BBC Four Collections explained

BBC Four Collections is a selected variation of factual television episodes and series available on British video-on-demand service BBC iPlayer. The collections themselves primarily involve "experts" like Richard Osman,^[1] Janet Street-Porter^[2] and David Attenborough^[3] selecting various programmes from the BBC Archive to be made available on the iPlayer service. Every programme is marked with a short introduction marking the collection with BBC Four branding. Each collection has a particular theme like modern classical music,^[4] the British Army^[5] and interviews with famous figures.^[6] Some collections were established in 2012, more being added to the service until 2014. As of 2023, most of the content is still available on the iPlayer service, with some becoming unavailable due to rights or other reasons, like the Tim Westwood sexual assault allegations.

List of collections

Only collections with a noted author (mentioned at the start of each programme) are included in this list.

Expert	Collection	Year	Programme	Episode Title or Date	Available (as of 2023)
Mark Urban	Army: A Very British Institution	1968	Breakaway	5. "My Friends Think I'm Mad"	rowspan="16"
		1990	Everyman	"A Game of Soldiers"
		1977	In Her Majesty's Service	6. Corporal of Horse Christopher Slater, The Life Guards Squadron of the Household Cavalry Regiment
		1989	In the Highest Tradition	N/A, 6-episode series
		1989	Inside Out: Ticking with the Crow/The Officers' Mess	N/A
		1960	Meet the Red Devils: Parachute Regiment
		1985	Moment of Truth	Episode 6
		1969	Omnibus	Makers of the Queen's Music
		1975	Panorama	Sandhurst
		1983	The Paras	N/A, 7-episode series
		1977	The Regiment	N/A
			Silver Jubilee	Review of the British Army
			Trooping the Colour	Silver Jubilee
		1952		1952
		1974	Tuesday Documentary	The Bomb Disposal Men
		1968		Death or Glory
Simon Jenkins	London	1987	Open Space	Bad Meaning Good
		1975	Going Places	12	rowspan="11"
		1964	A City Crowned with Green	N/A
		1950	The Debate Continues
		1946	First-Year Flashbacks
		1999	Inside Story	Fish Tales
		1968	One Pair of Eyes	Georgia Brown: Who are the Cockneys Now?
		1956	Special Enquiry	A Girl Comes to London
		1960	A House in Bayswater	N/A
		1969	How They Dug the Victoria Line
		1971	Man Alive	Hyde Park
		1969	I Love This Dirty Town	N/A
		1985	Ours to Keep	Incomers
		1959	After the Battle	London - Ed Murrow Reports	rowspan="16"
		1957	Eye To Eye	London-New York
		1955	Cities of Europe	London: We Live by the River
		1968	Contrasts	Marble Arch to Edgware
		1976	Inside Story	The Market
		1991	Clive James	Postcard from London
		1985	Just Another Day	Soho
				The Tower of London
		1996	Modern Times	Streetwise
		1967	Three Swings on a Pendulum	N/A
		1985	To the World's End: Scenes and Characters on a London Bus Route
Clemency Burton-Hill	Modern Classical Music	2005	Boulez at 80	N/A
			BBC Proms 2005	Michael Berkeley, Ben Britten & Vaughan Williams
		1964	Celebrity Recital	Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears.
		2004	John Cage Live at the Barbican	N/A
		1978	Julian Bream Masterclass	N/A, 5-episode series
		2001	Music Masters	Stockhausen
				John Adams	rowspan="8"
		1968	Omnibus	Diaghilev: The Years Abroad
		2001	'Philip Glass Concert: Live at the Barbican	N/A
		2013	The Sound and the Fury in Concert	N/A, 3 episode series
		1964	War Requiem	N/A
Gary Boyd-Hope	Steam Railways	1968	4472 - Flying Scotsman	N/A
		1963	Let's Imagine	A Branch Line Railway with John Betjeman
		1975	The World About Us	The Romance of Indian Railways
		1986	Steam Days	N/A, 6 episode series
		1979	The Rainhill Story: Stephenson's Rocket	N/A
		1988	The Train Now Departing	N/A, 6 episode series
		1969	Tuesday Documentary	Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Siding	rowspan="87"
		1962	In View	Men of Steam
		1980	The Past at Work	Railway Mania
		1980	The Great Railway Cavalcade: Rocket 150 at Rainhill	N/A
		1977	With a Fine Feeling for Steam
Robin Lane Fox	Archaeology at the BBC	1956	Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?	3 May 1956
		1958		1 October 1958
		1960	The Grandeur That Was Rome	N/A, 3 episode series
		1958	Armchair Voyage: Hellenic Cruise
		1974	Sir Mortimer and Magnus	N/A, 6 episode series
		1966	Chronicle	Vikings in North America
				The Roman Goose March: The Holy Sailors
		1973		The Ape Man That Never Was
		1954	Buried Treasure	Stonehenge
		1956		The Walls of Jericho
		1958		King Solomon's Mines
		1957		Mohenjo-daro
		1954		The Peat Bog Murder Mystery
Julian Joseph	Blues	1985	Arena	Blues Night (5-episode series)
		1979	The Devil's Music (series 2)	N/A, 4-episode series
		1972	Sounding Out	B.B. King
Janet Street-Porter	Post-War Architecture	1986	Architecture at the Crossroads	Doubt and Reassessment
				Stop the Bulldozer
				Houses Fit for People
		1988	Building Sights	Schlumberger Building
				Byker Wall
				Alexander Fleming House
		1989		Janet Street-Porter
		1991		Lloyd's Building
				Trellick Tower
				Boarbank Hall Oratory
		1996		Canary Wharf
				Worsley Medical Building
				Hauer-King House
				Humber Bridge
				Wood Street Police Station
				Alton Estate
				Willis Corroon
		1972	Nairn Across Britain	N/A, 3-episode series
		1969	Omnibus	The More We Are Together
		1979	Where We Live Now	New Town, Home Town
David Attenborough	The Early Years	2013	David Attenborough: The Early Years	N/A
		1963	Adventure	Quest under Capricorn (6-episode series)
		1965		Zambezi (3 episodes)
		1961	Zoo Quest	To Madagascar (5 episodes)
		1956		for a Dragon (6 episodes)
		1955		to West Africa
		1960	The People of Paradise	First 5 episodes of 6
		1969	The Miracle of Bali	N/A, 3-episode series
		1961	Elsa the Lioness	N/A
Michael Parkinson	Talk	1959	Face to Face	Bertrand Russell
				Dame Edith Sitwell
				Carl Jung
		1960		Stirling Moss
				Evelyn Waugh
				Adam Faith
		1961		Martin Luther King
		1994		Maya Angelou
				Jeanette Winterson
		1995		Lauren Bacall
				Ken Dodd
		1972	Parkinson	David Niven
		1974		Dr Jacob Bronowski
		1998		Billy Connolly & David Attenborough
		1974	The Frost Interview	David Frost interviews Muhammad Ali
				Brian Clough
		2003	Breakfast with Frost	Tony Blair
				Dominique de Villepin
		2004		Donald Rumsfeld
		1965	Late Night Line-Up	16 October 1965
		1966		20 November 1966
				Coco the Clown
			Imtimations	10. John le Carre
			People to Watch	Ronald Reagan
		1960	Monitor	Henry Moore
		1955	In Town Tonight	22 October 1955
				29 October 1955
			Panorama	Salvador Dali
				Ed Murrow
			Press Conference	Orson Welles
		1982	Arena	Desert Island Discs
		1963	The Solitary Billionaire: J. Paul Getty	N/A
		1971	Daphne Du Maurier
		1984	Wogan	18 February 1984
				25 December 1984
		1987		9 November 1987
		1970	Personal Choice	Jane Fonda
		1956	Picture Parade	Joan Crawford	rowspan="2"
Adam Curtis	All American	1972	Alistair Cooke's America	The First Impact
		1981	Arena	Chelsea Hotel	rowspan="10"
		2004		Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus
		1999	Close Up	Jackson Pollock Love and Death on Long Island
		1965	Inside America	13. The Quiet Persuader
		1985	Omnibus	Stud Terkel's Chicago
		1966	Panorama	California 2000
		2001	Timewatch	The Empire State Story
		1967	Whicker's World	Conflict in Kentucky
Richard Osman	Classic Game Shows	2000	Friends Like These	18 November 2000
		1982	Ask the Family	2 November 1982
		2009	The Weakest Link	27 January 2009
		2001	Big Break	19 May 2001	rowspan="2"
		1987	Bob's Full House	19 December 1987
		1974	What's My Line?	19 January 1974	rowspan="2"
		1999	Call My Bluff	19 November 1999
		1966	Quiz Ball	22 December 1966	rowspan="3"
		1954	Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?	28 October 1954
Max Hastings	The Great War Interviews	1960s	The Great War Interviews	N/A, 13-episode series

Notes and References

1. Web site: Richard Osman: My love affair with the quiz show. April 15, 2015. BBC.
2. Web site: BBC - Janet Street-Porter introduces the Post-War Architecture Collection. BBC.
3. Web site: BBC - Sir David Attenborough introduces his BBC Four Collection. BBC.
4. Web site: BBC - Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the Modern Classical Music Collection. BBC.
5. Web site: BBC - Mark Urban introduces the Army Collection. BBC.
6. Web site: BBC - Michael Parkinson introduces the Talk Collection. BBC.