The Joy of Data

The Joy of Data 2016

6.50

A witty and mind-expanding exploration of data, with mathematician Dr Hannah Fry. This high-tech romp reveals what data is and how it is captured, stored, shared and made sense of. Fry tells the story of the engineers of the data age, people most of us have never heard of despite the fact they brought about a technological and philosophical revolution.

2016

The Real Spies Among Friends

The Real Spies Among Friends 2022

1

Documentary telling the real story of the Cambridge Spies - subject of the drama series A Spy Among Friends.

2022

Who Should We Let In? Ian Hislop on the First Great Immigration Row

Who Should We Let In? Ian Hislop on the First Great Immigration Row 2017

1

As Brexit Britain prepares to draw up new rules on who is welcome here, Ian Hislop takes an entertaining and provocative look at the decades from the Victorian era to the First World War, when modern Britain introduced its first peacetime restrictions on immigration.

2017

Bridge to the Other Side

Bridge to the Other Side 2022

1

In a post-pandemic world, a grieving young widow struggling with her own self-destruction, fights to save people as part of a crisis response team. Embedded with the fire department, she is battling the men who don't want her there, the clients who fight her tooth and nail, and her own wounded psyche. She wants to save the world, if the job doesn't kill her first

2022

Ian Hislop: When Bankers Were Good

Ian Hislop: When Bankers Were Good 2011

1

Ian Hislop presents this film about the colourful, seriously wealthy Victorian financiers whose spectacular philanthropy shows that banking wasn't always associated with greed or self-serving financial recklessness. Ian looks at attitudes to money and morality when the London first became the world's financial centre.

2011

The Battle to Beat Malaria

The Battle to Beat Malaria 2024

1

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.

2024

The Joy of Logic

The Joy of Logic 2013

7.00

A sharp, witty, mind-expanding and exuberant foray into the world of logic with Computer Scientist Dave Cliff. Following in the footsteps of the award-winning The Joy of Stats and its sequel, Tails You Win - The Science of Chance, The Joy of Logic takes viewers on a new Wingspan roller-coaster ride through philosophy, maths, science and technology all of which, under the bonnet, run on logic. Wielding the same wit and wisdom, animation and gleeful nerdery as its predecessors, this film journeys from Aristotle to Alice in Wonderland, Sci-Fi to Supercomputers to tell the fascinating story of the quest for certainty and the fundamentals of sound reasoning itself.

2013

The Real Tom Thumb: History's Smallest Superstar

The Real Tom Thumb: History's Smallest Superstar 2014

6.00

Michael Grade reveals the story of General Tom Thumb, the world's first global show business celebrity who went from humble beginnings in America to international superstardom.

2014

The Joy of AI

The Joy of AI 2018

7.00

Professor Jim Al-Khalili looks at how we have created machines that can simulate, augment, and even outperform the human mind - and why we shouldn't let this spook us. He reveals the story of the pursuit of AI, the emergence of machine learning and the recent breakthroughs brought about by artificial neural networks. He shows how AI is not only changing our world but also challenging our very ideas of intelligence and consciousness. Along the way, we'll investigate spam filters, meet a cutting-edge chatbot, look at why a few altered pixels makes a computer think it's looking at a trombone rather than a dog and talk to Demis Hassabis, who heads DeepMind and whose stated mission is to 'solve intelligence, and then use that to solve everything else'. Stephen Hawking remarked 'AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation. Or the worst'. Jim argues that AI is a potent new tool that should enhance our lives, not replace us.

2018

The Penguin Who Couldn’t Swim

The Penguin Who Couldn’t Swim 2018

1

An animation about a disabled penguin who lives on a rocky island in the southern seas where she feels isolated from the rest of her colony. She is inventive, resourceful and tough but frustrated about what she cannot do.

2018

Outside the Box

Outside the Box 2018

1

Tody is a lonely bird slaving his life away in a packaging factory. He dreams of a better life in the sunshine with someone there who actually cares if he’s tired or overworked. When a box arrives at his station, destined for sunnier lands, Tody decides to make a break for it in order to find his paradise. The factory, however, has other plans.

2018

The Joy of Winning

The Joy of Winning 2018

7.80

How to have a happier life and a better world all thanks to maths, in this witty, mind-expanding guide to the science of success with Hannah Fry. Following in the footsteps of BBC Four's award-winning maths films The Joy of Stats and The Joy of Data, this latest gleefully nerdy adventure sees mathematician Dr Hannah Fry unlock the essential strategies you'll need to get what you want - to win - more of the time. From how to bag a bargain dinner to how best to stop the kids arguing on a long car journey, maths can give you a winning strategy. And the same rules apply to the world's biggest problems - whether it's avoiding nuclear annihilation or tackling climate change.

2018

That Yorkshire Sound

That Yorkshire Sound 2017

8.00

An audio-driven animated documentary covering a day of life in Yorkshire.

2017

The Pendle Witch Child

The Pendle Witch Child 2011

8.00

The extraordinary story of the most disturbing witch trial in British history and the key role played in it by one nine-year-old girl. Jennet Device, a beggar-girl from Pendle in Lancashire, was the star witness in the trial in 1612 of her own mother, her brother, her sister and many of her neighbours and, thanks to her chilling testimony, they were all hanged.

2011

Frank's Joke

Frank's Joke 2018

6.00

Frank told a bad joke at his new place of work. Nobody laughed. Now at 3am in the morning he is unable to sleep as he obsesses and ruminates over this social faux-pas, leading him to ponder on the nature of memory itself.

2018

The Three Crow Boys

The Three Crow Boys 2018

1

This animation takes place in a ravaged London street in the midst of war. Between mounds of rubble and bomb craters stands the house of a lonely old blind man. Late one night he receives three unexpected visitors.

2018

Quentin Blake – The Drawing of My Life

Quentin Blake – The Drawing of My Life 2021

10.00

The illustrator and author paints scenes from a 70-year-long career, including his work with Roald Dahl. With David Walliams, Joanna Lumley, Peter Capaldi, Ore Oduba and Michael Rosen.

2021

Quarantine

Quarantine 2018

9.00

In an English coastal border town, a small band of badgers live in the shadow of an animal quarantine facility. As they struggle to keep their folk traditions alive, they try to ignore the strange sounds coming from the compound. But when tragedy strikes, they are forced to seek help from the unlikeliest place.

2018

The Joy of Stats

The Joy of Stats 2010

6.30

Professor Hans Rosling shares his excitement with statistics, and shows how researchers are handling the modern data deluge.

2010

O, Hunter Heart

O, Hunter Heart 2018

1

Inspired by the poetry of Edwin Morgan where natural and domestic worlds collide and the hidden animal instincts of humans rise to the surface, this poetic visual narrative features voices from interviews recorded around the UK, woven into an evocative soundtrack. Stop motion puppets and live action footage combine to tell a dark love story.

2018