Latest Documentaries

Will You Get Dementia

Dr Claire Taylor learns more about the the UK's fastest growing health condition, she meets patients living with dementia, as well as scientists and experts working in the field. The GP puts herself through innovative tests to find out how to spot the earliest signs and learns about different types of the disease. Plus, Claire investigates cutting edge treatments and asks what can be done to prevent dementia developing.

2025 • Health

The Space Race in Colour

A two-part documentary recounting the Cold War space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Through newly colorized archival footage and firsthand accounts, it follows the rivalry from early satellites and rocket development to espionage, surveillance, and the Apollo Moon landings.

2026 • Astronomy

Science and Survival

Explores the ever-present dangers faced by astronauts on the ISS, ranging from meteor strikes and docking disasters to the entire station backflipping out of control.

S1E2 • Terror on the Space Station • 2025 • Astronomy

High-Risk Build

Explores the danger and ambition of building the International Space Station in space, where a single mistake could prove fatal.

S1E1 • Terror on the Space Station • 2025 • Astronomy

Witnesses for Eternity

How did Stone Age communities build enormous burial mounds, stone circles, temples, and tombs with the limited technology available to them? This episode visits major archaeological sites in Scotland, Brittany, Austria, Malta, Turkey, and Jordan to investigate how massive stones were transported, what these monuments meant, and what they reveal about early social organization and beliefs.

S1E2 • Secrets of the Stone Age • 2017 • History

From Hunters to Farmers

Around 12,000 years ago, humans began abandoning a nomadic existence for settled life. The episode follows the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry, the growth of settlements, changing diets, and the remarkable discovery of Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey—where hunter-gatherers erected massive decorated stone columns long before farming became widespread.

S1E1 • Secrets of the Stone Age • 2017 • History

Cunk on Life

Philomena Cunk returns with her most ambitious quest yet - venturing right up the universe to examine life and existence. Mockumentary from Charlie Brooker starring Diane Morgan.

2024 • Nature

Mongolia

Simon Reeve embarks on a 3,000-mile journey across the deserts, plains and mountains of Mongolia in search of snow leopards and the nomadic people who hunt with golden eagles.

S2E4 • Wilderness with Simon Reeve • 2026 • Nature

Yukon

Simon Reeve treks and canoes through Canada’s rugged and frozen Yukon Territory to meet the people who make the wilderness home and to search for grizzly bears, the apex predator.

S2E3 • Wilderness with Simon Reeve • 2026 • Nature

Sea of Cortez

Simon Reeve voyages across Mexico’s beautiful and remote Sea of Cortez, known as the 'aquarium of the world', to dive with rare and dangerous sharks.

S2E2 • Wilderness with Simon Reeve • 2026 • Nature

Papua New Guinea

Simon Reeve journeys through the lost world of Papua New Guinea’s tropical rainforest in search of the tenkile tree kangaroo, one of the rarest animals on Earth.

S2E1 • Wilderness with Simon Reeve • 2026 • Nature

Kalahari

Simon Reeve crosses the parched desert of southern Africa, tracking wildebeest with the famous hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari, before heading to the oasis of the Okavango Delta.

S1E4 • Wilderness with Simon Reeve • 2024 • Nature

Recommended Documentaries

What is Reality?

There is a strange and mysterious world that surrounds us, a world largely hidden from our senses. The quest to explain the true nature of reality is one of the great scientific detective stories.

Horizon • 2011 • Physics

Search for the Super Battery

We live in an age when technological innovation seems to be limitlessly soaring. But for all the satisfying speed with which our gadgets have improved, many of them share a frustrating weakness: the batteries. Though they have improved in last century, batteries remain finicky, bulky, expensive, toxic, and maddeningly short-lived. The quest is on for a “super battery,” and the stakes in this hunt are much higher than the phone in your pocket. With climate change looming, electric cars and renewable energy sources like wind and solar power could hold keys to a greener future...if we can engineer the perfect battery. Join host David Pogue as he explores the hidden world of energy storage, from the power—and danger—of the lithium-ion batteries we use today, to the bold innovations that could one day charge our world.

NOVA PBS • 2017 • Environment

Heat

David Attenborough reveals how, by pushing themselves and their bodies to the limit, mammals have found remarkable ways to survive in the hottest places on earth. In South America, thirsty capuchins need all their natural curiosity as they search for water on the forest floor. Camels roam the vast outback of Australia, where they can go for weeks without water thanks to their distinctive hump as an energy store. White sifaka lemurs hug trees to avoid the heat in Madagascar's spiny forest and the echidna has an even stranger way of keeping cool - it blows snot bubbles.

S1E5 • Mammals with David Attenborough • 2024 • Nature

The High Seas

Venture into the deep, dark and desolate oceans that are home to an abundance of beautiful -- and downright strange -- creatures.

S1E6 • Our Planet • 2019 • Nature

Brains

In the final episode Dr Alice Roberts explores how our species, homo sapiens, developed our large brain; and asks why we are the only one of our kind left on the planet today?

S1E3 • Origins of Us • Brain

A Reassuring Fable

Carl Sagan talks about religion and the universe

3/10 • The Sagan Series • 1989 • Astronomy

Astronomy Documentaries

Is There Sound in Space?

Sound can’t actually travel through a vacuum like space, but scientists have learned that there’s still plenty to hear.

SciShow Space • Astronomy

Second Genesis

Artemis arrives on the exoplanet Minerva B, but have they found evidence of life?

S1E3 • Living Universe • 2018 • Astronomy

The Explorers

A look at the continuing evolution of the cosmos. What our existence tells us about the universe and how complicated it is. Why are things the way that they are? The spacecraft Artemis initiates launch sequence and begins its 4.7 light year journey to Minerva B - an Earth-like exoplanet.

S1E2 • Living Universe • 2018 • Astronomy

A Brief History of the Universe

Thanks to the wonders of physics, astronomers can map a timeline of the universe’s history. Today, Phil’s going to give you an overview of those first few minutes (yes, MINUTES) of the universe’s life. It started with a Big Bang, when the Universe was incredibly dense and hot. It expanded and cooled, going through multiple stages where different kinds of matter could form. It underwent a phenomenally rapid expansion called inflation, which smoothed out much of the lumpiness in the matter. Normal matter formed atoms between 3 and 20 minutes after the bang, and the lumps left over from inflation formed the galaxies and larger structures we see today.

44 • Crash Course Astronomy • 2016 • Astronomy

Awakening

Of all life on Earth, we're the only ones with the smarts to leave our planet. How did our planet make us so intelligent? Astronaut host – Leland Melvin.

9/10 • One Strange Rock • 2018 • Astronomy

Untangling Alzheimers

Untangling Alzheimer's is a dramatic and inspiring medical investigation driven by David Suzuki's journey to understand the science of Alzheimer's and the surprising new insights into its cause. David has a very personal interest in the disease because his mother, aunt and two uncles died of it. We join David on an intimate journey as he explores the newest breakthroughs in this devastating disease as well as his own chances of contracting the cruel condition. Alzheimer's today is the only leading cause of death that cannot be cured, prevented or even slowed. Worse, it's the only leading cause of death that is on the rise – and not simply because baby-boomers are getting older. Studies show that the increase is absolute across all age groups, and death rates continue to climb. With a new case developing every 69 seconds, scientists now speak of the Alzheimer's epidemic.

S53E06 • The Nature of Things • 2013 • Astronomy

History Documentaries

The River Styx (January 1964 - December 1965)

Fearing Saigon's collapse, President Lyndon B. Johnson authorizes the bombing of North Vietnam and sends U.S. ground troops to the south.

S1E3 • The Vietnam War • 2017 • History

Confucius

Bettany Hughes' series exploring the lives and teachings of influential ancient philosophers draws to a close with a profile of Confucius, who is credited as the first Chinese thinker to take a systematic philosophical approach to issues of social, political and ethical importance. Born during the chaotic Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, Confucius believed that harmony could be promoted and achieved through the examples of sage rulers. He was also a innovative teacher, and tried to instill his principles of moral excellence in China's elite, but died without seeing his vision for his nation come to pass. However, his philosophies would eventually form the bedrock of Chinese culture, with many of his principles of tradition surviving to this day.

Part 3 • Genius of the Ancient World • 2015 • History

Face to Face

After defeating Darius III at Battle of Issus against odds, Alexander falls back and sets sights on unexpected target: Egypt.

S1E3 • Alexander: The Making of a God • 2024 • History

Mustafa Kemal-Ataturk

Rageh Omaar explains how the collapse of this Islamic super-power following the first World War left problems that still exist in Europe and the Middle East today. From its capital in Istanbul the Ottoman Empire matched the glories of Ancient Rome. Yet its achievements have been largely lost in the trauma of its last few years. Brutality, massacres and the carve-up of former Ottoman lands created a legacy of tension and conflict that continue to this day. The heartland of the former empire - modern day Turkey - turned its back on its Islamic, Ottoman past. It underwent a social revolution led by military commander and secular visionary Mustafa Kemal-Ataturk. So why is Ottomanism back on the political agenda? And why are many politicians in the West hoping that Turkey can provide a role model as a modern, Islamic democracy?

S1E3 • The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors • 2013 • History

Tulum: The Last City of the Mayan Empire

Explore Tulum, the final inhabited city of the Maya empire, where innovative archaeology and cutting-edge technology reveal the mysteries behind the collapse of one of Mesoamerica's greatest civilisations.

2023 • History

Herculaneum Scrolls Unraveling History

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius is renowned for its decimation of Pompeii, but nearby, an equally impressive Roman settlement known as Herculaneum was lost to history. Today, the latest in technology is opening a wind to the past, as scientists digitally "unravel" the Herculaneum Scrolls.

Breakthrough • 2019 • History

Random! Documentaries

Oceans

Deep beneath the water's surface, the world's largest predator -- the Mosasaurus -- lies in wait to ambush unsuspecting prey.

S2E4 • Prehistoric Planet • 2023 • Nature

Captain Courageous

The Story of Captain Carlsen and the Flying Enterprise Kurt Carlsen's epic solo struggle to save his 6,700 ton merchant vessel, her holds waterlogged, from the ravages of an Atlantic hurricane during Christmas 1951. Spectacular film taken at the time shows the immense bravery of this famous Captain in his efforts to stay with his ship. Danish Captain, Henrik Kurt Carlsen, was given the name of 'Captain Stay-put' by the press in 1952, when his ship rolled on her side and couldn't right itself. The vessel Flying Enterprese was doomed. Pounding seas had cracked her hull, tilting her thirty degrees on the port side, and sending a tidal wave pouring through her engine room. Making sure that the passengers were taken off, he--together with Mate Kenneth Dancey-- stayed on board his ship as rescue efforts to tow him into Falmouth failed. They battled the raging seas in a valiant attempt to bring the battered ship into port. Captain Carlsen only jumped off the ship at the last moment before it sank and was rescued by the Turmoil. Their story is one of astounding courage and determination.

3/20 • The True Action Adventures of the Twentieth Century • 1996 • History

The Door Closes

This episode describes the migration of most animals northwards (some from the Antarctic continent, others from the few islands surrounding it) as the continent and surrounding sea freeze over at the end of summer. It shows how young penguins often fall prey to Leopard Seals as they try to make their way across the already partially frozen water and how their stripped remains become food for isopods and meter-long nemerteans (ribbon worms). Before going to the sea, however, the adult penguins must shed their coats (molting).

S1E4 • Life in the Freezer • 2003 • Nature

Cities - Surviving the Urban Jungle

The city is built to keep untamed nature out, but nature cannot be pushed away.

S1E8 • Human Planet • Environment

Meerkat: A Dynasties Special

A film following a young meerkat queen living in the harsh beauty of the Makgadikgadi salt pans. If her new pups are to survive, she must unite her family in the face of rivals, predators and immense dust storms.

S1E6 • Dynasties • 2020 • Nature

Extreme Survival

Meet the exceptional animals that have adapted to survive in the difficult conditions of the Andes' Altiplano plateau.

S1E2 • The Wild Andes • 2019 • Nature