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Unlocking the Great Pyramid

   2008    History
When ancient architects completed construction on the Great Pyramid at Giza, they left behind the greatest riddle of the engineering world—how did builders lift limestone blocks weighing an average of two and a half tons 480 feet up onto the top of the Pyramid? For centuries, adventurers and Egyptologists have crawled through every passageway and chamber of the Pyramid, measuring and collecting data in an attempt to determine how it was built. For the first time, a revolutionary theory argues that the answer may be inside the Pyramid. Architect Jean-Pierre Houdin and Egyptologist Bob Brier use 3-D software to unlock the secret.

Unmasking Jihadi John

   2019    Culture
This feature documentary tells the story of Mohammed Emwazi's journey from being an ordinary London boy to becoming terrorist 'Jihadi John', and the intelligence operatives' attempts to catch him by the US and British military and intelligence services.
It explores the twisted worldview espoused by ISIS - the richest and most notorious Islamist terrorist organization in history - and its propaganda machine which was operated by "Jihadi millennials" who turned social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube into recruitment platforms. Told through extraordinary first-hand accounts of key counter-terrorism and intelligence officials who identified "Jihadi John" and the voices of Muslim community leaders who worked with parents whose radicalized children fled places such as the US and Britain to join ISIS on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq.

Utica

       History
The defeated Cato and Scipio fall back on the African city of Utica after the Battle of Thapsus where they decide to end it all. Caesar, after two years of fighting in Greece and Egypt, returns to Rome and receives a hero's welcome.
Meanwhile, Servilia's cold rage against the Julii clan makes Brutus's submission to Caesar even more painful. Octavian returns home from military school and Caesar, impressed with his nephew's incisive political acumen, appoints him a pontiff despite his youth.
Series: Rome

Van Gogh Painted with Words

   2010    History
Drama-documentary presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role as Van Gogh. Every word spoken by the actors in this film is sourced from the letters that Van Gogh sent to his younger brother Theo, and of those around him. What emerges is a complex portrait of a sophisticated, civilised and yet tormented man. The film won a Rockie for Best Arts Documentary at the Banff World Media Festival in 2011, receiving critical acclaim for its fascinating insight into the life of the artist and its unique approach to storytelling.

Vavilov

   2020    Nature
The fourth episode sees host Neil deGrasse Tyson exploring our eternal quest to end hunger and honoring Nikolai Ivanovic Vavilov, pioneer of modern plant breeding, who risked his life for a discovery that would change the history of science. Vavilov's story is marked by both the tenacity and creativity and is particularly tragic. Interwoven into Vavilov's somber narrative are warnings and treatments of science and its ethical implications, especially when science itself comes under attack from political forces.
Series: Cosmos: Possible Worlds

Vengeance

   2005    History
This programme describes the Red Army's dramatic advance and the German's brutal resistance. Witnesses reveal how the final days of the conflict were barbarous almost beyond comprehension.
Series: War of the Century