The spectacular moon landing of 1969 was also the success of more than 100 NASA technicians and engineers from Germany. What hardly anyone knew at the time was that the Germans had already succeeded in building rockets for the Nazi regime. Among them was the infamous "V2", the production of which...
To many, Columbus is still the man who discovered America. Yet, there had been others before him. The Viking Leif Eriksson, who around 1000 AD became the first European to set foot on American soil. A medieval Welsh Prince named Madoc supposed to have built fortified places along the Ohio River. ...
The Lancaster Bomber tells how, as Bomber Command’s most destructive weapon, it went on to become instrumental in the defeat of Nazi Germany during the second world war.
With contributions from military historians Alexandra Churchill, Dr Peter Johnston and James Holland, authors Leo McKinstry (L...
Inspired by his family’s maritime past, Ross undertakes a special intensive training course under the tutelage of dive supervisor Neil Brock and, with the help an expert divers Emily Turton and Mallory Haas, he explores spectacular shipwrecks all around the UK.
Moving from the Orkneys down to so...
In the early 1960s, 14,000 Cuban children paid the price of freedom the hard way: through Operation Peter Pan. This top-secret mission was part of a U.S. plan to destabilize the Communist country. Its main protagonists were the CIA, the media and the Catholic Church, which claimed that the new Ca...
Heroes of the Somme uses original archive from the Western Front to uncover the stories of seven of the men whose remarkable bravery in 1916 won them the Victoria Cross, Britain’s most prized military medal. Interviews with modern day family members reveal the personal stories of each character, ...
From 1929 to 1939, Edgar Feuchtwanger lived across the street from Adolf Hitler in a bourgeois building in Munich, Germany. From his bedroom, the young Jewish boy had a view of the Führer across the avenue on the second floor. A schoolboy in Munich at the time, Edgar witnessed the rise of Nazism ...
In 2011, US-troops killed the leader of Al-Qaeda and recovered documents and hard drives. This material is now available and offers a new perspective on Osama Bin Laden. This documentary analyses Osama Bin Laden's private correspondence and uses "graphic novel"-elements to recount how he spent th...
North Korea is a country of stark contrasts. On the one hand, it presents real socialist stereotypes like cryptic messages from a frozen time loop, combined with shocking reports on shortages. On the other hand, polished Pyongyang lures with a futuristic skyline, flashy amusement parks and depart...
This film is a living history. Nikita Khrushchev’s closest family members and historians tell a story from the centre of power. This unique biography of a witness of the century comes alive in the shadow of the events he was part of.
Despite being an ardent Stalinist for many years, it was Nikit...
June 6th 1944. Operation Overlord begins. Discover D-Day through the photographic eyes of the British Soldiers. In this film the memories of Peter Norris, Harry Oakes, John Aldred and Peter Handford of their photographic activity during D-Day are recollected and allow us to better understand the ...
The Eichmann trial marks a real turning point in the emergence of the memory of the genocide of the Jews, in Israel, Germany and the United States. It is the first major transnational narrative that constructs the genocide of the Jews as a distinct event in the Second World War. It was intended a...
In this graphic, ground breaking two-part TV series, Professor Alice Roberts investigates the cause of death of two of Britain’s most famous monarchs, King Charles II and Queen Elizabeth I.
Alice’s investigations bring together, for the first time, a unique blend of expertise to provide new insi...
From 1945 to 1989, after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, two rival ideologies, communism and capitalism, faced each other in a merciless battle.
On one side of the Iron Curtain and on the other, throughout the Cold War, the USSR and the United States sought to shape children’s imaginations thr...
Brilliant Lawer, at only 27 years old, Benjamin Ferencz was the youngest prosecutor in charge of the sentencing nazi criminals in Nuremberg on 1946. Relentless fighter for peace he never stopped trying to make the world a more human place, always governed by the spirit of the law.
After the war a...
The Rise of Judea explores the tumultuous reign of King Herod and the ascent of Roman stewardship in Judea through the words of Flavius Josephus. From his strategic marriage and political wiles to his immense cultural development and architectural marvels, Herod's destructive ambition leads him t...
The road to modern society as we know it has been paved with the successes and failures of past generations and ancient societies. In six one-hour films, "The Ascent of Civilisation" takes a fresh quizzical look at trailblazer cultures of the past, from the ancient Greeks, Romans, Vikings, Cartha...
How could a crisis-ridden democracy turn into an apocalypse with war and genocide? The rise and fall of National Socialism is told from an international perspective to offer a new comprehensive view on German history between 1918 and 1948.
During the Cold War, the superpowers mobilized thousands of spies and spotters to lift the enemy’s secrets. The three-part program The Spying Game takes a close look at this era of rising tensions between East and West.
Part 1 examines Germany’s role as battleground for countless spies — all act...
The KGB has influenced world events on numerous occasions before. Assassinations, coup d’états, theft of nuclear secrets and sexpionage are just standard trademarks for an organisation that still sends shivers down the spines of politicians and military figures the world over. It may have changed...
With their trade-mark enthusiasm and facial hair, Si King and Dave Myers are back to reveal the history behind the pubs of Britain.
British pubs have played host to crusaders and pirates, pop stars and trades unionists across the centuries and will now host two more infamous fellows – The Hairy ...
Paul Murton follows in the footsteps of the first tourists to Scotland. With a Victorian guidebook in his hands, Paul travels across the country tracing the changes that have taken place since the birth of Scottish tourism 200 years ago.
For a few tense days in June 1944, the success of the greatest military invasion the world had ever seen depended on weather readings taken by Maureen Sweeney at the remote Blacksod weather station on Ireland’s west coast. Maureen’s data threw Eisenhower’s meticulously planned invasion strategy i...
The Greatest Air Race is the story of how Sir Ross Smith and his three-man crew became the first aviators to cross the planet. It’s a feat that remains largely overlooked in the history of flight.
The Greatest Air Race is presented and narrated by astronaut Andy Thomas as he embarks on a trans-co...
