Timewatch - Season 12 / Year 1993

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Episodes

Allied to the Mafia

Year 1993Episode 160 min

Allied to the Mafia

The extraordinary story of one of the war's most secret alliances - between the US Naval Intelligence and the Mafia. Denied for 50 years, the pact was in fact begun on the New York waterfront and sealed in the mountains of Sicily. Now the key players speak for the first time about the deal uniting US Intelligence with "Lucky" Luciano and Don Calò Vizzini - the most feared Godfathers of their day. In Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, head of Italy's newest political party and the Mafia's number one target, talks about the tragic legacy of this most unholy alliance. NEW SEASON.

The Sparks that Lit the Bonfire

Year 1993Episode 260 min

The Sparks that Lit the Bonfire

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.

The Stolen Child

Year 1993Episode 360 min

The Stolen Child

During the Second World War the Nazis snatched 200,000 Aryan-looking Polish children from their mothers to replenish the "master race" back in Germany. This film tells the extraordinary story of two cousins who were stolen on the same day, 4-year-old Alojzy and 10-year-old Leon. Alojzy was adopted by a "good" Nazi family and soon forgot his Polish past, becoming a model German. When Alojzy was told at age 12 of his Polish parentage, he was horrified, believing the Poles to be Untermensch ("less than human"). It was years before he could accept his real mother and years before the Polish people forgave him his German identity.

The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover

Year 1993Episode 460 min

The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover

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.

The Pill: Prescription for Revolution

Year 1993Episode 560 min

The Pill: Prescription for Revolution

Three generations of women help to build a picture of the social history of the Pill, from the early pioneers who were guinea pigs for the "miracle" pill to today's young women, who are less than enthusiastic about its promise.

Year 1993Episode 660 min

Buffalo Bill

A new look at the legend of William F Cody. From 1883 to 1916, millions of people throughout the world thrilled to the adventures of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show, where Indians danced to the rhythms of war and cowboys rode to the rescue. These vivid re-enactments of life on the plains were accepted as fact and handed down from generation to generation. Using rare film fragments and talking to those who remember Cody, Timewatch uncovers the true story behind the legend.

Battle of the Bombers

Year 1993Episode 760 min

Battle of the Bombers

Fifty years ago Bomber Command launched a massive campaign against Nazi Germany - the Battle of the Ruhr. In this special edition Jonathan Dimbleby explores the military and moral issues posed by a form of warfare which, since the end of the war, has become a matter of great contention. Was Britain's area-bombing campaign a necessary strategy to defeat Hitler or was it a war crime? The film revisits the industrial city of Essen to hear from Germans who endured the unceasing night-time campaign and, in the studio, Dimbleby questions RAF veterans, victims of the bombing, military historians and those recently involved in policy-making.

On Behalf of the State: Memories of Hanging

Year 1993Episode 860 min

On Behalf of the State: Memories of Hanging

It was "just a job" to Syd Dernley, the last living hangman in Britain. To Leslie Lloyd-Rees, a prison chaplain, it was "a process corrosive for everyone who took part in it". This report captures the memories of those who carried out the punishment. Interviewees include Lord Denning, the only living judge to have sent a man to the gallows, and Bill Knight, a prison officer who shared a condemned man's last evening. Amid increasing calls for the return of hanging, Timewatch lets those who were involved speak for themselves, and includes footage of the last working gallows in Britain - in Wandsworth Prison.

True Story of the Roman Arena

Year 1993Episode 960 min

True Story of the Roman Arena

What really went on in the Roman amphitheatre, where crueltybecame an art-form and violence the essence of entertainment; and shows how the ethos of the games was central to the functioning of the Roman empire.An insight into the effect on the spectator of watching shows in the amphitheatre. The horrific nature of what went on is stressed, and the point made that the games have often been sanitised or romanticised

The Mother of All Battles

Year 1993Episode 1060 min

The Mother of All Battles

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.

Hunger Strike: A Hidden History

Year 1993Episode 1160 min

Hunger Strike: A Hidden History

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.

Children of the Third Reich

Year 1993Episode 1260 min

Children of the Third Reich

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.

The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald

Year 1993Episode 1360 min

The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald

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.

Chairman Mao - The Last Emperor

Year 1993Episode 1460 min

Chairman Mao - The Last Emperor

Mao Tse-tung ruled China from 1949 until his death in 1976, and this film examines for the first time on television the true extent of his tyranny and the brutality of his regime. His rise to power, and the revolution that swept away the corruption of Chiang Kai-shek, was accompanied with optimism, but in the following 25 years he virtually destroyed China. Mao's promiscuity with young girls who "felt honoured to have sex with Mao" is revealed by his doctor Li Zhisui; and former Red Guard Zheng Yi reveals that cannibalism played a part in the Cultural Revolution. Followed by CHRISTMAS IN SARAJEVO: As we enjoy Christmas, how are the inhabitants of the Sarajevo street coping with freezing conditions, starvation and shelling? Each night over the holiday period there will be further reports.

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