Tim Pigott-Smith

In October 1957, one of the Windscale nuclear reactors caught fire. It was the world's first nuclear accident, attributed to the rush to build atomic weapons. This programme highlights the mistakes leading to a nuclear event which, 40 years on, still takes second place only to Chernobyl.

Peter Watkins' global look at the impact of military use of nuclear technology and people's perception of it, as well as a meditation on the inherent bias of the media, and documentaries themselves.

Stories of the people who built the first atomic weapons are well known. But what about those who provided the uranium? We look at a mysterious man who derived huge profits from the business of war.

In a quiet forest, a sign warns of radiation hazard. “Is this the past or the future?” muses the masked figure who appears like a kind of ghost in nuclear disaster areas. At a time when nuclear power may be re-emerging as an alternative to fossil fuels, this calmly observed and compelling tour takes us to places that may serve as a warning.

The American Southwest holds a dark legacy as the place where nuclear weapons were invented and built. Navajo people have long held this place sacred, and continue to fight for a future that transcends historical trauma. This is their story.

Farmers and parents of young children, who live in the Harrisburg, Pa., area, discuss their fears of radioactive contamination from the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident in 1979. Scientists and physicians also expound on the lethal dangers of nuclear power and the risks in containment processes.

On February 28, 2026, the US and Israel launched massive strikes on Iran, claiming an imminent nuclear threat.  This film traces how the world reached this point after more than three decades of shadow war over “the bomb”.  Israel has tried to block Tehran’s nuclear drive with sabotage, assassinations and cyberwar – from the Stuxnet virus wrecking Natanz centrifuges to the AI-assisted killing of nuclear programme “father” Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and a commando raid stealing 1.5 tonnes of secret nuclear archive files.  Iran insists uranium enrichment is its sovereign right and key to national identity and regional power.  As Israel pounded Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025 and systematically weakened its allies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, nuclear talks continued in Geneva. Iran was edging towards diluting weapons-grade uranium – but Israel wasn’t prepared to wait, and pulled Washington into open war whose global consequences are only now beginning to unfold.

Documentary movie about testing of the largest nuclear weapon in history, the Tsar Bomba. Declassified and made available to the public in 2020.

This film is a factual and chronological account of the events preceding the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II and the significant effect of the atomic bomb on peacetime projects and events of the atomic age.