# British Academy Television Award for Best Single Documentary

The British Academy Television Award for Best Single Documentary is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry. According to the BAFTA website, the category is "for one-off documentaries only. Includes individual episodes of documentary strands."
The category has gone through some name changes since its inception:
* It was first awarded as an individual recognition from 1964 to 1970.
* From 1978 to 1983 it was presented as Best Documentary.
* From 1984 to 2006 it was presented as Flaherty Documentary Award or Robert Flaherty Documentary Award, also from 1984 to 1990, documentaries that used to compete for the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary competed in this category instead.
* Since 2007 it has been presented as Best Single Documentary.

## Winners and nominees
### 1960s

| Year | Recipient(s) | Title |
| 1964 | Anthony de Lotbinière | Anthony de Lotbinière |
| 1965 | Jack Gold | Jack Gold |
| 1966 | Charles Squires | The Grafters Paradise Street |
| 1966 | Peter Batty | The Fall and Rise of the House of Krupp The Road to Suez |
| 1966 | Richard Cawston | Born Chinese |
| 1966 | Anthony de Lotbinière | Eton: The Pacemakers |
| 1966 | Denis Mitchell | Sharon The Entertainers The Dream Machine |
| 1966 | Michael Tuchner | A Little Madness No Mean City: Florence No Mean City: Athens Pilgrims to Lourdes |
| 1967 | Kevin Billington | Kevin Billington |
| 1968 | Kevin Billington | Kevin Billington |
| 1969 | Michael Darlow, Mike Wooller | Cities at War |

### 1970s

Best Factual Documentary
| Year | Title | Recipient(s) |
| 1970 | A Year in the Life | Paul Watson |
| 1970 | The Life And Times of Lord Mountbatten | Peter Morley |
| 1970 | The Royal Family | Richard Cawston |
| 1970 | Struggle For China The Gold Run Captain RN It Never Seemed To Rain All Or Nothing Man Papa Doc The Pugnacious Pacifist Whicker's New World | Tony Essex |
Best Documentary
| Year | Title | Recipient(s) |
| 1978 | Hospital: Casualty | Tim King |
| 1978 | Goodbye Longfellow Road | John Willis |
| 1978 | Whicker's World - "Palm Beach" | Michael Tuchner |
| 1978 | World in Action: The Life and Death of Steve Biko | Michael Ryan |
| 1979 | Opium: The Warlords | Adrian Cowell |
| 1979 | The Hong Kong Beat: The Bamboo Curtain | John Purdie |
| 1979 | MacMillan's Mayerling | Derek Bailey |
| 1979 | Whicker's World - "India: He's A Stuck-Up Maharajah - I'm Not Going To Marry Him" | Ian Mcfarlane, Nigel Turner |
| 1979 | Nuts and Bolts | Allan Segal |

### 1980s

| Year | Title | Recipient(s) |
| 1980 | Fred Dibnah: Steeplejack | Don Haworth |
| 1980 | The World About Us: Bloody Ivory (Special) | Simon Trevor, Bill Travers |
| 1980 | Kitty - Return To Auschwitz | Peter Morley |
| 1980 | Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia | David Munro |
| 1980 | Made In Korea | Allan Segal |
| 1981 | Strangeways: Christmas | Rex Bloomstein |
| 1981 | Cambodia - Year One | David Munro |
| 1981 | Great Railway Journeys of the World (for "Deccan") | Gerry Troyna |
| 1981 | The South Bank Show: A Time There Was… A Profile Of Benjamin Britten | Tony Palmer |
| 1981 | The World About Us - "Osprey" | Hugh Miles |
| 1982 | The Ritz | Edward Mirzoeff |
| 1982 | The South Bank Show: Nickleby and Company | Andrew Snell |
| 1982 | Prostitute I Am, Common I'm Not | Judy Lever |
| 1982 | Snowdon on Camera | Iain Johnstone |
| 1983 | Laurence Olivier - A Life | Melvyn Bragg, Bob Bee |
| 1983 | A Complaint of Rape | Roger Graef, Charles Stewart |
| 1983 | Ice, Wind and Fire | Michael Andrews |
| 1983 | The Orson Welles Story | Alan Yentob, Leslie Megahey |
Flaherty Documentary Award
| Year | Title | Recipient(s) |
| 1984 | Schindler | Jon Blair |
| 1984 | Forty Minutes - "Female Circumcision" | Louise Panton |
| 1984 | The Visit - "Part 3: The Boy David" | Alex McCall |
| 1984 | Wildlife on One - "Night Life" | Dilys Breese |
| 1985 | 28 Up | Michael Apted |
| 1985 | The South Bank Show: Alan Bennett | David Hinton |
| 1985 | Afghanistan Reports: Allah Against the Gunships | Sandy Gall |
| 1985 | GI Brides | Lavinia Warner |
| 1986 | Omnibus: Leonard Berstein's West Side Story | Christopher Swann |
| 1986 | David Lean: A Life in Film | Nigel Wattis |
| 1986 | Marilyn Monroe: Say Goodbye to the President | Christopher Olgiati |
| 1986 | The Frozen Ocean - "Part 1 - Kingdom of The Ice Bear" | Mike Salisbury, Hugh Miles |
| 1987 | Shoah | Claude Lanzmann |
| 1987 | British Cinema: Personal View - A Turnip Head's Guide to the British Cinema | Alan Parker |
| 1987 | Equinox - "Prisoner of Consciousness" | John Dollar |
| 1987 | Forty Minutes - "The Fishing Party" | Paul Watson |
| 1987 | Omnibus - "The Mission" | Robin Lough |
| 1987 | Viewpoint '86: Afghanistan: The Agony Of A Nation | Sandy Gall |
| 1988 | Baka - People of the Rain Forest | Phil Agland |
| 1988 | Forty Minutes - "Home From The Hill" | Molly Dineen |
| 1988 | Fourteen Days in May | Paul Hamann |
| 1988 | Man-Eating Tigers, Saving The Tiger | Naresh Bedi |
| 1989 | This Week - "Death on the Rock" | Chris Oxley |
| 1989 | The Duty Men: East Enders | Paul Hamann |
| 1989 | In From The Cold: A Portrait of Richard Burton | Tony Palmer |
| 1989 | Viewpoint Special: The Men Who Killed Kennedy | Nigel Turner |

### 1990s

| Year | Title | Recipient(s) |
| 1990 | First Tuesday - "Four Hours in My Lai" | Kevin Sim |
| 1990 | Everyman - "Romania - State of Fear" | John Blake |
| 1990 | Lost Children of The Empire | Joanna Mack, Mike Fox |
| 1990 | Viewpoint '89: Cambodia - Year 10: A Special Report by John Pilger | David Munro |
| 1991 | The Last African Flying Boat | David Wallace |
| 1991 | Harold Lloyd - The Third Genius | Kevin Brownlow, David Gill |
| 1991 | Viewpoint: Cambodia, The Betrayal - A Special Report by John Pilger | David Munro |
| 1991 | Viewpoint: Ceausescu's Children | Patricia Ingram |
| 1992 | 35 Up | Michael Apted |
| 1992 | World in Action - "Special: The Birmingham Six - Their Own Story" | Ian McBride, Charles Trernayne, Eamon O’Connor |
| 1992 | Viewpoint '91: Hellfighters of Kuwait | Mike Rossiter |
| 1992 | True Stories - "The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife" | Nick Broomfield |
| 1993 | Video Diaries: The Man Who Loves Gary Lineker | Bob Long, Dr Yili Hasani |
| 1993 | Cutting Edge - "Tornado Down" | Adam Bullmore, Tom Roberts |
| 1993 | First Tuesday - "Katie and Eilish - Siamese Twins" | Mark Galloway |
| 1993 | Inside Story: Bag Lady | David Pearson |
| 1994 | Timewatch - "The Mysterious Career Of Lee Harvey Oswald" | William Cran |
| 1994 | True Stories: The Unforgiving | Clive Gordon |
| 1994 | Viewpoint '93: Saddam's Killing Fields | Rebecca Dobbs, Christopher Jeans |
| 1994 | Sarajevo Diary | Neil Bell, Dom Rotheroe, Karl Schonfeld |
| 1995 | Inside Story: Silent Twin - Without My Shadow | Olivia Lichtenstein |
| 1995 | Cutting Edge - "The Club" | Frances Berrigan, Brian Hill, Kate Woods |
| 1995 | Torvill and Dean: Facing the Music | Edward Mirzoeff |
| 1995 | 25 Bloody Years: The Dead | Peter Dale |
| 1996 | True Stories: The Betrayed | Clive Gordon |
| 1996 | Anne Frank Remembered | Jon Blair |
| 1996 | Network First: Man and Animal | Anthony Thomas |
| 1996 | Secret Asia: The Dying Rooms | Brian Woods, Kate Blewett |
| 1997 | Horizon - "Fermat's Last Theorem" | John Lynch, Simon Singh |
| 1997 | Cutting Edge - "The Home" | Paul Watson |
| 1997 | Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras | Polly Steele, Claudia Rosencrantz, David Furnish |
| 1997 | Timewatch - "Remember Aberfan" | Catrine Clay |
| 1998 | True Stories: The Grave | Belinda Giles |
| 1998 | Inside Story: Nazi Gold | Christopher Olgiati |
| 1998 | Network First: Out of the Shadows/We Are The Treasury | Ross Wilson |
| 1998 | Wildlife Special: Polar Bear | Martha Holmes |
| 1999 | After Lockerbie | Ross Wilson |
| 1999 | 42 Up | Michael Apted, Claire Lewis |
| 1999 | Horizon - "Mir Mortals" | Jill Fullerton-Smith |
| 1999 | Inside Story: Tongue Tied | Olivia Lichtenstein |

### 2000s

| Year | Title | Recipient(s) | Broadcaster |
| 2000 | True Stories: Divorce Iranian Style | Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini | Channel 4 |
| 2000 | Gulag | Angus Macqueen | BBC Two |
| 2000 | True Stories: Kosovo - The Valley | Dan Reed | Channel 4 |
| 2000 | Malcolm and Barbara - A Love Story | Paul Watson, Kim Horton | ITV |
| 2001 | True Stories: 100% White | Leo Regan | Channel 4 |
| 2001 | The Boy David - The Return | Desmond Wilcox, Alex McCall | BBC One |
| 2001 | Endurance: Shackleton and the Antarctic | George Butler, Caroline Alexander, Jeremy Evans | Channel 4 |
| 2001 | The Man Who Bought Mustique | Joseph Bullman, Vikram Jayanti | Channel 4 |
| 2002 | Kelly and Her Sisters | Marilyn Gaunt | ITV |
| 2002 | True Stories: Battlecentre | Leo Regan, Roy Ackerman, Paul Van Dyck | Channel 4 |
| 2002 | Ellen MacArthur: Sailing Through Heaven and Hell | Steve Robinson, Ellen MacArthur | BBC One |
| 2002 | When Louis Met The Hamiltons | David Mortimer, Gabe Solomon, Will Yapp, Louis Theroux | BBC One |
| 2003 | Feltham Sings | Roger Graef, Brian Hill | Channel 4 |
| 2003 | 9/11: The Tale of Two Towers | Michael Attwell | Five |
| 2003 | SAS Embassy Siege | SAS Embassy Siege | BBC Two |
| 2003 | Thalidomide - Life at 40 | Benetta Adamson | BBC Two |
| 2004 | One Life: Lager, Mum and Me | Todd Austin, Min Clough | BBC One |
| 2004 | My Family and Autism | Jenny Abbott, Fran Landsman | BBC Two |
| 2004 | Pompeii: The Last Day | Michael J. Mosley, Peter Nicholson, Ailsa Orr | BBC One |
| 2004 | Real Life: Being Terri | James Allen, Andrea Cornes, Ron Trickett | ITV |
| 2005 | The Orphans of Nkandla | The Orphans of Nkandla | BBC Four |
| 2005 | The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off | Patrick Collerton | Channel 4 |
| Channel 4 ||
| 2005 | The Brighton Bomb | The Brighton Bomb | BBC One |
| 2006 | Make Me Normal | Brian Hill, Zac Beattie, Jonathan Smith | Channel 4 |
| 2006 | Children Of Beslan | Children Of Beslan | BBC Two |
| 2006 | Taxidermy: Stuff The World | Brian Hill, Elodie Gornall, Morgan Matthews | BBC Two |
| 2006 | The Real Sex Traffic | Simcha Jacobovici, Brian Woods, Ric Esther Bienstock | Channel 4 |
Best Single Documentary
| Year | Title | Recipient(s) | Broadcaster |
| 2007 | Evicted | Brian Woods, Deborah Shipley, Jeremy Wales, Katy Sheppard | BBC One |
| 2007 | Breaking Up With The Joneses | Ursula Macfarlane, Saskia Wilson, Dave Nath, Gregor Lyon | Channel 4 |
| 2007 | 9/11: The Falling Man | Henry Singer, John Smithson, Sue Bourne, Julian Ware | Channel 4 |
| 2007 | Rain in My Heart | Paul Watson | BBC Two |
| 2008 | Lie of the Land | Molly Dineen, Justin Krish, Catherine Bailey, Mark Frith | Channel 4 |
| 2008 | Beautiful Young Minds | Morgan Matthews, Edmund Coulthard, Grant McKee, David Brindley | BBC Two |
| 2008 | Malcolm and Barbara: Love's Farewell | Paul Watson, Kim Horton | ITV |
| 2008 | Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives | Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives | BBC Four |
| 2009 | True Stories: Chosen | Brian Woods, Caroline Haydon, Chris Eley, Jimmy Edmonds | Channel 4 |
| 2009 | The Fallen | Morgan Matthews, Elodie Gornall, Joby Gee, David Brindley | BBC Two |
| 2009 | A Boy Called Alex | A Boy Called Alex | Channel 4 |
| 2009 | Thriller in Manila | John Dower, John Smithson, Elinor Day, Andrew MacKenzie | More4 |

### 2010s

| Year | Title | Recipient(s) | Broadcaster |
| 2010 | Wounded | Sara Hardy, Jane Aldous, Gwyn Jones, Roger Courtiour | BBC One |
| 2010 | Katie: My Beautiful Face | Jessie Versluys, Dan Goldsack, Kate Collier, Samuel Santana | Channel 4 |
| 2010 | Tsunami: Caught on Camera | Tom Brisley, Janice Sutherland, Sarah Swingler, Alex Kiehl | Channel 4 |
| 2010 | Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles | Louis Theroux, Emma Cooper, Guy King, Nick Mirsky | BBC Two |
| 2011 | Between Life and Death | Nick Holt, Meredith Chambers, Marina Parker, Ben Brown | BBC One |
| 2011 | The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan | Jamie Doran, Najibullah Quraishi, John Moffat, Mike Healy | More4 |
| 2011 | Pink Saris | Kim Longinotto, Girjashanker Vahra, Amber Latif, Ed Stobart | More4 |
| 2011 | Scenes from a Teenage Killing | Morgan Matthews, Ruth Kelly, Steve Hewlett, Michael Harrowes | BBC Four |
| 2012 | Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die | Craig Hunter, Charlie Russell, Gary Scott, Terry Pratchett | BBC Two |
| 2012 | Cutting Edge - "We Need to Talk about Dad" | Peter Dale, Elizabeth Stopford | Channel 4 |
| 2012 | The Fight of Their Lives | Gabriel Clarke, John McKenna | ITV |
| 2012 | 9/11: The Day That Changed the World | Kate Botting, Brian Lapping, Talya Tibbon, Leslie Woodhead | ITV |
| 2013 | 7/7: One Day in London | Ben Anthony, Sarah Hamilton, Rupert Houseman, Morgan Matthews | BBC Two |
| 2013 | Baka: A Cry from the Rainforest | Phil Agland | BBC Two |
| 2013 | Lucian Freud: Painted Life | Randall Wright, Denys Blakeway, Paul Binns, Patrick Duval | BBC Two |
| 2013 | Nina Conti – A Ventriloquist’s Story: Her Master’s Voice | Nina Conti, Riaz Meer, Michael O’Kelly, Tim Jordan | BBC Four |
| 2014 | The Murder Trial | Nick Holt, Marina Parker, Kate Barker, Ben Brown | Channel 4 |
| 2014 | The Unspeakable Crime: Rape | Sara Hardy, Blue Ryan, Emma Hindley, Gwyn Jones | BBC One |
| 2014 | 28 Up South Africa | Angus Gibson, Jemma Jupp, Jonathan Levi | ITV |
| 2014 | The Day Kennedy Died | Leslie Woodhead, Lorraine McKechnie, Sue Summers | ITV |
| 2015 | The Paedophile Hunter | Dan Reed, Mark Towns, Tom Costello | Channel 4 |
| 2015 | Baby P: The Untold Story | Henry Singer, Jenny Saunders, Ben Stark, Simon Ford | BBC One |
| 2015 | Children of Syria | Robin Barnwell, Lyse Doucet, Bradley Manning, Lucy Hetherington | BBC Two |
| 2015 | The Miners Strike and Me | The Miners Strike and Me | ITV |
| 2016 | My Son the Jihadi | Peter Beard, Richard Kerbaj, Simon MacMahon, Brian Woods | Channel 4 |
| 2016 | Louis Theroux: Transgender Kids | Louis Theroux: Transgender Kids | BBC Two |
| 2016 | Bitter Lake | Bitter Lake | BBC iPlayer |
| 2016 | Life After Suicide | Angela Samata, Leo Burley, Jenny Williams, Fergus O’Brien | BBC One |
| 2017 | Hillsborough | Hillsborough | BBC Two |
| 2017 | Behind Closed Doors | Anna Hall, Erica Gornall, Paddy Garrick, Brian Woods | BBC One |
| 2017 | How to Die: Simon's Choice | Rowan Deacon, Lizzie Kempton, Colin Barr, Ben Brown | BBC Two |
| 2017 | HyperNormalisation | Adam Curtis, Sandra Gorel, Victoria Jaye | BBC iPlayer |
| 2018 | Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad | Rio Ferdinand, Grant Best, Matt Smith, Martin Thompson | BBC One |
| 2018 | Chris Packham: Asperger's and Me | Charlie Russell, Lizzie Kempton, Tom Barry, Will Grayburn | BBC Two |
| 2018 | Louis Theroux, Talking to Anorexia | Louis Theroux, Ellena Wood, Simon McMahon, Peter Dale | BBC Two |
| 2018 | One Deadly Weekend in America | Sanjay Singhal, Ursula Macfarlane, Jon Alwen, Sarah Hunt | BBC Three |
| 2019 | Gun No. 6 | James Newton, Zac Beattie, Georgina Cammalleri, Rupert Houseman | BBC Two |
| 2019 | Driven: The Billy Monger Story | Caroline Hawkins, Charlie Russell, Will Grayburn, Charlie Corbett | BBC Three |
| 2019 | My Dad, The Peace Deal and Me | Leo Burley, Patrick Kielty, Richard Bond, Paula Nightingale | BBC One |
| 2019 | School for Stammerers | Jill Worsley, Rachel Bloomfield | ITV |

### 2020s

| Year | Title | Recipient(s) | Broadcaster |
| 2020 | The Last Survivors | The Last Survivors | BBC Two |
| 2020 | The Abused | Barbie MacLaurin, Napoleon Stratogiannakis, Malcolm Brinkworth, Benedict Adams | Channel 5 |
| 2020 | David Harewood: Psychosis and Me | Emma Hindley, Wendie Ottewill, Olivia Isaacs, David Harewood | BBC Two |
| 2020 | The Family Secret | Anna Hall, Sally Ogden, Luke Rothery, Brian Woods | Channel 4 |
| 2021 | Locked In: Breaking the Silence (Storyville) | Xavier Alford, Colette Hodges, Sacha Mirzoeff, Poppy Goodheart | BBC Four |
| 2021 | American Murder: The Family Next Door | Jenny Popplewell, James Marsh, Jonathan Stadlen, Simon Barker | Netflix |
| 2021 | Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism & Me | Sian Guerra, Jeremy Lee, Wendie Ottewill, James Ross | BBC One |
| 2021 | Surviving COVID | Surviving COVID | Channel 4 |
| 2022 | My Childhood, My Country - 20 Years in Afghanistan | Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi, Amanda Wilkie, Clive Mattock | ITV |
| 2022 | 9/11: Inside the President's War Room | Adam Wishart, Neil Grant, Serena Kennedy, Simon Finch | Apple TV+/BBC One |
| 2022 | Greenfell: The Untold Story | James Newton, Daisy Ayliffe, Emma Lysaght, Kirsty Cunningham, Jessie Versluys | Channel 4 |
| 2022 | Nail Bomber: Manhunt | Nail Bomber: Manhunt | Netflix |
| 2023 | The Real Mo Farah | Leo Burley, Hannah Richards, Rick Barker, Marvyn Benoit, Shona Thompson, Zad Rogers | BBC One |
| 2023 | Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes | James Jones, Darren Kemp, Rupert Houseman, Serhiy Solodko, Joanna Marshall, Sasha Odynova | Sky Documentaries |
| 2023 | Escape from Kabul Airport | Jamie Roberts, William Grayburn, Dan Reed | BBC Two |
| 2023 | Our Falklands War (Frontline) | Guy King, Saskia Rusher, Simon McMahon, Zac Beattie, Guy Meachin, Libby Taylor | BBC Two |
| 2024 | Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family | Jasleen Sethi, David Thompson, Colleen Flynn, Kathryn Jein, Nick Underhill | ITV1 |
| 2024 | David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived | Dan Hartley, Kevin Konak, Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn, Vanessa Davies, Amy Stares | Sky Documentaries |
| 2024 | Hatton | Daniel Dewsbury, Paul Yoshida, Sam Bergson, Ian Davies, John McKenna | Sky Documentaries |
| 2024 | Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man of Paris | Jamie Roberts, Dan Reed | Netflix |
* Note: The series that don't have recipients on the tables had Production team credited as recipients for the award or nomination.