True Stories

9:40pm Friday, January 4 on Prime

Documentary

Cheryl Cole

This is the Changing Face of Cheryl Cole. How did she turn herself from track suited teen to the Angel of the North? And what does the future hold? This is your chance to see her face transformed beyond recognition when we give you an exclusive look at Cheryl Cole aged 75.

9:40pm Friday, December 28 on Prime

Documentary

Forget “Sweet Sixteen” parties. Proms to mark the end of Primary School Proms are the latest craze. And they’re growing, not just in numbers but in glitz. This documentary follows the children at two Scottish schools, albeit at opposite ends of the social spectrum: Riverside Primary in Livingston and Mearns Primary School in Newton Mearns. We’ll be following the children in the three months running up to the next inescapable round of this new rite of passage. Underneath it all, are the Riverside and Mearns kids actually all that different?

8:35pm Friday, December 21 on Prime

Documentary

Ladies, have you ever wondered why you get so crazy when you’re in love? How many frogs you need to kiss before you meet your prince? Gents, ever wondered how many orgasms you can expect to have in a lifetime? How does my love life match up with the rest of the nation? Scientists have been studying these very questions for years. From their mountains of research and miles of surveys there can be found a clear and intriguing story, a lesson of love in our time. ‘Love in Numbers’ decodes our love lives and reveals the startling lessons that can be learnt. But be warned: you may never look at love and romance in the same way again.

9:35pm Friday, December 14 on Prime

Documentary

In this encore screening of Madness in the Fast Lane we look back to 2008, when more than seven million viewers saw terrifying film of two people rushing headlong across the M6 and careering into oncoming traffic in an apparently random incident. At the Highways Agency Control Centre, two women were seen walking on the central reservation of the M6 near Stoke-on-Trent. Immediately despatched to get them out of harm’s way, when the patrol unit arrives both women detach themselves from the officers, run separately across the carriageway and are instantly hit by heavy traffic.

A BBC cameraman captures the entire shocking incident and the police officers who are first on the scene are still haunted by the memory. ‘I still can’t look back and actually understand what happened’ says P C Paul Finlayson, ‘for a person to survive being hit by an articulated vehicle is very, very rare.’ What the police didn’t know then was that the two forty-year-old women were twin sisters. The immediate aftermath, also captured on film, only served to deepen the mystery of their behaviour. This documentary reveals that this was only the start of a real-life horror story with hitherto unseen footage, dramatic reconstruction and first-hand witness accounts.

9:35pm Friday, December 7 on Prime

Documentary

A Glass Too Full distils the truth about the way New Zealand women are drinking. It’s become so normal to drink that we need to find a good excuse not to. Ordinary gals throughout the country reveal the way alcohol has affected their lives. Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, drunk driving, alcoholism, liver cirrhosis, and teenage pregnancy are just some of the consequences of our drinking. The women we meet bravely bare their drinking stories. For some… the party’s over.

9:35pm Friday, November 30 on Prime

Documentary

We follow five extraordinary sets of twins; all born from a racially mixed partnership these twins share everything, their parents, their childhoods and a birthday, but they do not share the one thing we’d take as a given – the same skin colour. What is it like to appear racially different from the person you’re meant to look the most like? When one twin looks black and the other white how does this affect your family life, your own identity and how does the outside world see you? Funny and moving the five sets of twins all punch through with their unique perspectives of what it’s like to live an ordinary life in these extraordinary circumstances.

9:35pm Friday, November 23 on Prime

Documentary

Get ready to meet the Britain’s most embarrassing pets! From cats and dogs to horses and more exotic beasts like snakes and iguanas, these animal pals all have distressing habits. Hosted by two animal behaviour experts, this fun loving reality show follows pets and owners, capturing the hilarious action in all of its glory. Some people think it’s okay for their pets to burp, pleasure themselves in public or try to mate with a shoe. But sometimes the experts need to find a solution to particularly troubling behaviour, and they’ll check in later to see if the embarrassing pet has improved its manners.

8:35pm Friday, November 16 on Prime

Documentary

Once a remote home to Charles Manson and his “family”, the Barker Ranch has long been the subject of stories suggesting that several disenchanted young people who spent time there in the late 1960′s attempted to leave… but “disappeared” without a trace from the isolated community. Now, police Sgt. Paul Dostie and his cadaver dog Buster are investigating what might have happened to missing persons at both The Barker Ranch in Death Valley, CA., and at the Manson family’s Los-Angeles area home, The Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth, CA. This documentary will feature interviews with former family members, detectives and prosecutors, as well as archival footage, rarely seen photos and forensic investigation, as Sgt. Dostie and Buster lead us on a search for clandestine graves and buried secrets.

8:35pm Friday, November 9 on Prime

Documentary

Dubbed “The Real-Life Barbie,” 50-year-old Sarah Burge has made a name for herself as Britain’s most frequent user of plastic surgery. Having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make herself look young, she is never far from controversy, and neither is her family. Sarah’s six daughters – “The Burge Babes” – are a fierce, close-knit, publicity-craving gang.

Despite being only 16 years old, Hannah has already started Botox treatments under the guidance of her mother. Seven-year-old Poppy joins the rest of the family in pole dancing lessons and has already received vouchers for breast enhancement. And in place of bedtime stories, the girls take turns proofreading Sarah’s erotic novels. Among the antics chronicled in this eye-opening documentary are Sarah’s glamorous “My Big Fat Plastic Surgery” party, the drama surrounding daughter Charlotte’s latest boyfriend, the family’s constant conflicts with disapproving neighbours and Sarah’s attempts to turn each of her daughters into singing sensations. Expect tantrums, tears, arguments and lots of parties.

8:35pm Friday, November 2 on Prime

Documentary

Presenter Jeff Leach investigates the male prostitute industry in this upfront documentary. Join him as he meets the men who sell their bodies for sex and the clients who make use of their services – taking the show to its extreme by offering himself to a paying customer.