The inimitable Fanny Cradock takes traditional recipes and uses her practical know-how to make Christmas cookery easier for the layman. In this programme, Fanny has ideas for using mincemeat in a variety of unusual ways, with recipes for pies, pancakes, Swiss rolls and even mince-filled omelettes. (1975)

Paul Morley investigates the lasting appeal of art's very own Pop Idol. From failed Abstract Expressionist to pioneering Pop Art hero, Roy Lichtenstein revolutionised the art world with his big, bold, brash cartoon images of American culture. Even before Andy Warhol had picked up his can of Campbell's soup, Lichtenstein was making merchandise into art and cultivating his own durable brand, turning out work that was highly consumable and tirelessly reproduced. (2004)

First transmitted in 2004, this is a stunningly-photographed, thought-provoking road trip into the heart of the poor white American South. Singer Jim White takes his 1970 Chevy Impala through a gritty terrain of churches, prisons, truckstops, biker bars and coalmines.

Along the way are roadside encounters with present-day musical mavericks the Handsome Family, David Johansen, David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower and old-time banjo player Lee Sexton, and grisly stories from the cult Southern novelist Harry Crews.

Acclaimed observational documentary by BAFTA award winning director Molly Dineen set at London’s Angel tube station in 1989, three years before its desperately needed renovation.

The programme provides a humorous account of 48 hours in the life of the tube station, from the daily round of fraught commuters, overburdened lifts and cancelled trains to the nightly activities when 'fluffers', women who clean human hair and rubbish of the tracks to avoid a fire hazard and ‘the Permanent Way’, gangs of men who work with pickaxes in almost pitch-black conditions to renovate parts of the track, spring into action to prepare the line for the following day. (1989)

First transmitted in 1985, To the World's End follows the No. 31 London bus from Camden Town to World's End, Chelsea, meeting characters who live and work along the route.

The programme's soundtrack features the Carl Davis composition Variations on a Bus Route, which was commissioned to celebrate London Transport's 50th birthday in 1984.

This programme has been edited.

An affectionate look at what goes on behind the scenes of the Limelight Club in Crewe, where for ten years tribute acts to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Phil Lynott have been providing a post-industrial town the chance to hear some legendary live music.

In the Limelight, a converted Methodist church, the spirit of rock is alive, along with Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Phil Lynott - in reality John, Keith and Wayne. The posters on the club walls display more than a decade of tribute-band entertainment by the likes of Pink Fraud and Stairway to Zeppelin. Arena reveals the characters offering locals the opportunity to hear their favourite music performed live. (2007)

Denis Mitchell's 1959 documentary is full of evocative images of a Liverpool still recovering from the post-war gloom.

This BBC film won the award for the best television documentary film in the Italia Prize Contest, 1959.

Nelson Mandela and his fellow ex-prisoners recall their incarceration on South Africa's Robben Island. For three decades, the island housed not only political prisoners but convicts, lepers and the mentally ill. Yet amidst the hopelessness, Nelson Mandela and his comrades devised strategies and subterfuges with which they transformed life on the island, while the vision of a new South Africa began to take shape. (1994)

Andrew Wiles stumbled across the world's greatest mathematical puzzle, Fermat's Theorem, as a ten- year-old schoolboy, beginning a 30-year quest with just one goal in mind - to solve the problem that has baffled minds for three centuries.

Provocative documentary following the doctors who can now interrupt, and even reverse, the process of death. Filmed over six months in the country's leading brain injury unit (Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge), it follows the journey of a man who, by only moving his eyes, is eventually asked if he wants to live or die. Two other families are also plunged into the most ethically difficult decision in modern medicine.

This documentary is part of Louis Theroux: Docs That Made Me, a collection of his favourite documentaries.

Many documentaries, Louis suggests, could do with losing a few minutes here and there. He makes an exception for Between Life and Death though, which doesn't waste a second with its economical storytelling. The day to day events which take place in hospitals have the potential to be highly emotional and full of drama. Nick Holt's Cambridge-based film was an inspiration for Louis Theroux's 2014 documentary, Edge of Life, about Los Angeles' famous Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre.

In 2011, Between Life and Death won a BAFTA and an RTS Television Award for Best Single Documentary.

A month after Oscar Pistorius shoots dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, he is out on bail, living at his uncle Arnold’s compound. A forensics expert hired by his legal team helps him to recreate his version of what happened the night of Reeva’s death.

The Blade Runner, as he was nicknamed, became a worldwide superstar at the Athens Olympics while still a high school teenager finding his way. Pistorius set his sights on an ambitious goal: competing against able-bodied athletes in the Olympics. In a long and contentious battle with track and field’s governing body, the IAAF, he wins the right to compete in the Olympics in 2008. All that becomes a distant memory on 19 August 2013, when he is formally charged with the murder of Reeva Steenkamp on what would have been her 30th birthday. With the prosecution adding gun charges to the original complaint, the evidence reveals that he is a very different young man to the one that the world had come to admire.

When a judge is assigned to the Oscar Pistorius trial, the world watches closely. In this case, a judge - and not a jury - decide the defendant’s fate. The judge, Thokozile Masipa, is a highly respected scholar who grew up in the Soweto Township as a child of Apartheid. Despite the dignity with which she attempts to conduct the trial, no-one can stop it from becoming a televised tabloid circus.

Early news focuses on the holes in the testimonies of witnesses who claim to have heard the gun shots and screams. But as new evidence emerges, those close to Pistorius question his maturity and temper. His singular and at times lonely existence emerges, along with details of his romantic relationships. The trial lays bare his relationship with Reeva Steenkamp, with stormy texts revealing dramatic ups and downs, dictated by Pistorius’s temper.

Six weeks into the trial of Oscar Pistorius, he takes the stand to explain what happened in the early hours of 14 February 2013.

In 2012, Pistorius left South Africa to prepare for the London Olympics. That summer was the peak of his career – competing against able-bodied athletes in the 400 metres and qualifying for the semi-finals, a remarkable achievement. A few weeks later, he faltered at the Paralympics. Rather than the victory lap expected, he was beaten and afterwards was ungracious about the loss.

The following months saw Pistorius change. He became involved with a different crowd, whilst growing infatuated with guns and paranoid about security. At this point, he also met Reeva, the start of a whirlwind romance on the surface that would soon end with him murdering her.

In the witness stand, Pistorius stumbles in his response to tough questioning. When the verdict for manslaughter comes, the judge calls Pistorius a 'very poor witness'. The verdict of culpable homicide (the equivalent of manslaughter) is overturned on appeal and upgraded to murder. His sentence is increased from five to six years – and then on a further appeal increased to 15 years. He remains in prison in South Africa.

First transmitted in 1996, this film looks at the tough training regime undertaken by black cab drivers as they prepare for one of the hardest examinations they will ever take.

It takes years to get to grips with the intricate road network and tangle of streets that weave their way through the heart of the capital and 70 per cent of applicants fail to finish. With repeat appearances at the Public Carriage Office to take the examination, it's a bumpy road to the coveted green badge.

First transmitted in 1981, this documentary programme looks at New York's Chelsea Hotel, a legendary haven for some of the 20th Century's greatest talent, from Mark Twain to Dylan Thomas. With appearances from Andy Warhol and William Burroughs, who have dinner in the room where Arthur C Clarke wrote 2001, and Quentin Crisp, who lived in the hotel for more than 35 years.

Levi Roots spices up ocean-fresh mackerel on a Cornish beach, challenges loyal Cornish pasty eaters in Falmouth to try his golden vegetable patties, and visits Bristol to taste a Caribbean twist on British favourite steak and chips.

Louis Theroux spends time in New York among the subculture of off-Broadway performers in his latest foray into the weirder fringes of American society. Only a small proportion of actors make a decent living and Louis soon finds himself struggling to get work alongside the thousands of out-of-work actors. To improve his chances he joins a talent grooming agency, puts together a portfolio and has acting and voice coaching lessons. But as he discovers, an actor's lot is not an easy one. (1999)

In his final challenge, Louis Theroux investigates the most extreme American wrestling organisations. He hangs out with the WCW wrestlers of Monday Night Nitro and considers joining the Independent Wrestling Federation, who use barbed wire to spice up their shows. (1999)