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Synopsis
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 is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can be found on US cable channels without the branding.
Episode 20 : Roger Casement - Heart of Darkness
October. 28,1992
A personal account by actor Kenneth Griffith of the rise and fall of Irish nationalist hero Roger Casement. Knighted by the British for his humanitarian work in Africa and South America, in 1913 Casement switched his efforts to the cause of Irish Home Rule. During the First World War he went to Germany, seeking help from the Kaiser. On the eve of the Easter Rising in 1916, as he returned to Ireland with a shipment of German arms, he was arrested, tried and hanged for treason.
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Episode 18 : Special: The Cuban Missile Crisis: 2: Eyeball to Eyeball
October. 14,1992
October 1962: The US naval blockade, the shooting down of a US spy plane, and the Soviet preparations for a nuclear response to a US invasion of Cuba are told by insiders from both the Kremlin and the White House, and by Fidel Castro himself.
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Episode 17 : Special: The Cuban Missile Crisis: 1: Defying Uncle Sam
October. 07,1992
30 years ago, American reaction against the Cuban Revolution led the world to the brink of nuclear war. Recounting the various US-inspired attacks against Cuba and the life of its leader Fidel Castro, who gives his account of events for the first time on television. When Soviet premier Khrushchev decided to protect Cuba with nuclear missiles and President Kennedy demanded their removal, the world held its breath. Part 1 of 2.
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Episode 16 : A Diplomat In Japan: 2: Witness to a Revolution
September. 30,1992
Satow's unique understanding of the forces struggling for supremacy in Japan enabled him to have a direct influence on the events leading to the Civil War of 1868, and the restoration of the Mikado. Part 2 of 2.
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Episode 15 : A Diplomat in Japan: 1: A Clash of Cultures
September. 23,1992
A documentary drama based on the memoirs of English diplomat Ernest Satow. Arriving in Japan at a time of political upheaval in the 1860s, Satow quickly got to know the radical young samurai determined to overthrow the corrupt government of the Shogun and lead Japan into a new age. Part 1 of 2.
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Episode 14 : The Un-Americans: 3: To Hell with Truth
September. 16,1992
Contrasts the fame and fortune of HUAC witness Harvey Matusow, whose lies went unquestioned, with the experiences of those who refused to co-operate and "name names". In destroying some but trusting others, did America lose faith in its most basic values? Part 3 of 3.
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Episode 13 : The Un-Americans: 2: No Place to Hide
September. 09,1992
Mention McCarthyism and most people think of the Hollywood blacklist. In fact, tens of thousands of ordinary people's lives were destroyed by what amounted to an American Inquisition. Paul was an electrician who couldn't work for 20 years because of one joke. Frank was followed for 38 years by up to eight FBI agents a day despite admitting he was not a security risk. Now that the Cold War is over, they and others can tell their full stories for the first time. Part 2 of 3.
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Episode 12 : The Un-Americans: 1: Five Minutes to Midnight
September. 02,1992
At the dawn of the Cold War, both communists and anti-communists in America thought the world was on the brink. This special three-part series uses archive film and stories of ordinary Americans to paint a picture of suspicion and repression of "the enemy within" on a huge scale. Part 1 of 3.
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Episode 11 : Gladio: 3: The Foot Soldiers
June. 24,1992
Examines whether Italian Special Forces were involved in the kidnapping and assassination of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who supported including the Italian Communist Party in national government. Also reconstructs a preceding series of unexplained killings in Belgian supermarkets. Part 3 of 3.
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Episode 10 : Gladio: 2: The Puppeteers
June. 17,1992
In August 1980, the left-wing Red Brigades were blamed for the bombing of a Bologna, Italy, railway station that resulted in 86 dead and scores injured. But the Red Brigades had long been penetrated by right-wing agents working for the State whose aim was to commit atrocities that would terrify civilians into pleading for greater state security, even at the cost of personal freedom. Part 2 of 3.
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Episode 9 : Gladio: 1: The Ringmasters
June. 10,1992
For 40 years the Gladio - a secret network of former Nazis originally tasked with resisting the communist threat in occupied territories at the end of the Second World War - has bombed and murdered scores of innocent civilians to keep control of Europe for their political masters. This documentary reveals the crucial role the CIA has played in manipulating the political affairs of post-war Europe through the Gladio. Part 1 of 3.
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Episode 8 : SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
June. 03,1992
On Wednesday 27 May 1942, two assassins waited for a German staff car to round a hairpin bend in a suburb of Prague. Their target was SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the "final solution". Heydrich was considered the most dangerous man in Nazi Germany after Hitler himself, and the plot was masterminded in England. Fifty years on, Timewatch examines the planning of the daring operation and the terrible reprisals it provoked.
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Episode 7 : The Story of Elisabeth Nietzsche: 2: Mother of the Fatherland
April. 08,1992
In 1889, when her Aryan colony in Paraguay began to fail, Elisabeth Nietzsche returned to Germany to look after her dying brother. Over the next 40 years, she so distorted his ideas that even now Nietzsche's name is still directly associated with European fascism. Tonight's film uses material from the Nietzsche Archive (opened following the collapse of the communist state in East Germany) to reveal how Elisabeth Nietzsche was wooed by both Mussolini and Hitler, and how she became one of the most powerful women in the Third Reich. Part 2 of 2.
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Episode 4 : Tito: 2: His Own Man
March. 04,1992
When Marshal Tito imposed a communist dictatorship on Yugoslavia in 1945, the western allies regretted their support for the wartime resistance leader. But when, three years later, Tito fell out with Stalin, the west backed him once again. Timewatch examines how Tito was able to play east against west to his own advantage and leave behind him a legacy which haunts Yugoslavia to this day. Part 2 of 2.
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Episode 1 : Battle of the Styles
January. 15,1992
In October 1834 the Houses of Parliament burned down. Which architectural style would best express Victorian values? Architects, politicians, and the general public took sides in a fierce debate between the Classic and the Gothic, echoed in today's battle between Classicists and Modernists.
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