Latest Documentaries
In recent years, the Netherlands and Belgium have become major drug trafficking hubs in Europe, with almost 80 percent of the continent's cocaine passing through Rotterdam or Antwerp. This has led to the rise of the "Mocro Mafia," criminal networks of Dutch people of Moroccan origin. These gangs began by trafficking hashish from Morocco but now use the same routes for the more profitable cocaine trade, sourced from Latin American cartels. Consequently, the "Mocro Mafia" has become one of the world's richest criminal organizations, generating an estimated fifty billion euros annually in Antwerp alone—10 percent of Belgium's budget. The violent "Mocro Mafia" gangs have unleashed a reign of terror. They kill lawyers, magistrates, journalists, all without a second thought. They have even threatened government ministers in Belgium and the Netherlands. Anyone who challenges their network is a potential target. The drug money is so pervasive within the economy that, according to some, Belgium and the Netherlands risk becoming narco-states. This threat has been taken very seriously by the authorities and the police. Public anxiety rose even further after the horrifying discovery of a torture chamber in a shipping container used as an 'underworld prison' by the gangs, as well as the murder of journalist Peter de Vries. We investigate the "Mocro Mafia," the new ultra-violent criminal organisation which is shaking Europe.
2022 • Economics
Documentary about Elizabethan peer Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, who some believe is the person who wrote the works attributed to William Shakespeare.
2018 • People
In year 1459 a book was written which contained images so bizarre that even 500 years later their meaning is still shrouded in mystery. Violent, secretive, and packed full of knowledge, Medieval Fight Book uncovers the real story of Europe in the Middle Ages. Its 150 beautifully illustrated paper folios depicts a unique imagery of bloody, highly sophisticated combat, strange futuristic designs and inventions, ingenious engineering and judicial duels. Its timeworn leather cover bears one simple inscription: Talhoffer. The mysterious fightmaster of the middle ages and the author of the mysterious medieval fight book. Hans Talhoffer's 1459 Fightbook (Fechtbuch) is one of medieval worlds' most mysterious manuscripts, challenging the legends and myths that surrounded this so often misunderstood period of our history. Today, the manuscript is located deep in the vaults of the Danish Royal Library. Using historical recreations, amazing CGI and leading historians, Medieval Fight Book reveals that medieval society was far more sophisticated and peculiar than we realized. Hidden in a dusty library, this obscure and strange manuscript contains unique imagery of bloody but highly sophisticated combat, futuristic designs and inventions, ingenious engineering and judicial duels. Hans Talhoffer's 1459 fightbook is one of the medieval worlds' most mysterious manuscripts, challenging the legends and myths that surrounded this often misunderstood period of our history. In Medieval Fight Book we'll join a documentary film crew and a team of historians as they test out most of the designs and inventions within Talhoffer's book. Will the inventions live up to being usable?
2010 • History
A young tigress is chosen to found a new dynasty. Airlifted from her home in an Indian park to life in a new reserve, Baghani the tigress must fight with leopards for territory and learn to hunt dangerous wild boar. Also released is Rajore, a hot-blooded young male. For two years, every aspect of their lives is followed by the camera. Will they mate and start a family, or will they be killed by poachers?
2012 • Nature
Tells the epic story of the first transatlantic communications cable laid between Valentia Island, County Kerry, and Newfoundland, Canada. The first transmission via undersea cable on 16th of August 1858 signalled a new age of modern communication and laid the foundation of modern Ireland's technology industry, with impacts still being felt today. Prior to this technological advancement, messages took at least ten days to travel by ship. Today, 99% of all internet and mobile communications are powered by undersea cable, not by not by satellite. In the digital age, undersea cable remains the cheapest and most efficient communications method, with all major global tech companies utilising and investing in them across the world. The two communities at the centre of this story, Valentia Island and Heart's Content, share a vision of securing UNESCO World Heritage status. It is hoped that the cable houses and communities that helped change the course of communication history and globalisation will be recognised in the coming years.
2024 • Technology
Over one dramatic year, film crews cope with extreme weather, hungry predators, stormy seas, high altitudes and baking sun as they capture the story of life in one of the wildest places on Earth.
S1E6 • Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World • 2022 • Nature
Patagonia's ancient woodlands are a magical home to creatures found nowhere else on Earth. This journey explores the forests that time forgot, revealing hidden treasures, while meeting scientists and Indigenous people working to protect them.
S1E5 • Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World • 2022 • Nature
Patagonia's far south is closer to Antarctica than anywhere else on Earth; it is a land of extremes where wind speeds above 100 miles per hour and giant waves batter the coastline; for penguins, whales, and people, survival is a daily struggle.
S1E4 • Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World • 2022 • Nature
A journey from the low grasslands, where pumas roam, to the towering peaks of the Patagonian Andes, where only the toughest people and animals can survive.
S1E3 • Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World • 2022 • Nature
Along Patagonia's Pacific coast are the deep, sheltered fjords. These beautiful, flooded valleys were carved out by ice over millennial.
S1E2 • Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World • 2022 • Nature
A magic journey along Patagonia's Atlantic coast where the land may be barren but the sea is rich with life. In this wild and unforgiving place, killer whales risk it all to survive while huge male elephant seals battle for the chance to breed.
S1E1 • Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World • 2022 • Nature
HBO Original, Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes takes a deep-dive behind the 1986 disaster of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Watch never before seen footage and get real-life accounts of the horrific accident. The story of Chernobyl told through a newly discovered hoard of dramatic footage filmed at the nuclear plant during the disaster and newly-recorded, deeply personal interviews of those who were there, directed by Emmy Award-winner and Russian-speaker James Jones. This gripping film tells the story of the disaster and its consequences entirely through extraordinary and immersive archive, shot at great risk in the hours, days, weeks and months after the accident by a handful of cameramen given access to the plant. These cameramen lived side by side with the "liquidators" who went to incredible and often fatal lengths to try to prevent another explosion and make the reactor safe. The reality of their bravery and heroism is more harrowing than any drama can portray. The footage, most of it never seen before in the West, has only now come to light after an extensive trawl by director James Jones and his colleagues of the state archives and other sources in Ukraine and Russia. For thirty-five years the story of what happened in April 1986 when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant melted down has enthralled and horrified. Radio programmes and scripted dramas have all told their version of events. But no-one has made a documentary that reveals the full, shocking reality of this cataclysmic, world changing event – until now. Though many of the rescue workers died, a surprising number who appear prominently in the footage are still alive today. The film features newly recorded audio interviews with people involved in the original key moments of the footage – their memories of that fateful night and the aftermath haunting but also deeply humane. Amongst those interviews is Lyudmila Ihnatenko, whose firefighter husband Vasily died days after the accident, and who was pregnant at the time. She went onto lose her baby hours after she was born. "All the radiation I was inhaling, she absorbed it." From a ten-year-old schoolboy to a Russian general, we see how events at Chernobyl transformed the lives of millions of people. Soviet propaganda plays out as a backdrop, initially saying nothing of the disaster, Gorbachev eventually appearing to downplay what happened, putting his own citizens and the rest of the world at great risk. The film reveals how many people suffering from radiation poisoning, cancer and other illnesses were told that it had no connection to the accident. The state was in denial and was willing to lie to its own citizens to prevent the truth getting out. This film witnesses the incredible physical suffering of men who had sacrificed themselves for the greater good. The film shows how Chernobyl and the cover-up that followed sparked unprecedented distrust in the authorities, giving birth to a protest movement in Ukraine which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The modern resonance of a disaster which threatened millions of lives but was tragically mishandled by those in authority will have an obvious resonance to the contemporary audience. Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes is the full, unadulterated true story of what happened in one of the most iconic but least understood tragedies of the twentieth century.
2022 • Environment
Recommended Documentaries
A chronicle of the Apollo space program; the first phase takes place against a backdrop of the Cold War, from the disaster of Apollo 1 to the triumph of the Apollo 8 mission.
S1E1 • Apollo Back to the Moon • 2019 • Astronomy
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
Scientists on the BICEP and Planck missions are attempting to solve a mystery about the earliest moments of our universe, by searching for patterns in the cosmic microwave background. If successful, the missions will help to answer the biggest question anyone can ask: how did our universe begin?
Sir Tim Hunt, awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the mechanism of how cells divide, recalls moments in his life that provided inspiration for his career as a scientist, from his father's intent scholarship which shaped his early methods to his mother's battle with cancer and the influence of this on his position at Cancer Research UK. Hunt recounts the events that informed his discovery and reveals his own opinions on the thought processes, both logical and emotional, that led to it.
S1E3 • Beautiful Minds • 2010 • People
Dr Kevin Fong makes a personal journey through the moral questions about death that face not just the medical profession, but each and every one of us. The question of how we die is a question that all of us must face, and yet we avoid talking about it. Modern medicine is focused on saving lives. Amazing technical advances have increased doctors' ability to treat a wide range of life-threatening diseases, meaning many more people live longer lives. Life expectancy has surged, and we regard death as something to be battled. It is common for the medical system to throw everything into treating patients right to the very end. But in our attempts to defeat death, the question is this - are we over-medicalising death and the final years of life at the expense of providing better palliative care that would result in a better quality of life? Is it time to reset the system, and learn how to die a better death? Kevin meets medical professionals who are at the heart of these dilemmas, as well as people who are right now facing up to the question of how to die a better death.
The penultimate instalment investigates the primates, whose defining characteristics are forward-facing eyes for judging distance, and gripping hands with which to grasp branches, manipulate food and groom one another. The programme begins in Madagascar, home to the lemurs, of which there are some 20 different types. Two examples are the sifaka, which is a specialised jumper, and the indri, which has a well-developed voice. Away from Madagascar, the only lemur relatives to have survived are nocturnal, such as the bushbaby, the potto and the loris. The others were supplanted by the monkeys and a primitive species that still exists is the smallest, the marmoset. However, Attenborough selects the squirrel monkey as being typical of the group. Howler monkeys demonstrate why they are so named their chorus is said to the loudest of any mammal and their prehensile tails illustrate their agility.
12/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature
Brain Documentaries
Memory is not a photo album where your images of the past are faithfully recorded. The latest neuroscience discoveries show that memory can be affected in many ways and with surprising results: false memories, distortions, modifications and deja vu. To what extent can we rely on our memories?
2016 • Brain
Artificially intelligent machines are taking over. They’re influencing our everyday lives in profound and often invisible ways. They can read handwriting, interpret emotions, play games, and even act as personal assistants. They are in our phones, our cars, our doctors’ offices, our banks, our web searches…the list goes on and is rapidly growing ever longer. But how does today’s A.I. actually work—and is it truly intelligent? And for that matter, what is intelligence? The world’s brightest computer programmers are trying to build brighter machines by reverse-engineering the brain and by inventing completely new kinds of computers, with exponentially greater speed and processing power. NOVA Wonders looks at how far we’ve come and where machines are headed as their software becomes ever more…cerebral. How close are we from a world in which computers take over—from diagnosing cancer to driving our cars to targeting weapons? If we place more and more of our lives under the control of these artificial brains, what are we putting at risk?
Nova Wonders • 2018 • Brain
Professor Shapiro shows us how some images can prompt two, or even three, equally valid interpretations. Rather than settling on one interpretation, our brains tend to switch among all of them – leading to some baffling and astonishing visual experiences.
Marc Yu is only seven years old but at the age of three he could play Beethoven on the piano. Could he have been born with a brilliant brain making him a true child genius?
S1E3 • My Brilliant Brain • 2007 • Brain
At 38 years old, Susan Polgar has reached heights that few women have ever equalled in the chess world. Despite the common assumption that men’s brains are better at understanding spatial relationships, giving them an advantage in games such as chess, Susan went on to become the world’s first grandmaster. Susan’s remarkable abilities have earned her the label of ‘genius’, but her psychologist father, Laszlo Polgar, believed that genius was “not born, but made”. Noting that even Mozart received tutelage from his father at a very early age, Polgar set about teaching chess to the five-year-old Susan after she happened upon a chess set in their home. “My father believed that the potential of children was not used optimally,” says Susan.
S1E1 • My Brilliant Brain • 2007 • Brain
At the age of 23, David Harewood had a psychotic breakdown and was sectioned. Two years ago he opened up on Twitter about the experience - and now he wants to tell the full story. Travelling back to his home town of Birmingham, the actor lets viewers into the realities of experiencing a psychotic breakdown, and how much he blocked out at the time, meeting up with his mother and old friends who were with him at the time. But this isn't just his story. He also spends time with other young people living with psychosis and the NHS professionals who treat them.
2023 • Brain
Math Documentaries
Renowned cosmologist Max Tegmark will take us on a journey through some of the greatest mysteries of our existence, and through the physics, astronomy and mathematics that are the foundation of his work.
S1E4 • Curiosity Retreats: 2016 Lectures • 2016 • Math
Imagine a game of dice: if the biggest number rolled is one, two, three, or four, player 1 wins. If the biggest number rolled is five or six, player 2 wins. Who has the best probability of winning the game? Leonardo Barichello explains how probability holds the answer to this seemingly counterintuitive puzzle.
Predictions underlie nearly every aspect of our lives, from sports, politics, and medical decisions to the morning commute. With the explosion of digital technology, the internet, and “big data,” the science of forecasting is flourishing. But why do some predictions succeed spectacularly while others fail abysmally? And how can we find meaningful patterns amidst chaos and uncertainty? From the glitz of casinos and TV game shows to the life-and-death stakes of storm forecasts and the flaws of opinion polls that can swing an election, “Prediction by the Numbers” explores stories of statistics in action. Yet advances in machine learning and big data models that increasingly rule our lives are also posing big, disturbing questions. How much should we trust predictions made by algorithms when we don’t understand how they arrive at them? And how far ahead can we really forecast?
Documentary that reveals the secret story behind one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II, a feat that gave birth to the digital age. In 1943 a 24-year-old maths student and a GPO engineer combined to hack into Hitler's personal super code machine - not Enigma but an even tougher system, which he called his 'secrets writer'. Their break turned the Battle of Kursk, powered the D-day landings and orchestrated the end of the conflict in Europe. But it was also to be used during the Cold War - which meant both men's achievements were hushed up and never officially recognised.
2011 • Math
An algorithm is a method of solving problems both big and small. Though computers run algorithms constantly, humans can also solve problems with algorithms. David J. Malan explains how algorithms can be used in seemingly simple situations and also complex ones.
Randoms! Documentaries
Scientists attempt to understand how this strange force of magnetism works.
S4E8 • How the Universe Works • 2015 • Astronomy
The tranquil lives of the citizens of Mobile, AL; Sacramento, CA; Waterbury,CT; and Luverne, MN are shattered on December 7, 1941, as they, along with the rest of America are thrust into the greatest cataclysm in history.
How all animal architects aim to keep both the elements and intruders at bay through features that include defensive moats.
6/12 • Trials of Life • 1990 • Nature
The long-awaited arrival of the great migration brings opportunities and food in abundance, but it also increases conflict as every one of the Serengeti's families is put to the test. Tragedy strikes for lioness Kali, who is forced to make one of the most difficult decisions of her life. Can she return to the pride that once forced her out? Whatever she decides, it will put her cubs in danger. Shani, the zebra mother, has no choice but to cross the river, but the crocodile is waiting and the currents are treacherous. Will her foal survive? Bakari is finally forced to challenge the jealous leader of the baboon troop, but the violence of their confrontation leaves Bakari facing a devastating decision that will change his destiny. The wild dog family, led by male Jasari, is also facing a battle when Zalika and her clan of hyenas declare war on the young family, hoping to force them out of their territory. A long running feud begins. When teenage elephant Tembo behaves badly and falls out with another herd, his mother Nalla has to decide his future. How will both Nalla and Tembo handle the difficult decisions they are forced to make?
Understand the importance of persuading the public to protect themselves during health crises. History shows that handwashing, social distancing and grassroots campaigning all play important roles in helping to shift behavior and save lives.
S1E4 • Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer • 2021 • Health