Urban Myths
Our Urban Myths are stories that have been passed down over time and have now become part of urban folklore. But are they true? We take a slightly tongue in cheek, mischievous – and deliberately ambiguous – look at what might have happened...
Seasons
1. Bob Dylan: Knockin' on Dave's Door
Air Date: 2017-01-19
Music legend Bob Dylan decides to fly to the U.K. one day to visit his mate Dave Stewart. Soon he finds himself waiting for Dave in his flat dutifully being served tea by his girlfriend. But is he really in the right place? You decide.
2. Samuel Beckett and Andre the Giant
Air Date: 2017-01-26
Inspired by true events, this comedy charts the unlikely friendship between Samuel Beckett and a young Andre the Giant.
3. Hitler the Artist
Air Date: 2017-02-02
With the help of his friend Gustl, a young Adolf Hitler attempts to get in to the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
4. Cary Grant and Timothy Leary
Air Date: 2017-02-09
Comedy following Cary Grant and Timothy Leary on a psychedelic trip while on the set of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller North by Northwest.
5. The Greatest of All Time
Air Date: 2017-02-16
Comedy based on the time Muhammad Ali talked a suicidal man down from a ninth floor balcony.
1. Marilyn Monroe and Billy Wilder: 'It's Me, Sugar'
Air Date: 2018-04-12
Comedy about Marilyn Monroe's bust-up with Billy Wilder.
2. 13.7.85: Backstage at Live Aid
Air Date: 2018-04-19
Behind the scenes at Love Aid, as Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Elton John, Sade, Freddie Mercury, Status Quo and many more cross paths
3. Johnny Cash and the Ostrich
Air Date: 2018-04-26
The tale of Johnny Cash's dramatic run-in with a killer ostrich in a Nottingham hotel
4. The Dali and The Cooper
Air Date: 2018-05-03
Alice Cooper and Salvador Dali spend a weird weekend in 1970s New York City
5. When Bowie Met Bolan
Air Date: 2018-05-10
In the 1960s, the young rock superstars spend an afternoon decorating their manager's Soho office.
6. The Mysterious Case of Agatha Christie
Air Date: 2018-05-17
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy L Sayers join the manhunt when fellow crime writer Agatha Christie mysteriously disappears without trace
7. Public Enemy (Feat. Kev Wells)
Air Date: 2018-05-24
When the rap icons find themselves late for a gig and without transport, a kindly local fan offers them a lift
8. Sex Pistols Vs Bill Grundy
Air Date: 2018-05-31
The punk band unleash hell on live TV in 1976
1. Princess Diana, Freddie Mercury and Kenny Everett
Air Date: 2019-04-10
Freddie Mercury and Kenny Everett put a disguise on their good friend, Princess Diana, and take her out for a night on the town, ending up at a club which results in an encounter with Gareth, a drag artist with a painful secret.
2. Andy & The Donald
Air Date: 2019-04-17
In 1984, property magnate and entrepreneur Donald Trump bought an American football team. In an attempt to stir up some publicity, he held cheerleader auditions in the basement of Trump Tower with a panel of celebrity judges, including Andy Warhol.
3. Bleak House Guest
Air Date: 2019-04-24
The true-ish story of when Dickens superfan Hans Christian Andersen turned up unexpectedly on Charles and Catherine Dickens' doorstep quickly proving to be the most impossible (and unshakeable) house-guest imaginable.
4. The Trial of Joan Collins
Air Date: 2019-05-01
The film will cover Collins' extraordinary real-life 1996 court case with publishers Random House, who had paid her a whopping advance for a novel, only to claim that her submitted manuscript was "unreadable".
5. Grace Under Pressure
Air Date: 2019-05-08
A burglar stumbled into Grace Jones and artist Jean-Paul Goude’s New York apartment, armed with a very small gun. When he inadvertently chose to break into Grace and Jean-Paul’s home, he ended up with more than he bargained, having to deal with these two flamboyant, volatile lovers.
6. Madonna and Basquiat
Air Date: 2019-05-15
Before she was famous, Madonna had a short but passionate and influential relationship with Jean Michel Basquiat, a pioneer and darling of the 1980s New York art scene. This myth takes place across one night on the New York subway, just before Madonna infamously door-stepped music producer Seymour Stein at his hospital bedside where he signed her on the spot.
7. Scrambled Eggs
Air Date: 2019-05-22
Paul McCartney dreams a tune, and become obsessed with finding out what it is. The story of how the song "Yesterday" was made.
8. Mick Jagger and Princess Margaret
Air Date: 2019-05-29
Examining the decades-long friendship between Mick Jagger and Princess Margaret, we find out that Tony Blair submitted Jagger’s name for the Queen’s Honours’ List annually, from 1997 to 2002. However, every year the Queen turned him down. This comic tale travels from London to the Caribbean and dives head-first into the worlds of rock and royalty to ponder exactly why that was.
1. Les Dawson's Parisienne Adventure
Air Date: 2020-10-07
Inspired by his heroes, the writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, a young Les Dawson leaving his home in Manchester to live in Paris in order to pursue his dream of becoming a serious novelist. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out as he planned, and he ended up becoming a pianist in a brothel.
2. When Joan Kissed Barbra
Air Date: 2020-10-14
As Joan Rivers told it, before she and Barbra Streisand were famous, they were in an off-Broadway play together. Failing as a club comic and returning to more artistic pursuits, Rivers demanded she be cast in the production without even reading the script. The result: the role she was given called for a love scene between herself and Streisand.
3. Hendrix & Handel
Air Date: 2020-10-21
Housemates separated by time, Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel grapple with the stresses of the music business in this funny and intimate portrait of two eccentric musical geniuses and the events leading up to a transformative moment when Jimi saw Handel's ghost.
4. Orson Welles in Norwich
Air Date: 2020-10-28
A story of how the great star briefly went missing in Norwich in 1972 whilst working on F for Fake, a faux documentary now regarded as his last masterpiece.
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Rating
7.4/10
Release Date
2017-01-19
Episodes
25 (4 seasons)
Status
Ended