Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz • 2019

26:00

In the 17th century, a long period of civil war in France and war across Europe, rebellious members of the French Parliament, dubbed The Fronde, defy the monarchy and this defiance does not end well for them...and changes the history of France.

S2E4 • Butterfly Effect • 2018 • History

44:00

On the morning of June 6, 1944, thousands of ships reached the French coast of Normandy as part of an Allied operation to take back France from the Germans. For the next 85 days, U.S., British, and Canadian soldiers engaged in conflicts of unimaginable violence, conquering and liberating the region's cities, but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. From the D-Day invasion to the final Nazi surrender in Argentan, this is the definitive story of the three-month Battle of Normandy as it's never been seen before.

2018 • History

136:46

During the seventh episode of NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM, the turbulent and often harrowing years from 1945 to the present are explored. Emerging from the Depression and the Second World War as the most powerful metropolis on Earth, New York soon confronted urban woes of unprecedented proportions, and fought for its very existence. In exploring the social, economic and physical forces that swept through the city in the post-war period, Episode Seven examines the great African-American migration and Puerto Rican immigration of the '40s, '50s, and '60s; the beginnings of white flight and suburbanization; and the massive physical changes wrought by highways and urban renewal -- all of which were directed, to a surprising degree, by one man: Robert Moses. The film comes to a climax with the destruction of Penn Station, the battle over the Lower Manhattan Expressway, the social and fiscal crises of the '60s and '70s, and New York's miraculous revival in the last quarter-century.

S1E7 • New York: A Documentary Film • 1999 • History

58:34

In this episode, Ella Al-Shamahi explores the fate of the Neanderthals - asking why they became extinct, and discovering how they live on inside of us today. The programme starts in the caves of Gibraltar, which may have been the last place the Neanderthals survived. Discoveries here have shown the Neanderthals lived a good life - feasting on seafood and wild game. These were a people who were supremely well adapted to their environment. But about 40,000 years ago they disappeared. Why? One of the reasons might have been that they lost out in a physical showdown with modern humans. Ella investigates one of the world's oldest murder mysteries.

S1E2 • Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors • 2018 • History

135:09

Sian Phillips narrates the history of the Roman Empire through the eyes of Livia Drusilla, examining the reigns of the empress's husband Augustus, as well as Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. Chapter 1: The story begins with the assassination of the Roman republic's most powerful general Julius Caesar, with the chaos and bloody power grabs that follow even taking down Egypt's legendary queen Cleopatra. Augustus and Livia seize their moment and through a ruthless combination of gladiatorial violence, sexual alliances and cold-blooded murder, they hoodwink the world's most powerful democracy into nominating Augustus as a single autocratic leader - the first emperor of Rome. Chapter 2: Tiberius and his notorious successor Caligula dragged the Roman empire into an age of tyranny, incest, and shocking depravity. Tiberius became Rome's second emperor with understandable paranoia and trashed what was left of democracy by making it punishable by death to speak out against him. With no son to name as heir, Tiberius invited his teenage nephew Caligula to join his court, but when the emperor fell ill, Caligula seized his chance to gain power and had him smothered on his sickbed. Chapter 3: Examines the reigns of Claudius and Nero. Claudius surprised everyone by taking Rome to its greatest heights yet, only to be brought down by his third wife Messalina and the seemingly unkillable Agrippina the Younger, the mother of his successor, the psychopathic Nero.

2024 • History

46:53

The story of Henry VIII's fear of Catholic Europe, told via his castles, cannons and spies. The first episode examines the surviving traces of Henry VIII's fear of invasion from Catholic Europe through physical reminders, including mighty castles and cannons, that survive to this day. At her headquarter in Walmer Castle, built in 1540 in Kent to defend the town against a French invasion, Alice gets her hands on a vast hoard of Tudor coins and a 500-year-old jousting scorecard, as she learns how Henry's greed and ambition led him to bankrupt the nation and lay the foundations for the modern secret service. Danielle visits Henry's mighty castle at Deal and witnesses the awesome power of the cannons built to defend England, while Onyeka gets within touching distance of the iconic Mary Rose.

S1E1 • Fortress Britain • 2022 • History