BBC Worldwide Ltd.
41) Curious Feeders
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English
Description
The blue whale and the flamingo both have strange bodies determined by their diet. Blue whales grow enormous by feeding on tiny shrimplike creatures, while flamingos spend their lives eating with their heads upside down. Both are oddities in their own groups and yet both are curiously similar.
42) What We Eat
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English
Description
We like to think of ourselves as having a healthy diet, eating more fruit and knowing more about which foods are good or bad for us. But what's the truth-are we eating well or not? In this informative film, Professor Alice Roberts discovers the real story behind our modern-day eating habits. From the teabags that contain hefty doses of potentially dangerous fluoride, to the much-maligned hard cheese that could actually help you lose weight, this timely...
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English
Description
This program is a look through the eyes of migrant families at Chicago's turbulent events in the late 1960s and early 1970s. President Johnson's Great Society plan was supposed to alleviate black poverty. But the plan had only boosted the growth of black ghettos. Black citizens cried out against paternalistic city politics and racially exclusionary laws.
44) The Nile
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English
Description
Adventurer Simon Reeve travels from source to sea along the world's longest river, the Nile. His journey will take him from the holy source of the Blue Nile in the Ethiopian highlands, through the desert of Sudan and onwards through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. The life-giving river has forged some of our earliest civilisations and influenced some of our greatest religions. But with populations along its banks rising fast, Nile countries are demanding...
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English
Description
Simon Reeve travels from the Peloponnese peninsula to the rugged and mountainous north of the country. To learn more about Greece and the Greeks, he meets an extraordinary cast of characters, from a group of rebel monks to conservationists caring for an injured bear cub. Getting behind the picture postcard image of this beautiful country, he finds out how the Greeks are coming to terms with a seemingly endless crisis.
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English
Description
Christianity in the North re-awakens, and one by one the Moslem states fall. Attempts are made by pious Islamic sects from North Africa to win back Spain. By the mid-15th century only the city-state of Granada remains, which is besieged by the warrior Catholic King and Queen - Ferdinand and Isabella. Granada falls in 1492, and 700 years of Muslim rule comes to an end. The Jews are expelled and the inquisition is launched. Simon Sebag Montefiore finds...
47) Extreme Weather
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English
Description
Weather is uncontrollable. Over time we have learned to live with storms, heat waves, droughts, and prolonged periods of extreme cold. As this documentary explains, they are all examples of extreme or unusual weather-nature at its deadliest and most destructive. In March 1993, the US Eastern Seaboard was hit with a massive snow storm that became known as the Storm of the Century. Two years later, Chicago was caught up in a five-day nightmare of heat...
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English
Description
When vast amounts of rock, earth and mud pour downhill, landslides destroy whole towns and villages. In 1968, 20,000 people lost their lives in Peru as the side of a mountain broke free; and in 1985, a massive mudslide triggered by a volcano in Columbia claimed at least 23,000 victims. More than 30,000 people were killed when a strip of Venezuelan coastline was devastated by a 50-foot-high tide of mud and rock. Landslides are less frequent in Europe,...
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English
Description
When smooth-talking Nick arrives in a flashy red sports car, young wannabe pop star Alison thinks her dreams have come true. Nick claims to be a talent scout and declares that Alison has got what it takes to get to the top. After winning over her suspicious husband, John, who runs the pub where Alison is the undisputed karaoke queen, Nick moves in. But his real intentions are not what they seem and his main concern appears to be getting Alison into...
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English
Description
Professor Robert Bartlett explores how the Normans developed from a band of marauding Vikings into the formidable warriors who conquered England in 1066. He tells how the Normans established their new province of Normandy, "land of the Northmen," in northern France. They went on to build some of the finest churches in Europe and turned into an unstoppable force of Christian knights and warriors, whose legacy is all around us to this day. Under the...
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English
Description
The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima heralded the dawn of a new era. Its detonation not only killed over 100,000 people but also signified both the final chapter of World War Two and the beginning of the nuclear age. Armed conflict, international politics and the security of all mankind would never be the same again. Through a detailed retelling of the events before, during and after the dropping of the bomb, this film unravels the compelling story...
52) Metropolis
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English
Description
This series explores insect behavior and society. The fifth episode investigates the complex and ingenious structures devised, built and maintained by social insects.
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English
Description
In the tyrannical court of Athens, the pitiless dictator Theseus plans his wedding to Hippolyta, a prisoner of war, and young Hermia is sentenced to death by her own father. Beyond Athens, in the wild wood, dark forces are stirring ... The battle between the Queen and King of the Fairy Lands is shaking their magical kingdom to its roots. Titania and Oberon rule over warring armies; these are elemental fairies, made of the forest and the night.
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English
Description
This incredibly moving film sees BAFTA-award winning filmmaker Roger Graef travel to Australia to reconnect with Brett Nielsen who, 50 years ago, was the subject of Roger's first ever documentary, One of them is Brett. This original documentary told the story of a then four year old Brett who had been born without arms due to Thalidomide. It proved to be a landmark in broadcasting on the subject of disability, was shown around the world and went on...
55) The Long Shadow
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English
Description
Is Ancient Greek art just a collection of elegant works of marble, framed by a love of democracy and enlightened reasoning? Far from it. Art critic and journalist Alastair Sooke demonstrates it is in fact far more diverse and surprising - a multi-cultural mix of styles, techniques and materials that left no subject matter unexplored. Considered, thoughtful and enthralling, this series offers a fresh understanding and new perspective on an incredible...
56) War Machine
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English
Description
1918, and after four years of combat the British invent a new weapon designed to break the stalemate. Private Chas Rowland, determined to bring the war to an end and return home, joins the Tank Corps under the command of Lieutenant Mould, entering the extraordinary world of the Niveleur, a Mark V tank. Primed to take part in a major offensive against the Germans just outside the French town of Amiens, the crew of the Niveleur include Fred Firth, a...
57) Napoleon: Part 1
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English
Description
The year 2015 marks 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo. Using recently uncovered historical evidence and based upon almost a decade of research, this major, three-part series, sheds new light on Napoleon as an extraordinarily gifted military commander and a charismatic leader whose private life-contrary to popular belief 200 years later-was littered with disappointments and betrayals: not least in relation to Josephine. Part 1 examines his military...
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English
Description
Little Dorrit is a miniseries produced by the BBC and WGBH Boston and based on Charles Dickens' serial novel. In Episode 2, Arthur remains suspicious that his family might have been involved in the Dorrit family's downfall, and he resolves to help them in any way he can. He also becomes reacquainted with his childhood sweetheart, Flora Casby. Meanwhile, in France, the murderer Rigaud becomes reacquainted with his old cellmate Cavalletto. Amy is moved...
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English
Description
In Part 5 of the BBC series, "In Search of the Trojan War," Michael Woods searches for decisive documental evidence of the Trojan War in clay tablets from the Hittite Empire, housed in the State Museum in Berlin. Woods follows the journey of King Hattusili iii to the Greek kingdoms on the coast of Anatolia, as referenced in a letter from Hattusili to the Achaean King that may have been Agamemnon himself. Different levels at the Hisarlik Mound have...
60) Killer Cyclones
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English
Description
Cyclones, also known as hurricanes, are said to take more lives in the Tropics than any other kind of natural disaster. In mid-November 1970, a massive cyclone swept in off the Bay of Bengal. It tore into the poverty-stricken country of Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan) causing death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Twenty-one years later, in April 1991, Bangladesh was hit by yet another great cyclone. Bangladesh is hit by at least...