Britpop: The Music That Changed Britain - Season 1
Season 1
Episodes
Episode 1
Documentary charting the birth, the rise and the fall of the music culture movement that put the focus on Britishness, looking at the intertwining fortunes and rivalries of Blur, Oasis, Suede and Elastica. Suede insiders about how its started with the band's glam-inspired sound and first album, while Alex James and Dave Rowntree of Blur reveal how their band's disastrous first tour of America triggered a reboot and reappraisal that saw them embrace Britishness, culminating in the classic Parklife album.
Episode 2
The story of 1995 when Britpop took over the charts, and the rivalry between Blur and Oasis in the fight for the UK number one single was reported on the 9 O'Clock News. Pulp's Candida Doyle and Nick Banks relate their band's long, painful journey from the sidelines to the top table and their incredulity when frontman and perennial outsider Jarvis Cocker became a sex symbol.
Episode 3
The attitude-packed third episode tells the story of the movement's peak in 1996, when Britpop's trademark laddish swagger became inescapable on our TVs, in the tabloids and on the terraces – transforming British popular culture. But as Britain fell under the Britpop spell, a backlash was brewing… The swaggering tone was set by the increasingly dominant Oasis. Through rare archive interviews with Noel and Liam and an exclusive interview with Oasis Label boss Alan McGee, we get the inside story on their continued ascent - from the set of the Wonderwall video to putting on the largest concerts in British musical history and becoming the best-selling band in the world. The 1996 Brit Awards confirmed the changing of the musical guard. Oasis swept the board but the headlines were stolen by Jarvis Cocker. Fellow Pulp members Candida Doyle and Nick Banks reveal what led Jarvis to gatecrash Michael Jackson's performance, spend a night in jail and unwittingly dominate the tabloids (the answer is a private toilet, an overblown performance and the egging on of bandmates). But it wasn't just worlds of music and the tabloids falling under Britpop's spell, this was the year football went Britpop. The Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie and the FA's former Communications director Steve Double reveal the inside story of how Three Lions was nearly nixed by the FA before becoming a timeless anthem of British football after a last-minute change of ‘provocative' lyrics. Riding along in Oasis's slipstream were a host of bands, notably Cast, whose frontman John Power reveals how Oasis gave them a well-earned leg-up, while other bands, including Dodgy reveal how they were less enamoured by the Gallagher's "selfish attitude". The increasingly laddish tenor of the times was summed up by Loaded magazine, and former editor James Brown defends his contribution to the scene. Lush's Miki Berenyi relates her experience as a woman in Britpop, asked in photoshoots to "basically look a bit pornified" while facing record-label demands to chime with the increasingly commercial times. As the Britpop bands continued to proliferate, a backlash was brewing in the trend-setting music press who turned mercilessly on bands like Shed Seven as lead singer Rick Witter recalls suffering headlines like ‘You Can't Get Sh**er Than a Thick Rick Witter.' It all adds up to a richly evocative chapter in the history of British pop culture, filled with fascinating anecdotes and rarely-seen archive from an era brimming with confidence and unforgettable music.
Recently Updated Shows
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is an Emmy Award-winning late-night comedy showcase.
Since its inception in 1975, "SNL" has launched the careers of many of the brightest comedy performers of their generation. As The New York Times noted on the occasion of the show's Emmy-winning 25th Anniversary special in 1999, "in defiance of both time and show business convention, 'SNL' is still the most pervasive influence on the art of comedy in contemporary culture." At the close of the century, "Saturday Night Live" placed seventh on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Entertainers of the past fifty years.
Snapped
Who are these women and what drives them to kill? Oxygen's hit true crime series, Snapped, profiles fascinating cases of women accused of murder. Did they really do it? And if they did, why? Whether the motivation is revenge against a cheating husband, the promise of a hefty insurance payoff, or putting an end to years of abuse, the reasons are as varied as the women themselves. From socialites to secretaries, female killers share one thing in common: at some point, they all snapped. Each episode of Snapped chronicles the life of a woman who has been charged with murder. These shocking but true stories turn common assumptions about crime and criminals upside down, and prove that even the most unlikely suspects can be capable of murder.
American Pickers
This isn't your grandmother's antiquing. The American Pickers are on a mission to recycle America, even if it means diving into countless piles of grimy junk or getting chased off a gun-wielding homeowner's land. Hitting back roads from coast to coast, the Pickers earn a living by restoring forgotten relics to their former glory, transforming one person's trash into another's treasure. The show follows the team as they scour the country for hidden gems in junkyards, basements, garages and barns, meeting quirky characters and hearing their amazing stories. If you think the antique business is all about upscale boutiques and buttoned-up dealers, this show may change your mind – and teach you a thing or two about American history along the way.
Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch
There are some places on earth where the land just seems different, and Blind Frog Ranch in eastern Utah is one of those places. Locals say the land is cursed. That it's trying to hold on to something. From Aztec treasure to caverns of gold and silver to lost Mormon mines, legends surround Duane Ollinger's 160-acre ranch in Utah's Uintah Basin. But Duane isn't concerned with the lore. After discovering a system of seven underground caves that run through his property, he is singularly focused on finding what's hidden in them - no matter what the cost.
The Crow Girl
The Crow Girl begins with the gruesome discovery of a teenage boy's body discarded in plain sight. Determined to find who is responsible, DCI Jeanette Kilburn joins forces with psychotherapist Sophia Craven to hunt the killer despite opposition from her superiors including confidant DI Lou Stanley.
The investigation takes them into a dangerous world of historic abuse and murder. Together they uncover a chain of shocking events involving the disappearance of children that have gone overlooked for decades, as well as evidence of police corruption. As the body count rises and the two women are dragged into the depths of the murders, an intimacy starts to form between them, and so begins a complex, twisted love story. All the while, the killer is inching ever closer to home.