40 Minutes (1981) Web Series — Cast, Story & Where to Watch | MovieLinkBD

40 Minutes (1981) is a documentary web series in English. On MovieLinkBD: full story, cast, ratings, season & episode guide, official trailer and where to watch 40 Minutes online in HD.

40 Minutes — Storyline

40 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994. The documentaries could be on any possible subject, the only connection being that they last forty minutes.

Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On.

Cast & Crew

40 Minutes — Series Details

40 Minutes — Episode Guide

Season 1

• E1: Rough Justice (1981-10-01) — Portrait of a fractious Welsh village near Merthyr Tydfil.
• E2: Sister Genevieve (1981-10-08) — Portrait of a Comprehensive School in the heart of the Falls Road, Belfast.
• E3: Hijack (1981-10-15) — Story of a Hijack on Independence Day 1977 in New York.
• E4: Give Us the Vote (1981-10-22) — Test case for inmates of mental hospital to get the vote.
• E5: Lol: A Bona Queen of Fabularity (1981-10-29) — Life style of Quentin Crisp-esque 'Queen'.
• E6: Marathon Man (1981-11-05) — Attempt to beat record run from John o' Groats to Land's End.
• E7: Rocky Circus (1981-11-12) — Gary Glitter stars in Gerry Cottle's Circus.
• E8: Gorilla G Gorilla (1981-11-19) — Gorilla N'Pongo gives birth to Kumi in Jersey Zoo.
• E9: The Harrisons Don't Go to School (1981-11-26) — Hereford family educating children at home.
• E10: Alison (1981-12-03) — Spastic girl's struggle to live a normal life.
• E11: Sex, Drugs and the Vicar (1981-12-10) — Backstage at the News of the World.
• E12: Children's Parties (1981-12-17) — An anthology of various children's parties.
• E13: The Great Cover-up (1982-01-14) — The bald facts revealed: What men will do to counter hair loss.
• E14: Brighton or Bust (1982-01-21) — The London to Brighton vintage car rally.
• E15: The Last Resort (1982-01-28) — Glenthorne high security prison for youngsters.
• E16: The George Formby Story (1982-02-04) — Biopic of renowned comedian and ukulelist.
• E17: Burgled (1982-02-11) — Burglary – Britain's fastest growing industry.
• E18: Bomber and Brendan (1982-02-18) — Sheffield's Herol 'Bomber' Graham and Brendan Ingle his trainer in bid for boxing glory.
• E19: Mutiny (1982-02-25) — 1943 Mutiny of British soldiers in Salerno.
• E20: Saved in the Nick of Time (1982-03-04) — Artefacts saved from demolished buildings.
• E21: Birth Reborn (1982-03-11) — Michel Odent and 'natural' childbirth at his clinic in Pithiviers France
• E22: Hunt Saboteurs (1982-03-18) — Cameras follow shock troops of anti-hunt demonstrators disrupting hunt.
• E23: Heart Transplant (1982-03-25) — Magdi Yacoub and his surgical team at work at Harefield Hospital.
• E24: Heart Transplant: 2 – A Fight for Life (1982-04-01)
• E25: Heart Transplant: 3 (1982-04-08)
• E26: Heart Transplant: 4 – Bruce Anderson, New Heart (1982-04-15)
• E27: Heart Transplant: 5 – Recovery (1982-04-22)
• E28: Heart Transplant: 6 – A Matter of Life and Death (1982-04-29)
• E29: Heart Transplant: 7 (1982-05-06)

Season 2

• E1: Roedean (1982-10-07) — The leading girls' public school.
• E2: Skinheads (1982-10-14) — Four 'skins' in 1982 London; their lifestyle and the skinhead culture.
• E3: Rabbits Don't Cry (1982-10-21) — Looks at the increasing militancy of activists protesting at experiments on animals.
• E4: An Emotional Matter (1982-10-28) — The senior education officer in Durham County and his difficult decisions to close certain schools.
• E5: Lost in a Crowd (1982-11-04) — Problems of loneliness. Five people who are trying to find their own ways to deal with overcome loneliness are in a compartment in a train. They tell their stories to us, but do no
• E6: The Cruelty Man (1982-11-11) — A typical week for Howard Wolfenden, one of 250 NSPCC inspectors who investigate child cruelty cases.
• E7: Miners (1982-11-25) — Looks at the lives and beliefs of miners in a small Yorkshire mining community.
• E8: Mr. Moonlight (1982-12-02) — The life and career of Frankie Vaughan, the entertainer.
• E9: The Lads' Night Out (1982-12-09) — The charity dinner for the Stable Lads Welfare Trust.
• E10: How Do I Look? (1982-12-16) — Extreme slimming remedies including wiring jaws together and surgery.
• E11: Mister Perks (1983-01-13) — Bernard Perks, who has spent 15 of his 20 adult years in prison, is about to be released and his problem in combating alcoholism.
• E12: Package Tour (1983-01-20) — Holiday makers on a flight from Manchester to Spain, their impression of their holidays in Benidorm and their return to Manchester.
• E13: Something to Do with Video (1983-01-27) — The domestic and commercial uses of video including surveillance.
• E14: The Rovers (1983-02-03) — Tranmere Rovers FC, fighting for survival in their centenary season
• E15: Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother (1983-02-10) — Children who have to look after their elderly parents.
• E16: Freshers (1983-02-17) — New arrivals at Liverpool University coping with their first time away from home, especially the problems of a blind student, Gillian Wake.
• E17: English Lesson (1983-02-24) — Nine Polish seamen who sought political asylum in the Falklands where they were caught up in the war and their later stateless existence in London.
• E18: Female Circumcision (1983-03-03) — Female circumcision in the Sudan and the evidence that it is practiced in the western world.
• E19: A Minor Incident at the Berlaymont (1983-03-10) — Fishermen from the North-East attempt to lobby the EEC on the issue of fishing rights.
• E20: A Gentle Way with Cancer: Part 1 (1983-03-17) — The first of 6 films on the work of the Bristol Cancer Help Centre.
• E21: A Gentle Way with Cancer: Part 2 (1983-03-24)
• E22: A Gentle Way with Cancer: Part 3 (1983-03-31)
• E23: A Gentle Way with Cancer: Part 4 (1983-04-07)
• E24: A Gentle Way with Cancer: Part 5 (1983-04-14)
• E25: A Gentle Way with Cancer: Part 6 (1983-04-21)

Season 3

• E1: Mistress (1983-10-30) — Interviews with three mistresses.
• E2: Bodyline (1983-11-08) — The M.C.C. Cricket tour of Australia in 1931 and the controversial tactics of the M.C.C. Captain Douglas Jardine.
• E3: Something for the Ladies (1983-11-13) — Mr Universe, Bachelor of the Year and others competitions for men.
• E4: House of Love (1983-11-20) — The religious cult of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
• E5: Innocent Until Proved Guilty (1983-11-27) — The remand system in the UK and the lives of untried prisoners.
• E6: Jail Within a Jail (1983-12-04) — The maximum security unit at Maidstone Prison.
• E7: Who's a Pretty Girl, Then? (1983-12-11) — Finding Miss Pears 1983.
• E8: Pranks (1983-12-18) — Professional pranksters and singing telegrams.
• E9: 1984 Voices in a City (1984-01-05) — Comparison between life in Orwell's novel and the reality of life in 1984.
• E10: Health Farm (1984-01-12) — A week at a health farm.
• E11: Swiss Finishing School (1984-01-19) — Three English girls at Institut Villa Pierrefeu in Switzerland.
• E12: Divorce: Unreasonable Behaviour (1984-01-26) — The effect of a divorce on a couple and their children
• E13: Divorce: The Law… and After (1984-02-02) — How parents' access to children of a broken marriage is determined.
• E14: The Mating Season (1984-02-09) — The annual 'crack' at Lisdoonvarna in Ireland visited by a group of Chicagoan women in search of romance.
• E15: Skiffle (1984-02-16) — The history of Skiffle and the development of 'home-made' music.
• E16: Pigeons: Queer Facts (1984-02-23) — Attitudes to pigeons.
• E17: Educating Michael (1984-03-01) — Working class children in assisted places at public schools.
• E18: Delmelza's Baby (1984-03-08) — Attitudes in a small Cornish community to two lovers and their baby.
• E19: A Problem with Sex (1984-03-15) — The work of the sex therapist.
• E20: The School on the Hill (1984-03-22) — Lagan College in Belfast, a school planned for the integration of protestants and Roman Catholics.
• E21: Animal Antiques (1984-03-29) — Rare breeds of farm animals.
• E22: Travelling Hopefully (1984-04-05) — Professional political lobbyists.
• E23: Sun City (1984-04-12) — The African Las Vegas.
• E24: Bertie and the Bomb (1984-04-19) — Bertrand Russell and the founding of CND.
• E25: Oh Alien (1984-04-26) — How the world would look to a being from another planet.
• E26: Boycott (1984-05-03) — The career of cricketer Geoffrey Boycott.

Season 4

• E1: Gigolo (1984-11-01) — Gigolos and the different types.
• E2: The Happy Medium (1984-11-08) — About the medium Doris Stokes.
• E3: The Grendon Experiment (1984-11-15) — Grendon prison in Buckinghamshire, Britain's only voluntary psychiatric prison.
• E4: Love in Exile (1984-11-22) — The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in self-imposed exile.
• E5: On the Throne (1984-11-29) — The history of lavatories.
• E6: Rent Boys (1984-12-06) — Young male prostitutes in Manchester and Birmingham.
• E7: Asylum (1984-12-13) — The mental asylum in Choroszcz in Poland where patients work in the community.
• E8: The Loved Ones (1984-12-20) — The Animal Medical Centre in New York.
• E9: The Promised Land (1985-01-10) — Britain forty years ago, contrasted with present day Britain.
• E10: Talking Proper (1985-01-17) — Accents and dialects provoke strong prejudices and reactions. In a 40 Minutes film that examines why this should be, broadcaster Janet Street-Porter, Radio 4 announcer Susan Rae an
• E11: Sweet F.A. (1985-01-24) — The group 'Fascinating Aida' and the making of their first pop record.
• E12: The End of the Pier Show (1985-01-31) — The problems of putting on a show in the old style of pier entertainments at Cromer, Norfolk.
• E13: The Outcasts (1985-02-07) — A group of 'Hell's Angels' in East Anglia.
• E14: Love Story (1985-02-14) — A film for St Valentine's Day.
• E15: Free! (1985-02-21) — Old Victorian mental hospitals are being closed down and the former patients face problems.
• E16: Whose House Is It Anyway? (1985-02-28) — A local Council has a compulsory purchase order on the home of two elderly men.
• E17: The Eternal Triangle: The Mistress (1985-03-07) — The first film in a trilogy which examines the Eternal Triangle.
• E18: The Eternal Triangle: The Wife (1985-03-14) — The second film in a trilogy which examines the Eternal Triangle.
• E19: The Eternal Triangle: The Husband (1985-03-21) — The third film in a trilogy which examines the Eternal Triangle.
• E20: Union Street (1985-03-28) — Plymouth, the area near the docks.
• E21: Whatever Happened to Baby Paul? (1985-04-04) — The story of a woman who took her baby to hospital where he was found to have several fractures. She denied having caused the injuries but he was taken from her care.
• E22: Matters of Life and Death (1985-04-11) — The effects of government cuts leading to the closure of a ward in Guy's Children's Hospital.
• E23: Star Paws (1985-04-18) — Animals used in advertising.
• E24: Laughter in Gabrovo (1985-05-02) — The biennial festival of humour in Bulgaria. Can humour cross national boundaries?
• E25: Dear Mr President (1985-05-09) — The story of a family whose daughter is handicapped because of a drug taken by her mother during pregnancy. The American drug company claims the drug is safe.

Season 5

• E1: In Between Days (1985-10-10) — A film about being 16. A group of four friends in between being children and adults, emotionally, sexually and physically.
• E2: 50 Years On (1985-10-17) — A Golden Wedding holiday. Four couples married in 1935 celebrate 50 years of life together, and talk of the happiness and sadness of their golden years.
• E3: Schoolgirl Mum (1985-10-24) — Girls who become pregnant under 16. The girls, their boy-friends and their parents talk about the consequences.
• E4: Johnny Oddball (1985-10-31) — 10 years ago a famous documentary was made by Franc Roddam about "Mini" Cooper, a most attractive and intelligent child arsonist. Now released from a secure psychiatric institution
• E5: Forget-Me-Not (1985-11-07) — A Western-style beauty contest in austerity-ridden Poland.
• E6: Searching for a Miracle (1985-11-14) — A child with a genetic disease and his young parents go from Northern Ireland on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, in the French Pyrenees. After a week they find there is a change.
• E7: Page 3 Girls (1985-11-21) — The story of Sharon, a young hopeful still at school, ambitious to become a famous top-less pin-up, like Samantha Fox and Linda Lusardi.
• E8: Keep Taking the Rose Petals (1985-11-28) — Asian alternative-medicine men in Britain, attracting increasing custom from Westerners.
• E9: Animal Crackers (1985-12-05) — All over Britain are strange and delightful buildings with one thing in common – they were created for animals. Lucinda Lambton is your guide to such follies. Castles, temples, pal
• E10: Our Man in Shanghai (1985-12-12) — The Foreign Office opens a new mission in China. The film follows the new Consul-General during his first week in Shanghai. A high-powered trade delegation is due, led by Lord Youn
• E11: A House of Hope (1985-12-19) — A film for Christmas. Alcholics, criminals, down-and-outs and tramps find a sanctuary in a remarkable Christian community in Dorset.
• E12: The Gift of Life (1986-01-09) — Seven couples in Hammersmith Hospital go through the long and painful process of trying to conceive a test-tube baby. one succeeds.
• E13: Flight from Vatersay (1986-01-16) — The Hebrides – idyllic isles of wild beauty, majestic, remote, peaceful? That's not how Neil Gillies, 23 years old and unemployed, sees his island home of Vatersay. For him it's a
• E14: Stop the Wedding! (1986-01-23) — Strange and moving tales of people being jilted at the altar.
• E15: Student Nurse (1986-01-30) — The pressure on student nurses. Three girls at different stages of their training at St. James Infirary, Leeds.
• E16: Emergency – Bloomsbury 3 (1986-02-06) — Dramas of life and death with the ambulance service in action in central London.
• E17: How to Find a Lover (1986-02-13) — The singles scene in Miami, Dallas and New York.
• E18: Cry for Home (1986-02-20) — 'I'm British', says the young lady with strawberry blonde hair and a Midlands accent, 'but I don't have a drop of British blood in me.' Carmen Laanemagi is from Leicester – and Est
• E19: The Fishing Party (1986-02-27) — They are four friends, rich young men – city commodity-brokers, the drinks trade. They belong to the right clubs. They hunt, shoot, play polo, make money. They had the idea of goin
• E20: The Real Life of a Hollywood Wife (1986-03-06) — The women who really matter in the dream city. Reporter – Mrs Richard Burton.
• E21: A Case of Malicious Wounding (1986-03-13) — A Yorkshire coal miner caught up in the bitter industrial warfare between strike pickets and police. The traumatic events of 24 August 1984 have changed the course of his life.
• E22: Come Home Julie (1986-03-20) — A young black girl, once fostered by a Scottish family, then snatched back to Ghana, returns to her foster parents – with not altogether happy results.
• E23: Nuts! (1986-03-27) — The tragic and comic story of the ground nut scheme, a Government fiasco of the 1940s.
• E24: Countdown to Today (1986-04-03) — The inside story of the birth of a new daily newspaper, filmed over a period of months.
• E25: The Last Day (1986-04-10) — The story of three people retiring from work in Lancashire, their families, and their changed way of life.
• E26: A Passage to Wisbech (1986-04-17) — Carrick is a dirty British coaster – a 30-year-old tramp carrying unglamorous cargoes from port to port in the Channel and the North Sea. Her skipper and owner is Rick Waters , onc

Season 6

• E1: Ten Days in Holloway (1986-10-09) — An inside view of Holloway Prison, reflecting the immense problems and tensions of Britain's largest and toughest women's jail.
• E2: Dancing in the Rain (1986-10-16) — The glittery world of ballroom dancing – behind the scenes at the World Ballroom Dancing Championships, held this year in Blackpool.
• E3: Rescue (1986-10-23) — The lives of the men who make up the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team – a voluntary body of men who help those in difficulty on Ben Nevis and the surrounding mountains.
• E4: Olga Goes to Hollywood (1986-10-30) — In 1978 David Lomax secretly interviewed a Russian couple in Moscow after they had been refused exit visas. They were filmed a year later as they arrived in the West. Now they live
• E5: The Englishwoman's Wardrobe (1986-11-20) — Angela Huth asks why is it that as a nation, we have such a rotten reputation as dressers? What are we trying to say about ourselves through our appearance? 'Oh not black again, de
• E6: Special: The Dump (1986-11-25) — Plans for dumping nuclear waste in rural Lincolnshire – and how traditionally conservative villagers were aroused to protest against them.
• E7: Botham's Out (1986-11-27) — England cricket hero Ian Botham at home and at work during his Test Match ban.
• E8: The Chosen Few (1986-12-04) — The Civil Service Selection Board has never been filmed before. The first of two programmes concentrates on two candidates, one an ex-employee of the Greater London Council, the ot
• E9: The Final Board (1986-12-11) — The second film tells of two hopefuls at the last round, one hoping to enter the Foreign Office, the other aiming for the Home Office. Filmed from the points of view of both the ca
• E10: Dear Sister (1986-12-18) — Eight sisters talk frankly and movingly about the complex relationship of sisterhood.
• E11: Just for William (1987-01-08) — Ten-year-old William, suffering from leukaemia, undergoes a successful bone marrow transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London
• E12: Short Stories (1987-01-15) — The small world of dwarves and midgets.
• E13: Home from the Hill (1987-01-22) — Documentary about Colonel Hilary Hook, formerly of the Indian cavalry and leader of extravagant safaris in Kenya. Hook returned home to England after being evicted from his home in
• E14: Struggle for Stonebridge (1987-01-29) — Young blacks in deprived Brent struggle for a community centre in a bus garage.
• E15: Stirring Stuff (1987-02-05) — Tea, Britain's national beverage – and the ladies who stir it.
• E16: Do You Still Love Me? (1987-02-12) — Uneasy relationships between step-parents and step-children.
• E17: A Cabinet of Curiosities (1987-02-19) — Lucinda Lambton reveals strange and amusing tales from the dusty corners of museums.
• E18: Bad Blood (1987-02-26) — The annual re-union of thousands of bikers in South Dakota.
• E19: Fire! (1987-03-05) — Kingston-upon-Hull (Yorks.) fire station in action.
• E20: The Quest for Sergeant Miller (1987-03-12) — The son of a wartime aviator traces his father's remarkable survival and escape in France.
• E21: House of Spirits (1987-03-19) — Spiritualists in London's Belgravia communing with "the other side".
• E22: A New Girl (1987-03-26) — Moral problems facing a mother who has taken a pregnancy drug and whose child has suffered.
• E23: Fly Me (1987-04-02) — The training of British Airways hostesses and cabin crew.
• E24: The Mighty Leek (1987-04-09) — World championship competitive leek-growing in the North-East of England – with dirty deeds in the greenhouses.
• E25: Troublesome People (1987-04-16) — Caroline Moorehead inquires if pacifists have ever achieved anything over the years.
• E26: Street Girls (1987-04-23) — Child and juvenile prostitutes in Balsall Heath, Birmingham.
• E27: Bombay Hotel (1987-04-30) — Upstairs and downstairs at the famous Taj Mahal Hotel – a luxurious establishment surrounded by poverty.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many seasons does 40 Minutes have? 14 season(s) with 323 episodes.

Where can I watch 40 Minutes? See the Where to Watch section above for current streaming options.