The best documentaries to watch on British TV
Last updated: August 7, 2025
From gripping courtroom deep-dives to sweeping nature epics, British TV is currently in a golden age of documentaries and summer 2025 has delivered some of the most thought-provoking titles in years.
Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt?
Airing on ITV1 and ITVX, this powerful documentary explores one of the most disturbing criminal cases in recent memory: the conviction of nurse Lucy Letby for the murder of seven infants. Rather than restate the headlines, Beyond Reasonable Doubt? questions whether the evidence truly added up. Featuring new expert analysis, courtroom transcripts, and a careful examination of motive and circumstance. This series has ignited national conversation and challenged assumptions.
Parenthood
At 98 years old, Sir David Attenborough has nothing left to prove but continues to surprise. In Parenthood (BBC One & iPlayer), he shifts the lens from ecosystems to the heart of survival: parenting. With stunning footage of animal families – from nurturing lions to deadly spiderlings and a script that balances humour and poignancy, it’s a deeply moving reminder of life’s most primal bonds.
Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers
Attack on London just landed on Netflix and it's brutal. Four episodes going back to those awful bombings in 2005. They've dug up footage we'd never seen, got survivors to sit down and really talk about what happened, plus all these police files that were buried for years. It doesn't mess around or try to make you feel better about any of it, but you also see how ordinary people stepped up when everything went sideways. Given all the madness in the world right now, this one feels like something you need to watch. No agenda, no spin – just the raw truth about the day London got hit hard.
Shifty – A Mind-Bending Social Portrait
Part documentary, part visual essay, Shifty (BBC iPlayer) is filmmaker Adam Curtis at his most provocative. Using archive clips, obscure soundtracks, and a hypnotic narrative style, he maps the decline of Britain’s shared reality – from the 1980s to now. If Parenthood shows us nature’s balance, Shifty shows us society’s fracture. It’s ambitious, polarising, and unforgettable.
Walking with Dinosaurs
The BBC’s 2025 revival of Walking with Dinosaurs brings Earth’s ancient giants back to life with modern CGI and real dig-site science. This six-part series ditches the flashy stuff and just shows you the good bits – deep-sea fossils, ice age predators, research that's flipping everything we thought we knew about dinosaurs. Perfect for watching with the family or just when you want to learn cool stuff without your brain melting.
Why you should watch them
This is more than just TV, these documentaries reflect who we are – and who we’ve been. They ask uncomfortable questions, help us mourn and learn, explore survival at all levels and challenge how we see the world. This isn’t background viewing. It’s TV with purpose.
