The True Story - Episode Guide

Sgt Andy McNab and Cpl Chris Ryan recount the story of the British SAS patrol's mission behind enemy lines during the 1991 Gulf War.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a phenomenon. All four films have been huge hits - the third in the series is now the third top grossing movie of all time. They tell the story of a group of pirates on board the ship the Black Pearl. 

Many of the story lines are pure fiction, but the characters themselves are based on the real-life pirates who sailed the seas around the Caribbean at the time the movie is set. Barbossa was based on the fearsome Blackbeard and James Norrington was based on the dandy Henry Morgan.  

The recent excavation of the underwater wreck of Blackbeard's ship, the inspiration for the Black Pearl, reveals just what an impressive war machine it was.  And newly discovered secret coves reveal just how strategic the pirates were in their maritime attacks.

What remains unexplained is the secret of their huge success.

Indiana Jones was inspired by the mysterious life of one man, Otto Rahn. Like his onscreen legend, Rahn had an unstinting desire to find ancient sacred relics, spending much of his life trying to locate the Holy Grail. He also possessed a love of ancient maps to help solve the mystery of where treasures were located and a spirit for intrepid adventure. In one instance, he found himself crawling through caves looking for the Holy Grail when he was hit by a torrent of water and nearly drowned, a scene later depicted in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.

Indeed, Rahn even had a complicated relationship with the Nazis, who were always breathing down his neck. Desperate to find the Holy Grail because they believed it would help their quest for world domination, Otto Rahn helped the Nazis as a strategic means to continue his search. But he was never a Nazi supporter, not least because he was a practicing homosexual.

Explore the story of Rahn's remarkable life in this episode of The True Story. Using photographs, personal testimony, surviving records, recorded interviews, and reconstruction, we follow in the footsteps of the explorer in his quest for the Holy Grail.  We also try to solve the mystery of how Rahn died; Was he murdered by the Nazis? Was it suicide? Or simply natural causes?

Lieutenant Sidney George Reilly was a Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service. He was debonair, spoke many languages and was said to be as charismatic as he was brilliant. He was a compulsive womaniser (married four times – without ever divorcing); he loved the high-life, casinos, and fast cars. His missions took him, amongst other places, to Russia to help bring the Czar back to power after the Revolution, and to Japan where he was involved in smuggling secret documents. Sharing a mutual friend with Ian Flemming, he was to become the basis for James Bond.

Along with Sidney Reilly there are a number of other factors included in the films that have also been taken from real life. Many of the gadgets are based on new technology, some of which we have access to and will dust down and demonstrate. Some of the Bond Girls are also based on real people. Vesper Lynd, from Casino Royale, is believed to be based on Christine Granville, a real-life agent in the British Secret Service, who had an affair with Ian Flemming. Some of the villains are even inspired by reality. The real Scaramanga was two years below Fleming and was known to be an intimidating character.

Using photos, film footage, personal affects, dramatic reconstruction and clips from the Bond movies, we bring Reilly to life and reveal the origins of some of the key Bond girls and Bond villains.

Alcatraz was the world's most impregnable prison: insurmountable walls, one guard for every three prisoners, a gun gallery at the end of every cell block, frequent inmate counts, constant search lights and the freezing waters of San Francisco Bay. But three prisoners believed they could achieve the impossible.

The brains behind the escape bid was Frank Lee Morris, known to have a very impressive IQ (played in the movie by Clint Eastwood). From the moment he arrived in Alcrataz, he began plotting his escape. Two and a half years later, three prisoners removed the grids in the rear of their cells, carefully replacing them with papier-mâché replicas. After many manoeuvres the men scaled a 15-foot fence, and hurried down to the island shore where they inflated rafts and life vests and ventured out into the Bay waters. 

Back at the cell house, during the routine morning count, a guard probed his club into one of the inmates' cells, and the dummy head rolled off the bed and onto the floor.  The alarm was raised. But despite the authorities' strenuous efforts to track them down, none of the escapees have ever been found. For years the FBI continued to try to find them, but to no avail. So did the men escape?

Bits of raft, life preservers and wooden paddles were later found in the bay.

In this episode of The True Story, we use remnants of the raft, and the knowledge of what materials were available to the prisoners at the time to recreate their escape. Placing three men on board who would have been the same weight as the escapes, will the raft survive the choppy waters? Will the men make it ashore? Or will they have to admit defeat and be picked up by the support boat?

Amongst various key interviewees, we speak with a fellow inmate, Darwin Coon, who was in Alcatraz during the time of the escape and helped provide the materials for it. We also speak to the wardens who were foiled by the escape and the FBI agents who tried to tack down the prisoners.

Al Capone and his Mafia chiefs ruled over Chicago for years through corruption and fear. If they had been allowed to continue, there was a distinct danger that the rot would have spread and spead. Drastic measures were therefore needed to defeat Capone and the Mafia. Many had tried and failed. But against all odds, ten men, who came to be known as the Untouchables, brought down the hitherto invincible Capone and his henchmen. So remarkable was this story that it has subsequently been immortalised in blockbuster movie of the same name, starring Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro and Sean Connery.

The man given this unenviable task was Eliot Ness. Ness launched an attack on Capone's stills. As his alcohol empire began to crumble, Capone became desperate. He tried to bribe Ness, and when unsuccessful, tried to bump him off by planting dynamite in his car. Eventually Ness outwitted Capone and he was found guilty of twenty one counts of tax evasion. Capone was sentenced to 11 years in jail.

The dramatised story of the Untouchables is similar to real life events. But there is one major error. The assumption throughout is that Al Capone was the main man. We reveal in this documentary, using Capone's biographer, Laurence Bergreen, that Capone was not the true boss of Chicago Mafia. He was merely a front. The real power was a group known as the Outfit. They kept a deliberately low profile – and it was they who gave Capone his orders. Their insistence on anonymity meant that while Eliot Ness was in constant pursuit of Al Capone, they were free to run the Chicago underworld.

We interview surviving Mafia bosses about the role of Capone and the Outfit to demonstrate the nature of this relationship. We hear how the Outfit rewarded the Capone family generously, in return for their silence about the identity of the real power of the Chicago underworld. Using interviews, footage and dramatic reconstruction, we will tell the remarkable story of how Ness courted Al Capone, but how ultimately it was the Mafia who had the last laugh.

On 13 November 1974, police discovered six members of the De Feo family shot dead; the father, mother and four of the five children, at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. Attention turned to Ronald, the only child to survive the ordeal. He was soon declared guilty of the murders, his motivation supposedly being that he did not get on with his father and saw the killings as retribution for the years of hell his Dad had put him through.

After the trial, a newly wed couple in search of their dream home bought the house. But one month later their dream had turned into a nightmare. The couple fled from the house claiming it was possessed with demonic spirits.   

They organised for two psychics to enter the house and carry out a séance. The supposed ghosts they identified were those of Native American Indians. The piece of land where the house had been built had formerly been a place where sick and insane members of the tribe were isolated until they died.  This revelation became a national story. It wasn't long before the book Amityville Horror shot to the top of the best seller list and a blockbuster movie followed.

This alone is an intriguing story. But the next chapter – not commonly known – is a remarkable twist. Two paranormal investigators weren't satisfied with the published version of events, and began delving into the case. They eventually revealed that the hautings were an elaborate hoax – concocted as a money making con.

In this episode of The True Story, we meet the key people behind this amazing story.

The Hunt for Red October, starring Sir Sean Connery, tells the seemingly-incredible story of a Russian submarine captain who attempts to defect to the West. In fact, the Tom Clancy blockbuster on which the film is based, was inspired by an extraordinary real-life incident during the Cold War.

The True Story recreates that thrilling real story, in which idealistic political officer Valery Sablin started a 1975 mutiny on The Storozhevoy, or Sentry, one of the Soviet Union's state of the art Krivak class destroyers. He and his crew headed out into the Baltic Sea in a bid to start a second people's revolution. Terrified that Sablin was defecting to the West with a ship full of secrets, the Brezhnev regime mobilized Air Force bombers and Navy warships to try to stop it in.

Using interviews with sailors and officers on the ship and her Soviet military pursuers, we investigate this amazing high-stakes chase across the Baltic, culminating in an air attack. We also reveal the actual radar footage of the incident, which was recorded on Swedish radar but kept secret for many years. 

Explore the real-life battle between the Law and the Mob for control of Las Vegas that inspired Martin Scorsese's classic movie Casino.

In the Seventies, the Mob illegally controlled nearly all the major Las Vegas casinos, making the city one of their largest sources of cash.

Now, we tell the true story of the most crucial chapter in the city's history, when the authorities set out to end the criminal reign of terror by Mob enforcer Tony Spilotro - played by Joe Pesci in the film - and to close down the Mob's Vegas operation. Members of the crack FBI team, some speaking for the first time, describe how they were sent in undercover to find evidence that the Mob was skimming a million dollars a month from the famous Stardust casino. 

We reveal the wiretaps, the operation to catch Spilotro's gang red-handed in a jewellery heist, and the unorthodox task one FBI agent was given - to lose thousands of US taxpayer dollars on the gaming tables…

The Exorcist was one of the most successful horror movies of all time, grossing almost half a billion dollars at the box office. It was based on a real-life exorcism in 1949 in Maryland, USA, in which a priest claimed to have exorcised a demon from a thirteen-year-old boy whose family reported poltergeist activity. The ordeal lasted almost four months, with various priests reporting that the boy spoke in Latin, claimed to be a demon, and displayed ‘superhuman' strength. 

Using the diary kept by one of the priests, we investigate the disturbing ordeal the young boy went through.

The documentary also explores the increase in exorcisms following the film's release, using actual footage of a modern day exorcism, and explores the work of a leading neuroscientist who has used magnetic field technology to reproduce the sensation of ‘possession' in normal people.

Jason Bourne is the ultimate CIA operative, brainwashed into performing assassinations for a secret cell within the Agency. As far-fetched as it sounds, in this episode of The True Story, we reveal that many aspects of Robert Ludlum's original books, and the subsequent Bourne movie franchise, are rooted in fact. 

In a rare interview, Bourne Identity director Doug Liman describes how the Iran-Contra case, in which his father was the Chief Prosecutor, provided the real-life inspiration for the fictional secret cell ‘Treadstone'. He also reveals how his incredible meetings with a real assassin helped to create Bourne's on-screen persona. 

We also explore the bizarre, secret mind control programme called MK Ultra, aimed at creating a brainwashed ‘Manchurian Candidate', and reveal the tragic story of a woman who claims she was drugged and given electric shock treatments in unsanctioned MK Ultra experiments. Finally, we explore the training in weapons, combat and advanced driving that the real-life Bournes of the Special Activities Division undergo today. 

Silence of the Lambs tells the story of a young ambitious FBI profiler Clarice Starling as she pursues the serial killer Buffalo Bill with the help of convicted psychopath Hannibal Lecter.  

While researching the book on which the film was based, author Thomas Harris spent days with the FBI's pioneering Behavioural Science Unit, questioning criminal profilers and immersed in the case-files of serial killers. 

Now, we reveal the movie's real-life inspirations: serial killer Ted Bundy who, like psychiatrist Lecter, evaded capture with his charming, young lawyer persona; Ed Gein, whose sickening crimes echo the movie exploits of Buffalo Bill; and a young female FBI agent who helped Harris create Agent Starling. 

We also explore how Silence of the Lambs revolutionised the make-up of the profession, inspiring many women to become profilers, and reveal chilling footage of one such female entrant interviewing Gary Ridgway, considered America's most prolific serial killer. 

Titanic is one of the top grossing movies of all time. Apart from the love story, most of the background events are accurate – with great attention to detail. 

But the culmination of a three year research project has revealed a new discovery.  Another ship steamed to within five miles of the stricken liner and could have saved all aboard. Instead, on the orders of its fearful captain, it turned back, leaving the passengers to drown. Survivors of the wreck recalled seeing a "mystery ship" which refused to come to their aid. For decades the wrong man, Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian, bore the blame. 

Now, for the first time on television, we set the record straight, cross-referencing eye witness testimony from 1912, with Bob Ballard's discovery of where the Titanic sank. We draw on archive footage, and present an astonishing voice recording that Captain Lord made in 1961, in which he reveals the identity of the man who abandoned the drowning passengers.

Jurassic Park tells the story of billionaire John Hammond creating a theme park where the main attractions are dinosaurs. He invites Alan Grant, an eminent palaeontologist, and other scientists to the island to share his vision. They are in awe of what he has achieved, but things go wrong when there is a security breach and the dinosaurs escape. The visitors become the hunted as the dinosaurs pick off the visitors one by one. Finally, the remaining four survivors make a desperate escape from the island via helicopter.

This documentary reveals the science behind Jurassic Park is based on rigorous scientific research and that the key character at the centre of the film is inspired by a real life individual. The vision of how dinosaurs could be bought back to life has now been shown to be impossible. But this documentary will feature recent remarkable breakthroughs in biology that would allow dinosaurs to walk again. Using cutting edge evolutionary biology, scientists are getting closer to bringing the dinosaur back to life.

With extensive location filming, expert interviews, forensic science and drama recon we bring the real story of Jurassic Park to life.

Steven Spielberg's Jaws is one of the most successful movies of all time. According to the author of the novel behind the movie, the story is based on a spate of shark attacks off the cost of New Jersey in 1916, which left four people dead. The savageness of the attacks dramatically altered the scientific view of Great Whites. And Jaws cemented their reputation as terrifying man-eaters. 

More recently however, new evidence shows that the Great White may have been unfairly blamed for the 1916 attacks.  

This documentary conducts new scientific tests using handwritten descriptions of the wounds of the 1916 victims. And, returning to the scenes of the attacks, it explores whether a Great White could really have come so close to land, finally revealing the identity of the real culprit.

Gladiator tells the story of an accomplished General, Maximus. who is unexpectedly handed the Emperorship of Rome by the outgoing dying emperor - instead of the Emperor's own son, Commodus. Maximus escapes being murdered by Commodus, is found half-dead by some slave-traders who sell him to a gladiator trainer. He is a natural fighter, and finds his way to the Coliseum, where he wows the crowds, culminating in gladiatorial combat with his arch nemesis Commodus, where both men fight to the death.  

This documentary reveals that so many of the characters from the movie are based on real-life individuals from history: the dying Emperor; the vicious Commodus; his seductive sister Lucilla. And an archaeological investigation in Rome revealed a perfectly preserved tomb of the man believed to be the inspiration for Maximus himself. 

Using extensive location filming, forensic science, leading  experts and drama recon, we tell the remarkable real story behind Gladiator.