Latest Documentaries

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

Coral Triangle

Simon Reeve voyages across the Coral Triangle, a remote wilderness of tropical reefs and jungle-clad islands described as the Amazon of the seas.

S1E3 • Wilderness with Simon Reeve • 2024 • Nature

Patagonia

Simon Reeve travels through wilderness of Patagonia, at the foot of the South American continent. A beautiful and rugged land of mountains, ice and endless wild grasslands, Patagonia is whipped by wind, rain, and snow. Simon's journey takes him up to the huge south Patagonian ice field, through the foothills of the Andes towards the great Grey Glacier of eastern Chile - coming face to face with pumas and riding with gauchos.

S1E2 • Wilderness with Simon Reeve • 2024 • Nature

Congo

Simon Reeve battles his way across the Congo, braving thick jungle and tropical swamps in search of the people and the wildlife who make their home in Africa’s greatest rainforest.

S1E1 • Wilderness with Simon Reeve • 2024 • Nature

The Velvet Queen

In the heart of the Tibetan highlands, award-winning nature photographer Vincent Munier guides writer Sylvain Tesson on a quest to document the infamously elusive snow leopard. Through their journey across the Tibetan peaks, the two men explore the subtle art of patience, tracking, and waiting while pondering humanity's place among the magnificent creatures and landscapes they encounter.

2021 • Nature

Part 2

Bettany goes way back in time, where myth and historical reality blend - to Sardis and to Gordion, home of King Midas, the man with the golden touch

S1E2 • Dawn of Civilisations • 2026 • History

Part 1

From Ephesus to Cappadocia, from Ani to Divrigi, and from the world's first societies and weapons to the birth of myths and empires, this is the story of where it all began

S1E1 • Dawn of Civilisations • 2026 • History

Recommended Documentaries

Professor Uta Frith discusses Alice Lee

The pioneering developmental psychologist Uta Frith discusses Alice Lee, whose work in craniology challenged the idea that women were intellectually inferior because they have smaller brain sizes.

S1E2 • People of Science with Brian Cox • 2018 • Science

How to Use Drugs

We’re still only at the dawn of learning how to use drugs properly – knowing what drugs we need and when we should take them. We look forward to a brighter future for drug use.

The School of Life • 2016 • Health

Psychedelics

Growing evidence suggests that psychedelic drugs could treat brain injuries and psychological problems. But can we get past their controversial history?

S2E4 • History 101 • 2022 • Brain

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

The Next Generation

Left to fend for themselves until they find their footing, baby sea turtles, elephant seal pups, pumas and crabs bravely trek towards adolescence.

S2E3 • Our Planet • 2023 • Nature

Cities

Cities are growing at a faster rate than any other habitat on Earth. They may seem an unlikely place for animals to thrive, but they can be a world of surprising opportunity. Leopards prowl the streets of Mumbai, peregrine falcons hunt amongst New York's skyscrapers, and a million starlings perform spectacular aerial dances over Rome. In Jodhpur, langurs are revered as religious deities and in Harar, locals live in harmony with wild hyenas. Many animals, however, struggle to cope in the urban jungle. As the architects of this environment, can humans choose to build cities that are homes for both them and wildlife?

S1E6 • Planet Earth II • 2016 • Design

Travel Documentaries

Jerusalem, Israel

Is peace possible? In a world of conflict, people can live in peace. Kari goes in search of communities across Israel that are living in peace, and discovers that it is the young people, with their curiosity of their common history, their sharing of food and cuisine, and their desire of intersectionality in sports and music, who are striving for peaceful coexistence, despite the ongoing conflict around them

S1E4 • Crash Test World • 2021 • Travel

Part 1: Mexico and Belize

Levison and Alberto avoid escaped convicts and poisonous trees as they take in Mexico and Belize's jungles, the hurricane-wracked island of San Pedro and Guatemala's lawless wilderness of El Petacon.

S1E1 • Walking the Americas with Levison Wood • 2017 • Travel

Iran to Cuba

Joanna's adventures in and around Iran, from where she followed the Silk Road through Azerbaijan and Georgia, finally moving on to Venice. Also presents behind the scenes footage from Joanna's travels in Haiti and Cuba.

S1E3 • Joanna Lumley’s Unseen Adventures • 2020 • Travel

Part 1

This aerial journey directs its focus on the role the natural world plays in this paradise for curious explorers. The Mediterranean is home to mountain ranges that tower over plains and estuaries, as well as deserts and the sea. Warning: you may want to book your next holiday after viewing this two-part series.

S1E1 • Mediterranean: A Sea for All • 2020 • Travel

Episode 4

The historian reaches the southernmost stretches of the Egyptian Nile, though her 900-mile journey is not quite over as she joins archaeologists as they extract a giant stone message board from the foundations of the temple of the crocodile god Sobek. Bettany also visits a hotel once frequented by Churchill and says farewell to her boat crew. After reaching Egypt's border with Sudan where Rameses the Great built an outrageous temple to himself, the presenter joins the crowds to witness the power of the rising sun.

S1E4 • The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes • 2019 • Travel

Bolivia to Paraguay

Simon travels through three of the world's most extreme environments as he takes in the salt flats of Bolivia, Brazil's Pantanal wetland region and Paraguay's Chaco Forest. In Bolivia, he meets a family making a living carving salt from the vast white expanse of the Uyuni flats, while in Brazil he has a close encounter with South America's apex predator, the jaguar. In Paraguay, Simon visits a Mennonites school, where traditionally clothed children are drilled in Bible texts and there are no smartphones to be seen.

S1E4 • Simon Reeve's South America • 2022 • Travel

Astronomy Documentaries

Escape

Astronaut Chris Hadfield has seen the bullet holes left by asteroids on Earth's surface. Our planet is vulnerable. Could we ever survive elsewhere?

6/10 • One Strange Rock • 2018 • Astronomy

Binary and Multiple Stars

Double stars are stars that appear to be near each other in the sky, but if they’re gravitationally bound together we call them binary stars. Many stars are actually part of binary or multiple systems. If they are close enough together they can actually touch other, merging into one peanut-shaped star. In some close binaries matter can flow from one star to the other, changing the way it ages. If one star is a white dwarf, this can cause periodic explosions, and possibly even lead to blowing up the entire star.

34 • Crash Course Astronomy • 2015 • Astronomy

Birth of the Monster Black Holes

New discoveries reveal an astonishing supermassive black hole that was born during the earliest days of the cosmos, and finding out how this giant grew so large so quickly may help to explain the very formation of the universe itself.

S9E9 • How the Universe Works • 2021 • Astronomy

First Generation

Get the inside story of NASA’s early victories and failures, through firsthand accounts and rarely seen mission footage

S1E1 • Space Disasters • 2020 • Astronomy

Novo Mundo

The story is told in a documentary way, looking at the present day. The future mission is filmed as a movie. In this episode scenes are changing in these timeframes.

S1E1 • MARS • 2016 • Astronomy

Curse of the White Dwarf

Dead stars may be the key to understanding the cosmos. New research proves white dwarfs are one of the driving forces of our universe. They eat planets, they flare out in high-energy light Have scientists finally discovered how these small stars could be such massive galactic players?

S9E5 • How the Universe Works • 2021 • Astronomy

Random! Documentaries

Namibia

Soar over Namibia as we take you on a tour of an ancient world, from the oldest desert on Earth to the emerald green waters of the Kunene River. On the journey, we delve into the country's rich culture, reborn from the shadows of its past.

S1E5 • Aerial Africa • 2017 • Nature

Apple's Broken Promises

Apple is the most valuable brand on the planet, making products that everyone wants - but how are its workers treated when the world isn't looking? Panorama goes undercover in China to show what life is like for the workers making the iPhone 6. And it's not just the factories. Reporter Richard Bilton travels to Indonesia to find children working in some of the most dangerous mines in the world. But is the tin they dig out by hand finding its way into Apple's products?

2015 • Technology

JFK: 24 Hours that Changed the World

Explores the last 24 hours in President Kennedy's life through original footage and oral history, from his arrival into Dallas to his body being taken by Air Force One to Washington DC. The programme also examines the chaos and grief that swept a nation, and the subsequent arrest and murder of apparent sole gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.

2023 • People

Free Solo

Follow Alex Honnold as he becomes the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000ft high El Capitan Wall. With no ropes or safety gear, he completed arguably the greatest feat in rock climbing history.

2018 • People

War Games

With both sides planning for the worst-case scenario, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev find common ground. Tragedy strikes after a nuclear disaster.

S1E5 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History

The Trials of J Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a national hero, the brilliant scientist who during WWII led the scientific team that created the atomic bomb. But after the bomb brought the war to an end, in spite of his renown and his enormous achievement, America turned on him - humiliated and cast him aside. The question the film asks is, "Why?"

2008 • Science