Timewatch - Season 9 / Year 1990

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Episodes

An Edge of Conspiracy

Year 1990Episode 160 min

An Edge of Conspiracy

Was the last prisoner of Spandau Prison in Berlin really Rudolf Hess, one time deputy to Adolf Hitler, or a doppelganger put in his place by the Nazis before his incredible flight to Britain in 1941? Claims have been made in recent years that the body of the man who died in Spandau Prison in 1987 at the age of 93 bore none of the chest wounds suffered by the real Hess in the First World War. Christopher Andrew talks to wartime witnesses and forensic experts in a personal investigation to establish whether the strange case of Rudolf Hess is a genuine example of the conspiracy theory of history.

Napoleon's Last Battle

Year 1990Episode 260 min

Napoleon's Last Battle

Timewatch explores the myth of the man who had a vision of a united Europe 175 years ago.

Hungary: The End of Silence

Year 1990Episode 360 min

Hungary: The End of Silence

The Communist party of Hungary has been forced to surrender its monopoly on truth, but it still controls access to the official archives. Any truths about the past 40 years must, therefore, come from the people themselves: witnesses, participants and victims, whose accounts are being gathered by historians, sociologists and film-makers. The history they recall has already had its effect on the pace of reform.

Accounts of a Forgotten Army

Year 1990Episode 460 min

Accounts of a Forgotten Army

In 1945 the German State and its army disappeared. Recently, harrowing tales from Germans who were prisoners in American camps at that time have begun to emerge. A Canadian author has alleged that nearly a million German soldiers died while prisoners of the Allies. His figures are disputed, but did the American authorities, with images of concentration camps fresh in their minds, set out to punish Germans?

Helping the Police with Their Enquiries

Year 1990Episode 560 min

Helping the Police with Their Enquiries

In the USA it is becoming standard practice for police to call in archaeologists and anthropologists with their skills at excavation and bone analysis to help them unravel murder cases. Now a British police force is looking at what the academics can offer them.

The Sipán Affair

Year 1990Episode 660 min

The Sipán Affair

In January 1987 a band of grave robbers broke into a royal tomb at Sipan in northern Peru. The treasure they plundered was worth millions. Within months it had been smuggled by way of London to Los Angeles. Timewatch examines the international trade in antiquities, and uncovers a tale of ancient gold and modern greed.

I Don't Want to Be Remembered as a Chair

Year 1990Episode 760 min

I Don't Want to Be Remembered as a Chair

On the shore of Sabbathday Lake in Maine lives a religious community of nine men and women. They are the last practising Shakers - members of a sect once persecuted for its dissenting beliefs and celibate lifestyle. Granted unique access, Timewatch explores their struggle to maintain their religious and historic identity while furniture made by previous generations of Shakers breaks saleroom records around the world.

All the King's Jews

Year 1990Episode 860 min

All the King's Jews

Seven hundred years ago tomorrow - on 1 November 1290 - the Jews were expelled from England. Christopher Andrew unfolds the extraordinary story of England's medieval Jews and discovers the English roots of European anti-Semitism.

A War Far from Home

Year 1990Episode 960 min

A War Far from Home

In 1914-15 138,000 Indians fought on the Western Front. More than a quarter were casualties. We know what the ordinary soldier felt about the war in France because his letters home were translated and censored. The programme tells the story of those men who fought and died for a country whose language, culture and traditions were alien to them.

One of the Reasons Why

Year 1990Episode 1060 min

One of the Reasons Why

Charles Wheeler tells how the colonial policy of the post-war Labour government led to the start of a 30-year war in Vietnam.

White Man's Grave, Black Man's Grave

Year 1990Episode 1160 min

White Man's Grave, Black Man's Grave

Dr Livingstone's dream of Africa - 'the white man's grave' - as a land of Christianity and commerce died one night in 1915 on estates planted by the doctor's own heirs. This film tells the extraordinary story of a planter called William Livingstone, a preacher called John Chilembwe and the tragic events that brought them together.

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