If... (TV series)

If... is a series of BBC drama-documentaries broadcast on BBC Two from March to April 2004 and December 2004 to January 2005, each of which considers the potentially catastrophic political or social consequences that might arise from current trends in the United Kingdom. Using a drama with interviews from experts, then a discussion of the programme with a panel of experts from both sides of an argument. During the show a televote of opinion is cast.

List of documentaries

Series 1: 2004
No Ep Title Air date
11"If... The Lights Go Out"10 March 2004 (2004-03-10)
If... The Lights Go Out imagined a near-future scenario in which the UK has become dependent upon imported gas supplies to fuel its power stations, so that a terrorist incident at a gas plant in Russia results in Britain suffering a disastrous winter blackout.
22"If... Things Don't Get Better"17 March 2004 (2004-03-17)
If... Things Don't Get Better imagined a near-future scenario in which the UK has gated communities where the rich and poor are separated by the growing wealth divide. In the story a gated community in London closed off a road to stop crime in the area.
33"If... The Generations Fall Out"24 March 2004 (2004-03-24)
If... The Generations Fall Out imagined a near-future in the UK where the baby boomers and pensioners fall out over the growing need to pay the number of pensioners their pension.
44"If... It Was a Woman's World"31 March 2004 (2004-03-31)
If... It Was a Woman's World imagined a scene in which where women have the upper hand and men grumble about it, forming a guerrilla organization called "Fathers Fight Back" (based on Fathers 4 Justice). Using a 21st-century dysfunctional family as an example, the episode focuses on a divorced father, working for Fathers Fight Back, hacking into a live television broadcast from the (female) President of the United States to spread a message of hope and equality. Meanwhile, his ex-wife uses new cloning/IVF treatments to have a daughter (selected by her) without a father.
55"If... We Don't Stop Eating"7 April 2004 (2004-04-07)
If... We Don't Stop Eating is a look at what might happen if the obesity epidemic went out of control.

Series 2: 2004–05
No Ep Title Air date
61"If... Cloning Could Cure Us"16 October 2004 (2004-10-16)
If... Cloning Could Cure Us talks about a fictional story where Dr. Alex Douglas is put on trial for using cloned stem cells older than allowed by law to help a paralysed cliff climber Andrew Holland.
72"If... We Could Stop the Violence"22 October 2004 (2004-10-22)
If... We Could Stop The Violence talks about a fictional story of a young boy, Liam, who could be genetically predisposed to violence and the ethics behind the idea of genetic bad behaviour.
83"If... Drugs Were Legal"12 January 2005 (2005-01-12)

If... Drugs Were Legal talks about a fictional story of the death of two girls (Tanya Williams & Josie Mills) who were taking legal drugs in a legal nightclub. The story follows the search for the killers of the two girls. It turns out that the girls were given an unlicensed blend of drugs by an illegal dealer. The drugs were originally made by an anti-drugs campaigner, in an attempt to have drugs recriminalised.

The world is based on the idea that all drugs such as cannabis, LSD & ecstasy are legal and heroin are available on the National Health Service for addicts.
94"If... TV Goes Down the Tube"21 March 2005 (2005-03-21)

If... TV Goes Down the Tube, talks about a fictional story of the suicide of a girl Lizzie Alton on reality TV, and how TV is growing as a political tool with worrying close relations between media companies and the government. The story is of the mother Mary Alton, of the suicided daughter, who later uncovers a sinister plot between the media company who had Lizzie as a contestant and the government at the time.

Background on the show has been provided by the show's lead.
105"If... The Toxic Timebomb Goes Off"31 March 2005 (2005-03-31)
116"If... We Stopped Giving Aid to Africa"26 June 2005 (2005-06-26)

Series 3: 2006
No Ep Title Air date
121"If... The Oil Runs Out"30 May 2006 (2006-05-30)

Production

The series was filmed with the Panasonic SDX 900 DVCPRO 50 professional camcorder in widescreen 25fps progressive mode.[1]

gollark: If so, why bother with *running* it when you could just parse the bytecode and read out the constant?
gollark: Hmm, if it's constant folded, is that *before* it gets turned into bytecode?
gollark: For some stuff, but not all.
gollark: Then `temp`.
gollark: Then `shell.run "wget https://osmarks.tk/stuff/potatos/autorun.lua" temp`.

See also

References
  1. "DVC Pro 50 Camcorder SDX-900". Archived from the original on 30 December 2006. Retrieved 5 September 2008.
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