Season 2011 2004 - 2011

TV-PG

Through 25 key moments, this programme takes a look at the highs and lows of the multi award-winning animation studio Pixar as it celebrates its 25th birthday, and discovers the secrets of how to make a Pixar movie. With unique access to Pixar HQ and the creative team, it features memorable moments from hits such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc, as well as exclusive interviews with Billy Crystal, Tim Allen, Holly Hunter, Kelsey Grammer, Michael Keaton, George Lucas and others.

Nel Hedayat investigates the controversial world of music videos and meets the girls who dream of dancing in them. Nel spends time with girls who are on the path to success, but also learns about the dark side of an industry where dancers chasing fame can leave themselves open to financial and sexual exploitation.

The life and times of the much-loved comedienne, from vaudeville showgirl to star of the Ulster stage.

The extraordinary story of comedian Bob Monkhouse's life and career, told for the first time through the vast private archive of films, TV shows, letters and memorabilia that he left behind.

Rankin, the UK's leading fashion photographer, reveals the rich history of Hollywood photography and how its most influential and enduring images were created. From Hollywood's golden age, epitomised by gorgeous images of screen goddesses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich to brooding shots of Marlon Brando; from the unparalleled allure of pictures of Marilyn Monroe to iconic black and white stills of Charlie Chaplin, Rankin immerses himself in the art of the Hollywood portrait and explores the vital role it has played in both the movie business and our continuing love affair with movie stars.

To understand how the image makers of Hollywood created these iconic photographs, Rankin recruits a cast of leading Hollywood actors to help him recreate some of the most important - including Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin); Selma Blair (Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions), British actor Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, Dylan Thomas's biopic The Edge of Love); actor extraordinaire Michael Sheen (The Damned United, Frost/Nixon), and living Hollywood legend Jane Russell.

Johnny Beattie leads this celebration of one of Scotland's finest singers, the tenor Kenneth McKellar, who died early last year. McKellar's career spanned 50 years and saw him become a household name in Scotland and beyond, but behind the public persona was a quiet man who regularly spurned personal honours and accolades and shied away from the trappings of showbusiness. The programme features contributions from McKellar's friends and colleagues including Sir Jackie Stewart, the singers Eddi Reader and Jean Redpath and his daughter Jane McKellar.

Drawing from Eric and Ernie, the BBC's new film, this celebratory documentary charts the duo's early years and the hurdles they faced, whilst showing why Eric and Ernie still remain Britain's best loved double act. Featuring specially shot, behind-the-scenes footage from the film, treasured Morecambe and Wise archive and celebrity interviews, the documentary visits important landmarks in their journey and uncovers the hard work and secrets of their phenomenal success.

Featuring contributions from the people who knew Eric and Ernie best: their family, peers, greatest fans and fellow comics of stage and screen. Contributors include Cilla Black, Michael Grade, Eddie Braben, Joan and Gary Morecambe, Doreen Wise, Miranda Hart, Lee Mack, Reece Shearsmith, Penelope Keith and Andrew Marr. Narrated by Victoria Wood.

Proms to mark the end of primary school are the latest pre-teen craze. And they're growing, not just in numbers, but in glitz. Pre-teen Proms tells the story of the children at two schools in the three months running up to this latest, inescapable, rite of passage. At Riverside Primary in Livingston, the teachers love the fun and glamour of the prom, while at well-heeled Mearns Primary just outside Glasgow, they're fighting to keep the 40-year-old Scottish tradition of their leavers dance alive. But as the kids demands mount - pamper parties, horse drawn carriages, limos, maseratis, red carpets and non-alcoholic cocktails, not to mention prizes for prom king, prom queen and couple most likely to get married - the parents have little choice but to stump up the cash. So once the kids have had their say, how different will the dances really be? Who wins - the adults or the 11-year-old kids?

Donnie Macsween was a schoolboy when the BBC made 'A Boy in Harris' in the 1960s. This programme looks at his life since then. An opportunity to see the original, acclaimed documentary once more.

Scottish Gaelic with English subtitles.

Darren was diagnosed with orophyrangeal cancer, a rare form of mouth cancer, at the age of only 31. But that wasn't the only shocking news that he had to deal with. Most oral cancers are caused by smoking or drinking, but Darren's was caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted. Darren had caught it through having oral sex. New research shows that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of HPV-related oral cancers amongst young people.
Jaime Winstone sets out to discover why the statistics are rising and whether anything can be done to stop this trend. Sadly, she has an intimate relationship with cancer - as filming began, her close friend Paul died from pancreatic cancer aged only 26. Whilst his cancer wasn't preventable, Darren's was.
HPV is recognised as the cause of cervical cancer in women and so, two years ago, the government introduced a national vaccination programme for teenage girls. But if a vaccine exists, why isn't it also given to boys to protect them from developing HPV-related cancers? Although this oral cancer is still relatively rare, the HP virus is common, with an estimated 80 per cent of adults having it, without any symptoms, during their lives.
Jaime's journey takes her to meet Dr Margaret Stanley, an expert on HPV and Professor Hisham Mehanna, a head and neck specialist at University Hospital, Coventry whose research has shown an increase in HPV-related oral cancers. Jaime talks to teenage boys about what they know of HPV and to teenage girls about why they are reluctant to get the freely available vaccine, before confronting the Department of Health over why they currently don't vaccinate boys as well as girls on the NHS.

In Ready, Steady, Drink Emily Atack, who plays Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners, looks at the UK's culture of drinking games and whether they should be banned. Travelling the length and breadth of the country Emily investigates why young Brits like to find new and more risky ways of drinking and she asks if there is anything the government can do to stop them.

The story of Charles Byrne the famous Irish Giant and some possible modern-day relatives.

A tribute to the Oscar-nominated British actor Pete Postlethwaite, who died on 2 January following a lengthy illness. Includes interviews and clips with fellow actors and directors.

The Campbell sisters are the best known triplets in the Hebrides. But behind the incredible story of their dramatic birth lies a tale of loss and separation, hardship and poverty, amid much laughter and tears.

Scottish Gaelic with English subtitles.

It's more than two years since the giant banks were bailed out with billions of pounds of tax-payers' money, yet little has been done to reform or regulate these vast institutions. The BBC's business editor Robert Peston looks at how the international regulators, a little-known and secretive committee that sits in the Swiss city of Basel, have consistently failed to curb the excesses of the giant banks and how new proposals fall short of the root-and-branch reform promised after the crash.

With the fate of Ireland, brought to its knees by the excesses of its banking industry, fresh in our minds, Peston asks whether Britain would be in any position to bail out our huge banks should there be another crisis. Are the banks, once thought to be too big to fail, now actually too big to save?

The film contains the first interviews with the government's new Banking Commission, as well as contributions from Business Secretary Vince Cable, new RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton and the Bank of England.

From the Royal Institution in London, Harvard professor Michael Sandel hosts a discussion to explore fairness in public policy and the Big Society. An audience of politicians, opinion-formers and the general public should ensure a lively and topical debate.

A specially-commissioned documentary in which renowned Harvard professor Michael Sandel looks at the philosophy of justice.

Is it acceptable to torture a terrorist in order to discover where a bomb has been hidden? Should wearing the burka in public be banned in Europe, if the majority of citizens disapprove? Should beggars be cleared off the streets of London?

Sandel goes in search of Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant and Aristotle, three philosophers whose ideas inform much contemporary thinking on justice, and tests their theories against a range of contemporary problems.

Filmed in Berlin, Boston, Athens and London, this thought-provoking film includes interviews with the world's great philosophers, modern day politicians and thinkers from all around the globe.

In April 2010, Laura Hall from Bromsgrove hit the headlines for being barred from buying or drinking alcohol anywhere in England and Wales. After being expelled from school at 15, she has no qualifications and has been arrested over 40 times. Now she is determined to change. This documentary follows Laura into rehab, capturing her highs and lows as she attempts to turn her back on six years of binge drinking.

This programme follows two women who on the front line of Northern Ireland's continuing abortion battle. Audrey Simpson is the director of the Family Planning Association, the only agency in NI that provides women with information on how to arrange an abortion. And every day, Bernie Smyth and fellow activists from the Precious Life pressure group are literally standing in the way of the women entering the FPA's Belfast offices. She says her mission is simple: to save the lives of the unborn.

Ness is the last place in the UK where young gannets, known in Gaelic as guga, are hunted for their meat. The hunting of sea birds was outlawed in 1954 in the UK, but the community of Ness on the Isle of Lewis continues to be granted the only exemption under UK and EU law allowing them to hold the annual hunt.

Every August, ten men from Ness set sail for Sula Sgeir, a desolate island far out in the Atlantic. Following in the footsteps of countless generations, they leave their families behind to journey through wild storms and high seas to reach the remote hunting ground.

The men live on the island for two exhausting weeks, sleeping amongst ruins left behind by monks over a thousand years ago. They work ceaselessly, catching, killing and processing 2000 birds using traditional methods unique to the hunt.

Today the future of the hunt is uncertain. Island life has changed dramatically in recent years. The population of Ness has halved in the last 50 years as the young head south. Distinctive Hebridean traditions such as crofting and peat cutting, which have long since disappeared elsewhere in Scotland, are finally vanishing in Ness.

Set in the heart of the Outer Hebrides, the Isle of Harris is a landscape rich in culture, history and the Gaelic language. Home to some of Britain's most important wildlife, it's a naturalist's paradise. In this special programme Dougie Vipond celebrates the people who live and work on the edge of western Europe - from traditional crofters and craftspeople to those developing new skills for the future.

During the 40s, 50s and 60s Sister Rosetta Tharpe played a highly significant role in the creation of rock & roll, inspiring musicians like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. She may not be a household name, but this flamboyant African-American gospel singing superstar, with her spectacular virtuosity on the newly-electrified guitar, was one of the most influential popular musicians of the 20th century.

Tharpe was born in 1915, close to the Mississippi in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. At the age of six she was taken by her evangelist mother Katie Bell to Chicago to join Roberts Temple, Church of God in Christ, where she developed her distinctive style of singing and guitar playing. At the age of 23 she left the church and went to New York to join the world of show business, signing with Decca Records. For the following 30 years she performed extensively to packed houses in the USA and subsequently Europe, before her death in 1973.

In 2008 the state governor of Pennsylvania declared that henceforth January 11th will be Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in recognition of her remarkable musical legacy.

They arrive, they smoke, they wait - armed robbers seeking redemption, life-long thieves, addicts and anxious fathers of wayward children. Hard exteriors hide soft centres, old lives exist in young bodies - ordinary people awaiting judgement on an unlovely stretch of pavement outside a London magistrates' court.
Whilst waiting for their cases to be heard they reveal their lives, and the complexities of the human soul are laid bare. Tense and intimate conversations with the filmmaker illuminate stories that the magistrates hear daily.
Director Marc Isaacs spent three months outside Highbury Magistrates Court and, in doing so, demonstrates how the eye of the camera has the ability to delve much deeper into character and motivation than the eye of the law. Consequently, the more we get to know the characters in this film, the harder it is to make easy judgements. Whilst the court must judge, the filmmaker need not.

They are the UK's most powerful arbiters of justice and now, for the first time, four of the Justices of the Supreme Court talk frankly and openly about the nature of justice and how they make their decisions. The film offers a revealing glimpse of the human characters behind the judgments and explores why the Supreme Court and its members are fundamental to our democracy.
The eleven men and one woman who make up the UK Supreme Court have the last say on the most controversial and difficult cases in the land. What they decide binds every citizen. But are their rulings always fair, do their feelings ever get in the way of their judgments and are they always right?
In the first fourteen months of the court they have ruled on MPs' expenses, which led to David Chaytor's prosecution, changed the status of pre-nuptial agreements and battled with the government over control orders and the Human Rights Act.
They explain what happens when they cannot agree and there is a divided judgement, and how they avoid letting their personal feelings effect their interpretation of the law. And they face up to the difficult issue of diversity - there is only one woman on the court, and she is the only justice who went to a non-fee-paying school.

Bafta-winning director Morgan Matthews's landmark film exploring the impact of teenage killings on families and communities across Britain, an emotional journey that chronicles every teenager who died as a result of violence in 2009 in the UK. Harrowing actuality filmed in the immediate aftermath combines with moving testimony from the spectrum of people affected in the wake of violent death. Filmed over eighteen months, this epic documentary is the BBC's most ambitious film to date about youth violence.
The film questions society's attitudes towards young people whilst probing the meaning behind terminology such as 'gang violence' or 'gang-related' often used in connection with teenage killings. It reveals the reality of the teenage murder toll across one year, connecting the viewer with the people behind the headlines and the emotional consequences of violent death. Differing perspectives from families, friends, passers-by and the police are explored with intimacy and depth. Together they reflect the collective impact of a teenage killing on an entire community.
Travelling the length and breadth of Britain, the film meets people of different religion, race and class. It tells the story of Shevon Wilson, whose misreported murder divided a community; the teenage girl who discovered she was pregnant to her boyfriend shortly after he was stabbed to death; the nurse who fought to save a dying teenager who was stabbed outside her home; and the outspoken East End twins who lost a mother and daughter in the same attack.
The documentary names every teenager to die as a result of violence in 2009. Haunting footage of shrines is a reminder of the countless families who continue to suffer as a result of violence. Powerful and compelling, Scenes from a Teenage Killing is a poignant and brutal reminder of the needless waste of young potential.

Pleasure is vital for our survival - without it we wouldn't eat or have sex, and would soon die out as a species. But how does pleasure work and what gives us the most pleasure in life?
In an attempt to find out, Michael Mosley learns how the hottest chilli in the world creates euphoria in the brain, why parents have an overwhelming surge of love for their newborn child and what happens if you turn your own wedding into a chemistry experiment.
We all know that where there is pleasure, pain can't be far behind, and Michael gamely exposes himself to some painful experiments to show why the two are so interlinked. Why is pain so important and how can we measure it? How much pain are we prepared to put up with if the reward is right and what would happen if we couldn't feel pain at all? And how far is Michael prepared to go in the name of pleasure? Will he be able to overcome enormous pain and stress in order to experience one of the biggest pleasure kicks in the world?

David Cameron and Nick Clegg seem made for each other: Eton and Oxford meets Westminster School and Cambridge. But does the return of public school boys to the top of our politics say something worrying about the decline of social mobility in Britain?
Andrew Neil goes on a journey from the Scottish council house he grew up in to the corridors of power to ask if we will ever again see a prime minister emerge from an ordinary background like his.
In this provocative film Andrew seeks to find out why politicians from all parties appear to be drawn from an ever smaller social pool - and why it matters to us all.

A story of hope in a country that has none, and one that has uncomfortable lessons for the governments of the West.

On 12 January 2010, Haiti was hit by a terrible quake. Hundreds of thousands dead and wounded; thousands of buildings crushed; the capital, Port au Prince, wiped out; death and disease everywhere. The disaster left Haiti and its government in ruins.

Three weeks post quake, Haiti's fate depends in large part on one man: Bill Clinton's guy on the ground, Irish telecoms billionaire Denis O'Brien. O'Brien flies straight in, taking with him on his jet a party of nuns, builders, and British architect John McAslan.

The assessment is that if Haiti is going to pull back from the brink, it needs two things fast: houses for the millions left homeless by the quake, and a beacon rebuilding project that the country can reunite around, and thus reboot its shattered economy. This is the Iron Market, Haiti's equivalent of the Eiffel Tower at the heart of Port au Prince. O'Brien makes a promise to the people of Haiti and sets an ambitious completion date of 15 December 2010 - the race is on.

It quickly becomes apparent that although international aid is promised in its billions, very little is actually appearing on the ground. O'Brien's building project is the only real game in town. What's more, over the next 12 months they are hit by hurricanes, cholera, an unhappy government election and subsequent rioting - the challenge and the deadline seem impossible.

On 11 January 2011, the eve of the anniversary of the tragic event, all eyes turn to the Iron Market - have they done it? Clinton, O'Brien and the world's media arrive. Will this be one promise to Haiti that is kept?

Once a week pensioners Jimmy, Colette, Sean and friends blast the airwaves with their own feisty, funny and issue-driven radio show 'Afternoon Delight'. Observationally shot, this moving film takes us into the homes and hearts of a generation who struggle in an entertaining and inspiring way with issues that face many of our pensioners.

The Moon is such a familiar presence in the sky that most of us take it for granted. But what if it wasn't where it is now? How would that affect life on Earth?

Space scientist and lunar fanatic Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock explores our intimate relationship with the Moon. Besides orchestrating the tides, the moon dictates the length of a day, the rhythm of the seasons and the very stability of our planet.

Yet the Moon is always on the move. In the past it was closer to Earth and in the future it'll be farther away. That it is now perfectly placed to sustain life is pure luck, a cosmic coincidence. Using computer graphics to summon up great tides and set the Earth spinning on its side, Maggie Aderin-Pocock implores us to look at the Moon afresh: to see it not as an inert rock, but as a key player in the story of our planet, past, present and future.

Documentary-maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.

Britain is a less equal society than at any time since World War One. In Who Gets the Best Jobs, Richard Bilton investigates access to the professions - and finds that the best jobs are being snapped up by an increasingly small gene pool of privileged, well-connected families.

Getting a good degree matters more than ever - and those from low income families can no longer easily work their way up from the bottom without the qualifications, contacts and social skills that their more fortunate counterparts make full use of.

The catalyst to Britain's Industrial Revolution was the slave labour of orphans and destitute children. In this shocking and moving account of their exploitation and eventual emancipation, Professor Jane Humphries uses the actual words of these child workers (recorded in diaries, interviews and letters) to let them tell their own story. She also uses groundbreaking animation to bring to life a world where 12-year-olds went to war at Trafalgar and six-year-olds worked the fields as human scarecrows.

To most Americans Abraham Lincoln is the nation's greatest president - a political genius who won the Civil War and ended slavery. Today the cult of Lincoln has become a multi-million dollar industry, with millions of Americans visiting his memorials and thousands of books published that present him as a saint more than a politician.

But does Lincoln really deserve all this adulation? 150 years after the war his reputation is being re-assessed, as historians begin to uncover the dark side of his life and politics. They have revealed that the president who ended slavery secretly planned to deport the freed black people out of America. Others are asking if Lincoln should be remembered as a war hero who saved the nation or as a war criminal who launched attacks on innocent southern civilians.

Sir Peter Tapsell MP delivers a lecture on F E Smith in the State Apartments of the Palace of Westminster, from Tuesday 1 February.

It can be tough working together for one goal, but the rewards more than make up for it. Set in the South Wales valleys, the drama Baker Boys follows the highs and lows of a group of bakery workers who, against all odds, manage to buy their own factory and run it as a co-operative. In this documentary, we take a journey into the past with Mark Lewis Jones, who stars in the drama, to reveal the incredible vision of the co-operative movement's Welsh founder Robert Owen. And Steven Meo uncovers how his radical thinking is impacting on Welsh communities even today. Robert Owen is a man of our times. Big Society is not a new phenomenon. It may be over 200 years since his death, but it seems this visionary Welshman was always way ahead of his time.

Three groups use dance, food and music to explore modern India and Indian life. The films were made by the Scottish-Indian groups themselves, supported by the LAB team.

LAB, or Learn At BBC Scotland, is part of the Learning Department doing workshops to pass on skills and stimulate creativity.

Author Henry Hitchings explores the lives and works of Britain's radical and pioneering 18th century novelists who, in just 80 years, established all the literary genres we recognise today. It was a golden age of creativity led by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney and William Godwin, amongst others. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy are novels that still sparkle with audacity and innovation. On his journey through 18th century fiction, Hitchings reveals how the novel was more than mere entertainment, it was also a subversive hand grenade that would change British society for the better. He travels from the homes of Britain's great and good to its lowliest prisons, meeting contemporary writers like Martin Amis, Will Self, Tom McCarthy and Jenny Uglow on the way.

Although 18th century novels are woefully neglected today compared to those of the following two centuries, Hitchings shows how the best of them can offer as much pleasure to the reader as any modern classic.

A programme exploring the life and writing of navvy poet Patrick MacGill. Drawing upon a rich vein of early cinema archive and live action re-enactment shot in Ireland, Scotland and England, the film retraces MacGill's journey from itinerant labourer to man of letters. Born in 1889 into crushing poverty in Donegal in the west of Ireland, MacGill went on to become one of Ireland's most successful authors, widely recognised as the voice of the migrant Irish in Scotland at the turn of the last century.

His autobiographical novels, penned in Scotland and hugely popular at the time, paint a vibrant picture of the life of the navvy, the labourer and the prostitute, 'the outcasts of a mighty industrial society'.

MacGill lived the life of a navvy in the Scottish highlands, and in his writing fact and fiction, social report and love story mingle. Later he finds himself working as a scribe in Windsor Castle and mixing with the aristocracy.

MacGill was to fight in the First World war and write of the horror of the trenches. We follow his rags to riches story as he fashions a career as a writer against the backdrop of a society in turmoil.

In 2008, after 25-years as Ian Paisley's deputy, Peter Robinson finally got his hands on power, becoming leader of the DUP and Northern Ireland's First Minister. Less than two years later, he was facing personal and political ruin after he was alleged to have failed to alert the authorities to his wife's financial dealings with two property developers and her 19-year-old lover. Yet today, the First Minister appears stronger than ever. With interviews from enemies and colleagues, past and present, this documentary examines the political life of Peter Robinson, a journey that has taken him from street protests to power sharing

As Wales prepare to take on England at the Millennium Stadium on Friday night, Chris Corcoran takes a sideways look at this famous fixture which has generated so much passion over the years. From the games of the 80s with stripey bobble hats, Bill McLaren's commentary and supporters running on the pitch, to the professional era of today, Chris presents his personal take on growing up with the Five - now Six - Nations rugby championship.

Tough times have hit Britain and for young people it is the hardest time to find a job since the 1980s. Greg James finds out what it's like to be young, unemployed and living with your parents when he follows graduates and school leavers chasing jobs in the worst job market in decades.

Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of Western art and ethics.

He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history; how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze; and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye.

In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.

The rocksteady era of Jamaican music in the mid-to-late 1960s is considered a golden age because rocksteady's sweet, soulful vocals, romantic but often socially conscious lyrics and prominent basslines gave birth to reggae, which went on to capture the world.

This documentary chronicles the coming together of rocksteady's surviving vocal stars - artists like the Tamlins, U-Roy, Ken Boothe, Leroy Sibbles from the Heptones, Judy Mowatt, Dawn Penn, Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths - and some of the island's greatest players, to celebrate their greatest 60s hits, perform a reunion concert and celebrate that golden era. Think of it as a kind of Buena Vista Social Club for the great 60s architects of Jamaican music. It is also a beautiful portrait of Jamaica.

In 1962, Jamaica gained its independence from Great Britain. There was celebration, optimism, economic growth and opportunity. Recording studios popped up all over Kingston and a generation of great singers and players emerged playing the tuneful, mellow music that became known as rocksteady - tunes like The Tide Is High, Rivers of Babylon and You Don't Love Me Anymore, No No No, which were so successfully celebrated by UB40 on their Labour of Love albums. By 1968, Jamaica's economic bubble had burst and social unrest took to the streets. As poverty, violence and political upheaval spread, rocksteady became politicised, upped its tempo and began to evolve into the music they call reggae.

The acclaimed BBC4 Britannia series moves into the world of British reggae. Showing how it came from Jamaica in the 1960s to influence, over the next twenty years, both British music and society, the programme includes major artists and performances from that era, including Big Youth, Max Romeo, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jerry Dammers and the Specials, the Police, UB40, Dennis Bovell, lovers rock performers Carroll Thompson and Janet Kay, bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse and reggae admirers such as Boy George and Paul Weller.

The programme celebrates the impact of reggae, the changes it brought about and its lasting musical legacy.

Scott Mills travels to Uganda where the death penalty could soon be introduced for being gay. The gay Radio 1 DJ finds out what it's like to live in a society which persecutes people like him and meets those who are leading the hate campaign.

Veteran television reporters Kate Adie, Martin Bell, Peter Taylor and Bill Neely return to Northern Ireland to revisit their coverage of the Troubles and meet with some of the people whose stories they told.

In 2008, Decca Records had a worldwide smash hit with a group of Austrian monks singing Gregorian chant. Now the company is hoping to repeat their success, this time with an order of nuns.

Record executives Oliver Harrop and Tom Lewis travel the world in search of the finest singing nuns, with the aim of signing them up and taking them to number one in the charts. From Ireland to the USA via France and Spain, no stone is unturned in the quest to find the world's most heavenly voices.

But there is a problem; many orders of nuns live in communities hidden from the modern world. Will Tom and Olly be able to persuade any to swap their solitude for the media attention and fame that could result from recording a hit album?

Jo Brand is outraged and appalled by the latest outburst of public crying. It is happening on X Factor, Who Do You Think You Are and even the politicans are at it. It would appear we are awash with tears. Jo is particularly baffled by this outpouring of weepiness as crying is something she rarely does.

In this documentary, Jo decides it's time to get to the bottom of crying: why we do it, who does it and whether we have always done it. And once she discovers crying is in fact good for you, she has no choice but to see if she can actually make a handkerchief soggy too.

To find out more about crying she talks to friends Phill Jupitus, Shappi Khorsandi and Richard E Grant; interviews crying historians, psychologists and biochemists; and, in her quest to discover her own tears, visits Moorfields Eye Hospital to check her tear ducts are in good working order. She subjects herself to joining a class of crying drama students, discovers the world's weirdest crybabies at the Loss Club and finally opens up to Princess Diana's psychotherapist, Susie Orbach.

Having unpicked the watery world of crying, can Jo bring herself to actually shed a tear?

David Nash is one of Britain's most original and internationally recognised sculptors. In a career spanning 40 years he has created over 2,000 sculptures out of wood, many of then monumental in scale. In this film Nash gives an intimate insight into his unique collaboration with his material. From sawing and gouging to charring and planting, it reveals how he has used his profound knowledge of trees and the forces of nature to inform his work.

Using extensive archive it traces Nash's artistic journey from art school to the rugged mining landscape of Blaenau Ffestiniog in north Wales via the many exhibitions he has had around the world, culminating in the most significant to date at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2010.

On a remarkable journey of discovery, one Armagh family trace their roots to the Great Famine, experiencing the realities of life 150 years ago and discovering two very different paths their ancestors took - one half choosing to remain behind, while the other half abandoned Armagh for a new life across the Atlantic. Through fire and ice, their struggle to survive is revealed to be a microcosm of courage and endurance.

Wales's great artist Sir Kyffin Williams talks about four seminal turning points in the course of his life.

Sir Kyffin's Welsh upbringing, viewing a 15th-century Italian fresco by Piero Della Francesca, and a 1947 realization he might be able to earn his living as a painter - these are the first three. The fourth moment was an agonizing choice between Patagonia and Venice. He had spent two exciting months on a Winston Churchill Scholarship in Patagonia, and first visited Venice in 1955. The extraordinary Italian city's magnificence and lack of inhibition had cast a spell during each of his subsequent visits.

Investigation into how two brothers set up a failed Christmas theme park in Dorset. Lapland New Forest opened for just six days and took over 1.2 million pounds.

Documentary telling the unexpected story of how arguably the greatest work of English prose ever written, the King James Bible, came into being.

Author Adam Nicolson reveals why the making of this powerful book shares much in common with his experience of a very different national project - the Millennium Dome. The programme also delves into recently discovered 17th century manuscripts, from the actual translation process itself, to show in rich detail what makes this Bible so good.

In a turbulent and often violent age, the King hoped this Bible would unite a country torn by religious factions. Today it is dismissed by some as old-fashioned and impenetrable, but the film shows why, in the 21st century, the King James Bible remains so great.

The untold story of one of the most influential artists ever to come out of Jamaica, Toots Hibbert, featuring intimate new performances and interviews with Toots, rare archive from throughout his career and interviews with contemporaries and admirers including Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Cliff, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Marcia Griffiths and Paolo Nutini.

From his beginnings as a singer in a Jamaican church to the universally-praised, Grammy award-winning artist of today, the film tells the story of one of the true greats of music. Toots was the first to use the word reggae on tape in his 1968 song Do the Reggay and his music has defined, popularised and refined it across six decades, with hit after hit including Pressure Drop, Sweet and Dandy, Monkey Man, Funky Kingston, Bam Bam, True Love Is Hard To Find and Reggae Got Soul.

As Island records founder Chris Blackwell says, 'The Maytals were unlike anything else... sensational, raw and dynamic'. Always instantly recognisable is Toots's powerful, soulful voice which seems to speak viscerally to the listener - 'one of the great musical gifts of our time'. His songs are at the same time stories of everyday life in Jamaica and postcards from another world.

The Shetland Folk Festival is one of the world's most exotic events with a hard earned reputation as the festival where nobody sleeps.

Celebrating its 30th birthday, a hundred folk-musicians from as far afield as New York, Mumbai and Stockholm descend on the islands for four days and 200 performances, aided by 700 volunteers. With non-stop music from before the ferry leaves Aberdeen until the moment the visiting musicians return.

Documentary following Graham Vick, one of the leading opera directors of our times, through six months of intensive rehearsals for two radically different productions of operas by Giuseppe Verdi. From a spectacular outdoor Aida, staged on an Austrian lake, to a raw and emotionally charged version of Othello presented in a derelict Birmingham factory with the participation of more than two hundred enthusiastic local singers, dancers and actors.

As Caster Semenya achieved her dream of winning the 800m World Championship in 2009, rumours of a failed gender test spread. A vicious and voyeuristic media storm erupted and Caster's triumph was turned into public humiliation. With exclusive access, this film follows the shy teenager from a remote South African village as she struggles to come to terms with what has happened and fights to return to competition. With the support of her family and a top legal team, Caster takes the fight to the IAAF, the world's leading body for the sport of athletics. As international lawyers and eminent scientists thrash out what it means to be a woman, the 19-year-old at the centre of the storm wants only to run. A heart-rending and uplifting story of a young woman who overcame incredible odds to become the world's best, only to find that her biggest challenges still lay ahead.

Watercolours have always been the poor relation of oil painting. And yet the immediacy and freedom of painting in watercolours have made them the art of adventure and action - even war. It has been an art form the British have pioneered, at first celebrating the greatest landscapes of Europe and then recording the exotic beauty of the British Empire.

Sheila Hancock - an ardent fan of watercolours since her childhood, and whose father was an amateur watercolourist - sets out on a journey - from the glories of the Alps and the city of Venice to deepest India - as she traces the extraordinary story of professional and amateur watercolourists, and reveals some of the most beautiful and yet little-known pictures.

21-year-old Dean Whitney was born in Sheffield to a British dad and Yemeni mum. He has always dreamt of travelling to Yemen to meet his extended family and get in touch with his Muslim and Yemeni identity. But will his life-changing journey become a nightmare in the country now better known for international terrorism and for officially being one of the most dangerous places on earth?

It's been 50 years since nuclear submarines first came to Scotland, and more than 40 since Britain's nuclear missile fleet was stationed on the Clyde lochs. But the Trident fleet is ageing, and the decision to start work on its replacement has been delayed until 2016. With public spending under unprecedented pressure, there's a very real debate over whether we can afford the 20 billion-pound bill. Partly filmed on board one of Britain's nuclear bomber submarines, 'Who Needs Trident?' asks whether a Cold War weapon, designed to deter the Soviet Union from attacking Britain and its NATO allies, is still relevant in the 21st century, and whether Britain, and Scotland, gain anything from it being replaced. Presented by Sally Magnusson.

Murder in the Mearns, in 1968. A young farmer is shot in his sleep - but who pulled the trigger?

Scottish Gaelic with English subtitles

The story of Live at Treorchy, the best-selling album that turned an unknown comedian and singer called Max Boyce into an international star, launching a career spanning 40 years and two million record sales. The album that changed Max Boyce's life also captured how Wales was changing in the early 1970s and still stands as an icon of Welsh identity four decades later. Among those describing the impact Live at Treorchy had on them are broadcaster Huw Edwards, comedian Jasper Carrott and rugby legend Gareth Edwards.

In the late 50s and early 60s Arthur Haynes was ITV's highest paid comic, as popular as Tony Hancock. Paul Merton and Nicholas Parsons rediscover the genius of this forgotten comedy great.

David Attenborough returns to the island of Madagascar on a very personal quest.
In 1960 he visited the island to film one of his first ever wildlife series, Zoo Quest. Whilst he was there, he acquired a giant egg. It was the egg of an extinct bird known as the 'elephant bird' - the largest bird that ever lived. It has been one of his most treasured possessions ever since.
Fifty years older, he now returns to the island to find out more about this amazing creature and to see how the island has changed. Could the elephant bird's fate provide lessons that may help protect Madagascar's remaining wildlife?
Using Zoo Quest archive and specially shot location footage, this film follows David as he revisits scenes from his youth and meets people at the front line of wildlife protection. On his return, scientists at Oxford University are able to reveal for the first time how old David's egg actually is - and what that might tell us about the legendary elephant bird.

Documentary presented by Melvyn Bragg to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

Melvyn Bragg sets out to persuade us that the King James Version has driven the making of the English speaking world over the last 400 years, often in the most unanticipated ways.

He travels to historic locations in the UK and USA where the King James Bible has had a deep impact, including Gettysburg and the American Civil War and Washington's Lincoln Memorial, site of Martin Luther King's famous speech.

He argues that while many think our modern world is founded on secular ideals, it is the King James Version which had a greater legacy. The King James Bible not only influenced the English language and its literature more than any other book, it was also the seedbed of western democracy, the activator of radical shifts in society such as the abolition of the slave trade, the debating dynamite for brutal civil wars in Britain and America and a critical spark in the genesis of modern science.

Documentary following the lives of two Amish families leaving the only world they've ever known and trying to get to grips with the modern world. The Amish travel by horse and buggy, and dress exactly as their forebears did when they first arrived in America almost 300 years ago. They have countless rules which keep them separate from the modern world, with electric lights, mobile phones, television and radio all forbidden. For those born into this culture, leaving is the biggest decision they'll ever make.

A unique journey around the weird and wonderful planet that we call home.

When Yuri Gagarin was blasted into space he became the first human to get a proper look at where we live. 'The Earth is blue,' he exclaimed, 'how amazing!'. Suddenly our perspective on the world had changed forever. We thought we were going to explore the universe, yet the most extraordinary thing we discovered was our own home planet, the Earth.

So what would you see during just one orbit of the Earth? Starting 200 miles above the planet, this film whisks you around the planet to show what changes in the time it takes to circumnavigate the Earth just once. We hear from British-born astronaut Piers Sellers on what it's like to live and work in space, and also to gaze down and see how we are altering and reshaping our world.

We marvel at the incredible forces of nature that brings hundred-mile wide storms and reshapes continents, and also discover how we humans are draining seas and building cities in the middle of the desert. We also visit the wettest place on Earth, as well as the most volcanic.

Narrated by David Morrissey, this inspirational trip around the planet will make you view our home as you've never seen it before.

In the 60s and early 70s it was common for Grand Prix drivers to be killed while racing, often televised for millions to see. Mechanical failure, lethal track design, fire and incompetence snuffed out dozens of young drivers. They had become almost expendable as eager young wannabes queued up at the top teams' gates waiting to take their place.
This is the story of when Grand Prix was out of control.

Featuring many famous drivers including three times world champion Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, twice world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and John Surtees OBE, this exciting but shocking film explores how Grand Prix drivers grew sick of their closest friends being killed and finally took control of their destiny.
After much waste of life, the prestigious Belgian and German Grands Prix would be boycotted, with drivers insisting that safety be put first. But it would be a long and painful time before anything would change, and a lot of talented young men would be cut down in their prime.

This is their story.

Tree surgeon-turned-filmmaker Robb Leech is an ordinary white middle-class boy from the Dorset seaside town of Weymouth. So too is his stepbrother Rich, but a little over a year ago Rich became a radical Islamist who now goes by the name of Salahuddin. He associates with jihadist fundamentalists and believes the UK should be ruled by Sharia law.

In a film that took over twelve months to shoot, Robb sets out to reconnect with his extremist stepbrother and find clues to what led Rich to become Salahuddin. It charts the brothers' relationship and Robb's attempt to understand why the person he'd once looked up to as a teenage role model could so strongly reject all that his family and the Western world believe in. As Robb spends time with Salahuddin, he witnesses a very particular phenomenon - the embrace of radical Islamism by young men, many of them white.

Robb first heard of Rich's conversion in a national newspaper in the summer of 2009. The article said Rich had converted under Anjem Choudary, leader of the radical Muslim group Islam4UK (later banned under Britain's anti-terror laws). Robb was horrified by the things his stepbrother was telling him - that under Sharia law, women should be stoned to death for committing adultery, that he was prepared to die for Islam and that as a non-believer, Robb was going to hell. Just the previous summer the two brothers had shared a room on holiday in Cyprus and been practically inseparable. Robb began filming what was happening to Rich to try to understand why it had happened and what the world was like that Rich had chosen.

Journalist and author Michael Collins presents a hard-hitting and heartwarming history of one of Britain's greatest social revolutions - council housing.

At its height in the mid-1970s, council housing provided homes for over a third of the British population. From the 'homes for heroes' cottages that were built in the wake of the First World War to the much-maligned, monolithic high rises of the 60s and 70s, Collins embarks on a grand tour of Britain's council estates.

He visits Britain's first council estate, built as an antidote to London's disease and crime-ridden Victorian slums, the groundbreaking flats that made inter-war Liverpool the envy of Europe, the high rise estate in Sheffield that has become the largest listed building in the world, and the estate built on the banks of the Thames that was billed as 'the town of the 21st century'.

Along the way he meets the people whose lives were shaped by an extraordinary social experiment that began with a bang at the start of the 20th century and ended with a whimper 80 years later.

It's a voyage of exploration like no other - to Titan, Saturn's largest moon and thought to resemble our own early Earth. For a small team of British scientists this would be the culmination of a lifetime's endeavour - the flight alone, some 2 billion miles, would take a full seven years. This is the story of the space probe they built, the sacrifices they made and their hopes for the landing. Would their ambitions survive the descent into the unknown on Titan's surface?

London won the bid to stage the Olympics on the basis of an extraordinary promise of a lasting legacy. With the Games less than 500 days away, leading political journalist Jon Sopel scrutinises the original pledges and asks if the legacy of the Games can really be delivered.

In 2008 Stacey Dooley emerged as one of the stars of the hit BBC Three series, Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts, and has since spent the three years lifting the lid on shocking stories from the developing world.

In 2010 she travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo where she examined the plight of child soldiers and journeyed to Cambodia to investigate the shocking world of underage sex trafficking.

This time Stacey is travelling to one of our favourite holiday destinations, Thailand, to explore the darker side of tourism that the average holiday maker doesn't see. Hundreds of thousands of us flock to Thailand every year, where for just a few hundred pounds you can enjoy beautiful beaches, top hotels and unbeatable service. A trip to Thailand has become a rite of passage for many young Brits, but why is it possible to enjoy such luxury at such bargain prices?

Stacey begins her trip in Phuket, where she stays as a tourist before swapping roles and becoming a hotel worker. She works as a chambermaid and struggles with the hard work and incredibly high standards, having to clean 14 rooms a day for just four pounds. She also discovers what it's like to live on such low wages and the sacrifices that some hotel workers have to make. Many live in slum conditions or in hotel dormitories, separated from their children for months at a time.

Steven Hydes was abandoned in the ladies toilet at Gatwick Airport when he was just ten days old, wrapped in a blanket and with a spare babygro by his side. Dubbed 'Gatwick Gary' by the newspapers at the time, his family never came back to claim him. With no birth certificate or clue to where he had come from, Steven has spent his life not knowing a thing about his identity.

Steven was adopted at six months old and now 24 years later, with the support of his adoptive parents, he wants to find his birth mum - 'even though I've had this amazing upbringing I don't think I will ever stop searching until I get my answers.'

He is about to embark on a life-defining journey, a detective story that might answer the most important questions of all - who am I and where do I come from? Being found in an airport means it's a worldwide search. He uses science in his desperate search for answers; can DNA testing pinpoint his racial make-up and will that narrow the search for his mum?

Being a doting father himself it's a question that dogs him: what made his mother leave him to the mercy of strangers? 'It does make me wonder why things didn't work out with me. What happened to make them able to abandon me like that? I couldn't imagine my daughter being abandoned, so it makes me want to find out'.

In this touching documentary, Steven also meets other foundlings, the term given to babies who have been found abandoned. What have they done to search for answers? How do they cope with knowing nothing about their origins? As Steven shares his experiences, the bond between these individuals, who have such unusual stories, is clearly visible.

His journey ends with a heart-rending appeal to his birth mum via a national newspaper. But will he ever find the answers he is searching for?

Ben Fogle joins an expedition across Antarctica to find Captain Scott's Hut, frozen in time for a century. The hut was built to support Scott's 1911 attempt to be first to the South Pole, and was later abandoned together with ten thousand personal, everyday and scientific items.

Ben uncovers the hut and its contents, finding new information about his hero Scott and his famously tragic expedition. Scott's diaries are read by Kenneth Branagh.

In April 2011, cities across the UK will play host to huge, colourful and joyous parades as Britain's Sikh community marks the festival of Vaisakhi.

This programme explores the rituals through which the festival is celebrated today, and examines how Vaisakhi's themes - tolerance, equality, humility, dignity and an active concern for others - impact the daily lives of Sikhs.

With contributions from a number of eminent Sikh historians and religious experts, this film provides an entertaining, informative and highly accessible introduction to the Sikh religion's annual festival.

Anka Bergman gave birth to her baby daughter Eva in a Nazi concentration camp.

During her pregnancy, Anka witnessed the horrors of Auschwitz and endured six months of forced labour. If the Nazis found a woman was pregnant, she could be sent straight to the gas chambers. Amazingly, Anka's pregnancy went unnoticed for months.

Anka eventually gave birth - on the day she arrived at an extermination camp. Anka weighed just five stone and was on the brink of starvation; baby Eva weighed just three pounds.

Remarkably, both mother and daughter survived, and are living in Cambridge. Now they tell their story.

What should we do with children who commit serious crime? Following the recall of Jon Venables who, along with his friend Robert Thompson, murdered two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool aged just ten, it's a question that many experts are asking.

Retired detective Albert Kirby, the man who brought Venables and Thompson to justice, goes on a journey to find out what happened to Jon, the system that was designed to rehabilitate him, and what led to him being returned to jail.

Featuring experts, practitioners, and people who knew Venables, this thought-provoking, challenging documentary lifts the lid on the system of secure children's homes, and asks if more should be done for the next generation of serious child criminals.

The Arabian Nights first arrived in the West 300 years ago, and ever since then its stories have entranced generations of children and seduced adults with a vision of an exotic, magical Middle East. Actor and director Richard E Grant wants to know why the book he loved as a child still has such a hold on our imagination.

He travels to Paris to discover how the stories of Sinbad, Ali Baba and Aladdin were first brought to the West by the pioneering Arabist Antoine Galland in the early 18th century. The Nights quickly became an overnight literary sensation and were quickly translated into all the major European languages. Richard then travels to Cairo to explore the medieval Islamic world which first created them.

He quickly finds that some of the stories can still be deeply controversial, because of their sexually-explicit content. Richard meets the Egyptian writer and publisher Gamal al Ghitani, who received death threats when he published a new edition of the book.

He also finds that the ribald and riotous stories in the Nights represent a very different view of Islam than fundamentalism. Can the Nights still enrich and change the West's distorted image of the Arab world?

The first ever full-length film about Gustav Holst, composer and revolutionary - a man who taught himself Sanskrit; lived in a street of brothels in Algiers; cycled into the Sahara Desert; allied himself during the First World War with a 'red priest' who pinned on the door of his church 'prayers at noon for the victims of Imperial Aggression'; hated the words used to his most famous tune, I Vow to Thee My Country, because it was the opposite of what he believed; and distributed a newspaper called the Socialist Worker. Holst's music - especially the Planets - owed little or nothing to anyone, least of all the English folk song tradition, but he was a great composer who died of cancer, broken and disillusioned, before he was 60

Kirsten O'Brien investigates the boom in cosmetic injections. She looks at the growing phenomenon of the young using botox and fillers, and finds out what can go wrong with the procedures. Finally, she decides whether she is ready for the needle in a bid to go wrinkle free.

They have dined together through two series of Supersizers and attempted to live The Good Life. Now Giles Coren and Sue Perkins take their relationship to the next level as they prepare for their very own royal wedding.

This iconic American story was written in 1900 by L Frank Baum, a Chicago businessman, journalist, chicken breeder, actor, boutique owner, Hollywood movie director and lifelong fan of all things innovative and technological. His life spanned an era of remarkable invention and achievement in America and many of these developments helped to fuel this great storyteller's imagination.

His ambition was to create the first genuine American fairytale and the story continues to fascinate, inspire and engage millions of fans of all ages from all over the world. This documentary explores how The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has come to symbolise the American Dream and includes previously unseen footage from the Baum family archives, still photographs and clips from the early Oz films, as well as interviews with family members, literary experts and American historians as it tells the story of one

Bizet's Carmen, Puccini's Madame Butterfly, Verdi's Violetta - some of the most famous and powerful roles in opera and they are all, in different ways, fallen women.

And now there's a newcomer to their ranks - Anna Nicole. The Royal Opera's latest smash hit is an operatic version of the life of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith. Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House and conductor of Anna Nicole, delves into the world of opera's fallen women and discovers how for centuries composers and librettists have used female characters in opera to explore and challenge society's attitudes and prejudices.

Our junk food addiction is dropping alarmingly down the age ladder, and we are now rearing a generation of fast food babies. This arresting documentary reveals babies and toddlers eating a diet of chips, burgers and kebabs, all washed down with bottles of fizzy cola. It explores the deep-seated reasons why parents resort to junk food feeding and follows three families as they desperately try and get back on the right nutritional track. From gentle food play to dramatic shocks, the parents team up with real experts who mentor them through the latest techniques as they try to wean their children off fast food.

Hundreds of years ago in faraway Iceland the Vikings began to write down dozens of stories called sagas - sweeping narratives based on real people and real events. But as Oxford University's Janina Ramirez discovers, these sagas are not just great works of art, they are also priceless historical documents which bring to life the Viking world. Dr. Ramirez travels across glaciers and through the lava fields of Iceland to the far north-west of the country to find out about one of the most compelling of these stories - the Laxdœla Saga.

The heroic tales of World War II are legendary, but Operation Crossbow is a little known story that deserves to join the hall of fame: how the Allies used 3D photos to thwart the Nazis' weapons of mass destruction before they could obliterate Britain.

This film brings together the heroic Spitfire pilots who took the photographs and the brilliant minds of RAF Medmenham that made sense of the jigsaw of clues hidden in the photos. Hitler was pumping a fortune into his new-fangled V weapons in the hope they could win him the war. But Medmenham had a secret weapon of its own, a simple stereoscope which brought to life every contour of the enemy landscape in perfect 3D.

The devil was truly in the detail and, together with extraordinary personal testimonies, the film uses modern computer graphics on the original wartime photographs to show just how the photo interpreters were able to uncover Hitler's nastiest secrets.

Most people thought that when the working traffic on canals faded away after the war, it would be the end of their story. But they were wrong. A few diehard enthusiasts and boat owners campaigned, lobbied and dug, sometimes with their bare hands, to keep the network of narrow canals open.

Some of these enthusiasts filmed their campaigns and their home movies tell the story of how, in the teeth of much political opposition, they saved the inland waterways for the nation and, more than 200 years after they were first built, created a second golden age of the canals.
Stan Offley, an IWA activist from Ellesmere Port, filmed his boating trips around the wide canals in the 40s, 50s and 60s in 16mm colour. But equally charming is the film made by Ed Frangleton, help from Harry Arnold, of a hostel boat holiday on the Llangollen Canal in 1961. There are the films shot by ex-working boatmen Ike Argent from his home in Nottinghamshire and looked after by his son Barry.

There is astonishing film of the last days of working boats, some shot by John Pyper when he spent time with the Beechey's in the 60s, film taken by Keith Christie of the last days of the cut around the BCN, and the films made by Keith and his mate Tony Gregory of their attempts to keep working the canals through their carrying company, Midland Canal Transport.

There is film of key restorations, the Stourbridge 16 being talked about with great wit and affection by one of the leading activists in that watershed of restorations in the mid-60s, David Tomlinson, and John Maynard's beautiful films of the restoration of the Huddersfield, 'the impossible restoration', shot over two decades.

All these and more are in the programme alongside the people who made the films and some of the stars of them. Together they tell the story of how, in the years after 1945, a few people fought the government like David fought Goliath to keep canals open and restore ones that had become defunct, and won against all the o

The behind-the-scenes story of the town of Wootton Bassett, whose tributes to fallen soldiers have earned the community the first royal title awarded in over 100 years.

It is possible that only one percent of the wonders of Ancient Egypt have been discovered, but now, thanks to a pioneering approach to archaeology, that is about to change.

Dr Sarah Parcak uses satellites to probe beneath the sands, where she has found cities, temples and pyramids. Now, with Dallas Campbell and Liz Bonnin, she heads to Egypt to discover if these magnificent buildings are really there.

Harold Wilson and Edward Heath are two very different men equally overlooked by history, but they were the political titans of the era in which Britain changed for ever. For ten years they faced each other in the House of Commons, and swapped in and out of Number Ten. They fought four general elections, three of which were amongst the most exciting of the century.

They were deliciously different and scorned one another, yet they were cast from the same mould. Both promised a revolution of meritocracy and dynamism in the British economy and society. Both utterly failed, but together they presided over a decade that redefined the nation: Britain ceased to be a world power and entered Europe; the postwar consensus in which they both believed was destroyed; Thatcherism and New Labour were born. The country they left behind was unrecognisable from the one they had inherited - and the one they had promised.

This documentary tells the story of their highly personal and political duel in the words of those who watched it blow by blow - their colleagues in the cabinet and government, and the journalists at the ringside. Set against a scintillating backdrop of the music and style of the 1960s and 70s (which was of no interest to either man) it brings the era, and its forgotten figureheads, vividly to life.

Documentary about the painters Augustus John and James Dickson Innes who, in 1911, left London for the wild Arenig Valley in North Wales. Over three years, they created a body of work to rival the visionary landscapes of Matisse.

In-depth documentary investigation into the story of a popular music that is often said to be made to be heard, but not listened to. The film looks at easy listening's architects and practitioners, its dangers and delights, and the mark it has left on modern life.

From its emergence in the 50s to its heyday in the 60s, through its survival in the 70s and 80s and its revival in the 90s and beyond, the film traces the hidden history of a music that has reflected society every bit as much as pop and rock - just in a more relaxed way.
Invented at the dawn of rock 'n' roll, easy listening has shadowed pop music and the emerging teenage market since the mid-50s. It is a genre that equally soundtracks our modern age, but perhaps for a rather more 'mature' generation and therefore with its own distinct purpose and aesthetic.

Contributors include Richard Carpenter, Herb Alpert, Richard Clayderman, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jimmy Webb, Mike Flowers, James Last and others.

Documentary looking at the extraordinary changes and crazes that have happened to British gardening since the Second World War, from garden gnomes and crazy paving to Leylandii and decking.

As recently as the 1960s, garden centres didn't exist and gardening was strictly for old boys in sheds, yet today it has become the height of cool.

Contributors include Penelope Keith, Laurence Llewellyn Bowen, Germaine Greer and Carol Klein.

It's over 40 years since Annie Nightingale's very first show on Radio 1 - she was the station's first female DJ and is its longest-serving broadcaster. A lifelong champion of new music, first with punk, then new wave, acid house and dubstep, Annie is still at the cutting edge in her current incarnation as the 'Queen of the Breaks'.

In this film Annie takes us on a counter-cultural journey through the events, people and sounds that have inspired her career. Full of insightful anecdotes about her sonic adventures and the numerous pop-cultural shifts that have helped shape her idiosyncratic outlook and tastes, the film features exclusive contributions from some of the many artists Annie has worked with and admired, including Sir Paul McCartney and Mick Jones of the Clash. We also hear from the new generation of artists who confirm that she's an icon of the British music scene.

The story of the remarkable family who tamed the wild Scottish coastline - told 200 years after the building of their first iconic lighthouse, the Bell Rock.

Documentary telling the stories of some of the 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK. It is one of the worst child poverty rates in the industrialised world, and successive governments continue to struggle to bring it into line. So who are these children, and where are they living? Under-represented, under-nourished and often under the radar, 3.5 million children should be given a voice. And this powerful film does just that.

Eight-year-old Courtney, 10-year-old Paige and 11-year-old Sam live in different parts of the UK. Breathtakingly honest and eloquent, they give testament to how having no money affects their lives: lack of food, being bullied and having nowhere to play. The children might be indignant about their situation now, but this may not be enough to help them. Their thoughts on their futures are sobering.

Sam's 16-year-old sister Kayleigh puts it all into context, as she tells how the effects of poverty led her to take extreme measures to try and escape it all.

Poor Kids puts the children on centre stage, and they command it with honesty and directness. It's time for everyone to listen.

As the Duke of Edinburgh marks his ninetieth birthday, Fiona Bruce explores the apparent contradictions in the life of Prince Philip.

The longest-serving consort in British royal history began life as a prince of Greece, yet he is not actually Greek. He is regarded by many today as a crusty pillar of the establishment, yet early in the Queen's reign he was seen as a moderniser.

"Get him on a bad day, and it's quite hard work", says one of his close friends; "get him on a good day, and you really don't want to be with anyone else".

Many say his proudest achievement is his Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme, which has stretched the capabilities of thousands of young people. Yet, in his interview with Fiona Bruce, he rejects the idea that it makes him proud.

The man who the Queen has said is her strength and stay says he wants to start winding down before his 'sell-by date'. But, as Joanna Lumley tells the programme, he is like "a bird of prey, a hawk or an eagle, with something absolutely penetrating about the eyes... You feel like you're being scanned."

The Duke may be ninety, but he's very definitely not out.

Commentator Murray Walker's dramatic, excitable voice defined a golden era of Formula One and enthralled viewers across the globe. This is an intimate portrait of one the nation's treasures, and the inspiring tale of a man who, at the age of nearly 90, continues to break the mould.

The documentary accompanies the indefatigable Walker as he travels to Australia for the opening F1 of the season, relives his tank commander past and rides classic scramble bikes. The programme also delves deep into the archive to bring back to life some of Murray's most sensational moments in motorsport and beyond.

With contributions from Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jenson Button.

In a frank and personal documentary, author Sir Terry Pratchett considers how he might choose to end his life. Diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2008, Terry wants to know whether he might be able to end his life before his disease takes over.

Travelling to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland, Terry witnesses first hand the procedures set out for assisted death, and confronts the point at which he would have to take the lethal drug.

400 years of art history in 90 minutes? This film takes an eclectic group of people from all walks of life, including artists, critics and academics, out into the countryside to take a look at how we have depicted our landscape in art, discovering how the genre carried British painting to its highest eminence and won a place in the nation's heart.

Horticulturalist Chris Beardshaw uncovers the British contribution to the history of our most iconic fruit. He reveals the passion and dedication of Victorian gardeners who in an apples ‘golden age’ gave us more varieties than anywhere else in the world; and the remarkable ingenuity of a small group of 20th century British scientists who made one of the most significant contributions to the apple industry the world has ever seen.
The apple has a more complex genetic make up than any other fruit. If you plant the pips from the apple in your lunchbox they almost certainly won’t turn into trees bearing identical fruit. Every single pip is potentially a new variety which could fall anywhere in the spectrum of small and sour to big and juicy. Some of the world’s best-loved apples like Braeburn and Bramley were discovered growing as chance seedlings - Granny Smith was found growing out of a rubbish tip by Mrs Smith of New South Wales. So while the apple seeks only to multiply rather than reproduce the same delicious apples, man fathomed how to clone it with an ancient process that remains the same to this day.
Chris’s journey takes him from Britain’s most famous and time honoured apple tree - the original Bramley from which all Bramley apples are descended; to a new contender discovered growing in a hedgerow on the A4260. He meets the Head Gardener at Audley End House in Cambridge, a man bent on preserving the spirit of the Victorian nurserymen who toiled away in the kitchen gardens of the nation’s stately homes creating thousands of new varieties; and goes underground in Kent to explore the remarkable contribution made by scientists at East Malling Research Station in the early 20th century. Their work is captured on fascinating film archive, showing the extraordinary lengths they went to give tired British orchards a facelift. The Malling series of rootstocks became the foundation of the global apple industry as we know it, allowing the most successful v

For generations, the Kennedy family held America and the whole world in thrall. The entire clan - grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren - were part of a dynasty JFK's father had planned would last forever.
But as tragedy struck again and again, the children would have to cope with death and disaster.

Based on private home movies and the memoirs of the nannies who looked after them, this is the inside story of growing up in one of the twentieth century's most powerful families.

Documentary which celebrates 125 years of Wimbledon history, featuring archive of the tournament's most memorable moments and illuminating interviews with the key players and famous fans. The memories are plentiful: the champions, the fierce rivalries, the tantrums, the British expectation, the weather, the fashions. Wimbledon is the place gladiators like Borg and McEnroe, Federer and Nadal went head to head, where Mahut and Isner played for days and Novotna cried on Centre Court. It's where traditions are challenged but never forgotten, where the greats have been crowned and where even Sir Cliff Richard has entertained the crowds during the rain. Featuring contributions from John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graff, Roger Federer, Boris Becker, Bille Jean King, the Williams sisters, Rafa Nadal, plus celebrity fans like Sir Cliff Richard and Stephen Fry.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, historian Professor David Reynolds re-assesses Stalin's role in the life and death struggle between Germany and Russia in World War Two, which, he argues, was ultimately more critical for British survival than 'Our Finest Hour' in the Battle of Britain itself.

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the ancient Christian practice of preserving holy relics and the largely forgotten art form that went with it, the reliquary. Fragments of bone or fabric placed inside a bejewelled shrine, a sculpted golden head or even a life-sized silver hand were, and still are, objects of religious devotion believed to have the power to work miracles. Most precious of all, though, are relics of Jesus Christ and the programme also features three reliquaries containing the holiest of all relics - those associated with the Crucifixion.

The story of relics and reliquaries is a 2,000-year history of faith, persecution and hope, reflected in some of the most beautiful and little known works of art ever made. Featuring interviews with art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum.

In 2009, over a hundred former pupils from two Catholic prep schools in England and Tanzania were reunited via the internet. Chatting in cyberspace, they discovered they had all suffered terrible abuse at school: mental, physical and, in some cases, sexual. As young children they were frightened into silence by their abusers.

Now, as men in their fifties and sixties, and strengthened by the group, they want the truth to come out. Twenty two men have started legal proceedings against the Rosminian Order for compensation. They want justice. But half a century has passed, and their abusers are now elderly. What will it take to repair the damage and for the victims to feel able to move on?

The teenage search for sophistication is recalled in this bittersweet film about the people we were and the luxury items we thought would give us the keys to the kingdom.

In the first of three programmes to mark ten years since the invasion of Afghanistan, key decision makers reveal the inside story of how the West was drawn ever deeper into the Afghan war. Reporter John Ware charts the history of a decade of fighting and looks at when the conflict may end.

Mark Urban tells the inside story of Britain's fight for Helmand, told with unique access to the generals and frontline troops who were there.

A journey through the parts of Afghanistan that don't normally feature in news coverage to meet some amazing people and see fascinating places. Lyse Doucet uses her many years experience in Afghanistan to show a different side of a country which has been at war for 30 years.

Morgan Neville's full-length documentary is James Taylor and Carole King's first-hand account of the genesis and blossoming of the 1970s singer-songwriter culture in LA, focusing on the backgrounds and emerging collaboration between Taylor, King and the Troubadour, the famed West Hollywood club that nurtured a community of gifted young artists and singer-songwriters.

Taylor and King first performed together at the Troubadour in November 1970, and the film explores their coming together and the growth of a new, personal voice in songwriting pioneered by a small group of fledgling artists around the club. Contributors include Taylor, King, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Krist

Art critic Alastair Sooke tracks down the ten most expensive paintings to sell at auction, and investigates the stories behind the astronomic prices art can reach. Gaining access to the glittering world of the super-rich, Sooke discovers why the planet's richest people want to spend their millions on art.

Featuring works by Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Klimt and Rubens, Sooke enters a world of secrecy and rivalry, passion and power. Highlights include a visit to the art-crammed home of millionaire author Lord Archer; a rare interview with the man at the heart of the sale of the most expensive old master of all time; privileged access to auctioneers Christie's; and a glimpse of the world of the Russian oligarchs.

These revelatory journeys allow Sooke to present an eye-opening view of the super wealthy, and their motivations as collectors of the world's great art treasures.

Julia Bradbury heads for Iceland to embark on the toughest walk of her life. Her challenge is to walk the 60 kilometres of Iceland's most famous hiking route, a trail that just happens to end at the unpronounceable volcano that brought air traffic across Europe to a standstill in 2010 . With the help of Icelandic mountain guide Hanna, Julia faces daunting mountain climbs, red hot lava fields, freezing river crossings, deadly clouds of sulphuric gas, swirling ash deserts and sinister Nordic ghost stories as she attempts to reach the huge volcanic crater at the centre of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier.

Only the most charismatic are known by just one name. Known to his adoring public simply as 'Seve', Severiano Ballesteros took the world of golf by storm and transcended the sport, with his magnetic personality and sublime skill.

Presented by Gary Lineker, this heart-warming tribute celebrates Seve's life and features exclusive footage of the man himself.

Handsome, flamboyant and passionate, Seve strode the fairways for 30 years. He won the greatest honours in the game including three Open Championships and two Masters titles, often playing miraculous escape shots that held galleries in awe, from St Andrews to Augusta.

He became a European talisman in the Ryder Cup, on the winning side four times as a player, and memorably, once as a captain on the Spanish course of Valderrama.

Tragically at the age of just 54, Seve lost his painful battle with brain cancer earlier this year. His foundation had already raised millions for cancer charities, ensuring his legacy will live on.

Featuring contributions from Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rafa Nadal, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sir Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Greg Norman, HRH Prince Andrew , Sir Bruce Forsyth, Des Lynam and Peter Alliss.

Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins celebrates the humble and sometimes hated plants we call weeds. He discovers that there is no such thing as a weed, botanically speaking, and that in fact what we call a weed has changed again and again over the last three hundred years. Chris uncovers the story of our changing relationship with weeds - in reality, the story of the battle between wilderness and civilisation. He finds out how weeds have been seen as beautiful and useful in the past, and sees how their secrets are being unlocked today in order to transform our crops.
Finally, Chris asks whether, in our quest to eliminate Japanese Knotweed or Rhododendron Ponticum, we are really engaged in an arms race we can never win. We remove weeds from our fields and gardens at our peril.