Europe's Royals Revealed • 2023

53:31

Nature to Nations explores the rise of great American nations, from dynastic monarchies to participatory democracies. What lies behind these diverse and sophisticated governments? Answers emerge from an archaeologist excavating America’s oldest temple in the Peruvian Andes, a tribe initiating a new chief at a ceremony surrounded by cedar totem poles in the Pacific Northwest, an expert reading ancient hieroglyphs from a sarcophagus to tell a forgotten history of Maya kings, and the return of an ancient shell wampum belt to the birthplace of democracy near Syracuse, New York.

S1E2 • Native America • 2018 • History

51:27

In 1944 America and Britain in the West and Russia in the East began to close their pincer around Germany. But even now, the outcome was in the balance. The film explores the Allied disaster at Arnhem and the tragedy of the Warsaw uprising, when Polish freedom fighters were abandoned to their fate by Stalin. It tells the shocking story of the Liberation of the death camps, when the full extent of the Holocaust became clear for the first time. The film ends with Hitler's last great gamble, as he threw all his last reserves against the oncoming Allied forces in the Ardennes.

10/13 • World War II In HD Colour • 2009 • History

59:04

Alastair Sooke charts the decline and fall of the Roman Empire through some of its hidden and most magical artistic treasures. He travels to Leptis Magna in Libya, shortly after the overthrow of Gaddafi, and finds one of the best preserved Roman cities in the world and the cradle of later Roman art. Sooke discovers glorious mosaics which have never been filmed before but also finds evidence of shocking neglect of Libya's Roman heritage by the Gaddafi regime. His artistic tour takes him to Egypt and the northern frontiers of the empire where he encounters stunning mummy paintings and exquisite silver and glassware. As Rome careered from one crisis to another, official art became more hard boiled and militaristic and an obscure cult called Christianity rose up to seize the mantle of Western art for centuries to come.

S1E3 • Treasures of Ancient Rome • 2012 • History

59:25

Simon explores modern Istanbul in search of the last desperate centuries of Christian Byzantium, in which the once glorious city was buffeted by enemies in both East and West, and yet still produced a golden artistic renaissance. This is story of the Christian crusaders who destroyed the city, and the Ottoman Muslims who restored it to life as an imperial capital after the epic siege of 1453.

Part 2 • Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities • 2013 • History

59:10

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

44:11

February 24, 1956. During the Soviet Communist Party's twentieth Congress, Khrushchev stuns everyone by denouncing Stalin's crimes. Without denying the ideology, the USSR's new leader seeks to distance himself from his predecessor and open up to the outside world. "Mister K" is full of surprises. He drinks Pepsi with Nixon and insists on spending a day at Disneyland when he visits America... But behind this clown-like character, the "executioner of the Ukraine" hasn't gone soft. In 1956, he didn't hesitate to crush the uprising in Budapest in bloodshed. Now, he is preparing a co-existence with newly elected President Kennedy that will not be all peaceful: construction of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, and not forgetting the aid to Ho Chi Minh in the preparation of his new war for reunification... The Vietnam War is beginning. Kennedy tries to retaliate: in Vietnam, he sends military advisers to train the army of the south. And in Berlin, on June 26, 1963, he gave the famous speech of hope, declaring in front of an excited crowd: "Ich bin ein Berliner".

S1E5 • Apocalypse: War of Worlds 1945-1991 • 2019 • History