In Search of Greatness review - Gabe Polsky's absorbing sports documentary

★★★★ IN SEARCH OF GREATNESS Gabe Polsky's absorbing sports documentary

Icons including Pelé impart their wisdom

Ask any great sportsman or woman about greatness and they'll tell you it's as much achieved as made; natal talent isn't worth much if you don't practise, or are unfit, or don't have a hunger to win. But much of modern sport has become obsessed with statistics, performance levels and the crunching of numbers – many with dollar or pound signs in front.

The Atom: A Love Affair review - hot fusion and cold hearts

★★★ THE ATOM: A LOVE AFFAIR How the west fell out of love with nuclear power

New documentary explores how the west fell out of love with nuclear power

It’s fair to say that humanity’s relationship with nuclear energy over the last 50 years has had more highs and lows than a Spanish soap opera. From the Manhattan Project to Hinkley Point, it’s been a controversial technology that has promised both humanity’s salvation and damnation.

Romantic Comedy review - a not-so-guilty pleasure

★★★★ ROMANTIC COMEDY Tough yet passionate look at joys & flaws of romcoms

Elizabeth Sankey's tough yet passionate look at the joys and flaws of romcoms

Only those who really love you can deliver the hard truths, and for filmmaker Elizabeth Sankey, that one love is romantic comedies. Better known as one half of band Summer Camp, Sankey is a self-confessed romcom expert, having watched nearly every film from the 80s onwards.

The Shadows at Sixty, BBC Four review - pop's age of innocence

★★★★ THE SHADOWS AT 60 The British guitar band that sparked a revolution

The guitar revolution starts here

Back in the day, the weekend started with Ready Steady Go. Now Friday evenings are once more essential viewing, and not just because we’re all locked down. While the endless ToTP reruns are often no more than bad-taste wallpaper, the music documentaries are consistently high quality.

The Village, ITV review - the weird and wonderful micro-climate of Portmeirion

★★★★ THE VILLAGE, ITV The weird and wonderful micro-climate of Portmeirion

Inside Clough Williams-Ellis's Italianate Welsh fantasy

Portmeirion, the Italianate village created by architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis on the River Dwyryd estuary, might have been designed to provide the perfect surreal setting for the 1967 TV series The Prisoner. But though it resembles an opium dream of doll’s houses and fairytale landscapes, Portmeirion has proved remarkably sturdy, and with

Rebuilding Notre-Dame: Inside the Great Cathedral Rescue, BBC Four review - a race against time

★★★ REBUILDING NOTRE-DAME: INSIDE THE GREAT CATHEDRAL RESCUE, BBC FOUR A year after the devastating fire, the cathedral's future is still uncertain

A year after the devastating fire, the cathedral's future is still uncertain

One year on the world is drastically altered, but footage of Notre Dame’s stricken spire collapsing in flames is no less shocking. That this event, endlessly replayed, has not paled against the new reality of daily death tolls is testament to the scale of the loss. As the rector of Notre Dame, Patrick Chauvet put it: “Notre Dame is not just Paris, it’s France and beyond France, it’s the world.”

Return to Belsen, ITV review - Jonathan Dimbleby retraces his father's journey to a nightmare world

★★★ RETURN TO BELSEN, ITV Jonathan Dimbleby retraces his father's journey to a nightmare world

Are the terrible lessons of the Holocaust in danger of being forgotten?

When the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany was liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division on 15 April 1945, the BBC’s reporter Richard Dimbleby was there to record the occasion.

The Whalebone Box review - documentary through unreliable surrealism

★★★ THE WHALEBONE BOX Documentary through unreliable surrealism

A different kind of road trip with artist Andrew Kötting

The UK-wide lockdown has thrown the cinematic release schedule into chaos. Some films are postponed indefinitely, while others have opted for direct digital releases. It’s not ideal for anyone, but in a strange way it may play to The Whalebone Box’s favour. Specialist arthouse streaming service MUBI has secured the exclusive rights, and their captive subscribers are the ideal audience for such a strange, hypnotic piece.

DVD: The Street

Hoxton worlds: insightful, poignant documentary registers social change in a London community

Zed Nelson brings enormous humanity to this portrait of the changing identity of Hackney’s Hoxton Street as gentrification impinges on its long-established community. Shops that have been there for decades vanish overnight, fancy new pavement cafes spring up, and Nelson listens, patiently, to all who will talk to him, with a striking sense of their being able to speak in their own time, unprompted, unhurried.

Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All, Netflix review - epic two-parter on pop's first superstar

SINATRA: ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL, NETFLIX Epic two-parter on pop's first superstar

Built around a 1971 farewell concert, Alex Gibney's documentary makes richly engaging viewing

Coming in at around four hours, in two parts, this 2015 documentary is ostensibly about Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra, but really, via the prism of his existence, it’s as much about America’s journey through the first two thirds of the 20th century.