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Dublin: 11 °C Friday 11 October, 2024
whats up doc

10 of the best Channel 4 shock docs to gawk at this lazy Sunday

No, no – don’t get up.

DOCUMENTARIES ARE USUALLY a vaguely noble choice of viewing.

You learn something new and gain an insight into this unendingly fascinating world of ours. That’s with a classic, thoughtful documentary anyway.

Channel 4′s brand of shock doc is a little different. Think the weird, wonderful, odd, off – presented to you with the scurrilous fervour and barely contained smirk of a tabloid magazine. Yep, it’s like hangover food for the brain.

1. My Daughter Is A Teenage Nudist

This doc explores the growing group of young people who are embracing public nudity, driven by communities formed on social media. Meet Mollie and Alex as they start their quest to normalise nudity, question media beauty standards and encourage others to join them. Tops off! Watch here.

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2. My Phone Sex Secrets

Framed with those trying to come up with creative ways to battle the recession, this programme follows women offering phone sex services in their homes. Young, old, single and married – students or professional. Altogether now: “Baby, baby, baby, you can have my private number…” Check it here.

3. Confessions of a Male Stripper

According to this documentary, male stripping is a booming industry in the UK.  This hour-long piece follows The Dreamboys, with ex-stripper David Richards at their helm, as they navigate finding new recruits for their troupe. Do you reckon you have what it takes? Once more with feeling, tops off! See how you measure up here.

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4. Coming out to Class

What happens when you come out early – while you’re still in secondary school education? It’s happening more and more as society moves towards increased LGBT acceptance, but how does it affect the teens involved? This doc follows QBoy, the UK’s first openly gay rapper, as he meets gay students and teachers to find the answer. Join him.

5. Love Rat

Love Rat tells the tale of Simon Reid – a serial love rat, leaving a string of broken hearts across the UK and US. He seduced three women at the same time, promising them all marriage, but when he was found out, they decided to get their own back. Watch them confront him on camera in this revenge epic. Yeow!

6. Fraud Lord

Edward Davenport, Lord Davenport, or Fast Eddie Davenport? Whatever he was known by, he was known for his hedonistic lifestyle. The London socialite, who owned property globally and allegedly threw orgies, ended up behind bars for seven years. But why? Find out.

7. Stalked

A chilling tale of an ordinary man who ended up with an obsessive stalker after a one night stand. This documentary is told through reconstructed footage and interviews to protect the innocent – and perhaps the guilty. This doc goes into the rules of contemporary sexual politics and why society views the idea of a man being stalked by a woman as “a joke”. More here.

8. My Brother, The Murderer

Natasha Owen Jones never knew her brother – they were both adopted young and sent to live with different families. She never gave up her search to find him, and this documentary follows her as she finally does: serving a 99-year prison sentence for murder in America. Find out what happens here.

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9. The Perfect Murder

This one hits a little closer to home – taking a look at the 1991 murders of Trevor Buchanan and Lesley Howell in Castlerock, Northern Ireland. At the time, it was believed the two were having an affair and had formed a suicide pact – but their respective spouses, Colin and Hazel, then contacted the police in 2009 to admit they had killed them.

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10. My Big Fat Fetish

This is about big women who are happy with their weight, make a living off it, or whose goal is to get even bigger. It investigates gainers, feeders, models, and fetishists across the world – including one American woman who is completely helpless and essentially bedridden due to her size. See more here.

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Do you have any favourite shock doc moments? Share the horror in the comments…

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