Writing on the Wall • 2017 • episode "4/8" • Origins: The Journey of Humankind

59:01

In the final part of his personal account of Britain's empire, Jeremy Paxman tells the extraordinary story of how a desire for conquest became a mission to improve the rest of mankind, especially in Africa, and how that mission shaded into an unquestioning belief that Britain could - and should - rule the world. In Central Africa, he travels in the footsteps of David Livingstone who, though a failure as a missionary, became a legendary figure - the patron saint of empire who started a flood of missionaries to the so-called 'Dark Continent'. In South Africa, Paxman tells the story of Cecil Rhodes, a man with a different sort of mission, who believed in the white man's right to rule the world, laying down the foundations for apartheid. The journey ends in Kenya, where conflict between white settlers and the African population brought bloodshed, torture and eventual withdrawal.

5/5 • Empire • 2012 • History

58:33

In this episode of Civilisations, Professor Mary Beard explores images of the human body in ancient art, from Mexico and Greece to Egypt and China.

2/10 • Civilisations • 2018 • History

15:11

Why, as a teenager in New Jersey in the 1980s, was Peter Sagal taught the Southern myth of the Civil War? How did Gone with the Wind became a national parable? Why is Robert E. Lee an American hero? Slaves = money = power.

S1E2 • Hi$tory • 2019 • History

43:00

Albert Lin follows the treasure map to a pyramid at the heart of the most famous ancient Mayan city; divers search for an entrance to a flooded cave beneath a Mayan pyramid; archaeologists find a ceremonial royal drinking cup that reveals the tomb of a lost king.

3/4 • Lost Treasures of the Maya • 2019 • History

57:37

He begins by going back 2,000 years to explore how archaeology began by trying to prove a biblical truth - a quest that soon got archaeologists into dangerous water.

1/3 • Archaeology: A Secret History • 2013 • History

45:00

Documentary charting the dictator's rise to power, from his beginnings as a struggling artist in Vienna to his eventual demise in Berlin. The first episode focuses on Hitler's formative years and how, when he returned home from the First World War, his nationalistic diatribes were largely ignored by the public, until the 1929 economic crisis put him and his ideas in the spotlight.

1/2 • The Rise of Hitler • History