Latest Documentaries

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The Universe is Full of Aliens!

We often assume that advanced technology will make it easy for aliens to colonize space. But what if space exploration is always difficult, no matter how advanced you are? Let’s travel back in human history, to the colonization of Oceania over 5000 years ago, to find parallels between ancient explorers and extraterrestrial civilizations.

In a Nutshell • 2024 • Astronomy

The Second Viking Age

The mid-10th-century reign of Harald Bluetooth as king of a newly unified, powerful and Christianized Denmark marked the beginning of a second Viking age. But the reign was not to last with the Normans finally winning the English Kingdom in 1066. We look at the final days of the Viking empire.

S1E6Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History

The Wild West

Political turmoil in Norway leads a voyage of discovery west. The Vikings discover Iceland where they established lasting settlement. Further exploration from Iceland leads to the discovery of Greenland and to the shores of Newfoundland, making them the first Europeans to discover America.

S1E5Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History

The Fall of Francia

The siege of Paris in 885 was the culmination of the Viking invasions of Francia. We look at the persistent Viking attacks on Francia and the enduring presence of the Scandinavians on the Frankish Empire and beyond.

Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History

As Far East as Baghdad

The "Silk Road" opened up a world of trade for the Scandinavians in the East. Seeking further wealth, the Vikings known in the East as "the Rus" attacked Constantinople in 860. The Rus became a permanent and feared fixture in the Byzantine Empire.

S1E3Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History

The Great Heathen Army

The Siege of York occurred from 866 when the Great Heathen Army laid claim to the Northumbrian capital of York. We look at the major battles, players and strongholds of the York battle and how the Vikings later came to control much of the 9th Century England.

S1E2Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History

The Road to Lindisfarne

An attack on a small religious community on the holy island of Lindisfarne in AD 793 heralded the start of the Viking Age of conquest and expansion. For 200 years, the longships from Scandinavia threatened all of Europe. But it was far from their first attack. We reveal how the Vikings' reign of terror began in Scandinavia.

S1E1Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History

Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods

Follows a Ukrainian battalion on the frontline of the war against Russia, filmed by the soldiers themselves as they try to defend a vital railway line, the capture of which would enable Russia to mount a direct attack on Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv. The film examines the lives of the 99-strong military company as they face sustained Russian assaults, presenting a ground-level view of the war through the eyes of the troops fighting it.

2024 • History

PBS American Experience - The Cancer Detectives

The story of how the life-saving cervical cancer test became an ordinary part of women's lives is as unusual and remarkable as the coalition of people who ultimately made it possible: a Greek immigrant, Dr. George Papanicolaou; his intrepid wife, Mary; Japanese-born artist Hashime Murayama; Dr. Helen Dickens, an African American OBGYN in Philadelphia; and an entirely new class of female scientists known as cyto-screeners. But the test was just the beginning. Once the test proved effective, the campaign to make pap smears available to millions of women required nothing short of a total national mobilization. The Cancer Detectives tells the untold story of the first-ever war on cancer and the people who fought tirelessly to save women from what was once the number one cancer killer of women.

2024 • Health

The Rise and Fall of Pablo Escobar

The search for Pablo Escobar as told by US Drug Enforcement Administration agents, with never-before-seen footage of Escobar's life and capture.

2018 • People

Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts

In 1960, a young secretary from Bournemouth, with no scientific qualifications, entered a remote forest in Africa and achieved something nobody else had ever done before. Jane Goodall became accepted by a group of wild chimpanzees, making discoveries that transformed our understanding of them, and challenged the way we define ourselves as human beings by showing just how close we are as a species to our nearest living relatives. Since then, both she and the chimps of Gombe in Tanzania have become world famous - Jane as the beauty of many wildlife films, they as the beasts with something profound to tell us. As one of the programme's contributors, David Attenborough, suggests, Jane Goodall's story could be a fable if it wasn't true. In this revealing programme filmed with Jane Goodall in Africa, we discover the person behind the myth, what motivates her and the personal cost her life's work has exacted from her - and why she still thinks we have a lot to learn from the chimps she has devoted her life to understanding.

2010 • Nature

Edge of Existence

This is a story about the greatest risks to humanity, and what we can do about it. We are living in a time when human-made risks pose the biggest threat to our existence. Technological progress has brought us to a precipice. For the first time ever, we have the capacity to destroy ourselves. Edge of Existence lays out how we can pull ourselves back from this precipice in order achieve a vast and extraordinary future.

2022 • Environment

Recommended Documentaries

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Making Waves [Making of]

Revealing the titanic efforts behind Blue Planet, this diary reveals the skills and dedication of the film makers.

Blue Planet I • 2001 • Nature

The Moth and the Flame

In this episode, Professor Brian Cox shows how Earth's basic ingredients, like the pure sulphur mined in the heart of a deadly volcano in Indonesia, have become the building blocks of life. Hidden deep in a cave in the Dominican Republic lies a magical world created by the same property of water that makes it essential to life. Clinging to a precipitous dam wall in Italy, baby mountain goats seek out Earth's chemical elements essential to their survival. In the middle of the night in a bay off Japan, Brian explains how the dazzling display of thousands of glowing squid shows how life has taken Earth's chemistry and turned it into the chemistry of life.

Part 3Forces of Nature With Brian Cox • 2016 • Nature

Part 3

Jacques reveals how the lessons learned from selling to children were used to make childlike consumers of us all. From the rise of product-driven kids’ TV in the 80s, to the man who designed cars that appealed to children, and the contemporary creators of games that hook adults, Jacques asks how spending turned into a game – one that we can’t stop playing.

S1E3The Men Who Made Us Spend • 2014 • Economics

Immortal: A Horizon Guide to Ageing

Is there any way to slow or even prevent the ravages of time? Veteran presenter Johnny Ball looks back over the 45 years that Horizon, and he, have been on air to find out what science has learned about how and why we grow old. Charting developments from macabre early claims of rejuvenation to the latest cutting-edge breakthroughs, Johnny discovers the sense of a personal mission that drives many scientists and asks whether we are really any closer to achieving the dream of immortality.

Horizon • 2014 • Health

Great Escape at Dunkirk

As France fell to the German armies in May 1940, 300,000 Allied troops were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Their annihilation seemed certain - a disaster that could have led to Britain's surrender. But then, in a last-minute rescue dramatized in Christopher Nolan's recent film, Royal Navy ships and a flotilla of tiny civilian boats evacuated hundreds of thousands of soldiers to safety across the Channel - the legendary "miracle of Dunkirk." Now, NOVA follows a team of archaeologists, historians, and divers as they recover the remains of ships, planes, and personal effects lost during the epic operation. With access to previously classified files recently released by the UK government, they also uncover the truth behind the myths of Dunkirk - notably, a claim that the Royal Air Force failed to protect the stranded men from the Luftwaffe's constant bombing of the beaches. Featuring an exclusive excavation of a newly-found Spitfire wreck, NOVA debunks the myth and highlights the essential role that the RAF's iconic fighter played in reversing the desperate stakes that played out in the air above the beleaguered men.

NOVA PBS • 2018 • History

The Long Astronomical Perspective

Carl Sagan talks about our future and the exploration of space

7/10The Sagan Series • 1989 • Astronomy

Science Documentaries

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A Glitch in the Matrix

Are we in fact living in a simulation? This is the question postulated, wrestled with, and ultimately argued for in the latest provocation from acclaimed documentary stylist Rodney Ascher (Room 237, The Nightmare) through archival footage, compelling interviews with real people shrouded in digital avatars, and a collection of cases from some of our most iconoclastic figures in contemporary culture.

2021 • Science

Taboos of Science

Hank discusses some of the taboos which have plagued scientific inquiry in the past and a few that still exist today.

Science

The Science of Dust

All we are is dust in the (cosmic) wind.

Science

Fat & Bone: Keys to Overcoming Modern Day Diseases

New research sheds light on the functions of fat and bone. In fact, fat and bone are not static tissue but release signaling molecules to dynamically interact with the other organs and support our health. Fat was found to control our appetite and the bone to work to keep us young.

S1E2The Body • 2018 • Science

Is gun Crime a Virus?

Every 17 minutes in America, someone is killed with a gun. Politicians can't seem to stop the violence. But epidemiologists, psychologists and big data crunchers are discovering that gun crime spreads like a virus -and science may be able to stop its spread.

S8E04Through the Wormhole • 2017 • Science

Secrets in our DNA

Some 30 million Americans have sent their DNA to be analyzed by companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. But what happens once the sample is in the hands of testing companies, and how accurate are their results? NOVA explores the power of genetic data to reveal family connections, ancestry, and health risks—and even solve criminal cold cases.

NOVA PBS • 2021 • Science

Brain Documentaries

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Rhod Gilbert: Stand Up to Shyness

Rhod Gilbert is painfully shy. He might hide it well, but he can't even go into a cafe to buy a coffee. No joke. In fact, his social anxiety has had a massive effect on his life. Rhod's going to try find out why and what can be done. Talking to fellow shy comedian Greg Davies, other shy sufferers, and scientists, Rhod comes up with a radical solution for how we can all stand up to shyness. Rhod can stand up in front of 20,000 people and make them laugh for two hours solid. But he has always found it virtually impossible to talk to people one to one. From childhood, it has been a life-limiting condition. And in this Rhod is certainly not alone. It is estimated that nearly half the population in the UK have some manifestation of shyness and social anxiety. For many it is a minor irritation, for some it is a condition that can virtually destroy a life.

2018 • Brain

Human Machines

The second episode takes us into a sci-fi world that reminds us of a 'Terminator'-like scenario, where machines are on their way to becoming ’almost human’.

S1E2Supersapiens Rise of the Mind • 2017 • Brain

Accidental Genius

Can brain damage make you brilliant? George Widener is autistic, but he has a remarkable ability to remember days and dates in history. Follow his genius story

S1E2My Brilliant Brain • 2007 • Brain

Enhanced Humans

In the first episode, we are exploring technologies that promise to provide humans with superpowers, and witness experiments that are literally changing minds!

S1E1Supersapiens Rise of the Mind • 2017 • Brain

Mindfulness

Take a deep, cleansing breath and slowly exhale while being enlightened on the impact meditation can have on your mind and body.

S1E4The Mind, Explained • 2019 • Brain

Basic Instincts

In today's world, looks count especially with the popularity of social media. In this episode, Dr Michael Mosley invites 10 singletons to the country house on a dating weekend with a difference. He strips down the dating game to animal attraction and puts their very basic instincts to the test. With the help of behavioural psychologist Tracey Cox and dating expert Emma Kenny

S1E2Meet the Humans • 2017 • Brain

Randoms! Documentaries

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Lakes and Rivers

Just as Africa constantly throws-up mountains which intercept moisture-laden clouds from the oceans, so the changing landscape also creates grooves and basins which channel and gather the precious moisture that falls on the high ground.

S1E6Wild Africa • 2001 • Nature

Weed

Marijuana experts discuss the rise of potent "sexually frustrated" cannabis plants, the quest for consistency in weed strains and the history of hemp.

S1E12Explained • 2018 • Nature

Conflict

David Attenborough employs the latest technologies to explore the violence, rivalries and deadly weaponry existing within the world of bugs. This first episode examines the survival tactics of its terrifying residents including killer ants, trap-setting spiders and beetles with the ability to shoot boiling chemicals at their enemies.

1Micro Monsters with David Attenborough • 2013 • Nature

Professor Julia Higgins discusses Michael Faraday

President of the Institute of Physics Professor Julia Higgins explores the life and work of Michael Faraday and how his curiosity and passion for communicating science inspires her.

S1E6People of Science with Brian Cox • 2018 • Science

Sand, Wind and Stars

Few places on earth evoke more mystery and romance than Arabia. This enters the forbidding wilderness and reveals a magical cast of characters. From the snow-white oryx that inspired the myth of the unicorn to the long-legged jerboa leaping ten times its own body length through the star-filled Arabian nights. Horned vipers hunt glow-in-the-dark scorpions, while Bedouin nomads race their camels across the largest sand desert in the world.

S1E1Wild Arabia • 2013 • Nature

The God Plant

This documentary seeks to be the ultimate Odyssey of exploration into Cannabis and its uses starting from the formation of the Endocannabinoid system in the simple sea squirt, through to its early uses, the plant's medical benefits and landing at the modern legalisation movements across the Globe. Where the billions generated in tax could be re-invested back into hospitals, roads, fire departments, scientific research, community projects and the list goes on.

2018 • Economics