Construction of the famous Basilica in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudi, was started in 1882. To this day, it has not been completed. The architecture is one of such creative madness, originality, and fantasy, that it has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. After years of piecing back together Gaudi’s master plan with advancements in computer technology and design, architects have been able to pursue the building, started 140 years ago. However, as construction progresses, some of its greatest challenges have yet to be surmounted, including the construction of 10 more spires. The team hopes to complete the masterpiece by 2026, Gaudi’s 100 year anniversary. This film documents the complexities of respecting the original inspiration and techniques set forth by Gaudi over a century ago. Juxtaposing sequences shot in the midst of the cathedral as construction ensues, with reenactments and CGI images, the documentary draws you into Gaudi’s paradise on earth, from the origins of its inspiration to the most recent architectural additions.
Humans are so clever they’ve built their own habitat, designed to keep wild nature out. Yet as we discover the urban environment is totally dependant on the natural world. Over the three years of filming for Human Planet, the teams have spent time with over seventy different communities in countries across the planet. Despite seeing many different ways of living, there are some aspects of family life that remain the same whether you live in a tree house in West Papua, or a brick house in Bolton. These similarities became very clear when the urban team went to film on a rubbish dump in Kenya. Here on the Kibarani dump on the outskirts of Mombasa, Ali, Ashe and their family live and survive amongst the rubbish, and even here, just like anywhere on the planet, everything stops for a nice cup of tea!
D-Day: As It Happens is a 24-hour history event to be broadcast across TV, web, mobile devices and social media, telling the story of this pivotal event in 20th-century history in a completely new way. Using newly-analysed archive footage, viewers can track the progress of seven people who were there on the day, each of them a real participant in the 1944 invasion. And they can do so moment by moment in real time, encountering the twists and turns of the fighting at the same time as the D-Day seven did, and learning their fate as the action unfolds in parallel with the present, Narrated by Peter Snow, with Channel 4 presenter and former marine Arthur Williams, and experts including former British Army officer Colonel Tim Collins and front-line journalist Lorna Ward. The second programme reveals what happened to the seven real people the event is following in real time, and also rounds up the events of D-Day.
The Milky Way, our galaxy, is a magnificent sight in the night sky, but we know surprisingly little about it for certain. What is its shape? How many stars does it actually contain? What lies at its centre? The Gaia space telescope will answer these questions, being armed with the most advanced camera to leave our planet, and it will allow us to see our galaxy as we've never seen it before. The Sky at Night visits the factory in Chelmsford that made the astonishing sensor at the heart of the mission.
Led by Prince William, founder of The Earthshot Prize and featuring Sir David Attenborough and other members of the Earthshot Prize Council, the series looks past the problems we face and onto the solutions that promise to deliver us all a sustainable world in which both nature and humanity can thrive. In the first episode, David Attenborough introduces us to inspiring people with solutions to help restore nature, and reveals the three finalists of the first ever Earthshot Prize for Nature.
Professor Brian Cox concludes his exploration of our place in the universe by asking what next for the ape that went to space. Our future is far from certain. In Florida, Brian joins the latest efforts to protect Earth from potential catastrophic events. He joins a team of Nasa astronauts who are training for a future mission to an asteroid - should we ever discover one coming our way - under 30 feet of water in a submerged laboratory that simulates space. It is just one example of how, for our long-term survival, space exploration may well be vital. It is a view shared by Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, who tells Brian what it was like to escape the confines of the planet. It is a dream that both Nasa and now commercial companies share as they race to get humans back into deep space. But space travel, like every leap our civilisation has ever made, requires energy. Here too, scientists are hard at work attempting to safeguard our future. At the National Ignition Facility in California, Brian witnesses the world's most successful fusion experiment in action. He believes that if their mission succeeds, our civilisation will have unlocked a way to the stars that will not destroy the planet in the process. Brian concludes by returning to the top of the world in Svalbard, where he gains access to our civilisation's greatest treasure, locked away in a vault buried deep in the permafrost.
This film documents the complexities of respecting the original inspiration and techniques set forth by Gaudi over a century ago. Juxtaposing sequences shot in the midst of the cathedral as construction ensues, with reenactments and CGI images, the documentary draws you into Gaudi’s paradise on earth, from the origins of its inspiration to the most recent architectural additions.