Ruin • 2016 • episode "Part 4" • Barbarians Rising

25:15

A History of Aerobatics Fighter pilots developed the art during the Great War, but it soon became a source of wonderment for the peoples of the world. A select group of these daredevils found new audiences, performing their stunts in the silent feature films and serials that proliferated throughout the 1920s. Startling footage never seen previously of early flying stunts. The history of Aerobatics was developed into an art by the fighter pilots of the Great War who sometimes performed miracles in the air. They flew their rickety aircraft within a few feet of the ground, looped them again and again in dangerous maneuvers and roared earthward in seemingly suicidal dives, pulling out at the very last minute. These were the danger-loving fliers of aviation's early days, widely known as barnstormers. Soon it became a source of wonderment around the world as people risked their lives trying to perform dangerous feats that really tested the Limits of Man's endurance and agility. Startling, never seen before, footage of early flying stunts are included in this programme.

12/20 • The True Action Adventures of the Twentieth Century • 1996 • History

45:02

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

80:19

A unique excavation unravels the complex and creative nature of Neanderthals, shattering preconceptions through the lens of a landmark discovery - the best-preserved Neanderthal skeleton found in over 25 years.

2024 • History

52:49

Based on the book The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies, The Codebreaker reveals the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose painstaking work to decode thousands of messages for the U.S. government would send infamous gangsters to prison in the 1930s and bring down a massive, near-invisible Nazi spy ring in WWII. Her remarkable contributions would come to light decades after her death, when secret government files were unsealed. But together with her husband, the legendary cryptologist William Friedman, Elizebeth helped develop the methods that led to the creation of the powerful new science of cryptology and laid the foundation for modern codebreaking today.?

2021 • History

26:06

Norway's World War II Radio Spies A group of Norwegians, separate from Milorg, the main Resistance movement, sent back intelligence of German activities in their country by radio direct to the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Among their coups was tracking down the German battleship Tirpitz. They were often infiltrated back into their country by the Shetland Bus, a group of Norwegian fishing smacks based in the Shetland Islands. When Hitler invaded Norway in 1940, some fled, most submitted...and a courageous few became Fjord Watchers-spies. Whether roaming a busy Oslo street or foraging in a remote mountain cabin, they radioed a constant stream of intelligence to Allied forces even as German soldiers relentlessly hunted them. Special agents such as Torstein Raaby, whose reports helped sink the infamous German battleship Tirpitz, and author Thor Heyerdahl would pose as merchants, fishermen an laborers while they scrutinized Hitler's every move. They were the eyes, ears and voice of the armies that liberated Norway.

8/20 • The True Action Adventures of the Twentieth Century • 1996 • History

54:11

View the birthplace of civilization: the Middle East, site of the world's first villages, towns and cities, from the hills of Turkey to the plains of Iraq. They were crucibles of invention and innovation-turbo-charging the pace of progress.

3 • First Civilizations • 2018 • History