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Frozen Planet: Summer

   2011    Nature
It is high summer in the Polar Regions, and the sun never sets. Vast hordes of summer visitors cram a lifetime of drama into one long, magical day; they must feed, fight and rear their young in this brief window of plenty. Summer is a tough time for the polar bear family, as their ice world melts away and the cubs take their first swimming lesson. Some bears save energy by dozing on icy sun beds, while others go egg-collecting in an Arctic tern colony, braving bombardment by sharp beaks. There are even bigger battles on the tundra; a herd of musk oxen gallop to the rescue as a calf is caught in a life and death struggle with a pair of Arctic wolves. But summer also brings surprises, as a huge colony of 400,000 king penguins cope with an unlikely problem - heat. The adults go surfing, while the woolly-coated chicks take a cooling mud bath. Nearby, a bull fur seal is prepared to fight to the death with a rival. Fur flies as the little pups struggle desperately to keep out of the way of the duelling giants. Further south, a minke whale is hunted amongst the ice floes by a family of killer whales. The dramatic chase lasts over 2 hours and has never been filmed before. The killers harry the minke whale, taking it in turns to wear it down. Eventually it succumbs to the relentless battering. Finally, comical adelie penguins waddle back to their half a million strong colony like clockwork toys. The fluffy chicks need constant feeding and protection as piratical skuas patrol the skies. When an unguarded chick is snatched, a dramatic "dogfight" ensues.
Series: Frozen Planet

Fukushima Is Nuclear Power Safe

   2011    Technology
Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to discover whether nuclear power is safe. He begins in Japan, at the former Fukushima nuclear plant, where he meets some of the tens of thousands of people who have been evacuated from the exclusion zone. He travels to an abandoned village just outside the zone to witness a nuclear clean-up operation. Jim draws on the latest scientific findings from Japan and from the previous explosion at Chernobyl to understand how dangerous the release of radiation is likely to be and what that means for our trust in nuclear power.

Gallipoli to the Syrian Border

   2017    Culture
Travel writer Simon Reeve embarks upon two long-distance journeys across Turkey, exploring this dramatic and beautiful country that now finds itself at the centre of world events. In this programme, he visits Istanbul and the beaches and crystal clear waters of the Aegean Sea, before ending up at the war-torn border with Syria.
In the region thought to have been the origin of the first vineyards, Simon meets a producer now trying to sell wine in a Muslim country with an increasingly conservative government. In Istanbul, he meets some of the people shaping modern Turkey, from loyal supporters of the nation's controversial and authoritarian president to the master builder constructing one of the world's largest mosques and the notorious billionaire cashing in on a Turkish property boom.
Along Turkey's famous Turquoise Coast, Simon has a taste of luxury at the country's most expensive hotel, but discovers an industry on its knees as war in Syria and deadly terror attacks keep millions of holidaymakers away.
Series: Turkey with Simon Reeve

Ghosts of the Crusades

       History
The series Warrior Graveyard uncovers some extraordinary warrior skeletons from history. Archaeologists and forensic scientists use remains to tell the story of famous warriors of the past and unleash the full force of modern forensics upon them: battle scars, bone deformations and recoverable scraps of DNA will all be tested and explored. CGI and drama will then bring them dramatically to life, revealing a revolutionary new picture of how these warriors lived - and died.
An archaeological and forensic examination of six crusaders' bones brings to life the 1179 Battle of Jacob's Ford, revealing the wounds that killed the warriors in the Holy Land. With every sword slash comes an insight into an historic day. Excavations along the Israel/ Jordan border are unearthing skeletons and rewriting the history of the First Crusade. The site at Jacob's Ford is the only known Crusader battle site with complete skeletons. To secure the road between Akkon and Damascus, King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem had a mighty castle built at the Jacob's Ford of the Jordan River in October 1178. The fortress was a thorn in the side of Sultan Saladin, so he had it stormed a year later, before it was completed.
Excavations have been taking place on the site of the legendary crusader castle since the early 1990s. Archaeologists and forensic experts have examined the remains of six fallen crusaders and uncovered fascinating details about the Battle of Chastellet. The programme has secured access to the excavation and remains of some of the 80 Crusader Knights and 750 foot soldiers stationed at the fort when it was attacked and its Crusaders massacred by Saladin's army in 1179, in the battle that changed the course of history in the Middle East.
Series: Warrior Graveyard

Glastonbury: 50 Years and Counting

   2022    Art
Three years in the making, Francis Whately’s film is a social and musical history of (probably) the world’s greatest music festival, as told by its principal curators, Michael and Emily Eavis, and many of the key artists who’ve appeared there between 1970 and 2019 – Billie Eilish, Thom Yorke, Florence Welch, Dua Lipa, The Levellers, Aswad, Orbital, Fatboy Slim, Linda Lewis, Noel Gallagher, Ed O’Brien, Chris Martin, Stormzy and more.
Balancing the driving forces of social conscience and hedonism, Glastonbury has always been both a world apart and a barometer of the state of the nation. Looking at the hippie days, CND, the contribution of the travellers, dance music, Britpop, The Wall, the impact of television and the first black British solo headliner, this film takes viewers backstage and deep into the archive to reveal the forces that have driven this alternative nation between utopia and dystopia, the greatest night of your life and a muddy field in the middle of nowhere.
This is not a chronological plod through the festival’s evolution so much as a thematic and story-driven exploration of the peaks and troughs, and the agonies and ecstasies, that have shaped Glastonbury’s 50 years and counting.

God and the Universe

   2011    Science    3D
Since the dawn of civilization, humans have wondered who or what created the universe. Religion offers a spiritual answer, but do the latest discoveries in physics show evidence of a transcendent intelligence, or simply that the laws of physics by themselves could have led to the universe in which we live? This episode embarks on a mind-bending scientific search for God, asking physicists and theologians if the seemingly miraculous way the universe has been calibrated to support life is evidence of a creator...whether string theory will eventually be able to rule out the existence of God...why Stephen Hawking says the universe could have been created spontaneously...and how an advanced civilization in another universe could have conceivably created our own.
Series: The Universe