The BBC has shown a 3 part documentary A Century of Fatherhood.

Three-part series which tells the story of the revolution in modern fatherhood in Britain during the last hundred years, using intimate testimony, rare archive and the latest historical research
A Century of Fatherhood reveals that the view we now have of fathers in the past is not always accurate.

The myth of the tyrannical dad
Fathers of yesteryear tend to be portrayed as cold, detached, even callous creatures. However, BBC News Magazine finds that the cuddly, hands-on, sentimental dads we know today are by no means a modern-day creation.

BBC TV Blog: Celebrating dads through time

Why are fathers the absent and distant figures in books and media? BBC Four controller Richard Klein exposes the myth in his Fatherhood season post on the BBC TV blog.

It is now on YouTube too.
Episode1 Part1
Episode2 Part1
Episode3 Part1

The YouTube copy has each episode in 4 parts, which means successively finding the next part as you watch through it. The visual quality is much lower than the on-air broadcast in UK.

BBC Fatherhood season
A Century of Fatherhood is part of the Fatherhood season on BBC Four, celebrating fatherhood in an historical and contemporary context though documentary, science, drama, and entertainment programmes.

Fatherhood in an historical and contemporary context is celebrated in this season of programmes encompassing documentary, science, drama, and entertainment on BBC Four.
PROGRAMMES IN THE SEASON

Biology Of Dads
Child psychologist Laverne Antrobus investigates the psychology of families, revealing the biological changes that occur in fathers.

A Century Of Fatherhood
This series charts the revolution in fatherhood in Britain and provides a unique insight into 100 years of dramatic change.

Disappearing Dad
Novelist Andrew Martin takes a light-hearted journey through three centuries of literary fatherhood.

Fathers and Sons: The Waughs
Alexander Waugh reflects on the father-son relationships in this great literary dynasty.

Lennon Naked
John Lennon’s role as a father, and the impact of the reappearance of his own father, is the focal point of this drama.

Till Death Us Do Part: Arguments, Arguments
The first proper episode of Johnny Speight’s classic sitcom sees bigoted patriarch Alf Garnett share his thoughts on politics, society, culture and morality.

The Cinema Show: Fathers and Sons on Film
The film magazine programme has a look at the relationship between dads and their boys in the movies.

Shooting the War: Men
A look at the amateur films of events during WW2 made by two German and two Britons.

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives
Rock singer Mark Everett learns about the quantum physicist father he never really knew.

Diary of a Nobody
Andrew Davies’s adaptation of George and Weedon Grossmith’s novel about the diary of archetypal ‘little man’ Charles Pooter.

What Did You Do in the Great War, Daddy?
Documentary telling the tragic story of the greatest loss of fathers in British history.

Men About the House
A look how fathers have been the butt of the joke over the last five decades in British sitcoms.
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MurrayBacon:
This documentary is very sympathetic to fathers, on odd occasion I would say too sympathetic.
Not that this could ever hope to rectify the present lay of sympathies.
I am concerned that if these issues are not approached in a pragmatic, evidence based way, we will have a huge anti-woman backlash in the hearts of men and women too. This could easily be as damaging as the present, ignorant anti-male backlash in our current social policy and familycaught$.

The documentary states that the present harsh and cruel image of fathers, was developed by the Temperance Movement, in their propaganda seeking membership support and also seeking funds from public and government. This image wasn’t kept in numerical perspective, but just generalised to the point of being dishonest.

This image has then been used by DV industry for the same purpose, further developed away from the numerical truth and perspective.

In my opinion, this observation strongly support the concept that men are just as worthy and needing sensible respect as women, as Hans has illustrated on many occasions. If this is not done, then the outcome of systemic abuse isn’t just ruffled feathers, but in many cases vandalised families and suicides of children, men and women.

Well worth a watch.
My thanks to Bryan Norton for telling me about these programmes.
Unfortunately, the BBC bars downloads to locations outside of UK.
Please add your comments and review.