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The Arctic Ocean

   2009    Nature
With much of it covered in ice all year round and with no daylight from October to March, the Arctic Ocean is one of the world's most remarkable oceans. Its home to a multitude of unique life forms, all highly adapted to cope with the extreme and seasonal conditions. The impacts of climate change are more strongly felt here than anywhere else in the world.
Series: Oceans

The Armstrong Lie

   2013    Culture
Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) masterfully explores the fall of the disgraced cycling champion following the 2009 Tour de France, making use of his extraordinary access to attain rare interviews with former teammates, alleged doping mastermind Dr. Michele Ferrari, and Armstrong himself. What was Lance Armstrong thinking? For years, after seizing international fame as the cancer survivor who won seven Tour de France titles, he fiercely denied accusations that he used performance-enhancing drugs. He used his power to aggressively litigate journalists and publicly humiliate former friends who claimed otherwise. His deceit finally cracked in January 2013, when he admitted guilt to Oprah Winfrey in a television interview that critics decried for only scratching the surface. Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney approaches Armstrong with unique and extraordinary access. In 2009, Gibney was commissioned to make a film about Armstrong's return to the Tour de France, four years after the racing champion had declared retirement. That race would later stir up devastating evidence in the case against Armstrong. But Gibney came away from the experience unable to reconcile the discrepancy between doping allegations and Armstrong's emphatic denials. Then, post-Oprah, Gibney went back to Armstrong for new interviews to extract a more detailed account of his double life. In The Armstrong Lie, Gibney masterfully explores the complexities of the case, interweaving the dramatic action of the 2009 Tour de France, when Armstrong found himself unexpectedly competing against his own teammate Alberto Contador. Gibney attains rare interviews with Armstrong's former teammates and alleged doping mastermind Dr. Michele Ferrari. The film also raises troubling questions about the process of doping regulation. Recently, when asked to give advice to documentary filmmakers, Gibney responded with a motto exemplified by this film: "Embrace contradictions."

The Beatles: Made on Merseyside

   2018    Art
They defined music and popular culture like no other band ever will - but how did The Beatles make the journey from Merseyside teenagers to international pop stars in the 1960s? Made on Merseyside - The Beatles discovers how American rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues dragged post-war Liverpool into one of the most vibrant music cities ever with the Mersey Sound.
Featuring revealing interviews from those involved in the early years of The Beatles in Liverpool and Hamburg and unique archive, the incredible story of The Beatles' previous band formations and why it took so long for them to achieve success makes riveting viewing. From school bands, to colleges; Hamburg to The Cavern Club, The Beatles changed the world of pop music forever, but was Pete Best's sacking from the band and Ringo's replacement the final part of the jigsaw?

The Beginning

   2011    History
Vintage footage from the Vietnam war is presented along with narration from both war veterans and Hollywood voice talent. The documentary follows key events and their impact on both the war effort and the American public.
The Beginning: The first episode looks at the early months of the Vietnam war from the escalation following the Gulf of Tonkin incident to the grim fighting of the Battle of Ia Drang where a few hundred American soldiers are pinned down by three battalions of North Vietnamese infantry. Using superior air power and reinforcements, the Americans fight the North Vietnamese to a draw.
Series: Vietnam in HD

The Big Freeze

   1993    Nature
As almost all animal inhabitants of Antarctica are forced to migrate north, the sea underneath the frozen ice still provides a home to many specially adapted fish whose cells are protected from freezing through an 'antifreeze' liquid. Many of them feed on the faeces of other animals. The most notable larger animal that does not migrate north is perhaps the Weddell Seal, which can be found as close as 1300 kilometres to the pole. Groups of seals tear holes into the ice to dive for food and come up to breathe. The females come back to the ice to give birth. This episode also describes primitive plant life such as lichen, which can still be found on the continent in winter, even in the extremely dry and permanently frozen valleys conditions under which dead animals can lie frozen for many centuries without decomposing. It details the life of the Emperor Penguin, 'the only birds to lay their eggs directly on ice'. While other animals retreat, Emperors migrate not just to the ice, but into the Antarctic continent. The females lay eggs which are incubated by the males under the harshest conditions on Earth (huddling closely together for warmth), while the females return to the sea.
Series: Life in the Freezer