Latest • 36 videos
We often assume that advanced technology will make it easy for aliens to colonize space. But what if space exploration is always difficult, no matter how advanced you are? Let’s travel back in human history, to the colonization of Oceania over 5000 years ago, to find parallels between ancient explorers and extraterrestrial civilizations.
In a Nutshell • 2024 • Astronomy
The mid-10th-century reign of Harald Bluetooth as king of a newly unified, powerful and Christianized Denmark marked the beginning of a second Viking age. But the reign was not to last with the Normans finally winning the English Kingdom in 1066. We look at the final days of the Viking empire.
S1E6 • Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History
Political turmoil in Norway leads a voyage of discovery west. The Vikings discover Iceland where they established lasting settlement. Further exploration from Iceland leads to the discovery of Greenland and to the shores of Newfoundland, making them the first Europeans to discover America.
S1E5 • Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History
The siege of Paris in 885 was the culmination of the Viking invasions of Francia. We look at the persistent Viking attacks on Francia and the enduring presence of the Scandinavians on the Frankish Empire and beyond.
Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History
The "Silk Road" opened up a world of trade for the Scandinavians in the East. Seeking further wealth, the Vikings known in the East as "the Rus" attacked Constantinople in 860. The Rus became a permanent and feared fixture in the Byzantine Empire.
S1E3 • Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History
The Siege of York occurred from 866 when the Great Heathen Army laid claim to the Northumbrian capital of York. We look at the major battles, players and strongholds of the York battle and how the Vikings later came to control much of the 9th Century England.
S1E2 • Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History
An attack on a small religious community on the holy island of Lindisfarne in AD 793 heralded the start of the Viking Age of conquest and expansion. For 200 years, the longships from Scandinavia threatened all of Europe. But it was far from their first attack. We reveal how the Vikings' reign of terror began in Scandinavia.
S1E1 • Vikings: The Rise and Fall • 2022 • History
Follows a Ukrainian battalion on the frontline of the war against Russia, filmed by the soldiers themselves as they try to defend a vital railway line, the capture of which would enable Russia to mount a direct attack on Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv. The film examines the lives of the 99-strong military company as they face sustained Russian assaults, presenting a ground-level view of the war through the eyes of the troops fighting it.
2024 • History
The story of how the life-saving cervical cancer test became an ordinary part of women's lives is as unusual and remarkable as the coalition of people who ultimately made it possible: a Greek immigrant, Dr. George Papanicolaou; his intrepid wife, Mary; Japanese-born artist Hashime Murayama; Dr. Helen Dickens, an African American OBGYN in Philadelphia; and an entirely new class of female scientists known as cyto-screeners. But the test was just the beginning. Once the test proved effective, the campaign to make pap smears available to millions of women required nothing short of a total national mobilization. The Cancer Detectives tells the untold story of the first-ever war on cancer and the people who fought tirelessly to save women from what was once the number one cancer killer of women.
2024 • Health
The search for Pablo Escobar as told by US Drug Enforcement Administration agents, with never-before-seen footage of Escobar's life and capture.
2018 • People
In 1960, a young secretary from Bournemouth, with no scientific qualifications, entered a remote forest in Africa and achieved something nobody else had ever done before. Jane Goodall became accepted by a group of wild chimpanzees, making discoveries that transformed our understanding of them, and challenged the way we define ourselves as human beings by showing just how close we are as a species to our nearest living relatives. Since then, both she and the chimps of Gombe in Tanzania have become world famous - Jane as the beauty of many wildlife films, they as the beasts with something profound to tell us. As one of the programme's contributors, David Attenborough, suggests, Jane Goodall's story could be a fable if it wasn't true. In this revealing programme filmed with Jane Goodall in Africa, we discover the person behind the myth, what motivates her and the personal cost her life's work has exacted from her - and why she still thinks we have a lot to learn from the chimps she has devoted her life to understanding.
2010 • Nature
This is a story about the greatest risks to humanity, and what we can do about it. We are living in a time when human-made risks pose the biggest threat to our existence. Technological progress has brought us to a precipice. For the first time ever, we have the capacity to destroy ourselves. Edge of Existence lays out how we can pull ourselves back from this precipice in order achieve a vast and extraordinary future.
2022 • Environment
Russia invades Georgia and Ukraine, putting Putin under intense scrutiny. While disinformation thrives, threats of nuclear war persist.
S1E9 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History
Russia struggles to find a national identity as Vladimir Putin comes to power. With the Cold War in the rearview, a war on terror begins.
S1E8 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History
A new Russian leader emerges, and the republics seek independence. As the Soviet Union dissolves, several powers sign a landmark treaty on nuclear arms.
S1E7 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History
The USSR's grasp on Eastern Europe weakens as the Berlin Wall comes down and the Communist Party mounts a coup against a prominent Soviet Union leader.
S1E6 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History
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 US and Soviet Union get caught in a nuclear arms race. A wall divides Berlin. John F. Kennedy looks for a peaceful solution after a crisis in Cuba.
S1E4 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History
Preparing for war against the Soviet Union, the US starts to test thermonuclear weapons. The CIA forms and interferes with global politics.
S1E3 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History
As communism takes off in Russia and China, Joseph Stalin begins his ruthless reign and the Soviet Union enters an era of terror.
S1E2 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History
During World War Il, the US begins to work on a top-secret project that results in the atomic bombings on Japan - and a global conflict lasting decades.
S1E1 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History
An AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city as Russian forces close in, they capture what become some of the most defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more.
2023 • History
How and why what we eat is the cause of the chronic diseases that are killing us, and changing what we eat can save our lives one bite at a time.
2018 • Health
2003 - millions watch live as Columbia breaks up in the sky over Texas, killing all on board. NASA, loved ones and investigators share how an incredible journey ended in tragedy. Chapter 1: As Nasa prepares Space Shuttle Columbia for its 28th mission, excitement and trepidation build amongst the astronauts and their families as they count down to launch. This programme hears from the seven astronauts - a mixture of veterans and rookies - and their families as they train for an awe-inspiring journey of a lifetime. Chapter 2: Nasa engineers analyse film footage of a piece of debris striking the shuttle Columbia 81 seconds after launch. What no-one yet knows is whether any serious damage has been done to the vehicle or the tiles which protect the vehicle against the intense heat of re-entry. But calls for photographs to be taken of the shuttle using satellites go unheeded. Meanwhile, in space, the crew continue their mission, unaware of any concerns inside Nasa. Chapter 3: Sixteen minutes from landing, mission control lose contact with the crew of Columbia. On the shuttle landing strip, families waiting to welcome their loved ones back home are swiftly ushered away. In the skies over Texas, locals hear a loud explosion, and debris strikes the ground in multiple locations. The fears of some Nasa engineers are coming true: Columbia is lost and there are no survivors. Following the disaster, Nasa comes under increasing pressure from the media to provide answers.
2024 • Astronomy
Poverty, women's rights, climate change - indeed, many of the world's most pressing challenges - can be explained by answering one simple question: Can you turn your lights on in the morning?
2019 • Science
Not many can intimidate North America's top predator, Tyrannosaurus rex, whose size and bite are a deadly combo, except for a giant winged foe.
S2E5 • Prehistoric Planet • 2023 • Nature
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
In a drought-stricken basin where much has perished, an old Pachycephalosaurus bull defends his leadership against a young challenger.
S2E3 • Prehistoric Planet • 2023 • Nature
Trudging through a scorching desert, two young Tarchia find relief at an oasis and encounter an adult twice their size, ready to lay claim.
S2E2 • Prehistoric Planet • 2023 • Nature
On a small island, a monumental display takes place as the giant Hatzegopteryx reveals his gentler side to woo a mate
S2E1 • Prehistoric Planet • 2023 • Nature
Explores state surveillance and digital social control in China by following the experiences of two families and a journalist. Zijuan Chen is fighting for the release of her imprisoned husband, human rights lawyer Weiping Chang, while trying to keep his memory alive for their son. Wenzu Li and her newly freed husband, Quanzhang Wang, struggle against surveillance that is not only stopping him from being able to work but also affecting ordinary tasks like taking their son to school. Journalist Sophie Xueqin Huang, a pivotal figure in bringing the Me Too movement to China, is at constant risk of arrest. Chinese film-maker Jialing Zhang gives an exclusive and previously impossible intimate insight into the interior of China and tells a deeply disturbing story of how the state uses technology to control its citizens as well as propaganda to convince its people to trust it.
2024 • Technology
In a little under three months, residents of what was a thriving city witnessed the deaths of women and children in a maternity hospital and bodies left abandoned on the streets of Mariupol. Filmed and told by many of the citizens of Mariupol, this powerful documentary records the deaths of thousands and daring escapes, and is the story of their loss, bravery and determination.
2022 • History
Jan Leeming narrates a look at controversies, scandals and surprises in TV, film, music and politics from 1990, when Mark Fowler rocked Walford with a dramatic return to EastEnders and a sitcom about Adolf Hitler was pulled off air after just one episode. The Poll Tax riots caused chaos on the streets of London and it was the end of the road for Britain's longest serving prime minister when Margaret Thatcher resigned. Heavy metal band Judas Priest were accused of hiding subliminal messages in their songs, and pop duo Milli Vanilli's career came to a dramatic end when it was revealed they were nothing more than a mime act.
S1E5 • Controversially: That Was the Year that Was • 2023 • Economics
Jan Leeming narrates a look at controversies, scandals and surprises in TV, film, music and politics in 1988, including Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses igniting a literary and religious firestorm and Ian Paisley daring to heckle the Pope. On the global stage, US president Ronald Reagan and USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev reshaped geopolitics, while a soundbite from Tory MP Edwina Currie dented the UK's confidence in eggs, leading to a nationwide salmonella scare.
S1E4 • Controversially: That Was the Year that Was • 2023 • Economics
Controversies, scandals and surprises from the year, with Grange Hill tackling the issue of heroin addiction and EastEnders introducing a gay couple to Albert Square. Screenwriter Dennis Potter's drama The Singing Detective won over the critics, but its sex scenes and nudity upset moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse, while cricketer Ian Botham caused a storm after confessing that he'd smoked marijuana. Narrated by Jan Leeming, with contributions from Mark Little, Nick Ferrari, Cheryl Baker, Nick Hewer, Danny John-Jules and Nina Wadia.
S1E3 • Controversially: That Was the Year that Was • 2023 • Economics
A look back at key events in TV, film, showbusiness and politics in 1984, a year when Spitting Image and The Young Ones revolutionised comedy and enraged the old guard. Conservative crusaders became hysterical over the horror of video nasties, and an attempt to silence pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood backfired spectacularly. In politics, Margaret Thatcher faced a fierce year-long battle with striking coal miners and the Conservative Party was hit by a deadly terrorist attack in Brighton. Narrated by Jan Leeming and featuring contributions from John Thomson, Cheryl Baker, Steve Nallon, Edwina Currie, Matthew Parris and Martin Bell.
S1E2 • Controversially: That Was the Year that Was • 2023 • Economics