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

The Illusion of Reality

How studying the atom forced us to rethink the nature of reality itself.

S1E3 • Atom • Physics

Spring

Spring arrives in the polar regions, and the sun appears after an absence of five months; warmth and life return to these magical ice worlds - the greatest seasonal transformation on our planet is underway. Male Adelie penguins arrive in Antarctica to build their nests - it takes a good property to attract the best mates and the males will stop at nothing to better their rivals! But these early birds face the fiercest storms on the planet. In the Arctic, a polar bear mother is hunting with her cubs. Inland, the frozen rivers start to break up and billions of tons of ice are swept downstream in the greatest of polar spectacles. This melt-water fertilizes the Arctic Ocean, feeding vast shoals of Arctic cod and narwhal. The influx of freshwater accelerates the breakup of the sea-ice - an area of ice the size of Australia will soon vanish from the Arctic. On land, a woolly bear caterpillar emerges from the snow having spent the winter frozen solid. Caterpillars normally become moths within months of hatching, but life is so harsh here that the woolly bear takes 14 years to reach adulthood. Once mature it has only days to find a mate before it dies! Alongside the caterpillars white Arctic wolves race to raise their adorable cubs before the cold returns.

S1E2 • Frozen Planet • 2011 • Nature

Why Are We Here?

Brian Cox tackles the question that unites Earth's seven billion people - why are we here?

S1E2 • Human Universe • 2014 • Science

Resistance

Series premiere of a docudrama that chronicles the rebel tribes that brought down the Roman Empire. In the opener, An epic 700-year battle for freedom begins as the barbarians rise against Rome; Hannibal builds a rebel alliance and conquers the Alps; the shepherd Viriathus unleashes a wave of resistance to save his people from destruction.

Part 1 • Barbarians Rising • 2016 • History

Einstein: The Real Story of the Man Behind the Theory

The life story and achievements of dreamer and physicist Albert Einstein.

2008 • People

Finding: Life on Mars

For decades, scientists have dreamed of finding life on Mars. But despite their best efforts, no signs of life have been found. Could that be about to change? This is the story of the scientists and engineers behind Perseverance: the rover that could change our view of Mars forever.

Secrets of the Universe (Curiosity) • 2021 • Astronomy

History Documentaries

The Origins of the Celts

In the first episode, we see the origins of the Celts in the Alps of central Europe and relive the moment of first contact with the Romans in a pitched battle just north of Rome - a battle that the Celts won and that left the imperial city devastated.

S1E1 • The Celts: Blood, Iron, and Sacrifice • 2015 • History

The Rise

From a small Italian city-state to Mediterranean superpower, this episode traces Rome’s expansion, the transition from Republic to Empire under Augustus, and the stability and prosperity of the Pax Romana that cemented imperial dominance.

S1E1 • The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire • 2026 • History

Part 4

D-Day is a success, but now the Allies face the challenge of breaking out of the dense hedgerows of Normandy and into open country. They face highly motivated and experienced German soldiers, including Waffen SS units, who make them pay dearly for every yard they advance. The savagery of the fighting also takes a high psychological toll on Allied soldiers – much more so than on German troops who have been subjected to years of indoctrination. But in the end, Allied material superiority takes its toll. General Patton arrives to lead the charge into open country. German soldiers start to surrender in ever greater numbers, and the road to Paris is suddenly open.

S1E4 • D-Day: The Soldiers Story • 2012 • History

Hitler: The Benchmark of Terror

Adolf Hitler murders six million Jews and invades peaceful countries brutally killing anyone in his way. But what terrible forces turns a high school dropout into the most evil dictator the world has ever seen?

2/10 • Evolution of Evil • 2015 • History

The Knights Hospitallers

The Knights of Lazarus were originally founded at a leper hospital around 1098 by the Crusaders of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was established to treat the disease, because the Knights were lepers themselves. Once called "The Hospitallers" The Knights of St John were founded to provide care for the poor, sick or injured pilgrims on their journey to the Holy Land. They evolved into a military order with it's own Papal Charter.

S1E3 • The Crusaders • 2019 • History

Britain at Bay

In June 1940, Britain stood alone against the Nazis. Hitler was convinced that it was only a matter of days before it sued for peace. He had more troops, a better air force and the better weapons. This film shows how close Britain came to defeat, as its exhausted air force struggled to fight all the German Luftwaffe. However, because of critical errors by the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering, Britain was able to regroup. Then using its brilliant team of code crackers and specially trained spies, it began the fightback, working alongside the resistance movements in the occupied territories.

3/13 • World War II In HD Colour • 2009 • History

Lifehack Documentaries

Live to Learn

These 9 life lessons from comedian Tim Minchin will make you laugh -- and learn

2017 • Lifehack

Happiness at Work

Is work oppressive? As illustrated by the recent wave of suicides in major companies, a profound malaise exists. Constant urgency, excessive workloads, lack of training, disarray in corporate organization, management by terror; the 21st Century workplace is continually leaving new victims. Why?

2015 • Lifehack

Why We Love to Blame Our Partners

It’s an odd quirk of relationships that, after a time, we tend to develop the sincere conviction that it is all always our partner’s fault.

The School of Life • 2016 • Lifehack

Mysteries of Sleep

Why do we sleep? And what does sleep have to do with memory, trauma, and our emotions? From fruit flies to whales, virtually every animal sleeps. But why? Why do we need to spend nearly a third of our lives in such a defenseless state? Scientists are peering more deeply into the sleeping brain than ever before, discovering just how powerful sleep can be, playing a role in everything from memory retention and emotional regulation to removing waste from our brains. So why are we getting so little of it?

NOVA PBS • 2020 • Lifehack

The Minimalists: Less is Now

They've built a movement out of minimalism. Longtime friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus share how lives can be better with less.

2021 • Lifehack

A Week Without Lying

Deception is an integral part of human nature and it is estimated we all lie up to nine times a day. But what if we created a world in which we couldn't lie? In a radical experiment, pioneering scientists from across Europe have come together to make this happen. Brand new technology is allowing them to rig three British people to make it impossible for them to lie undetected. Then they will be challenged to live for a whole week without telling a single lie. It is a bold social experiment to discover the role of deception in our lives - to investigate the impact lying has on our mental state and the consequences of it for our relationships, and to ask whether the world would be a better or worse place if we couldn't lie.

Horizon • 2018 • Lifehack

Random! Documentaries

Fly on the Wall

Making Of (Special Fly On The Wall inserts at the end of each programme will explore, in greater detail, how the BBC's Natural History Unit was able to capture such stunning footage for the first time.)

Extra • Life in the Undergrowth • 2005 • Nature

Savage Seas

The world's coastal regions have always been an extreme environment to raise a family, but warming seas are exacerbating the challenges of parenthood. A hurricane hits a flamingo colony while chicks are still on the nest, a sea otter faces a huge winter storm in California, a clownfish on the Great Barrier Reef sees its anemone home bleached, and a little anole lizard clings on during a hurricane.

S1E3 • Force of Nature • 2026 • Nature

Papa Doc: Haiti's President for Life

Francois Duvalier trained as a medical doctor, but his healing touch was lost as he became the ruthless dictator "Papa Doc". The tools of his tyranny were violence and Voodoo. He killed 30,000 people, and kept a nation in fear of his mystical powers.

10/10 • Evolution of Evil • 2015 • History

Climate Wars

From the moment we first drilled for oil, we opened a Pandora's box that changed the world forever. It transformed the way we lived our lives, spawned foreign wars and turned a simple natural resource into the most powerful political weapon the world has ever known. But when exactly did geology turn into such a high-stakes game?

S1E1 • Planet Oil • Economics

Religion

In this Episode discover the secret to the stability and cohesion of Ancient Egypt—religion. When people share a core set of beliefs, they are more likely to identify as one. That was true for the first civilizations and it's just as true today.

Part 2 • First Civilizations • 2018 • History

Cauldron of Life

The journey begins on the Galapagos' west side at the youngest and most volcanically active islands in the archipelago, Isabela and Fernandina, which are home to a richly diverse wildlife scene. Here, Liz and the team journey into the clouds above Wolf, the tallest volcano in the Galapagos, where they join a group of biologists hunting for the elusive pink iguana, which teeters on the edge of extinction. But how and why did it come to live on the top of a volcano? Back on the research vessel, Liz boards Alucia's Triton submersible to descend a kilometre into the ocean abyss in search of a new species hiding in the darkness. Liz also travels to one of the most remote locations in the Galapagos, Alcedo Volcano, in search of the largest population of giant tortoises. Plagued by drought in recent months, scientists are keen to find out how this prehistoric species has fared. Finally, Liz helps out with a groundbreaking science experiment to x-ray marine iguanas that have so far stunned the scientific community with a new mutation. As with all life on these remote islands, the key to survival is adaptation.

S1E1 • Galapagos with Liz Bonnin • 2017 • Nature