Last Watched

Let there be Life

   2014    Science
Professor of physics Jim Al-Khalili investigates the most accurate and yet perplexing scientific theory ever - quantum physics, the perplexing theory of sub-atomic particles. Turning his attention to the world of nature, can quantum mechanics explain the greatest mysteries in biology? The European robin navigates using one of the most bizarre effects in physics - quantum entanglement, a process which seems to defy common sense. Jim finds that even the most personal of human experiences - our sense of smell - is touched by ethereal quantum vibrations. According to new experiments it seems that our quantum noses are listening to smells. Jim discovers that the most famous law of quantum physics - the uncertainty principle - is obeyed by plants and trees as they capture sunlight during the vital process of photosynthesis. Jim wonders if the strange laws of the sub-atomic world, which allow objects to tunnel through impassable barriers in defiance of common sense, could effect the mechanism by which living species evolve?
Series: The Secrets of Quantum Physics

Level Up

   2020    Technology
Nintendo goes 3D with Star Fox. Wolfenstein 3D popularizes the first-person shooter format, while Doom ups the ante with networked gaming. 'High Score' is a crash course on the golden age of gaming filled with insightful interviews, brilliant writing, and most importantly, an inspiring and inclusive message.
Series: High Score

Liberation and Revenge

   2005    History
Last in series about the Nazi concentration camp looks at the fate of the remaining prisoners and their guards. Uncovers how many survivors faced appalling treatment in their home countries and how many guards escaped justice.
Series: Auschwitz The Nazis and the Final Solution

Liberation of Buchenwald

   2020    History
Hitler’s rise to power was a unique moment in history. Germany suffered a humiliating defeat in WWI; now it's crippled by massive war reparations. Hitler offers a scapegoat: the Jews. The Nazis are quick to institute anti-Semitic laws and stoke distrust of the Jews. Anyone deemed 'undesirable,' from political opponents, to the handicapped, gypsies and Jews are sent to camps. There they are either worked to death, starved or executed. But just how much did the rest of the world know of what was going on?
Series: Greatest Events of WWII in Colour

Liberty Leading the People

   2005    Art
Artists, academics, and critics discuss the historical origins, original reception, and slow climb to critical acclaim for Eugene Delacroix's painting commemorating the Revolution of 1830, 'Liberty Leading the People.'
A woman of the people with a phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads the people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolour, which again became France's national flag after these events – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne.
Series: The Private Life of a Masterpiece

Libraries Gave Us Power

   2012    Art
The story of the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection reaches its end with the last great flowering of illumination, in the magnificent courts of the Tudors. Dr Janina Ramirez investigates astrological texts created for Henry VII, and unwraps his will - still in its original, extravagantly-decorated velvet and gold cover. She hears music written for Henry VIII, which went unperformed for centuries; and reads love notes between the king and Anne Boleyn, written in the margins of a prayer book. Nina also visits Bruges, the source of many of the greatest manuscripts, where this medieval art form collided with the artistic innovations of the Renaissance.
Series: Illuminations: the private lives of medieval kings