The Story of China 2016
Michael Wood embarks on a great historical adventure, exploring the stories, people and landscapes that have helped create China's distinctive character and genius over four thousand years.
Michael Wood embarks on a great historical adventure, exploring the stories, people and landscapes that have helped create China's distinctive character and genius over four thousand years.
Following Sir Brian May over a decade-long journey to understand the crisis caused by bovine tuberculosis and his opposition to the controversial badger cull, implemented to curb the spread of the disease in cattle. It’s a story surrounded by controversy, but one little known to many - a tale of tragedy for both humans and animals.
In medical science, there’s been no longer harder fight than against malaria. This is the inside story of a historic new vaccine - from the Oxford lab behind the COVID jab.
Featuring compelling testimony, this is the story of 15 men and women and one life-changing year on the frontline of the most divisive conflict of a generation: the 1984 miners' strike
David Scarboro, who played Mark Fowler in EastEnders (1985), fell to his death at Beachy Head in 1988. Simon, his younger brother, presents this tribute, featuring David's achievements as a young actor as well as his problems.
The great eccentric and raconteur Vivian Stanshall performs music pieces and talks to us about his early years leading up to his time in The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Following Stanshall death, this program was repeated and repackaged as 'Diamond Geezer' with a tribute at the beginning from John Peel.
Experience the classic sci-fi film The Matrix like never before in this spectacular live show brought to life through mind-expanding dance and the latest immersive design.
The Ruins Of Empires is an innovative performance piece by Hip Hop Artist and writer Akala. It is an abridged version of his epic poem of the same name and is a personal interpretation of history as told through the 'knowledge seeker' performed by Akala himself. He follows the course of mans evolution, via astral travel and multiple reincarnations, in an attempt to discover the cause of the rise and fall of Empires. It is driven by a musical score by Mala and Paul Gladstone-Reid and combines innovative animation techniques and emerging technology with some of the most ground breaking creative talents in the industry, under the creative guidance of Andy Serkis and The Imaginarium.
The experiences of two young Jewish boys evacuated from Manchester to Blackpool during the Blitz.
Dara O Briain’s award-winning show filmed at Dublin’s Vicar Street in 2022. Dara deals with missing body parts, a TV show he’ll never do and an astonishing family revelation.
To mark 25 years since Geri, Emma, Victoria and the Mels first exploded onto the world stage, we take a trip into the music archives to uncover the performances that every Spice Girls devotee really, really wants to see again. These are the Fab Five’s finest appearances on a range of BBC shows from over the years and includes all the favourites, from their breakout number one Wannabe through to their final release as a girl band, Headlines. Our playlist also contains a selection of the hits the girls enjoyed when they’d said ‘Goodbye’ and launched themselves as solo stars
Eighty years on, the BBC has been gathering first-hand accounts from the UK's D-Day veterans – some now more than 100 years of age. Rachel Burden traces their stories in Normandy and hears memories of the massive beach invasion and the battles that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe.
With previously unheard interviews with the band and new interviews with those who met them, this is the story of ABBA’s love affair with the UK since their Eurovision triumph.
David Attenborough narrates the intimate story of a leopard mother and her two cubs. This very special family must survive in the wilds of Botswana alongside some less-than-friendly neighbours: lions, wild dogs and hyenas. The competition for food is tough, and if they are going to make it they must learn a new skill - they must learn to fish. This is an epic family drama. With them every step of the way is local cameraman Brad Bestelink. Brad's 18-month journey following the lives of these secretive big cats offers a rare glimpse into an otherwise hidden world
Academic and activist Stuart Hall and actor and activist Maggie Steed present a rigorous deconstruction of the racism - both explicit and more insidious in its subtlety - of the British media from within.
In 1986, six hopefuls awaited their turn on New Faces, the popular TV talent show. Among them were comedians, singers, a teenage violin prodigy, and a Birmingham club crooner. New Faces had launched stars like Victoria Wood, Jim Davidson, and Les Dennis. For these six contestants, it was a night that changed their lives in unexpected ways. Their subsequent 25 years involved tangled love stories, international drama, a business collapse, an appearance in Britain's Got Talent semi-finals, and even prison and homelessness.
Jonathan Scott narrates the extraordinary story of the leopard - the one big cat that still survives across half the world while tigers, cheetahs and lions are all struggling. By following the lives of leopard mothers and their cubs in East Africa the film investigates what it is about the natural history of these cats that makes them born survivors. Perhaps the most extraordinary revelation is that leopards are living undercover on farms and even in cities across Africa and Asia.
Film about a family of lions living in the swamps of the Okavango delta, seen through the eyes of a cub born just before the annual flood
Looking at the marriage of Charles Dickens through the eyes of his wife Catherine, Sue Perkins exposes the lesser-known reality of the Dickens family Christmas.
Philosopher and theologian Conor Cunningham of Nottingham University discusses the history of Christian attitudes to Biblical literalism, arguing that it is legitimate to accept Darwin's theory of evolution and believe in God.