Best Docudrama Movies & TV Shows

In December 1776, Benjamin Franklin is world-famous for his electrical experiments. But his passion and power are put to the test when he embarks on a secret mission to France—with the fate of American independence hanging in the balance.

It was one of humankind's most epic quests - a technical problem so complex that it challenged the best minds of its time, a problem so important that the nation that solved it would rule the economy of the world. The problem was navigation by sea—how to know where you were when you sailed beyond the sight of land - establishing your longitude. While the gentry of the 18th Century looked to the stars for the answer, an English clockmaker, John Harrison, toiled for decades to solve the problem. His elegant solution made him an unlikely hero and remains the basis for the most modern forms of navigation in the world today. This film will be both a celebration of Harrison's invention and an adventure story. An expedition on a period sailing vessel as it sails the open sea will demonstrate the life and death importance of finding your longitude at sea.

The story of the struggle for the women's vote is much more than just the account of the exploits of Emmeline Pankhurst or the tragic fate of Emily Davidson. Lucy Worsley puts herself at the heart of the drama, alongside a group of astonishing young working class suffragettes who decided to go against every rule and expectation that British Edwardian society (1901-1910) had about them…

A unique mix of editorial integrity, first-person storytelling and dynamic visual elements focusing on Vanity Fair's most fascinating stories and compelling scandals.

The shocking story of how fashion icon Christian Dior and his contemporaries including Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga navigated the horrors of World War Il and launched modern fashion.

A programme revealing the dangers and spectacles of exploring other planets in the Solar System. Join in the journey and dive below the ice of one of Jupiter's moons or get lost in a Venusian sulphuric acid storm...

This daring, hour-long documentary series chronicles the first few crucial minutes of emergencies told through the lens of America’s heroic 9-1-1 call takers.

In the early 1990s in New York, during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, a visionary musician named Bobby Diggs aka The RZA begins to form a super group of a dozen young, black men, who will eventually rise to become one of the unlikeliest success stories in American music history.

The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

Major real-life air disasters are depicted in this series. Each episode features a detailed dramatized reconstruction of the incident based on cockpit voice recorders and air traffic control transcripts, as well as eyewitnesses recounts and interviews with aviation experts.

The inspiring origin story of a basketball superhero, revealing how LeBron James and his childhood friends become the #1 high school team in the country, launching James's breathtaking career as a four-time NBA Champion, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and the NBA's all-time leading scorer.

The inspiring true story of Richard Montañez, the Frito Lay janitor who channeled his Mexican American heritage and upbringing to turn the iconic Flamin’ Hot Cheetos into a snack that disrupted the food industry and became a global pop culture phenomenon.

Doctors recount the most memorable cases they’ve ever encountered. Unusual, touching, humorous or life-changing – no story is too big or too small when it comes to the ER.

The story of the United States' space program, from its beginnings in 1961 to the final moon mission in 1972.

Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s never before revealed experiences of making the iconic 1972 film The Godfather that Francis Ford Coppola directed and adapted with Mario Puzo.

Candy and Pat Montgomery and Betty and Allan Gore — two churchgoing couples — enjoy their small town Texas life… until an extramarital affair leads somebody to pick up an axe.

Hosts Ryan & Shane discuss mysteries surrounding notorious unsolved crimes.

The story of how one company triggered the worst drug epidemic in American history. Look into the epicenter of America's struggle with opioid addiction, from a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA, and to the opulence of "one percenter" Big Pharma Manhattan.

Docudrama factual series that reveals the remarkable true stories behind some of the most gripping and important international spy operations of the last forty years.

A lesson in geography, which concludes that although the Great Lakes have had their ups and downs, nothing has been harder to take than what humans have done to them lately. In the film, a lone canoeist lives through the changes of geological history, through Ice Age and flood, only to find himself in the end trapped in a sea of scum.

A look at the search for the fabled Northwest passage, the legendary path through the ice across the Canadian Arctic, and the attempts made by wealthy British explorer Sir John Franklin and penniless Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

The film explores the background and build-up to this final flight to disaster. Using dramatic reconstruction, archive footage and exclusive interviews with leading historians and engineering experts, the special delves into the political and scientific events that led up to the catastrophe.

Historian Dr Suzannah Lipscomb unfolds the extraordinary story of the tumultuous love affair between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and asks: was it really love that brought them together – and was it love that tore them apart? Suzannah's journey will take her from Anne's childhood home at Hever Castle in Kent to the French palace where, some say, she learned the art of love. She will also visit Hampton Court, where Henry built the Great Hall for his new queen, and the Tower of London, where he had her beheaded.

Biography of the former first lady, focusing on her years as a photojournalist and leading up to her marriage to John F. Kennedy and their moving into the White House.

This illuminating docudrama series chronicles Moses' remarkable life as a prince, prophet and more with insights from theologians and historians.

A teenager is charged with lying about her rape allegation, but two determined investigative female detectives discover a far more sinister truth.

Based on the true nail-biting mission that captivated the world. Twelve boys and the coach of a Thai soccer team explore the Tham Luang cave when an unexpected rainstorm traps them in a chamber inside the mountain. Entombed behind a maze of flooded cave tunnels, they face impossible odds. A team of world-class divers navigate through miles of dangerous cave networks to discover that finding the boys is only the beginning.

Follows a group of successful and educated women who are connected to the world of medicine in Atlanta, including doctors and wives of doctors. Whether delivering babies in Louboutins or rushing off to galas in Buckhead, these women do everything with style, drama, and of course, southern flair.

The true story of America's iconic 16th president as told by weaving together both scripted dramatizations of important moments in his life and commentary by authoritative historians and public figures.

A small time thief from Belfast, Gerry Conlon, is falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a pub that kills several people while he is in London. He and his four friends are coerced by British police into confessing their guilt. Gerry's father and other relatives in London are also implicated in the crime. He spends fifteen years in prison with his father trying to prove his innocence.

John Nash is a brilliant but asocial mathematician fighting schizophrenia. After he accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish.

A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.

The last years of Freddie Mercury (1946-1991), rock legend and frontman of Queen, a band that conquered the world of music in the seventies and eighties: what was his lifestyle and the path that led him to a tragic death due to AIDS when he was only 46 years old.

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, most people thought the conflict would be over by Christmas; they could not imagine how wrong they were. An attack in Sarajevo ended up becoming a snowball that swept the world: a new kind of warfare had begun, waged with techniques and means never seen before. By November 1918, ten million people had died and the political map of the planet had been redrawn.

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Heroes and Villains was a 2007-2008 BBC Television docudrama series looking at key moments in the lives and reputations of some of the greatest warriors of history. Each hour long episode featured a different historical figure, including Napoleon I of France, Attila the Hun, Spartacus, Hernán Cortés, Richard I of England, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The statements at the beginning of each episode read: "This film depicts real events and real characters. It is based on the accounts of writers of the time. It has been written with the advice of modern historians." In the United States the show is aired on The Military Channel and was called "Warriors".

One of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

The life stories of history's greatest minds. From their days as young adults to their final years we see their discoveries, loves, relationships, causes, flaws and genius.

Fueled by an impoverished childhood, George Foreman channeled his anger into becoming an Olympic Gold medalist and World Heavyweight Champion, followed by a near-death experience that took him from the boxing ring to the pulpit. But when he sees his community struggling spiritually and financially, Foreman returns to the ring and makes history by reclaiming his title, becoming the oldest and most improbable World Heavyweight Boxing Champion ever.

A fast-break series chronicling the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of sports’ most revered and dominant dynasties — a team that defined an era, both on and off the court.

The story of how Richard Williams served as a coach to his daughters Venus and Serena, who will soon become two of the most legendary tennis players in history.

Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.

A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of top scientists in humane livestock handling.

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

After emigrating to Greece from Nigeria, Vera and Charles Antetokounmpo struggled to survive and provide for their five children, while living under the daily threat of deportation. Desperate to obtain Greek citizenship but undermined by a system that blocked them at every turn, the family's vision, determination and faith lifted them out of obscurity to launch the careers of three NBA champions.

This docudrama travels back in time to 1963 to see how Doctor Who was first brought to the screen. Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles. Wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.

A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain. After backing the film's development, the BBC refused to air it, publicly stating "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting." It debuted in theaters in 1966 and went on to great acclaim, but remained unseen on British television until 1985.

Chickie wants to support his friends fighting in Vietnam, so he does something wild—personally bring them American beer. What starts as a well-meaning journey quickly changes Chickie’s life and perspective. Based on a true story.

Based on actual events from Hurricane Katrina. When the floodwaters rose, power failed, and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at a New Orleans hospital were forced to make profound, heart-wrenching decisions.

Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.