television series broadcast annually on BBC Two and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history brand. It is currently the longest-running series in its genre on British television, with more than 400 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World is produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, but individual programmes can be in-house productions, collaborative productions with other broadcasters or films made and distributed by independent production companies and purchased by the BBC. Natural World programmes are often broadcast as PBS Nature episodes in the USA. Since 2008, most Natural World programmes have been shot and broadcast in high definition.

Superpowered: The DC Story

This docuseries takes an unprecedented look at the enduring and influential legacy of DC, allowing fans to rediscover the universe of characters, as well as the iconic comic book company’s origins, its evolution and its nearly nine-decade cultural impact across every artistic medium.

Disney Gallery / Star Wars: The Mandalorian

Executive producer Jon Favreau invites the cast and crew of The Mandalorian to share an unprecedented look at the making of the series. Each chapter explores a different facet of the first live-action Star Wars television show through interviews, never-before-seen footage, and roundtable conversations hosted by Favreau himself.

Marvel's 616

Explore Marvel’s rich legacy of pioneering characters, creators and storytelling to reflect the world outside your window. Each documentary, helmed by a unique filmmaker, showcases the intersections of storytelling, pop culture, and fandom within the Marvel Universe.

Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers

This docuseries captures the remarkable rise and unprecedented success of one of the most dominant and iconic franchises in professional sports. Featuring exclusive access to the Buss Family and probing, revealing interviews with players, coaches, and front office execs, this series chronicles this extraordinary story from the inside – told only by the people who lived it.

The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy

Award-winning actor and nervous explorer Eugene Levy steps out of his comfort zone for a whirlwind tour of the world's most beautiful and intriguing destinations.

What's My Name | Muhammad Ali

Explore Ali’s challenges, confrontations, comebacks and triumphs through recordings of his own voice. The two-part documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who was a beacon of hope for oppressed people around the world and, in his later years, was recognized as a global citizen and a symbol of humanity and understanding.

Animal

This immersive series follows the world's most magnificent creatures, capturing never-before-seen moments from the heartwarming to the outrageous.

PRI: Crónica del Fin

In the past, there was only one path to success in Mexican politics: the path of the PRI. But the PRI is not just a political party; it is the institution that shaped Mexico's public and political behavior. It survived armed uprisings, student movements, economic crises, electoral defeats, and corruption scandals, but it was arrogance, corruption, inconsistency, and abuse of power that ultimately brought it down.

Verbotenes Begehren

Tehran Confidential

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC is the protector of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the military arm of the Supreme Leader. Also known as the Pasdaran, this deep-state mafia comprising 120,000 men has extensive powers, ensuring bloody repression of the people. No strangers to smuggling and trafficking, the IRGC’s economic empire is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The Supreme Leader Khomeini has allowed the organization to infiltrate the state and its members are now mayors, members of parliament and ministers, cultivating their networks at the highest levels. The IRGC is responsible for Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and cultivates not only the art of deterrence, but also a strategy of asymmetrical warfare via the militias and terrorist organizations they finance, arm, and control across the Middle East.

Stalin

Three years in the making, this comprehensive study of the Soviet dictator blends documentary footage and interviews with experts and surviving witnesses.

How to Become a Tyrant

The documentary series explores different political figures throughout history.

Despot Housewives

Diktaturet

Mussolini: The First Fascist

Mussolini seized power in Italy in 1922, after his March on Rome. He would hold it in his grasp until his death in 1945, establishing a dictatorship that lasted more than 20 years. Long considered a buffoon and a second-rate dictator, Il Duce invented fascism that was imitated by Hitler, who viewed the Italian as his political master. He wanted to transform his country into a warrior nation and promised Italians a return to the grandeur of the Roman Empire. He governed by violence and trickery and was one of the first populist leaders of modern times, leading his country into the catastrophe of the World War II. But who was Mussolini, this former teacher who came from the extreme left to become a newspaper editor and creator of the Fascist Party? Why did he ally himself with Hitler? Were the Italians really behind him? With archives and interviews with the last-surviving witnesses of the era, this portrait takes a look back at one of the most notorious dictators of the 20th century.

Plots of Freedom – The Cry of Samba for Democracy

Enredos da Liberdade – O Grito do Samba Pela Democracia is a Brazilian documentary series available on Globoplay that delves into the pivotal role of samba schools during Brazil's transition from military dictatorship to democracy in the 1980s. Spanning five episodes, the series showcases how samba-enredo compositions became powerful tools of political resistance, addressing themes like censorship, economic hardship, and racial inequality. Through rare archival footage and interviews with prominent figures such as Martinho da Vila, Leci Brandão, and Rosa Magalhães, the documentary highlights the creative defiance of these cultural institutions. Each episode concludes with a reimagined performance of a significant samba, featuring artists like Teresa Cristina and Mart’nália, underscoring the enduring impact of these musical expressions in Brazil's democratic journey.

Evolution of Evil

Inside the minds of the heartless, corrupt, and cruel individuals who've seized control of their country through the infliction of appalling pain on their fellow man. From Kim Jong-il, to Osama Bin Laden, to Hitler, uncover the madness behind the merciless dictators responsible for unimaginable human atrocities that still haunt the world.

Inside North Korea's Dynasty

The Kim family's dark and surreal story provides a fresh perspective on North Korea.

Tyrant

The story of an unassuming American family drawn into the workings of a turbulent Middle Eastern nation. Bassam "Barry" Al Fayeed, the younger son of the dictator of a war-torn nation, ends a self-imposed 20-year exile to return to his homeland, accompanied by his American wife and children, for his nephew's wedding. Barry’s reluctant homecoming leads to a dramatic clash of cultures as he is thrown back into the familial and national politics of his youth.

Aquarela do Brasil

Freedom

Freedom is a short-lived 2000 American science fiction television show on the UPN network. There were 12 episodes filmed but only 7 were aired in the US. Some episodes were further aired internationally, and the full series is still occasionally broadcast in Brazil.

Cuéntame cómo pasó

Recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Alcántaras, during the last years of the rule of Francisco Franco and the beginning of the Spanish Transition to democracy.

Tell Me How It Happened

Television drama series which has been broadcast on RTP1 of Rádio e Televisão de Portugal from 2007 to 2011 and since 2019. It recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Lopes (Portuguese: Os Lopes), during the last years of the Estado Novo. In February 2019, RTP announced that the series, after eight years shelved, would be renewed, with the storyline moving firmly into the 1980s. The first episode of the sixth season was broadcast on 7 December 2019 with the Lopes entering 1984.

Victory or Death

Under the regime of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, a group of young people declares war on the dictator. Their leaders are commanders Tamara and Rodrigo. Both leave behind their lives and families to fight against the dictatorship; together, they aim to change Chile and its history.

Julius Caesar

Twenty year-old Julius Caesar flees Rome for his life during the reign of Sulla but through skill and ambition rises four decades later to become Rome's supreme dictator.

True Trans

True Trans tells the story of Against Me!'s punk rock singer Laura Jane Grace who came out as a transgender woman in 2012, and the experiences of other trans and gender-variant people she met on the road.

The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors

It was the world's last Islamic empire - a super-power of a million square miles. From its capital in Istanbul it matched the glories of Ancient Rome. And after six centuries in power it collapsed less than a hundred years ago. Rageh Omaar, who has reported from across this former empire, sets out to discover why the Ottomans have vanished from our understanding of the history of Europe. Why so few realise the importance of Ottoman history in today's Middle East. And why you have to know the Ottoman story to understand the roots of many of today's trouble spots from Palestine, Iraq and Israel to Libya, Syria, Egypt, Bosnia and Kosovo.