Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries

Britain's Favourite Superhero (2016x61)

Air date: Jul 30, 2016

Documentary making extensive use of interviews and clips from big-budget Hollywood blockbusters to explore the story of how superheroes - once exclusively found on the pages of comic books - found their way to the silver screen, becoming bankable cinematic icons in the process. A Channel 4 poll outlines which do-gooders the British public have taken to their hearts, and the programme charts the history of big-screen heroics from the release of the ground-breaking Superman: The Movie in 1978 through to the high-profile releases arriving in cinemas this year. Along the way, viewers are given a chance to revisit Tim Burton's noir-themed iteration of Batman in the 1990s, the angst-filled antics of the X-Men and Spider-Man in the early noughties, and the far-reaching storylines of Marvel's inter-connected Avengers films. All this culminates as the poll results reveals which five heroes have captured British imaginations to become the nation's favourites.