1h

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams reveals the hidden corners of the cathedral.

1h

In the 1950s, Britain looked back on its epic war effort in films such as The Dam Busters, The Cruel Sea and The Colditz Story. However, even at the time these productions were criticised for being class-bound and living in the past. Journalist and historian Simon Heffer argues that these films have real cinematic merit and a genuine cultural importance, that they tell us something significant not... Read more

1h

Like many seaside resorts, Blackpool has been through hard times but it remains Britain's number one holiday destination. This film goes behind the scenes with the people working hard to keep Blackpool ahead of the game through one of the wettest summers on record. We follow car park entrepreneur and businessman Howard Plant as he attempts to open a new cabaret venue in time for the summer season... Read more

1h

Historian James Holland presents a fresh analysis of the World War Two battle for the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta. The Battle for Malta is one of the most vicious and violent episodes of the Second World War. The tiny Mediterranean island is smaller than the Isle of Wight, yet between 1940 and 1942 more bombs fell on Malta than fell on Britain during the entire Blitz. As Axis forces thre... Read more

1h

Britain is in the grip of a fertility crisis, with more and more people seeking treatment to help them get that elusive, dream baby. But what is it like to work on the frontline of fertility treatment? Award-winning filmmaker Richard Macer spends three months in the Hewitt Fertility Centre in Liverpool, one of the largest fertility clinics in Britain. He meets gynaecologist Professor Charles Ki... Read more

1h

Documentary about people who fight their parking tickets, following the stories of both the council parking enforcement departments who issue tickets - and the motorists who have decided to fight back against the system. Aside from the stories of the ordinary motorists fighting their individual tickets, the film also follows 'parking campaigners', dedicated amateurs who insist that the councils ar... Read more

1h

Professor Jeremy Black examines one of the most extraordinary periods in British history: the Industrial Revolution. He explains the unique economic, social and political conditions that by the 19th century, led to Britain becoming the richest, most powerful nation on Earth. It was a time that transformed the way people think, work and play forever.

1h

A look back at the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Moore, focusing on his work as an astronomer and broadcaster. His keen interest in the night sky inspired generations. With contributions from Brian May, Sir Tim Rice and Heather Couper.

1h

Stacey Dooley travels to Magaluf, on the Spanish island of Mallorca, to get under the skin of this popular resort. The resort is famous for the drunken antics of the British tourists who go there, but Stacey wants to find out what it's like for the thousands of Spanish workers who serve, police and clear up. What starts out as a regular shift at a bar or cleaning hotel rooms often ends up with St... Read more

1h

Mark Radcliffe presents a countdown of the ten songs which have earned the most money of all time - ten classic songs each with an extraordinary story behind them. Radcliffe lifts the lid on how music royalties work and reveals the biggest winners and losers in the history of popular music

1h

Britain's drug culture is changing - fast. Cocaine and ecstasy are out and mephedrone, ketamine and GHB are in. Shot in Leeds over the biggest party weekend of the year - Halloween and Bonfire Night - this film gets under the skin of the new party drugs. We follow Holly, Tony and Oliver from the dancefloor to the morning after and, with unique access to the first specialist 'club drug clinic' outs... Read more

1h

Winter was not always beautiful. Until Pieter Bruegel painted Hunters in the Snow, the long bitter months had never been transformed into a thing of beauty. This documentary charts how mankind's ever-changing struggle with winter has been reflected in western art throughout the ages, resulting in images that are now amongst the greatest paintings of all time. With contributions from Grayson Perry,... Read more

1h

Five members of the same platoon were killed on the 10th July 2009 in what remains the worst incident for a British foot patrol in the history of the Afghan campaign. Through powerful and touching interviews with some of the young soldiers who survived the attack, this film reveals how their lives are still haunted by the horrors of Helmand.

1h

Dishing the dirt on the battles being fought on plots across the UK. Filmed over seven months, during the planting, growing and harvesting seasons, Allotment Wars shows what happens when strangers are thrust together on the land with too much time on their hands and too many sharp tools. Plotholders often face attacks from outsiders. In Kent, following a series of break-ins, two brave gardeners... Read more

1h

The German invasion of Poland in 1939 marked the beginning of the Second World War and the escalation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. It also was the beginning of one of the war's truly inspiring and remarkable stories. Prisoner A26188 tells the story of a young Polish girl Henia. Born into a middle class Jewish family, she lost her father, brother and sister during the German occupation, ... Read more

1h

Every winter, millions of us come down with colds, flu and stomach problems caused by viruses like Norovirus - the highly contagious vomiting bug which has swept the country this year. It has closed hundreds of hospital wards and infected well over a million people. Flu figures are also higher than last year and are still climbing, plus we have seen high cases of a little known but extremely nasty... Read more

1h

For better or for worse: the vows may be the same, but in our increasingly diverse society, popular wedding traditions are far from what you would expect. Married In Britain provides a portal into the lives of Britain's newest arrivals facing the everyday challenges of establishing a new life in the UK, as they prepare for one of the biggest days of their lives. We are invited to celebrate a... Read more

1h

Jonathan Meades is unleashed on the county of Essex. Contrary to its caricature as a bling-filled land of breast-enhanced footballer's wives and self-made millionaires, Meades argues that this is a county that defies definition - at once the home of picturesque villages, pre-war modernism and 19th-century social experiments. Shaped by its closeness to London, Meades points out that this is wher... Read more

1h

Every year, over a thousand climbers try to reach the summit of Mount Everest, with the annual record for successful attempts currently standing at 633. But of that number, nearly half were Sherpas - the mountain's unsung heroes. Yet the Sherpa community has remained secretive about their nation, culture and experiences living in the shadow of the world's highest mountain. Now, for the first time,... Read more

1h

For one night only, Professor Brian Cox goes unplugged in a specially recorded programme from the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In his own inimitable style, Brian takes an audience of famous faces, scientists and members of the public on a journey through some of the most challenging concepts in physics. With the help of Jonathan Ross, Simon Pegg, Sarah Millican and... Read more

1h

Growing numbers of young British women are converting to Islam. Shanna Bukhari, a 26-year-old Muslim from Manchester, sets out to find out why girls are giving up partying, drinking and wearing whatever they want for a religion some people associate with the oppression of women. This warm documentary follows the highs and lows of five girls as they embrace their new faith. From adapting to a re... Read more

1h

With unprecedented access, this film uncovers the hidden world of public protection. Through the personal stories of probation officers, it explores how offenders are monitored, controlled and rehabilitated in everyday life, and how the public are protected from them. This is the story of our protectors; the extraordinary professionals in the probation service who work with some of society's mo... Read more

1h

Between the mid 1960s and the late 1970s, the long-playing record and the albums that graced its grooves changed popular music for ever. For the first time, musicians could escape the confines of the three-minute pop single and express themselves as never before across the expanded artistic canvas of the album. The LP allowed popular music become an art form - from the glorious artwork adorning ga... Read more

1h

Across Britain police are dealing with a new crime wave, metal theft. The high price of metal has led organised criminal gangs to tear apart Britain's infrastructure, stripping metal from railways, power stations, churches and even war memorials. This documentary shows British Transport Police fighting back and reveals the consequences of metal theft, from the risk of electrocution to thieves, the... Read more

1h

On the 50th anniversary of the famous 12-hour session at Abbey Road which resulted in the Beatles' iconic album Please Please Me, leading artists such as Stereophonics, Graham Coxon, Gabrielle Aplin, Joss Stone, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, Paul Carrack, Mick Hucknall and I Am Kloot attempt to record the same songs, in the same timescale, in the same studio. The results will be cap... Read more

1h

Documentary following the men and women who are passionate about clearing their local streets of litter and dog fouling, as they confront the litterers and roll up their sleeves to clear up other people's mess. 30 million tonnes of litter are dumped on British streets every year. It costs a billion pounds a year to clear up, and hard-pressed councils cannot always cope with the daily tide of dog m... Read more

1h

Forget fingerprints and DNA matching – in London in 1864 the best evidence the police had to work with to track down a killer was a half-crushed beaver hat. In this forensic exhumation of the nation’s ‘first railway murder’, reconstructions flesh out archive accounts to review the conviction of German-born tailor Franz Müller for the murder of 69-year-old banker Thomas Briggs, tracked down by D... Read more

1h

Documentary telling the story of the world's craziest race. In 1977 French motorcyclist Thierry Sabine was in serious trouble, lost in the Libyan desert and dying from thirst. Whilst most men would weep and think back over their lives, Thierry thought about coming back - to do a rally across the Sahara Desert. The 9,000km Paris-Dakar rally was born. The rally became a beacon for eccentric adve... Read more

1h

Documentary telling the story of Britain's first hand transplant, carried out by surgeons at Leeds Infirmary on Boxing Day night 2012, from the moment Professor Simon Kay and his team decided to go ahead to the moment the patient was able to move the transplanted hand. During that time, candidates came forward from all over the UK and beyond - including a hairdresser, an IT consultant, a former... Read more

1h

With Italy going to the polls on 24th and 25th February, Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist and a man with a special passion for Italy and Italians since his teenage years, asks where has Italy gone wrong and examines the good sides about Italy as well as the disasters.

1h

Johnny Kingdom, the wild man of Exmoor, is back and going further than he's ever been before - the trip of a lifetime to Kodiak Island in Alaska in search of brown bears. As a lad, amateur wildlife filmmaker Johnny would poach salmon from the rivers on Exmoor with his bare hands, but his lifelong ambition has been to see how the real experts - brown bears - do it, as they fish for sockeye salmo... Read more

1h

Danny Leigh explores the elemental drama of the boxing movie. For over 120 years, boxing and film have been entwined and the fight film has been used to address powerful themes such as redemption, race and corruption. Film writer Leigh examines how each generation's fight films have reflected their times and asks why filmmakers from Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese have returned time and again t... Read more

1h

As it celebrates its 90th birthday, Barbara Flynn narrates the story of the nation's love affair with the steam locomotive that symbolises all that was great about British engineering, the Flying Scotsman.

1h

Michael Grade goes on the trail of the world's oldest joke as he sets out to discover whether jokes come and go with the passing of time or whether we are still laughing at the same things our ancestors did.

1h

Paris-based writer Andrew Hussey travels through the glorious art and surprising history of an extraordinary French institution to show that the story of the Louvre is the story of France. As well as exploring the masterpieces of painters such as Veronese, Rubens, David, Chardin, Gericault and Delacroix, he examines the changing face of the Louvre itself through its architecture and design. Mediev... Read more

1h

John Adams is the living composer who is most widely performed today. This visually rich portrait of the composer by award-winning film maker Mark Kidel explores the influences that have shaped Adams's unique music, from minimalism to jazz and from the Indian raga to the European classical tradition.

1h

Documentary telling the bruised and battered, but triumphant, tale of one of the UK's most cherished rock 'n' roll bands, Mott the Hoople. Originating from Herefordshire, the band were thrown together in 1969 and signed to Island Records by the increasingly erratic manager/producer Guy Stevens, in a bid to find a band that would combine The Rolling Stones rhythmic power with the melody and lyri... Read more

1h

An intimate insight into the world of the Hutterites, a Christian community who believe living communally and separate from what they call 'the world' is the route to heaven. But living like this is not easy. With exclusive access, the film follows one young man secretly running away from his community.

1h

Police say the death of Reeva Steenkamp was premeditated murder. The accused, her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius, says it was an innocent accident. A documentary team has been in Pretoria, South Africa, digging deeper into a death that shocked the world. Presented by Rick Edwards, who covered Pistorius's gold-medal winning, world record-breaking achievements at the London 2012 Paralympics, the progr... Read more

1h

Ant colonies are one of the wonders of nature - complex, organised and mysterious. This programme reveals the secret, underground world of the ant colony in a way that's never been seen before. At its heart is a massive, full-scale ant nest, specially-designed and built to allow cameras to see its inner workings. The nest is a new home for a million-strong colony of leafcutter ants from Trinidad. ... Read more

1h

Filmmaker David Malone explores the science behind metamorphosis, the ultimate evolutionary magic trick - the transformation of one creature into a totally different being: one life, two bodies.

1h

When the space shuttle Challenger blew up in 1986, it was the most shocking event in the history of American spaceflight. The deaths of seven astronauts, including the first teacher in space Christa McAuliffe, were watched live on television by millions of viewers. But what was more shocking was that the cause of the disaster might never be uncovered. The Challenger is the story of how Richard Fey... Read more

1h

Alastair Sooke takes us on an exclusive personal tour of the Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective at Tate Modern. Together with fans, critics, artists and those who knew Lichtenstein, Alastair leads an entertaining and provocative discussion about the work and legacy of one of the most celebrated and instantly recognisable artists of the 20th century. Renowned for his works based on comic strips and a... Read more

1h

Every autumn a miracle happens. A Monarch butterfly born in Canada will fly 5,000 km to the rainforests of Mexico, across land it has never seen. It is a journey filled with peril. Many never make it, and those that do will never return. It takes three more generations to make the journey back to Canada the following spring. No butterfly has ever made the journey before and none of them will ever ... Read more

1h

n 1908 amateur naturalist Percy Smith stunned cinema goers with his surreal film The Acrobatic Fly. Featuring a bluebottle juggling a series of objects, the film became front page news. Now wildlife cameraman Charlie Hamilton-James attempts to recreate this fascinating film. Along the way, Hamilton-James (helped by Sir David Attenborough who saw Smith's films as a boy) tells the story of Percy'... Read more

1h

How would you feel about eating deep fried locusts, ant egg salad or barbequed tarantulas? This documentary sees presenter and food writer Stefan Gates immerse himself in the extraordinary world of hardcore insect-eating in a bid to conquer his lingering revulsion of bugs and discover if they really could save the planet. With 40 tonnes of insects to every human, perhaps insects could offer a r... Read more

1h

After 53 years Television Centre, the BBC's TV headquarters, is closing its doors and Michael Grade gathers together many of its best-loved faces to stroll down memory lane.

1h

Boris Johnson is the biggest star in British politics. Nobody connects to the public like Boris, some even see him as a future Prime Minister. So what really makes him tick and is he a serious contender for the top job? With unprecedented access to Johnson himself, candid interviews and previously unseen archive, Michael Cockerell unlocks the secrets of the real Boris Johnson.

1h

Insects outnumber us by 200 million to one. They thrive in environments where humans wouldn't last minutes. We mostly perceive them as pests - yet without bugs, entire ecosystems would collapse, crops would disappear and waste would pile high. The secret of their success? Their incredible alien anatomy. To reveal this extraordinary hidden world, entomologists Dr James Logan and Brendan Dunph... Read more

1h

Not since 1976 has a woman raced in Formula 1; Susie Wolff is determined to change that. A documentary filmed by her brother charts highs and lows of her year racing and the life-changing moment when she is tested for the Williams F1 team. Featuring interviews with Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher.

1h

Best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett, diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2007, has one last adventure he wants to go on. Eighteen years ago Terry had a life-changing experience in the jungles of Borneo, where he encountered orangutans in the wild for the first time. Now he is going back to find out what the future holds for these endangered species, and discover a new threat to their habitat that co... Read more

1h

In a one off landmark drama documentary for BBC One, Dr Margaret Mountford presents Pompeii: The Mystery Of The People Frozen In Time. The city of Pompeii uniquely captures the public's imagination; in 79AD a legendary volcanic disaster left its citizens preserved in ashes to this very day. Yet no-one has been able to unravel the full story that is at the heart of our fascination: how did those... Read more

1h

Documentary which tells the story of the first major charity rock concert, the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh organised by former Beatle George Harrison at Madison Square Garden in New York.

1h

Filmed over six months in Britain’s biggest Young Offenders Institution, Prison Dads follows fathers on the inside and their partners on the outside, struggling to keep together their fledgling families. Glen Parva in Leicester houses up to 808 prisoners aged 18-21 years-old. These young men are 5 times more likely to be dads than others their age. From hearing their baby being born on the oth... Read more

1h

Using rare archive and first hand testimony from those who knew him intimately, this film explores the life of Donald Campbell, one of Britain's most compelling but doomed heroes. Despite his triumphs, setting several world speed records on land and water, he remained a haunted man. His father Sir Malcolm Campbell had been a prolific record-breaker but an indifferent parent and all his life Don... Read more

1h

Written and presented by John Eliot Gardiner, one of the world’s leading interpreters of Bach’s music, Bach: A Passionate Life takes us on a physical, musical and intellectual journey in search of Bach the man and the musician. The most famous portrait of Bach shows him aged 62, a rather miserable looking old man in wig and formal coat, yet his greatest works were composed in his late 30s and e... Read more

1h

A celebration of the late, great Richard Briers. From The Good Life to King Lear, Briers' unique talents gave him a versatility and breadth enjoyed by only a few. Friends and colleagues gather to pay tribute to this much loved and multi-talented actor.

1h

When Patton's went bust last November the impact reached far beyond their Ballymena offices. The fallout from their crash left many workers, sub-contractors and small businesses in dire financial straits. This is the story of some of the collateral damage caused by the demise of Northern Ireland's oldest and largest construction firm.

1h

Film about the architect John Portman, capturing his approach in an intimate portrait that, by turn, assesses and appreciates his work, using dramatic time-lapse footage to show off his buildings at their best. Once a maverick who was nearly run out of the American Institute of Architects, Portman is now recognized as one of the most innovative and imitated architects ever. Over 45 years, his icon... Read more

1h

To mark Good Friday, Melvyn Bragg sets out to unravel the many questions surrounding one of the Bible’s most vivid and, to some, controversial figures: Mary Magdalene. In the gospel accounts, Mary Magdalene plays a key role in the Easter story. She is there at the cross when Jesus is crucified and she’s a key witness to the resurrection. So why, despite any reference to it in the Bible, is Mary... Read more

1h

Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill presents a documentary following the scientific investigation that aims to lift the lid on what life was like in the small Roman town of Herculaneum, moments before it was destroyed by a volcanic erruption. Just 10 miles from Pompeii, 12 arched vaults are telling a whole new story about what life was like before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. They contain the s... Read more

1h

From the Staffordshire hills to the Humber estuary, spirited explorer Tom Fort embarks on a 170-mile journey down Britain's third longest river, the Trent. Beginning on foot, he soon transfers to his own custom-built punt, the Trent Otter, and rows many miles downstream. Along the way he encounters the power stations that generate much of the nation's electricity, veterans of the catastrophic floo... Read more

1h

While the Victorians confronted the challenges of ruling an empire, perhaps the most dangerous environment they faced was in their own homes. Householders lapped up the latest products, gadgets and conveniences, but in an era with no health and safety standards they were unwittingly turning their homes into hazardous death traps. In a genuine horror story, Dr Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the kille... Read more

1h

Physicist Dr Helen Czerski takes us on an amazing journey into the science of bubbles. Bubbles may seem to be just fun toys, but they are also powerful tools that push back the boundaries of science. The soap bubble with its delicate, fragile skin tells us about how nature works on scales as large as solar system and as small as a single wavelength of light. Then there are underwater bubbles, w... Read more

1h

Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first and only woman Prime Minister. In her eleven years in office she defeated Argentina in the Falklands War and at home she battled the unions into submission. Under her guidance, the Conservative government brought in privatisation and deregulated the City. In this special programme to mark her passing, family, friends and former colleagues - as well as politica... Read more

1h

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner returns for the first time to Riyadh, the city in Saudi Arabia where he was shot by Al Qaeda in 2004 and left dependent upon a wheelchair. Travelling in this important and mysterious country, he explores how it has so far avoided an Arab Spring revolution.

1h

Robin Day interviews Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street. From 9 April 1984 As the election campaign draws to a close, Sir Robin Day talks to the prime minister, The Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, about her bid for a third term at No 10 and about the pledges made in the Conservative manifesto. What is her vision of Thatcher's Britain?

1h

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher addresses a motion of no confidence in her final speech at the despatch box. From 22 November 1990.

1h

Baroness Thatcher makes her maiden speech to the House of Lords. From 2 July 1992.

1h

This biography reveals Newton as both a hermit and a tyrant, a heretic and an alchemist. Magical images mix with actors and experts to bring alive Britain's greatest scientific genius in his own words.

1h

BBC presenter Martha Kearney, who became a political correspondent when Margaret Thatcher was at the height of her political power, charts the unlikely rise of the grocer's daughter who became Britain's most famous prime minister. She also reflects on Thatcher's bitter downfall at the hands of her colleagues in government, a betrayal she never recovered from.

1h

Paleontologist Professor Richard Fortey embarks on a quest to discover the extraordinary lives of rock pool creatures. To help explore this unusual environment he is joined by some of the UK's leading marine biologists in a dedicated laboratory at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. Here and on the beach in various locations around the UK, startling behaviour is revealed and new insights are... Read more

1h

David Dimbleby introduces live coverage of the funeral service of Baroness Thatcher. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, together with the Thatcher family and representatives from British and world politics, attend the service at St Paul's Cathedral. Sophie Raworth and Mishal Husain report from the route.

1h

John Ware journeys to Israel for a fresh look at how it has responded to the changes sweeping the region in the wake of the Arab Spring. He meets Israelis from all walks of life to go beyond the news clichés and analyse what is next for the world’s only Jewish state as both the religious and the secular battle over its future.

1h

Peter Higgs is the man behind one of the most remarkable scientific ideas of the past fifty years. He proposed the existence of a new particle, which would become known as the Higgs Boson. It took almost fifty years, and the construction of the world's largest machine, to prove his theory correct. Peter Higgs: Particle Man tells his story.

1h

Starting off a kilometre high, travelling at the speed of a jet aircraft, and heading for us. It doesn't make for a good outcome. Hollywood-style graphics and real-life archive brings home an imagined near-future scenario, all based on cutting-edge science.

1h

Historian and author AN Wilson explores the life of Josiah Wedgwood, a self-made, self-educated creative giant famous for his pottery.

1h

A film that looks at the genius of JMW Turner in a new light. There is more to Turner than his sublime landscapes - he also painted machines, science, technology and industry. Turner's life spans the Industrial Revolution, he witnessed it as it unfolded and he painted it. In the process he created a whole new kind of art. The programme examines nine key Turner paintings and shows how we should re-... Read more

1h

Andrew Graham-Dixon goes behind the scenes at the Rijksmuseum as the staff prepare to open the doors following a ten-year renovation, the most significant ever undertaken by a museum. Featuring over 8,000 works of art, Holland's national museum tells the story of 800 years of Dutch history and houses a world-famous collection including masterpieces by artists from Vermeer to Rembrandt. So, as the ... Read more

1h

Documentary following actor and writer Maureen Lipman on a personal journey as she explores through her own recollections how memory works. With the help of family, friends and experts, Maureen traces the development of memory, from cradle to grave.

1h

Documentary based on Charles Moore's official biography looking at Britain's first female Prime Minister, looking at the childhood influences that shaped her and drove her to the unique place she holds in this country and in the history books. Including unprecedented and exclusive access to unseen correspondence and intimate interviews with close family members, including former admirers and a hig... Read more

1h

After her own accident left her unable to walk, Sophie Morgan wants to know why traffic collisions are the single biggest killer of young people - and how that can be stopped. With exclusive access and insight into a number of high profile cases from the moment of the crash through to resolution in the courts, she meets people who, like her, have seen their lives changed forever in a single instan... Read more

1h

Rick Edwards presents a live controversial experiment which is set to challenge peoples prejudices as a chef cooks a banquet made with the core ingredient of horse-meat.

1h

Told by family and friends, with rare unseen archive, this documentary reflects on the career of Dave Allen, relative of poet Katharine Tynan, and a natural performer who cut his teeth at Butlins. He became a TV star in Australia in his twenties, before returning home to dominate the schedules here in Britain with his unique blend of sketches and stories in a career that took in films, plays, docu... Read more

1h

In the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch has been accused of corrupting British media and contaminating politics. Yet the caricature image of him as the 'Dirty Digger', the sinister head of a global media empire, in fact obscures deeper, more significant truths - not least about Britain itself. Rupert Murdoch can be seen as an agent of change, a revolutionary almost, who has bee... Read more

1h

Human bones found on an idyllic beach in Antigua trigger an investigation by naval historian Sam Willis into one of the darkest chapters of Britain's imperial past. As archaeologists excavate a mass grave of British sailors, Willis explores Antigua's ruins and discovers how the sugar islands of the Caribbean were a kind of hell in the age of Nelson. Sun, sea, war, tropical diseases and poisoned... Read more

1h

Author and mafia historian John Dickie uncovers the truth about Italy's most powerful mafia, the 'Ndrangheta', believed to be Europe's biggest cocaine traffickers.

1h

Polish physicist and chemist Marie Curie became a celebrity during her lifetime, attracting media attention for being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. This docu-drama looks at the woman behind the science, revealing a tenacious mother who had to survive the pain of the loss of husband and collaborator Pierre and the public humiliation of a doomed love affair, but who also discovered two eleme... Read more

1h

Superstar opera tenor Rolando Villazón reveals an insider's view on performing music by one of the greatest opera composers, Giuseppe Verdi, who celebrates his bicentenary in 2013. By looking at some of Verdi's most well-known works including the operas Macbeth, Rigoletto, La Traviata, as well as his Requiem, Villazón shares his unique and passionate insight on Verdi's consummate skill - how he co... Read more

1h

The epic, feel-good story of a modern rebellion. The campaign against the tolls on the Skye bridge pitted plucky Scottish islanders against the might of the government and the Bank of America, over the building of a privately funded toll bridge which became the only way on or off the island. This film tells an untold, bittersweet story of passion, legal challenge and financial wrangling through th... Read more

1h

Amanda Vickery and Alastair Sooke oversee proceedings as a group of experts stage a Regency ball at Chawton House, Hampshire, to mark the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Jane Austen's classic novel. The team uses music from the Austen family archives and dances and dishes mentioned in the author's novels and letters to recreate the experience, and Amanda is joined by literary histori... Read more

1h

Queens of Jazz is a celebration of some of the greatest female jazz singers of the 20th century. It takes an unflinching and revealing look at what it actually took to be a jazz diva during a turbulent time in America's social history - a time when battle lines were being constantly drawn around issues of race, gender and popular culture. This is a documentary about how these women triumphed - ... Read more

1h

A profile of American physicist Richard Feynman, featuring interviews with the man himself as well as his friends, colleagues and family. Feynman was part of the team that designed the atomic bomb, helped to solve the mystery of the Challenger space shuttle catastrophe and won a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics, and is seen as one of the most influential and inspiring scientists... Read more

1h

Nile Rodgers has sold over 100 million records. As the co-founder, songwriter, producer and guitarist of Chic he helped define the sound of the '70s, as disco took the world by storm. Nile and musical partner Bernard Edwards captured the essence of New York's iconic Studio 54 creating hits like Dance Dance Dance, Le Freak and Good Times for Chic and We Are Family and Lost In Music for struggling v... Read more

1h

Many of Britain's biggest comedy stars cut their teeth on sketch shows and many of our most loved comedy series began as sketches. Sir David Frost traces the development of the sketch show over the last fifty years - from the variety theatre to peak-time television, from Arthur Haynes to Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies, from Monty Python to Not the Nine o'Clock News and Catherine Tate. ... Read more

1h

Minna Kane and her team of young hackers explore the world of computer programming. They meet the visual effects artists who work on Doctor Who, test out Formula One racing simulators, play football with robots, and meet a man who has sent his miniature computer into space. Back in the classroom, Minna tries out a range of exciting programming activities linked to these real world coding adventure... Read more

1h

To celebrate the bicentenary of Wagner's birth, Sir Antonio Pappano, the charismatic music director of the Royal Opera House, guides us through the epic composition which changed opera and the theatre for ever - the Ring of the Nibelungen. Pappano shares his insights into Wagner's music and the mythical world the composer created, visiting the extraordinary theatre at Bayreuth which was created... Read more

1h

Over fourteen days in March 1988, a sequence of traumatic events shook Northern Ireland to its core and shocked the world. But it was also 14 days that compelled one man, Redemptorist priest Fr Alec Reid, to find a way out of the deadly cycle of violence.

1h

A documentary exploring the cultural impact of Star Trek and chronicling the history of one of the world's most successful television series. There have been four incarnations of the TV series, and seven films; the merchandise franchise is worth an estimated four billion dollars. Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, Nichelle Nichols and other stars reflect on the programme's significance and contemplat... Read more

1h

Children accused of witchcraft. This is not just medieval history, it's happening now... and here in Britain. Kevani Kanda explores the dark and secretive world of faith-based child abuse which, in the last few years, has seen an upsurge in children being abused and even murdered by relatives - all in the name of witchcraft. Journeying from her home in London to her birthplace in the Democratic... Read more

1h

Beneath the Somme battlefield lies one of the great secrets of the First World War, a recently-discovered network of deep tunnels thought to extend over several kilometres. This lost underground battlefield, centred on the small French village of La Boisselle in Picardy, was constructed largely by British troops between 1914 and 1916. Over 120 men died here in ongoing attempts to undermine the nea... Read more

1h

On Friday 19 May, 1536, one of the most infamous periods in Tudor history came to a gruesome conclusion: Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, became the first British queen to be executed. Anne is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British court, but the circumstances of her death remain shrouded in mystery and contradiction. Who was the real Anne Boleyn, and why di... Read more

1h

Thomas Cromwell has gone down in history as one of the most corrupt and manipulative ruffians ever to hold power in England. A chief minister who used his position to smash the Roman Catholic church in England and loot the monasteries for his own gain. A man who used torture to bring about the execution of the woman who had once been his friend and supporter - Anne Boleyn. Diarmaid MacCulloch, ... Read more

1h

Dan Snow presents from RAF Scampton, a tribute to the daring Dambusters raid. On the night of 16th May 1943, nineteen Lancaster Bombers took off on a mission of courage and ingenuity, their plan was to drop the newly invented bouncing bombs on to German dams in order to flood the industrial heart of the Nazi war machine. Seventy years on, veterans and their families gather to remember the raid ... Read more

1h

An intimate portrait of five key years in David Bowie's career. Featuring a wealth of previously unseen archive this film looks at how Bowie continually evolved, from Ziggy Stardust, to the Soul Star of Young Americans, to the 'Thin White Duke'. It explores his regeneration in Berlin with the critically acclaimed album Heroes, his triumph with Scary Monsters and his global success with Let's Dance... Read more

1h

A heartwarming and heartbreaking tale about how Belfast people experience the biggest things in life - birth, marriage and death. Located largely within the majestic surrounds of the register office of Belfast City Hall.

1h

Documentary telling the gripping and shocking story of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld, who survived two world wars to become one of the world's most highly-paid fashion photographers and a key influence on the development of photography as an art form. Yet after a mysterious death in Rome in 1969 his name is little-known today, the reasons for which lie in his unconventional lifestyle. The first ev... Read more

1h

Author Thomas Penn takes an extraordinary journey into the dark and chilling world of the first Tudor, Henry VII. His investigations reveal the ruthless tactics this monarch used.

1h

Documentary looking at the life cycle of the crimson-winged flamingoes that arrive in great numbers on Lake Natron in Tanzania every year. They come to seek the unique sulphurous algae which turn their feathers pink and aid them in finding a mate for breeding. In these seemingly idyllic surroundings, the beautiful birds are threatened by predators from the moment they hatch.

1h

Rick Edwards investigates how three girls could disappear from the same area and be held prisoners in the basement of a house with no-one knowing anything about it for a decade.

1h

Documentary presented by Professor Simon Schaffer which charts the amazing and untold story of automata - extraordinary clockwork machines designed hundreds of years ago to mimic and recreate life.

1h

To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, David Dimbleby tells the story of a ceremony which for centuries had been the preserve of the privileged. But in 1953, after initial resistance, the coronation would, for the first time, be televised and witnessed by millions. Dimbleby, then a teenager, was at the heart of the London festivities; he recalls how a Britain sti... Read more

1h

First-ever TV documentary about the legendary soul singer Otis Redding, following him from childhood and marriage to the Memphis studios and segregated Southern clubs where he honed his unique stage act and voice. Through unseen home movies, the film reveals how Otis's 1967 tour of Britain dramatically changed his life and music. After bringing soul to Europe he returned to conquer America, first ... Read more

1h

Melvyn Bragg explores the dramatic story of William Tyndale and his mission to translate the Bible into English. Melvyn reveals the story of a man whose life and legacy have been hidden from history but whose impact on Christianity in Britain and on the English language endures today. His radical translation of the Bible into English made him a profound threat to the authority of the church and st... Read more

1h

This film explores rape in a way that has never been seen on British television before: from forensic medical to police investigation, court and beyond. Juliet was attacked by a stranger on New Year's Eve, while Kellie had known and trusted her attacker for over a decade. In 2012 St Mary's, the UK's leading sexual assault referral centre, allowed exclusive access, opening its doors to cameras a... Read more

1h

Broadcaster Peter Sissons reveals how a secret command bunker in the heart of Liverpool played a key role in winning The Battle of the Atlantic. He also hears untold stories of heroism and tragedy from veterans of the Battle, as Liverpool commemorates the 70th anniversary.

1h

Her Majesty was given a pony for her fourth birthday and today, aged 87, still rides; and she’s also one of the country’s leading breeders. With her team, who speak here about their work, she’s bred the winners of more than 1,600 races. This film follows a spring season, from the birth of foals (which she names herself) at Sandringham to race day at Newbury.

1h

The inside story of the plan to salvage a rare survival of World War Two from the bottom of the English Channel.

1h

Historian Jerry Brotton explores Northern Ireland's vivid origins, tracing the arrival and impact of Scots and English migrants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, through a unique collection of extraordinary maps. Before this moment, the land was wild and sparsely populated. Afterwards, the land, her peoples, politics and faiths, were completely transformed. Jerry reveals the role of maps... Read more

1h

Bobby Womack's musical career has been an almost unprecedented rollercoaster ride. Starting off on the streets of segregated America, Womack launched himself into what became an epic adventure. In the 1950s as a youngster he was travelling the gospel highway with the Womack Brothers. By the 1960s, he was being mentored by Sam Cooke who schooled him in the ways of R&B, while James Brown also dri... Read more

1h

Iain Banks, one of Scotland's most popular and critically acclaimed authors, died in June 2013. He had revealed in April that he had terminal cancer and subsequently gave a television interview in which he talked in depth to Kirsty Wark about his career, life and facing up to death.

1h

In this documentary the BBC have exclusive access to Agnetha Fältskog, 'The Girl with the Golden Hair' as the song goes, celebrating her extraordinary singing career which began in the mid-60s when she was just 15. Within just two years, she was a singing sensation at the top of the charts in Sweden. Along came husband Björn Ulvaeus and the phenomenal band Abba that engulfed the world in the 70... Read more

1h

Documentary in which Ros Savill, former director and curator at the Wallace Collection, tells the story of some incredible and misunderstood objects - the opulent, intricate, gold-crested and often much-maligned Sevres porcelain of the 18th century. Ros brings us up close to a personal choice of Sevres masterpieces in the Wallace Collection, viewing them in intricate and intimate detail. She en... Read more

1h

Documentary telling the inside story of low-cost airlines - a tale of big characters and big money. Ryanair's Michael O'Leary and EasyJet's Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou opened up new frontiers in the aviation industry as their airlines offered cheap flights to a vast range of popular and alternative destinations. The programme follows O'Leary as he flies to Poland, takes an EasyJet flight to Moscow... Read more

1h

Using the latest satellite images, and the expertise of Britain's leading solar scientists, Kate Humble and Helen Czerski reveal the inner workings of our very own star, and the influence its mysterious cycles of activity have on our planet. They discover why the light reaching us from the Sun can be up to a million years old: they meet the teams who protect us by keeping a round-the-clock vigi... Read more

1h

Stephen Smith explores the extraordinary life and work of the virtuoso jeweller Carl Faberge. He talks to HRH Prince Michael of Kent about Faberge items in the Royal Collection and to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who spent a hundred million dollars acquiring nine exquisite Faberge eggs. The bejewelled trinkets Faberge made for the last tsars of Russia in the twilight of their rule have b... Read more

1h

Comedian Rich Hall goes to the Lone Star state in search of the real Texas and asks what it means to be a Texan. From the Alamo to the oil industry and everything in between, Rich explores the landscape, the people and the true heart of this historic state.

1h

Ludwig II of Bavaria, more commonly known by his nicknames the Swan King or the Dream King, is a legendary figure - the handsome boy-king, loved by his people, betrayed by his cabinet and found dead in tragic and mysterious circumstances. He spent his life in pursuit of the ideal of beauty, an ideal that found expression in three of the most extraordinary, ornate architectural schemes imaginable -... Read more

1h

Schoolgirl Malala Yousafi was just 14 when she was shot for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan. Nel Hedayat travels to the areas where the Taliban are targeting schools to report Malala's story and meet other schoolgirls who have been attacked for wanting an education.

1h

For thousands of years Syria has been one of the most strategically important regions on Earth. Dan Snow visits Roman temples, the centre of the world’s greatest Islamic empire, crusader castles and today’s battlegrounds to piece together the complex history of a country at the heart of the Middle East. To understand what's happening in Syria and this region at the moment, there's only one place t... Read more

1h

We buy a staggering 90% of our food from supermarkets, and they have a huge influence over our lives. Gregg Wallace goes behind the scenes with Britain's biggest food retailers over the course of a year to discover how they source, make and move the food we find on the supermarket shelves. He has exclusive access to the buyers, product developers, food technologists and backroom teams, and gets th... Read more

1h

Twenty years ago there were no Muslims in the Premier League. Now there are nearly forty - enough for three football teams. To mark the start of Ramadan this programme, narrated by Colin Murray, speaks to star players and top managers to find out what impact Muslims are having on the English game.

1h

Alice Walker made history as the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her groundbreaking novel The Color Purple, in 1983. It was transformed into a Hollywood movie nominated for 11 Oscars and more recently to a successful Broadway musical. This film follows this extraordinary woman's journey from her birth in a shack in the cotton fields of Georgia to her recognition as a ke... Read more

1h

Documentary following tennis star Andy Murray, a US Open, Olympic and now Wimbledon champion, revealing just what it takes to be a global sports icon. The programme looks at Murray's life off the court, filled with a comprehensive list of commitments and responsibilities, including fashion shoots and charity and media work. Cameras follow the Scot as he takes an open-top bus ride in his home to... Read more

1h

Documentary chronicling the tragic events that occurred in the North Sea on board the Piper Alpha rig in July 1988, in what was the world's deadliest offshore oil disaster. It was a cataclysm that killed 167 men and left only 61 survivors. Emotional testimonies, archive footage and dramatic reconstructions show how survivors, against all odds, escaped the inferno - including those who were forc... Read more

1h

For centuries the West has been enthralled by flamboyant blue and white ceramics from China, but were unaware that all the time the Chinese were making porcelains for themselves that were completely different - subtle monochromes for the Imperial court, beautiful objects for the scholar's table and delicate domestic wares. Ceramics expert Lars Tharp, Antiques Roadshow resident and presenter of ... Read more

1h

Apart from a few fragmentary stories, Griff Rhys Jones' father never talked about his war. Yet as a medical officer to a West African division he travelled 15000 miles from Wales, to Ghana and the jungles of Burma. He and his men were part of an army of a million raised in Africa and Asia to fight the Japanese. To understand their story Griff travels first to Ghana and then accompanied by 90-year-... Read more

1h

Documentary which journeys into the life and work of an artist widely recognised as one of the pioneers of modernism in Britain. In a life that has spanned horse-drawn transport to the internet, the film chronicles William Turnbull's intimate involvement in the critical developments of modern art. Exploring his experiences in Paris, London and New York where he befriended and worked alongside arti... Read more

1h

Sir David Attenborough recalls key moments from his early broadcasting career and shares the stories behind them. Among the highlights featured are Sir David's first encounter with Elsa the lioness immortalised by the Born Free book, and the logistics behind being the first to film indri lemurs, using a recording of their loud, distinctive calls to entice the animals out of hiding. Having re... Read more

1h

In the first of a two-part series, historian Dan Snow examines how two years of meticulous planning, espionage and the analysis of millions of three-dimensional aerial photographs helped the Allied forces gain a foothold in northern France.

1h

The concluding part of historian Dan Snow's documentary series tells the powerful and heroic stories of those who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy to save the world from Nazi Germany.

1h

Before stepping on stage for his first ever live comedy show about Scottish politics, satirist and impressionist Rory Bremner explores the debate surrounding the approaching vote on Scottish Independence. Rory journeys around Scotland to interview journalists, politicians, commentators and comedians, using their insight to create comedy material to perform to an eager audience at The Assembly Hall... Read more

1h

James Hunt has never been equalled. Could swashbuckling Hunt catch the scientific Lauda? Could Niki overcome an appalling crash to come back from the dead and fight James all the way to the last race of the season? This powerful story captures the heart of the 1970s - told through unseen footage and exclusive interviews with the people who were really there - the team managers, families, journa... Read more

1h

Sophie Raworth and Gareth Malone host highlights of a gala event staged in the gardens of Buckingham Palace to mark the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen's coronation.

1h

Keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman pays tribute to his friend, Deep Purple's Jon Lord, the man who put the rock into the Hammond organ. Lord, who died last year, was always proud of his Leicester roots and went on to become not just a rock star but also a classical composer in his own right.

1h

Stacey Dooley investigates what is going on in her hometown of Luton and finds out why it is known as the extremist capital of Britain. Stacey has spent her whole life in Luton. Media commentators all have their theories about what is happening there, but Stacey is uniquely placed to tell the story through the generation she grew up with - the people who are now shaping one of the most controvers... Read more

1h

In 2013 London Underground is 150 years old. The world's first underground railway is spending its anniversary year celebrating its own history. They're sending a steam train back underground, and there's a Royal visit to prepare for. On the tube, history is everywhere - it's down every tunnel, in every tunnel, in every sign and design, and in the lives of the unsung people who built it and run it... Read more

1h

Uri Geller, the controversial mentalist, paranormal expert and spoon bender, has had a life in front of the cameras, a life surrounded by controversy, a life dotted with amazing psychic demonstrations. But most people didn't know that, away from the bent cutlery and broken watches, he had been leading a second, covert, life as a 'psychic spy', working secretly, and without recognition for nearly t... Read more

1h

8.5 million of us now rent our homes - as fewer of us can afford to buy. This generation has been called generation rent. In this film we meet the new army of private landlords who are riding this rental boom, who own one in every five properties. Some landlords like Jim Haliburton AKA 'The HMO Daddy' have found there is serious money to be made. His property empire stretches across the West... Read more

1h

In the heart of South London, the real life Del Boys are on the make. For these wheelers and dealers, every item, no matter how unlikely, is for sale. When it is time for fresh stock, they head for a very special auction house - Greasby's in Tooting - which holds fortnightly 'Trash or Treasure' auctions. Sifting through lost property, repossessed goods and house clearances, the wheeler dealers ... Read more

1h

Bold, intimate and thought-provoking, this documentary explores what life is really like living with a mental health disorder. Using handheld cameras to film themselves over six months, 25 young people take us with them on a journey as they navigate the rocky road of growing up with mental health issues. Told from their own unique perspective, they show us the everyday challenges of relationshi... Read more

1h

Historian Dr Michael Scott and a team of archaeologists unlock the secrets of a mysterious tomb containing over 2,000 bodies unearthed within the catacombs of Rome.

1h

Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus - better known as Caligula - was said to have made his horse a consul, proclaimed himself a living God and indulged in scandalous orgies. In this documentary, classical scholar Mary Beard attempts to peel away some of the myths surrounding him, sifting through surviving evidence to paint a portrait of the real Caligula.

1h

26-year-old Jonny Benjamin, who has schizoaffective disorder - a combination of schizophrenia and depression - investigates why many young people with mental illness are failing to get the right treatment from the NHS. In this investigation, Jonny travels the country meeting other young people with mental health problems who feel equally angry about their NHS treatment. He raises concerns about... Read more

1h

February 2013, Allahabad, India. Over the next 55 days, nearly a hundred million people will come here, to the Great Kumbh Mela. This incredible and awe-inspiring celebration of the world's oldest religion happens every 12 years at the place where Hindus believe two sacred rivers meet. For many Hindus this is their most important pilgrimage, and it happens at one of the most holy sites in India. H... Read more

1h

Drama-documentary about Winston Churchill's extraordinary experiences during the Great War, with intimate letters to his wife Clementine allowing the story to be told largely in his own words. Just 39 and at the peak of his powers running the Royal Navy, Churchill in 1914 dreamt of Napoleonic glory, but suffered a catastrophic fall into disgrace and humiliation over the Dardanelles disaster. Th... Read more

1h

Documentary examining Germany's economic power and the automobile industry at the heart of it. Across the world, the badges of Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Mercedes inspire immediate awe. Even in Britain, where memories of Second World War run deep, we can't resist the appeal of a German car. By contrast, our own industry is a shadow of its former self. Historian Dominic Sandbrook asks what it ... Read more

1h

Lucy Worsley gets into bed with our past monarchs to uncover the Tales from the Royal Bedchamber. She reveals that our obsession with royal bedrooms, births and succession is nothing new. In fact, the rise and fall of their magnificent beds reflects the changing fortunes of the monarchy itself.

1h

Just what makes Germans so successful? They work fewer hours, yet they are more productive and their economy is the most successful in Europe. Even David Cameron says we should strive to be more like them. In a bid to discover their secret, Justin and Bee Rowlatt head to the manufacturing city of Nuremberg with two of their children. Under the tuition of advertising expert PJ, whose company has... Read more

1h

Leading up to the first anniversary since the Hillsborough Independent Review published its findings, this film describes the impact on the survivors and families of Hillsborough of living under the shadow of a lie for a generation.

1h

A team of scientists from Imperial College London takes on the challenge of designing the crafts which would be needed to get a crew to Mars and safely back to Earth.

1h

Back in 1980, a teenage Steve Cram was part of a team of British athletes who defied their government to go behind the iron curtain and compete in the Olympic Games. Steve Cram returns to the Russian capital to relive the story of the most controversial Olympics of modern times. An Olympics boycotted by the United States because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and blighted by allegations ... Read more

1h

Dan Cruickshank tells the story of how the art collection of Britain's first prime minister was sold to Russia in the 1770s and how it is returning to hang in its original home.

1h

Documentary about dieting by critically acclaimed director Vanessa Engle. Filmed over three months, it follows the diverse members of three different slimming clubs as they try to lose weight. Filmed in a Weight Watchers group, a Slimming World group and a Rosemary Conley group, it explores why we have such a complicated relationship with food and why so many of us struggle to stay in control o... Read more

1h

William Burrell made a fortune out of shipping and spent it on art. Over his long life, he assembled one of the most remarkable private collections of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, ceramics and stained glass in the world and in 1944 he donated it all - over 9,000 objects - to the city of Glasgow. The Burrell Collection finally opened to the public in 1983 but the building that bears his name ... Read more

1h

In November last year the American state of Colorado voted to legalise the recreational use of cannabis. It is the most radical experiment in drugs policy for generations and the world will be looking to see what happens, particularly to drug use amongst teenagers. In this hour long documentary for This World, clinical psychologist and addiction expert Professor John Marsden heads to Denver, the s... Read more

1h

Zoologist and explorer George McGavin goes in search of some of the world's most impressive swarms. By getting right to the heart of these natural spectacles, he finds out why swarms are the ultimate solution to surviving against all odds and discovers how unlocking the secrets to how animals swarm could be crucial to understanding our own increasingly crowded lives.

1h

The story of the how the march for jobs and freedom began, speaking to the people who organized and participated in it. Using rarely seen archive footage the film reveals the background stories surrounding the build up to the march as well as the fierce opposition it faced from the JFK administration, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and widespread claims that it would incite racial violence, chaos and distu... Read more

1h

Engineer Jem Stansfield investigates how the crash test dummy has become an icon for safety. For 65 years he has been crashed, smashed and impaled, evolving from a simple military mannequin into a highly sophisticated measuring tool. Jem meets a whole range of dummies from the past, present and future at crash laboratories in Sweden, the UK and US to discover how their evolution has mirrored car s... Read more

1h

In 2010, 38-year-old Sarah Colwill's life was changed forever. She was rushed to hospital suffering from what she thought was a severe migraine, but when she woke up her local Plymouth accent had disappeared, leaving her sounding Chinese. She was diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome, a rare condition with no clear cause. For the past three years, Sarah has had to deal with other people's puzz... Read more

1h

April 4, 1968, and Martin Luther King is gunned down on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The catalyst that would lead to his assassination began three months before his death, when the city's sanitation workers went on strike. Realising that this might be a seminal moment in the civil rights movement, scholars at the University of Memphis started to collect every piece of media they c... Read more

1h

Gibraltar has been at the centre of a fiercely-contested diplomatic dispute that has stretched over the centuries. In the summer of 2010, director Ana Garcia returned home to Gibraltar to get married. Coming back to this most unique of British territories, she found herself compelled to find out more about the history of her family and her birthplace. As she prepares for her wedding, we are taken ... Read more

1h

When Captain Fred Roberts discovered a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, Belgium in 1916, he decided to publish a satirical magazine called The Wipers Times - "Wipers" being army slang for Ypres. Full of gallows humour, The Wipers Times was poignant, subversive and very funny. Produced literally under enemy fire and defying both authority and gas attacks, the magazine proved a huge success wit... Read more

1h

On the eve of the German federal elections, Andrew Marr examines the life and career of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The broadcaster investigates her childhood and formative years in East Germany to learn what shaped her political vision and style, with Merkel only entering politics in her mid-thirties after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He looks at how her journey has been marked by caution an... Read more

1h

Steve Backshall travels across the world to encounter the most charismatic super giant animals and discovers the remarkable things that their size enables them to do. Highlights include Steve swimming with Nile crocodiles in Botswana, dodging two-tonne elephant seals in California and diving with sperm whales in the Caribbean.

1h

In many of Hollywood's greatest movie musicals the stars did not sing their own songs. This documentary pulls back the curtain to reveal the secret world of the 'ghost singers' who provided the vocals, the screen legends who were dubbed and the classic movies in which the songs were ghosted.

1h

Dr Nayna Patel runs a clinic in rural India that attracts childless couples from all over the world. For a fee, they can pay for local women to act as surrogates, spending their entire pregnancy away from home in dorms with up to 80 other pregnant surrogates living alongside them. There are three babies delivered every month at the clinic, but that's not the end of the story - Westerners can ha... Read more

1h

In 1973, an album was released that against all odds and expectations went to the top of the UK charts. The fact the album launched a record label that became one of the most recognisable brand names in the world (Virgin), formed the soundtrack to one of the biggest movies of the decade (The Exorcist), became the biggest selling instrumental album of all time, would eventually go on to sell over 1... Read more

1h

Mental illness affects us all and often strikes in the late teens and early 20s. In this one hour we’ll use CGI and personal stories to explain the science behind the most common mental illnesses that affect young people - why they develop, what’s going on inside our bodies and what we can do to treat them.

1h

26-year-old Rachel Bruno lives at home with her brother and sister and works as a waitress in a pizza restaurant. But Rachel is also the daughter of Frank Bruno, ex-heavyweight world boxing champion and much-loved national treasure. Since being sectioned for the first time ten years ago, Frank is now one of Britain's most famous sufferers of bipolar affective disorder - an illness that's more c... Read more

1h

Richard Burton's talent, presence and unforgettable voice made him a superstar of stage and screen. The Welsh actor was equally famous for his hellraising, womanising private life and his two marriages to Elizabeth Taylor. Now private diaries he wrote at the height of his fame have been published in their entirety for the first time and present a unique opportunity to reassess the man behind the m... Read more

1h

Since 2002, Ian Tibbetts, a 42-year-old former forklift truck driver from Telford in Shropshire, has been slowly going blind. He has never seen the faces of his twin four-year-old boys. Despite numerous treatments to save his eyesight, nothing has worked - until now. Over several months, this film follows Ian as he undergoes a series of radical operations in a last attempt to restore his sight.... Read more

1h

A one-off documentary following Prince Harry into action during his second tour of Afghanistan. It sees Harry up close as an attack helicopter co-pilot and features revealing interviews. Presented by Richard Bacon.

1h

Love them or hate them, there are 33,000 urban foxes roaming Britain's suburbia. For the residents of the Copse in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire - as for so many other suburbanites - the urban fox provides evenings of enchantment. A cul-de-sac of neighbours compete to offer the tastiest snacks for their bushy-tailed visitors, with one couple even setting up their own CCTV system to provide h... Read more

1h

When Tommy Robinson, then leader of the EDL, met Mo Ansar, the Muslim who campaigned to ban the EDL, on BBC One's The Big Questions, it turned out to be the encounter that changed everything. Ansar challenged Robinson's knowledge of Islam and offered to show him how real British Muslims live and what they actually believe in. Following the pair as each shows the other his view of British Isl... Read more

1h

The British public school is an institution renowned the world over. In 1979, the BBC made a documentary series about life inside Radley College, one of the UK's most privileged and traditional boys' boarding schools. In 2013, BBC director Hannah Berryman caught up with some of the boys who featured in the series to find out how their lives panned out after they left Radley. As boys, they had l... Read more

1h

A Russian girl learns to love her adoptive American family with the help of a psychologist whose program draws on 100 years of scientific discoveries into love.

1h

A spectacular concert film from Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. Filmed at New York's Nassau Coliseum in 1989 using 27 cameras, it sees David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason on fine form, performing classic after classic including Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Time, Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here.

1h

In the week when Hindus celebrate the holy festival of Diwali, this documentary tells the story of one of their faith's most sacred symbols - the swastika. For many, the swastika has become a symbol synonymous with the Nazis and fascism. But this film reveals the fascinating and complex history of an emblem that is, in fact, a religious symbol, with a sacred past. For the almost one billion Hind... Read more

1h

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen returns to a derelict Llanelly House, a UK finalist in the BBC's Restoration series, to follow the twists and turns of a �6 million renovation. Can the project team revive the glory of Wales's finest Georgian townhouse while also creating a profitable high-tech visitor experience fit for the 21st century?

1h

Documentary which explores the controversy around ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis), an intensive intervention used to treat autism. Parents who want ABA for their children passionately believe that it is the best way to teach a child new skills and to help them function in mainstream society, but critics of ABA argue that it is dehumanising and abusive to try to eliminate autistic behaviour. The ... Read more

1h

Poet Simon Armitage dissects what makes a perfect speech by examining famous speeches that provoked radical change, surprised pundits or shocked listeners.

1h

In a once-in-a-lifetime performance, some of the greatest stars ever seen on stage come together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Theatre. The National Theatre first opened its doors in 1963 at the Old Vic, under Laurence Olivier. Now, 800 productions later, a cast of 100 perform live some of the most memorable, ground-breaking, controversial and best-loved scenes from those br... Read more

1h

1968 was a time of soul searching for the band - with three badly performing singles behind them they needed a big new idea to put them back at the top and crucially to hold them together as a band. Inspired by Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, Pete Townshend created the character of Tommy, the 'deaf, dumb and blind boy'. Broke and fragmenting when they started recording, the album went on to se... Read more

1h

They are young, all-American girls who enjoy horse riding, karate and Sherlock Holmes. But there's more to Brynne, Tess and Savannah than wholesome pursuits - they're exorcists. The girls believe much of the world's population is possessed by evil spirits which are causing addiction, depression and suffering. In a fight against the devil's army, they have been touring America performing public ex... Read more

1h

Elvis Costello is one of the uncontested geniuses of the rock world. 33 albums and dozens of hit songs have established him as one of the most versatile and intelligent songwriters and performers of his generation. This film provides a definitive account of one of Britain's greatest living songwriters - the first portrait of its kind - directed by Mark Kidel, who was won numerous awards for his... Read more

1h

Authored documentary by Ilan Ziv which sets out to explore the historical and archaeological evidence for the Exile of the Jews after their defeat in Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman Empire, and its relevance to today. Tracing the story of Exile from the contemporary commentator Josephus, to 1960s Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin, to the modern city of Rome and finally to the ruins of a Pa... Read more

1h

Ed Stourton chairs a discussion which examines the historical and archaeological evidence portrayed in the film Searching for Exile: Truth or Myth? A panel debates what this could mean for Judaism and what impact it could have for other religions.

1h

For one night only, Professor Brian Cox takes an audience of celebrity guests, including Charles Dance and Rufus Hound, and members of the public on a journey into the wonderful universe of the Doctor, from the lecture hall of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Drawing on the latest theories as well as 200 years of scientific discoveries and the genius of Einstein, Brian tries to answer the c... Read more

1h

You don't sell 128 million albums worldwide without putting in the graft and Status Quo are, quite possibly, the hardest working band in Britain. Alan G Parker's documentary Hello Quo, specially re-edited for the BBC, recounts the band's epic story from the beginning - when south London schoolmates Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster formed their first band with big ambitions of rock 'n' roll dominat... Read more

1h

Documentary exploring the dynamic relationship that developed between British composer Benjamin Britten and the BBC as they worked together to broadcast modern classical music further and wider. Through this collaboration, Britten's music reached television audiences, from elaborately staged studio operas, intimate duets featuring his partner Peter Pears, to the massive Proms performance of his Wa... Read more

1h

Documentary about an inseparable mother and daughter otter living on the idyllic west coast of Scotland. With the young cub never more than a few feet from her mum, a very special relationship is intimately observed as the cub grows up, learning how to fish and fend for herself. As the cub faces the dangers of her first Scottish winter, mum has to work hard to make sure that both survive.

1h

With unique access to police archive records Glen Campbell uncovers the real events behind President John F Kennedy's last visit to Britain, to Harold Macmillan in his country home in Sussex, four months before the assassination in Dallas. Containing interviews with former PM Gordon Brown, Macmillan's grandson The Earl of Stockton as well as the US Secret Service man who was also in charge of the ... Read more

1h

Documentary exploring the private life and public legacy of John Denver, America's original country boy. With exclusive accounts from those closest to him, the man behind the music is revealed in an intimate profile in his 70th birthday anniversary year.

1h

CS Lewis's biographer AN Wilson goes in search of the man behind Narnia - bestselling children's author and famous Christian writer, but an under-appreciated Oxford academic and an aspiring poet who never achieved the same success in writing verse as he did prose. Although his public life was spent in the all-male world of Oxford colleges, his private life was marked by secrecy and even his best ... Read more

1h

Documentary following the discovery and investigation of a 4,000-year-old body that was found preserved in an Irish peat bog, one of hundreds of bodies found mummified in the boglands of Northern Europe. To scientists and historians, it could offer brand new clues to solve an ancient mystery. Can the bog bodies of Europe offer to explain our ancestors' most macabre tradition - ritual murder, or mi... Read more

1h

A sharp, witty, mind-expanding and exuberant foray into the world of logic with computer scientist Professor Dave Cliff. Following in the footsteps of the award-winning 'The Joy of Stats' and its sequel, 'Tails You Win - The Science of Chance', this film takes viewers on a new rollercoaster ride through philosophy, maths, science and technology- all of which, under the bonnet, run on logic. Wie... Read more

1h

With a million people set to use payday loans to pay for Christmas this year, Miquita Oliver goes undercover to find out the truth about Britain's most controversial type of borrowing and meets people whose loans have spiralled out of control, sometimes with devastating results. But for every person she talks to who is desperate for cash to survive, there are others just after money for new clothe... Read more

1h

Canadian James Cullingham's documentary celebrates the iconoclastic American guitarist, composer and provocateur John Fahey, 1939-2001. Fahey is often considered the godfather of 'American primitive guitar', a style forged in the 60s from blues and old-time music that draws on the past without mimicking it. Fahey rediscovered forgotten blues legends like Bukka White and Skip James in the early ... Read more

1h

My £9.50 Holiday explores the growing phenomenon of the newspaper voucher holiday, and the British families from all walks of life who are taking advantage of these low cost breaks. The film joins four families/groups who have paid just £9.50 to holiday at home on Park Resorts caravan sites in Skegness and Great Yarmouth. What will they make of their £9.50 holiday? And, in these cash-strapped t... Read more

1h

From Life of Brian to Rev, our country holds a strong tradition of Christian based comedy. To mark Holy Week, Ann Widdecombe looks at some of our favourite comedies to see why Christianity is such ripe material for comedy. Comedians and commentators - including Marcus Brigstocke and Monty Python's Terry Jones - join Ann to help shed light on what comedy can reveal about how we view this country's ... Read more

1h

Documentary telling the larger-than-life story of Lionel Bart, the composer of Oliver! - one of the greatest musicals of the last fifty years. Drawing on his unseen personal archive and interviews with Barbara Windsor, Roy Hudd, Cameron Mackintosh, Marty Wilde and Ray Davies, it paints a vivid, poignant picture of the rise and fall of one of Britain's favourite songwriters.

1h

Stephen Fry tells the story of the man who became the face of British satire at the age of twenty-three and then went on to confront an American president in the Nixon Interviews. Sir David Frost's remarkable life story is told in special interviews with his three sons and with his friends - Sir Michael Caine, Sir Michael Parkinson, Ronnie Corbett, Michael Palin and Barry Cryer. Plus insights from... Read more

1h

How did an obscure Irish melody become one of the greatest songs of all time, recorded by music's biggest names? One hundred years after 'Danny Boy' was first published, the true story of its astonishing past is uncovered, while contributors including Gabriel Byrne, Rosanne Cash, Brian Kennedy and Barry McGuigan explain its enduring appeal and what it has come to symbolise.

1h

Nelson Mandela (1918 - 2013) was a freedom fighter, loved and respected around the world. In his struggle against apartheid, Mandela felt violence was justified. He was considered by the South African government, and many others, to be a terrorist. He was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. During his 27 years in jail, world leaders, pop stars and the public called for his freedom a... Read more

1h

Historian Bettany Hughes explores what made Britain so attractive to the ancient Romans that they made it a province of their great empire. Bettany visits the Roman fort at Vindolanda, the sacred baths at Aquae Sulis and the Corinium Museum, to find out what life was like for the Roman soldiers, women and children who lived in Roman Britain. Looking at stunning artefacts, from a ring inscribed wit... Read more

1h

Documentary in which Michel Roux Jr goes back to his own beginnings to explore the art, science and eternal attraction of the perfect sweet delicacy. Part history, part gastronomy but completely seductive, the film looks at our love affair with pastry and patisserie. From childhood favourites to incredible gravitydefying greats like wedding croquembouche, and reconstructed historic pieces-montées,... Read more

1h

John Nettles explores the late naturalist Gerald Durrell's legacy through the work of a small group of people trying to save endangered orangutans on two contrasting islands, Jersey and Sumatra.

1h

Gregg reveals how the supermarkets gear up for the biggest challenge of their year - Christmas. He sees what it takes to deliver millions of turkeys, finds out about the battle to make sprouts a crowd pleaser, and discovers how the supermarkets make sure we have got enough of our favourite Christmas tipple.

1h

Everyone has heard of Nelson Mandela and every celebrity in the world queues up to be photographed with him, but what exactly did he do to become such an incredible icon? In the build-up to the World Cup in South Africa, actress Lenora Crichlow sets off to discover the amazing story of how Mandela brought peace to his country and what he means to people there today. In a journey packed with emo... Read more

1h

Teya Sepinuck's pioneering Theatre of Witness puts marginalised people at the core of a performance in which they tell their own, sometimes shocking, stories to the public. The film explores her engagement with a cast of women drawn from politically diverse backgrounds and views. It includes Kathleen whose husband was blown up by the IRA in 1990 and Anne, a former member of the IRA, whose uncle wa... Read more

1h

Art critic Alastair Sooke delves into the murky world of art theft. Despite the high stakes - and often daring - involved, many cases are shrouded in mystery and go unnoticed by the media. Around 47,000 works of art are reported missing each year, yet it is only the heists involving the world's most valuable paintings that hit the headlines. But high-profile or not - once gone, the works are ra... Read more

1h

Ten Oscar nominees, five Oscar winners, one dame, seven knights and two friends will change the way you feel about Shakespeare forever. This documentary follows actors Giles Terera and Dan Poole around the world as they try to conquer their fear of Shakespeare. In a clapped-out car, with spiralling debts and a single-minded determination to meet some of the world's biggest stars, their chaotic jou... Read more

1h

Nigel Slater takes us on a nostalgic, funny and heart-warming journey back in time - through the biscuit tins of mum and dad, the doilies and saucers of aunties and grannies, the lunch boxes of friends and siblings. Nigel charts the origins of the humble biscuit, from its vital contribution to Britain's nautical dominance of the globe, through to the biscuit tin becoming that most ubiquitous of ho... Read more

1h

Alex Norton discovers how showbusiness has handled the portrayal of the Scottish accent. For over 100 years audiences have struggled to understand our braw brogue: silent Harry Lauder films attempted an accent in the captions, and in Hollywood's golden era , everyone wanted to paint their tonsils tartan- but as examples from Katharine Hepburn, Orson Welles and Richard Chamberlain show, they couldn... Read more

1h

Brothers-in-law and drinking buddies Alexander Armstrong and Giles Coren choose the booze that will give them their Christmas spirit. From mulled wine and fizz, eggnog and sloe gin to brandy and Boxing Day hangover cures, together these 12 drinks are the festive selection pack that will ensure their family's Christmas is full of good cheer For Alexander Armstrong and Giles Coren Christmas is ab... Read more

1h

Inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale, this remarkable Danish film tells the story of a Christmas tree from a most unusual angle - through the 'voice' of the tree itself. The tree has big ambitions, doing everything it can to grow so tall that it reaches the sky. Featuring extraordinary photography, the film follows the adventures of its life from sapling to maturity, culminating in a tr... Read more

1h

The story of 2013 told through the high-impact images of the year, exploring how photography has changed in the age of smartphones, social media and the selfie. From the helicopter crash in London to the bush fires in Tasmania and the Boston Marathon bombing, this was a year in which the best camera was the one you had in your hand and saw ordinary people taking some of the most striking pictur... Read more

1h

The winter of 2012 was one of the coldest, longest and busiest on record in the Scottish mountains. It was also one of the deadliest, with 14 lives lost as extreme weather and a series of lethal avalanches hit the Highlands. Blending dramatic archive material and footage recorded by people who live, work and play in this environment, this film reveals what really happened on the mountains and show... Read more

1h

Young farmers will compete at just about anything. From the coveted categories of stock judging and tug of war, to the dafter contests of pillow fighting and best decorated toilet - you name it, there's a trophy for it. This year the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs celebrates it's 75th anniversary, and three ambitious young farmers attempt to make their mark in the farming world. ... Read more

1h

On December 10 2013, the Edinburgh-based Peter Higgs receives the Nobel Prize for Physics, 50 years after he predicted the existence of a sub-atomic particle which gives mass to all the matter in the universe. BBC Scotland's Science Correspondent Kenneth Macdonald tells the story of how this modest 84-year-old became a physics superstar, and speaks to those who have awarded the prize.

1h

Mark Gatiss steps into the mind of MR James, the enigmatic English master of the supernatural story. How did this donnish Victorian bachelor, conservative by nature and a devout Anglican, come to create tales that continue to chill readers more than a century on? Mark attempts to uncover the secrets of James's inspiration, taking an atmospheric journey from James's childhood home in Suffolk to ... Read more

1h

Some of the most dramatic video of the year has been brought to us by freelance journalists covering hostile environments around the world. Firing Line pays tribute to an international field of nominees in the 2013 Rory Peck Awards.

1h

It's the sound of the heartland, of the midwest and the industrial cities, born in the early 70s by kids who had grown up in the 60s and were now ready to make their own noise, to come of age in the bars, arenas and stadiums of the US of A. Out of blues and prog and glam and early metal a distinct American rock hybrid started to emerge across the country courtesy of Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railro... Read more

1h

Nic Jones is a legend of British folk music. His 1980 record Penguin Eggs is regarded as a classic. In a poll by the Observer a few years ago, Penguin Eggs was rated number 79 of the 100 Best Records of All Time, just above Station to Station by David Bowie and just below Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones - amazing for an LP that never actually charted. His iconic song Canadee-i-o has even been c... Read more

1h

As Henry VIII's world famous warship, the Mary Rose, is unveiled to the public in a new museum, Robert Hall tells the extraordinary story of the restoration of the ship

1h

Combining European musical influences, perfect production and lyrics of love and loss, ABBA made us fall in love with the sound of Swedish melancholy. This documentary explores the music of ABBA and chronicles how they conquered both Sweden and Britain in the face of constant criticism.