Ludovic Kennedy

Granada: From the North

The story of Granada, the company responsible for Britain's most enduring soap opera Coronation Street, the current affairs series World in Action, and highly praised drama from Brideshead Revisited to Prime Suspect. With contributions from Jeremy Isaacs, Gus Macdonald, David Plowright, Michael Parkinson, Gerry Robinson and Sir Denis Forman. Director David Thompson

A Life in Pieces

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling shares his opinions on the Twelve Days of Christmas, in discussion with Ludovic Kennedy.

Who Killed the Lindbergh Baby?

Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed in 1936 for the kidnapping and murder of the infant son of pioneering aviator and American hero Charles Lindbergh. This documentary examines lingering doubts about the justice of his conviction. (1982)

A Guide to Armageddon

A widely-acclaimed documentary film from 1982 about the effects of nuclear weapons, directed by Mick Jackson who went on to direct Threads two years later in 1984. What would be the effects on people and buildings if one medium-sized nuclear bomb was dropped on a large city? How effectively would various types of shelter protect us? In an experimental trial, two couples live in fallout shelters for ten days each

Warship Eagle

Documentary about HMS Eagle from 1966. This aircraft-carrier was sailing from Mombasa to Singapore under the command of Captain John Roxburgh. Join the crew through their trails and tribulations

Date With History: Hiroshima

A reconstruction using archive film of the bombing of Hiroshima, followed by a discussion of the main issues by Ludovic Kennedy and Group-Captain Cheshire.

Heavens Above!

A naive but caring prison chaplain, who happens to have the same last name as an upper class cleric, is by mistake appointed as vicar to a small and prosperous country town. His belief in charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the conservative and narrow-minded locals, and he soon creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a gypsy family, and persuading the local landowner to provide free food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town. When the congregation leaders realise the mistake and call for the Church of England to remove him, this turns out to be a very, very difficult issue - until one clergyman realises that a British project to send a man into space is in need of an astronaut...

The Lime Grove Story

A documentary about the BBC's Lime Grove studios