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Private Notes
Great Natural Wonders of the World focuses on natural landscapes rather than wildlife. This show spends an hour highlighting some of the greatest visions of the world ever seen. It is arranged by continent and specifically covers the following:
* North America - Deserts, canyonlands, Death Valley, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mesas, the Grand Canyon and Limestone Caves
* South America - Amazon River, Angel Falls, the Andes and glaciers
* Pacific Ocean - Hawaiian volcanos & Coral Atolls
* Asia - Mt Fuji, Guilin & the Himalayas
* Europe - Alps, Rivers, Ice Caves, the Northern Lights
* Africa - Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorogoro, Rift Valley & the Negev Desert
* Australasia - Olgas, Uluru, Deserts, 12 Apostles (before one fell over recently), Kimberleys, Great Barrier Reef, New Zealand's mountains and fjords
* Antarctica
Dramatised documentary describing how the Great Pyramid of Giza - the only one of the Seven Ancient Wonders to survive to the present day - was built.
A documentary about Tourettes sufferer John Davidson. This is a follow-up to the 1989 TV documentary John's Not Mad focusing on his present circumstances as an adult with Tourettes and the impact the earlier documentary had on his life. The film also follows an 8 year old who has been diagnosed with Tourettes.
Michael Palin presents a profile of the television career of David Attenborough, from controller of BBC Two to his wildlife programmes such as Life on Earth and The Blue Planet.
Actress Anna Chancellor, a distant relative of Jane Austen, discovers the woman behind the acclaimed novels through readings and reconstructions. Location shots of her homes in Steventon and Chawton and extracts from adaptations of her work are also featured.
A documentary film examining the reasons behind artist Michael Landy's decision to systematically destroy all of his possessions.
The documentary examines the life of Michel Houellebecq, Europe's controversial and dangerous writer, who offends people with his razor sharp attacks on modern life and is adored as a genius and a visionary.
With more than 100 television documentaries and over a thousand radio documentaries, Ray Gosling's name - and his reputation - were known to millions.
But five years ago Gosling's face no longer fitted. Then when his partner Bryn became ill and later died, Ray's life fell apart. With mounting unpaid bills and debts, he found himself facing bankruptcy.
In a moving and humorous portrait, Bankrupt: Ray Gosling follows Ray as he battles to save his home against mounting pressure from the VAT man and the Inland Revenue.
A documentary looking at the backgrounds of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, and the production of the former's film "The Great Dictator".
Frida Kahlo is now the most successful Latin American artist that the world has ever seen. However, when she died in 1954 she was almost unknown.
Tim Niel's film explores the life and afterlife of the iconic painter and includes interviews with Frida's friends and family, Tracey Emin and Salma Hayek, who plays Kalho in a new feature film.
Jimmy Page, Brad Pitt and Chrissie Hynde are among the contributors to this one-off documentary that looks at the talented singer and songwriter Jeff Buckley who drowned five years ago aged 30.
The film explores what shaped Jeff Buckley, what he might have become and his personal and musical legacy.
Critic William Feaver explores the complex civilisation of the Aztecs.
A documentary, narrated by the late Richard Harris, exploring the roots of Arthurian legend. Historian Geoffrey Ashe is interviewed about the legend and the historical events that inspired it,while Harris (who played Arthur on stage and screen) narrates on location.
David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party and Sinn Fein's Tom Hartley explore the issue of war and memory as they walk the WWI killing fields of Northern France and Flanders.
The date is 1959. The place is Le Mans racing circuit, France. A little known Texan racing driver, Carrol Shelby, wins the most prestigious event in motor racing at his first attempt and is universally acclaimed as one of the best drivers in the world. But Shelby had a secret that was to prevent him ever driving again.
This is the comeback story of a man driven by the desire to beat the world on the race track, and specifically to beat the might of motor racing, Ferrari. From his base in California with only a team of hot rodders for support, in three years Shelby put together a car that would take on the world and win. The Shelby Cobra, as it was known, is still an automotive icon today.
Nick Knowles explores the facts and the fiction behind the legendary Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot.
Recognised as a hugely influential prophet in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Moses outlined a basis for morality which has lasted over 3,000 years. Using the latest scientific evidence and dramatic reconstruction, Jeremy Bowen chronicles the life of the great spiritual leader, finds explanations for some of the miraculous events that were recorded, and assesses his legacy.
Earlier this year 20,000 members of the public cast their vote on what they saw as the locations everyone should visit at least once. The result is a definitive wishlist of global hotspots. In addition to the top 50, four viewers file a report from their favourite place.
Historian John Brewer explores the rich culture of 18th-century London, and traces the birth of Georgian society.
How the contents of an enigmatic book unearthed in an Italian monastery in 1912 has confounded scientists and code-breakers.
During the 80’s snooker was number 1 televised sport, with the legendary 1985 World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis reaching 18.6 million viewers, a third of the UK population. When Snooker Ruled The World charts the rise of snooker as the UK’s most popular sport and the heroes and villains that helped it build such a huge audience.
David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party and Sinn Fein's Tom Hartley explore the issue of war and memory as they walk the WWI killing fields of Northern France and Flanders.
30 years ago Britain's longest political trial ended at the Old Bailey with 10 year jail sentences for four young revolutionary anarchists.
They were members of the Angry Brigade; a clandestine urban guerrilla group who, for a few short years in the early 1970s, went on a bombing spree that brought terror to the heart of the British political establishment. Targets included senior Government ministers, captains of industry and top ranking policeman.
The Angry Brigade is a dramatised documentary which reconstructs the key moments and events of the time told through the eyes of one of the main members of the group.
The programme explores how these largely middle class students made the journey from hippie idealists to urban terrorists and the police investigation that finally cracked them.
With the possible exception of the pyramids, Pompeii is arguably the foremost archaeological site in the consciousness of a European television audience. So how would you make a new programme about this Roman city that could be termed truly innovative without compromising the integrity of the archaeology?
The Private Lives of Pompeii concentrated on the people that lived and worked in Pompeii at the time of its destruction, as depicted in the archaeology of their houses, their tombs and the surviving documents that relate to them. Rather than use a presenter, the programme uses three story-lines plaited together to form a clever multi vocal commentary. A female narrator (voice over) introduces us to the themes and ideas that lie behind the structure of the Roman society of Pompeii, themes which are then played out by actors illustrating the private lives of four key characters. A third commentary endorses what the viewer has seen and heard by relaying evidence through interviews with historians and archaeologists.
The drama unfolds in the years between the earthquake of AD62 an the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79, a time, we are told, of uncertainty and change. An intense atmosphere is created through the re-enactments which are staged in the surviving streets and houses of Pompeii itself; thus curiosity about the private individuals elegantly leads us at the same time to the structure of Pompeian society and to many of the town's most important buildings. The digital effects only make their presence fully felt near the end of the programme when they are used to illustrate the work of the Pompeii Forum Project. Digital enhancement is used throughout the programme and is now extremely subtle: for archaeological viewers a clear distinction between the virtual and the real is likely to become an increasingly important issue.
This was a complex and intelligent programme which stretched the medium and chivvied the televisually slothful viewer to keep up, while stri
Peter Snow presents highlights from today's three deep-sea dives around the world. In 2002 BBC organized three concurrent dives , first in Monterey Bay where unmanned submersible is lowered into underwater canyon which is over mile deep.
Second dive is in Grand Cayman where submersible Atlantis will explore life at the spectacular Cayman Wall , Kate Humble reports . During the dive, the crew used bait to attract a deep-water giant, the six-gill shark.
Third dive takes place in middle of the Atlantic 1200 miles west of Portugal, which is also deepest of the three dives, divers will descent in Russian submersible Mir from research vessel Keldish and the Mir will dive in the bottom of the ocean in 2300 metres .
News 24's coverage of 11 September.
In the Spring of 1980 heavily armed terrorists force their way into the Iranian Embassy in London. They demand the release of their comrades in Iran or they will kill all the hostages. After one of the hostages is executed by the terrorists, Margaret Thatcher ordered the SAS, Britain's elite counter terrorist unit to storm the building. Millions watched stunned, as live on air, the assault took place.
"A Very English Genius" is a documentary telling the story of how Michael Ventris became obsessed with the quest of cracking the earliest known writing system, Linear B, which originated in Greece. The documentary begins with his introduction to the ancient script, on a school trip to a museam, continues through his endeavours to crack the language, and ends with his unexplained death, providing various theories to what exactly caused his final demise.
Danny Baker and Danny Kelly take a nostalgic look back at some dramatic encounters between footballing Davids and Goliaths, focusing on those FA Cup matches in which, confounding all the odds, the underdogs prevailed.
John Beattie presents a profile of legendary rugby commentator Bill McLarem as he retires from the BBC.
While Joseph Mallord William Turner is considered by many to be Britain's greatest landscape painter, his private life reveals a man of extremes and contradictions. This docudrama explores the extraordinary story of a brilliant self-made man.
In the past the green iguanas of Central America have been used in movies to depict dinosaurs. This film explores how the social lives of these modern lizards may hold the clue to the behaviour of dinosaurs. Narrated by David Attenborough
On 1 July 1952, a 30-year-old architect called Michael Ventris made a BBC radio broadcast which was to secure his place in archaeological and history books forever. He announced that he'd deciphered Linear B, Europe's earliest known, and previously incomprehensible, writing system. His discovery was to revolutionise our understanding of Western civilisation.
It was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Ventris was no more than an amateur enthusiast, a man passionately and often tortuously determined to crack the linguistic code which had puzzled experts, archaeologists and academics for three decades.
"Henry Kissinger is a war criminal," says firebrand journalist Christopher Hitchens. "He's a liar. And he's personally responsible for murder, for kidnapping, for torture." What is Hitchens on about? He could be talking about the lawsuit currently under way in Washington DC, in which Kissinger is charged with having authorised the assassination of a Chilean general in 1970. Or he could be referring to the secret bombing of Cambodia which, arguably, Kissinger engineered without the knowledge of the US Congress in 1969. Or perhaps Kissinger's involvement in the sale of U.S. weapons to Indonesian President Suharto for use in the massacre of 1/3 of the population of East Timor in 1975.
These and several other recent charges have cast a haunting shadow on the reputation of a man long seen as the most famous diplomat of his age, the Nobel Laureate who secured peace in Vietnam, who secretly opened relations between the US and China, and who now, more than a quarter-century out of office, remains a central player on the world stage, only recently voted the number one public intellectual of the 20th century.
Featuring previously unseen footage, newly declassified US government documents, and revealing interviews with key insiders to the events in question, The Trials of Henry Kissinger examines the charges facing him, shedding light on a career long shrouded in secrecy. In part, it explores how a young boy who fled Nazi Germany grew up to become one of the most powerful men in US history and now, in the autumn of his life, one of its most disputed figures.
Conductor Charles Hazlewood explores the life of composer Antonio Vivaldi, examining the development of his music and his most famous work, The Four Seasons. Having mastered the violin and been hailed a child prodigy, the ordained priest and teacher went on to court scandal by embarking on a passionate affair with a much younger woman, and ended his life penniless and far from home.
Brian Hanrahan reminisces about his experiences while covering the Falklands War in 1982.
In 1987, the BBC commissioned a play to mark the fifth anniversary of the Falklands conflict. But the play was not shown until 2002. This documentary examines the political furore surrounding the decision not to show it and talks to the main players in the drama.
In the face of war, Dan Cruickshank explores the wonders of a once-great civilisation, discovering monuments to rival the pyramids, treasure that outshines Tutankhamun's and even magical ancient sculptures of naked cavorting women, heroically hidden from the Taliban.
Afghanistan stands at the crossroads of western and eastern civilisation, but its brilliance has been clouded by centuries of conflict - from the conquering armies of Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan to occupation by the British and the Russians and finally the rise of the Taliban.
Travelling the most land-mined country in the world, dodging rival warlords and gangs of gunmen, Dan reveals for the first time the cultural tragedy of Afghanistan. But as he climbs the terribly scarred cliff face of the destroyed giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, he glimpses symbols of great hope for a lost civilisation.
A nostalgic look back at the heroes and villains that helped snooker become the UK's number one televised sport of the 1980s. (2002)
