Exactly everything by Jonathan Meades is excellent. Mostly architectural criticism, and I don't always agree with his tastes or views. Meades is idiosyncratic in his opinions. He likes Brutalism and Le Corbusier and claimes to hate epic totalitarian Commie and Nazi architecture ... though he also manages to do multi-hour docus on these subjects without actually sneering at them very much. Meades is always informative and with a fine wit; he's even careful and tasteful in his choice of music to go with his documentaries (Boards of Canada is a favorite).
A good place to start for his more humorous stuff is this one; "On the Brandwagon" -first part below. If you don't enjoy his withering social commentary, you have no mirth in your blood. Watch all 5 parts. I can watch it over and over again and find new amusing details.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/A8MEm3eVPNU
I'm watching this early
IMAX documentary
on the Titanic, and I like its grand opening montage about technology and the human spirit:
perkunos
The Chakravartin
This is an episode from a Dutch series,
Van de Schoonheid en de Troost,
of interviews with intellectuals. Some people here are familiar with Roger Scruton, but if you do not know him then watching this at the start may give you the impression he is pretentious, some rich 'toff' who is merely rationalising all his social customs, but the first spark of brilliance in this video is about 5 minutes in when he starts talking beside his horse and you realise he is in fact a brilliant mind. Properly trained in philosophy and thinking, and a modern example of a genuine polymath, he has been one of the few intellectual forces for conservatism that can argue against the academic left properly. Enjoy
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/xoybTk6TEX4
This was kind of fun when I first ran across it: a family of poverty stricken Limey aristocrats had a few reality TV shows. Behold, the Englishman in his natural state!
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/DP-8Oy5Mb6Y?list=PLrNjnGitDLUUYEKWcz_OKAiMaKPLzx-yD
Greece vs Rome debate, with Boris Johnson and Mary Beard
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/2k448JqQyj8
This is one of my favorite 1-episode documentaries of all time. It has everything; excellent 80s music, NATO idiocy, near-nuclear war prevented by some poor Rooskie schmuck, spies, crazy politicians and cool missiles. I've probably recommended it in 8 other threads, and will probably do so again: Able Archer.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ciy5R-tLiE
Good one for
Thoughts
I think.