A) The Art of War
Year: 2009
Watch: YouTube
Comment: Shown on the US History Channel, The Art of War included references to Go. In the
two-hour program (90 minutes without adverts) based on the writings of Sun Tzu, his strategies
are likened to Go and Go equipment is shown, albeit with a very un-Go-like arrangement of
stones on the board. The show demonstrates Sun Tzu's principles in the war between the
ancient Chinese states of Wu and Chu, the Vietnam War, the landings at Normandy during World
War II, and the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War. In each of these cases reference is made to
Go. One of the factors attributed to the American defeat in Vietnam was the observation that
General Westmoreland followed a Chess-like strategy, whereas, North Vietnam's General
Giap followed a Go-like strategy. In several instances a Go grid was superimposed on soldiers
marching off to fight. It's pretty obvious the creators do not play Go themselves - these grids
have Go stones scattered on them, some on top of each other like the kings in Checkers! But,
hey, they've got good things to say about Go, so who cares?
B) The Shogun
Year: 2008
Comment: A BBC dramatised documentary about how Tokogawa Ieyasu become the Shogun, ruler
of all Japan. In the first scene, 15 minutes in, Ieyasu plays Go while planning his war strategy.
He fingers a white stone while musing and states that you should be in no hurry to remove an
opponent you can beat. In the second scene 23 minutes in his son and top general are playing
and he urges them to finish more quickly in order to go to battle.
C) Victory at Sea
Year: 1952
Watch: YouTube
Comment: In part 7 of the WW2 documentary, about 5 minutes in, Japanese sailors are relaxing in
their ship listening to music. smoking and so on. Two are playing Shogi and whilst two seem to be
playing Go, but nearly all the stones are white.
The same footage is used in Pearl Harbor: Tora, Tora, Tora: The True Story of Pearl
Harbor at 31:38. Watch: YouTube.
D) Look Around You
Year: 2005
Comment: In this BBC spoof-80s documentary series, in the opening sequence of the episode on
computers, (Series 2 Episode 5) film can been seen of a London games fair with British Go player
Nick Webber teaching Go.
E) New Frontiers - Ancient Chinese Games - Part One: Go and Chinese Chess
Year: 2009
Source: YouTube
Comment: A 30 minute documentary aired on Chinese international station CCTV9 as part of a
series looking at Chinese culture and focusing on Go and Chinese Chess. Many shots of the
games and of artworks, including a game shown in profile between two players dressed in black
and white. Interviews about the history of the game with a magazine editor and about computer
Go with the director of a research institute.
F) Know Your Enemy - Japan
Year: 1945
Watch: Youtube
Comment: A relic from the time of World War II, Frank Capra's 1945 propaganda film mentions Go.
The film speaks of the attempts to eradicate Western influence in Showa-era Japan and that
"Western card games were purged in favor of this. It's a game of super chess called Go.
Actually it is a game of military strategy." Men are seen playing on a thick table board
and their stones in wooden bowls, with other men watching, at 43:35 in.
G) Die Sendung mit der Maus (Mouse TV)
Year: 2002
Source: Wikipedia
Comment: In this German pedagogical program for young children the edition on 8th September
2002 featured a presentation on Go.
H) Blue Peter
Year: 1999
Comment: In this BBC pedagogical program for children, the edition on 4th October 1999
mentioned Go and its origins in connection with a piece on games. This was connected with a
games exhibition in Croydon.
I) Andrew Marr's History of the World
Year: 2012
Comment: In the second part of this BBC documentary series, we see (at 41.45 minutes in) for
about five seconds two modern day Chinese men playing Go in the street, with three other men
watching, as part of the section on Confucius. We even see a close up of a white Chinese-style
stone being played.
J) Vice
Year: 2017
Producer: Bill Maher
Comment: In this news documentary series shown on HBO, season 5 episode 11 (12th May)
features Go. Called "Engineering Immortality & Robot Revolution" it features, in the second part,
AlphaGo, its match against Lee Sedol and an interview with Demis Hassabis of DeepMind.
K) The Joy of AI
Year: 2018
Presenter: Jim Al-Kahlili
Source: BBC web page
Comment: In this BBC documentary, shown on BBC 4 (4th September), one of the AI projects
considered is AlphaGo. It visits DeepMind's HQ, interviews Demis Hassabis, and features
the match against Lee Sedol, especially game 2 move 37.
L) The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese-Americans in Hawaii
Year: 2012
Director: Ryan Kawamoto
Source: IMDB
Watch: Youtube
Comment: This hour-long documentary, with archive and dramatic reconstruction, features Go
three times in the 15 minute short version, at 5:01, 6:35 and 8:22 minutes. The film focuses
mainly on the Honouliuli Camp on Oahu and Go features amongst things the internees did to
pass the time (though in the reconstruction footage it looks more like Five-in-a-Row).
M) The History of Home
Year: 2020
Comment: This documentary on the pay-to-view channel Curiosity Stream is narrated by Nick
Offerman and mentions Go in a section about board and video games at 48:27 of part 2.
Other British TV programs are listed in the media section
Last updated Sun Jan 03 2021. If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.