'Grand Prix: The Killer Years'

A BBC documentary titled "Grand Prix: The Killer Years" is both fascinating and gut-wrenching in documenting the horrific period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when Formula 1 drivers were perishing right and left. 

The archival footage is remarkably illuminating in capturing the dangers of driving a race car in those days. But it's the effective use of interviews with former drivers, mechanics, journalists and widows that pulls the story together and makes the hourlong documentary fly by. 

The documentary ends with a particularly tragic scene -- but one that encapsulates the theme and reminds us that racing is a much better industry thanks to brave souls like Jackie Stewart and David Purley who refused to simply accept common belief that death was simply something at which to shrug your shoulders.