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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 13 : The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald
November. 21,1993
Was Lee Harvey Oswald a mentally disturbed gunman acting alone, as the report of the Warren Commission suggested? Was he one of two gunmen, as the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded? Or was he, as he claimed, an innocent fall guy? This Timewatch investigative biography sifts through the mysteries of Oswald's life, from his troubled childhood and his Marine service to his dramatic defection to the Soviet Union in 1959 and his return to the USA.
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Episode 12 : Children of the Third Reich
November. 10,1993
In April, a group of 18 people met in a small town halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Some were Jewish, the sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors; the rest were German, the children of Nazi war criminals. Producer Catrine Clay interviewed the participants as they faced up to a hitherto unspeakable shared history. One of them is the son of Martin Boorman, another is the son a woman found buried under a pile of corpses in Belsen.
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Episode 11 : Hunger Strike: A Hidden History
October. 13,1993
On 5 May 1981, Bobby Sands died on hunger strike at the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. Nine more prisoners starved themselves to death. Using first-hand testimony, this programme tells the story.
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Episode 10 : The Mother of All Battles
September. 29,1993
It cost more lives than the British Army lost in the entire Second World War. The Battle of Kursk, south of Moscow, was fought 50 years ago. It was the biggest armoured battle in history. If this is the case, why have few of us ever heard of it? Timewatch investigates.
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Episode 9 : True Story of the Roman Arena
September. 15,1993
Julius Caesar courted popular support with spectacular displays of gladiatorial combat. But new archaeological research explains what really went on inside the Roman amphitheatre, and how cruelty and violence became the corner-stone of political and social life. Drawing on contemporary accounts and featuring computer reconstructions of the Colosseum, the historical documentary series returns with a disturbing insight into the eternal appetite for violence in entertainment.
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Episode 8 : On Behalf of the State: Memories of Hanging
June. 02,1993
On 23rd August, 1964, the last person in Britain was hanged. To those involved in it, the process of judicial execution was a 'most secret business', never to be discussed, least of all with the media. But now they have broken their silence. This unique account strips away the mystery and reveals the truth about the State's ultimate punishment.
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Episode 5 : The Pill: Prescription for Revolution
March. 10,1993
Described as "the greatest invention since the wheel" by novelist Angela Carter, the contraceptive pill played a crucial role in the sexual and social revolution of the 60s and 70s. With the help of archive footage from 'Up the Junction', 'Juliet Bravo' and 'Absolutely Fabulous', and interviews with women who talk frankly about the effect the pill has had on their sexual and working lives, Timewatch asks whether the introduction of the pill was a blessing or a burden.
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Episode 4 : The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover
February. 24,1993
A new profile of the man who was director of the FBI for nearly 50 years. This investigation of Hoover's private life reveals that top gangsters had evidence of his secret, homosexual love life and used it to blackmail him. Tainted by ties to organised crime, Hoover turned a blind eye to the Mafia during the vital years of its growth.
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Episode 2 : The Sparks That Lit the Bonfire
January. 27,1993
Examines the origins of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and reveals startling new evidence of the Irish government's crucial role in the emergence of the Provisional IRA. With the help of interviews with Irish ex-cabinet ministers and former leading members of the Republican movement, it details Dublin's funding of the IRA, why it favoured its more radical elements, and how the Irish government secretly plotted to invade Northern Ireland in 1970. Peter Taylor reports.
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