Latest Documentaries

The Horse

In the salt marshes of the Camargue, Chris explores the evolutionary beginnings of animal movement and how it reached its peak in one of the most elegant and athletic animals on Earth: the horse.

Evolution • 2026 • Nature

The Dolphin

In the Bahamas, Chris dives into one of the biggest questions in nature - how intelligence itself evolved, and how it arose in the dolphin's mind. Inside each is the result of a three-billion-year journey.

S1E4Evolution • 2026 • Nature

The Bat

In Borneo, Chris sets out to answer a deceptively simple question: how the drive to find food shaped life on Earth, and gave rise to one of nature’s most insatiable feeders. This feeding frenzy has origins from half a billion years ago.

S1E3Evolution • 2026 • Nature

The Ostrich

In South Africa, Chris finds out how reproduction has shaped life on Earth and the surprising evolutionary origins of sex, eggs and birds. This is a journey of innovation, adaptation and astonishing creativity.

S1E2Evolution • 2026 • Nature

The Elephant

In Kenya, Chris embarks on a journey through time to uncover how a creature as vast, complex and charismatic as the elephant came to be. It's a story of innovations, lucky breaks and unlikely partnerships.

S1E1Evolution • 2026 • Nature

The Odyssey with Dan Snow

Dan Snow sets sail across the Mediterranean in the wake of Homer's The Odyssey. This epic was written down almost 3,000 years ago, and it has been loved by generations of filmmakers, artists, authors and historians since. Now Dan re-tells the story visiting the harbours, mysterious islands and incredible ancient locations across Greece that inspired The Odyssey.

2026 • Travel

The Tech Billionaire Takeover

A new generation of tech billionaires believe their technologies can replace democracy as we know it and upend the global financial system. Matt Shea gets inside access to this new super-elite, visiting the sovereign nations they're building and tracing their growing political connections to the Trump administration. Are these men trying to take over the world?

2026 • Technology

ROMANIA: The Country Everyone Gets Wrong

Most people hear "Romania" and immediately picture Dracula, the gothic myths of Bran Castle, or the grey, concrete remnants of the communist era. But the reality of this nation in Eastern Europe is far more complex, untamed, and beautiful.

2026 • Travel

The Hadron Collider: In Search of the Peace Particle

In the aftermath of Hiroshima, a group of scientists vowed never to turn knowledge into weapons again, and from that promise, CERN was born. Deep underground, researchers from nations in conflict have worked side by side for decades, driven by curiosity and shared wonder. For 70 years, CERN has stood as an act of hope, a place where collaboration transcends borders, even as the world above grows more divided. Blending poetry, music and rare archival footage of nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer with remarkable access to the Large Hadron Collider, the film explores how science, politics and culture collide.

2026 • Physics

OnlyFans: Inside the Machine

Behind the billion-pound success of OnlyFans lies a hidden ecosystem of exploitation. A BBC Current Affairs investigation uncovers allegations of exploitation, coercion and violence committed by some of the hundreds of agents who manage many of the platform's creators as well as the potential for modern slavery. Through survivor testimony, undercover access to a managers' chat forum and expert legal analysis, the film exposes an industry where young women are trapped, threatened and profited from - raising urgent questions about accountability at the heart of one of Britain's most lucrative tech companies.

2026 • Economics

Dolly: The World's Most Famous Sheep

The story of the cloned sheep that was the first mammal to be created from an adult cell, and the unassuming lab that changed scientific history, leading to press stampedes, presidential panic, protests and even a failed kidnapping plot. As Dolly blinked up at the cameras, the Roslin science team's sleepy lab became the centre of an ethical uproar.

2026 • Science

Building the Sun - The World's Largest Fusion Project

ITER is an international attempt to meet humanity's energy needs by harnessing nuclear fusion. We take you within the ITER project to see how close the technology is to becoming a reality.

2026 • Science

Recommended Documentaries

What Makes a Psychopath

Psychopaths have long captured the public imagination. Painted as charismatic, violent predators lacking in all empathy, they provide intrigue and horror in equal measure. But what precisely is a psychopath? What is it that drives them to cause harm, even kill? And can they ever be cured? Presented by psychologist professor Uta Frith, this is an in-depth exploration of the psychopathic mind including one of the most notorious of all, Moors murderer Ian Brady. Through an ongoing correspondence between the Horizon team and Brady, the film features some of the very last letters he wrote. The film also features a series of candid interviews with prison inmates who not only describe their crimes but why they think they committed them. Horizon explores not only how each individual's crimes were shaped by their own life experiences, but also gives an insight into how these people think and behave. Working with the world's experts in the field, the film sheds light on the biological, psychological and environmental influences that shape a psychopath. And it looks to the future, with groundbreaking research that suggests a lifetime of incarceration is not the only option to manage violent and dangerous psychopaths.

Horizon • 2017 • Health

What is consciousness?

Understanding what consciousness is, and why and how it evolved, is perhaps the greatest mystery known to science.

The Economist • 2015 • Brain

Atmosphere

In this episode, Chris Packham tells the almost implausible story of how our world went from a barren rock with a sky of endless black, to the planet we know today, cloaked in the thin blue line of our life-sustaining atmosphere. When Earth first formed from clouds of dust and gas 4.6 billion years ago, it was - like so many other lifeless worlds in the universe - devoid of an atmosphere, an inhospitable rock floating in the black void of space. But as the young planet was pummelled by asteroids a period of extraordinary upheaval began. Over a two-billion-year period, the planet faced violent eruptions and a toxic orange haze, vast oceans of water in the sky and seas turning rusty red. Eventually, with the emergence of life and photosynthesis recalibrating the gases in our atmosphere, the stage was set for Earth to become the vibrant azure-skied planet we call home today.

S1E4Earth: One Planet, Many Lives • 2023 • Nature

MP3s

MP3s transformed how we listen to music - and spawned digital piracy. Streaming helped the industry recover, but how can artists get their fair share?

S2E2History 101 • 2022 • Technology

Coral Seas

Developed over centuries, coral reefs house fragile ecosystems, but they too have to fight to survive.

S1E6Blue Planet I • 2001 • Nature

Europe Ignites 1561- 1569

In France, perfidy and treason plunge the French Kingdom into chaos. Behind new king Charles IX, Catherine de Medici rules in the background as master of the throne. However, she is unable to prevent a civil war.

S2E3The Real War of Thrones: The True History of Europe • 2018 • History

Nature Documentaries

The Giant

In the misty and lush tropical forest surrounding South Africa's Soutpansberg Mountains, a 600-year-old outeniqua yellowwood tree reigns supreme. It's 115 feet tall, and a source of food and shelter for an array of plants and animals. Crowned eagles construct massive nests in her fold, and Samango monkeys take refuge in her branches. As if it wasn't unique enough, this ancient, endangered tree has no flowers, instead reproducing through male and female cones-a marvel of the natural world, and a true South African treasure.

S1E3Rooted • 2018 • Nature

Episode 4

Steve finds out how washing our clothes is harming our marine life. Why has the fish and chips supper changed? And which lobster is making a comeback? Plus why is one man fascinated by 'the Christmas Tree fish of the sea? Chris finds out. Presented from Herne Bay in Kent .

S1E4Blue Planet UK • 2019 • Nature

Hidden Japan

The culture of Japan is incredible, from bloom festivals to ultra-modern cities. But there are also more than 130 mammals and 600 bird species dwelling in Japan’s 6,852 islands. This island chain is long enough to span climate zones, providing a huge range of habitat.

2020 • Nature

Carnivores of the Coral Garden

Nine miles off the coast of Oman, a zebra shark scans the ocean floor for crustaceans, while a menacing giant stingray floats by. Soon, night becomes day and new killers emerge, from toxic scorpion fish to crown-of-thorns starfish, both bringing coral devastation. Dive among these deadly marine carnivores.

S1E1Arabian Seas • 2018 • Nature

In the Shadow of Giants

The formation of continents with varied environments allowed for an explosion of biodiversity — and turbo-charged the evolution of mighty dinosaurs.

S1E5Life on Our Planet • 2023 • Nature

The Hungry Leopard

At 13, Kamuti is one of the oldest leopards in the Luangwa region of Zambia. Old age brings many challenges, from hunting antelope to keeping a watchful eye on the lion pride nearby. Using a military-grade thermal camera, we lift the veil on the secret world of this enigmatic nocturnal predator for the first time.

S1E1Africa's Hunters • 2015 • Nature

Health Documentaries

Meals

Gloria Hunniford and Chris Bavin unravel the truth behind food stories that have dominated the front pages. In this episode, they discover how it's not just what you eat that can make a difference to how you feel, but when you have it and how you cook it. The truth behind the headlines about the dangers of cooking with olive oil, and barbecues, is revealed. Several long-established beliefs are put to the test, with experiments to see whether three meals a day is the most effective way to fuel your body, and if breakfast really is the most important meal of the day.

S1E3Food: Truth or Scare • 2016 • Health

Your Brain On MDMA

Why MDMA Makes You Feel Good (and Then Really Bad)

2014 • Health

Sugar Coated

Is sugar the new tobacco? How did the food industry get us to stop asking the question: is sugar toxic? It all starts with a secret PR campaign dating back to the 1970s. For forty years, Big Sugar deflected all threats to its multi-billion dollar empire, while sweetening the world's food supply. As obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rates skyrocket, doctors are now treating the first generation of children suffering from fatty liver disease. The sugar industry is once again under siege. They dodged the bullet once. Can they do it again?

2015 • Health

React

Through the lens of a boxer, a first responder, a cell tower climber and a man with a bionic limb, go deep into the universe of the most powerful machine on earth: the human brain and the vast nervous system it controls.

S1E6Human: The World Within • 2021 • Health

Surviving Covid

An intimate, feature-length documentary following the stories of four patients at London's King's College Hospital who have been struck down by Covid-19. The film follows the patients and their families over a six-month period, offering a stark reminder of how frightening and destructive the Covid-19 virus can be.

2020 • Health

Michael Mosley vs the Superbugs

For 70 years we've waged war against harmful bacteria using antibiotics. But bacteria are fighting back and today more and more bacterial infections are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Drug-resistant superbugs are spreading; not just MRSA - also TB, pneumonia, e-coli. In Britain, hundreds are already dying of these infections - mainly the very young or the frail and elderly. But experts warn that unless we crack the problem, by 2050 we'll be facing a massive health crisis with over 10 million people dying of resistant bacterial infection worldwide every year.

2017 • Health

Random! Documentaries

The Bat Man of Mexico

David Attenborough narrates the story of Rodrigo Medellin. Since he first kept vampire bats in his bathroom as a child, Rodrigo has dedicated his life to saving them. Now Mexico's most famous export, tequila, is at stake. Rodrigo's beloved lesser long-nosed bat is crucial to the liquor - pollinating the plants the drink is made from. To save both, Rodrigo must track the bats' epic migration across Mexico - braving hurricanes, snakes, Mayan tombs and seas of cockroaches. The threats are very real for not only Rodrigo and the bats, but also for anyone with a taste for tequila.

Natural World • 2014 • Nature

Closing in the Hunt for Alien Life

Right now researchers are hunting for extra-terrestrial life on several fronts. To find out just how close we might be to a breakthrough, astrophysicist Dr Graham Phillips visits telescopes, swims among the stromatolites on the remote West Australian coastline, and chats with scientists from around the world

S1E3Catalyst: Series 18 • 2017 • Astronomy

Octopus Throwdown

A look at why a seal throw an octopus at a kayaker; why a moth is drinking from the eye of a bird in the Amazon jungle and what surprising creature has been leaping out of the Irish Sea.

S1E19Nature's Strangest Mysteries: Solved • 2019 • Nature

The Great Survivors

The final episode explores dinosaurs' extraordinary ability to survive. Featured dinosaurs include the bizarre magyarosaurus, which lived in the shadow of the biggest flying animal - hatzegopteryx - and showed an amazing adaptation to island life; and the weird nothronychus, a carnivore that gave up meat eating. This astonishing capacity to evolve into ever more diverse and bizarre forms meant that dinosaurs not only spread throughout the world, but also dominated life upon it for more than 160 million years. It was only an unprecedented extraterrestrial event that finally saw the end of planet dinosaur.

S1E6Planet Dinosaur • 2011 • Nature

Part 1

Part one of two. Thirty years ago explorer Benedict Allen lived in Papua New Guinea with the Niowra, a remote people. Broadcast journalist Frank Gardner has always wished to see wild birds of paradise, so Benedict resolves to take him along. The duo set out through some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet, negotiating swamps, mountains and crocodile-infested waters, heading into the cloud forest. Despite Frank requiring the use of a wheelchair following a shooting incident in 2004, Benedict determines to get him to their destination.

S1E1Birds of Paradise: The Ultimate Quest • 2017 • Nature

Floodgates of Venice

MOSE is one of the world?s largest and highest-profile civil-engineering works. But will it be able to save Venice? Venice has grappled with inundation for centuries. But due to natural subsidence and higher tides caused by global warming, the city is more vulnerable to flooding than ever before.

Breakthrough • 2019 • Technology