History

The film depicts the life and work of opera singer Maria Callas in her own words by using performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoirs nearly all of which have never been shown to the public.
Maria by Callas reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest artists of all time. Her letters and unpublished memoirs are read by opera singer Joyce DiDonato. (Click CC for subtitles)

According to recent science the Neanderthals are not the knuckle-dragging apemen of popular imagination. The first part of the film investigates what Neanderthals looked like and how they lived in their Ice Age world. They were faster, smarter, better looking - and much more like us than we ever thought. Our guide is Ella Al-Shamahi, who enlists the skills of Andy Serkis, the master of performance capture, and a group of experts to investigate deeply Neanderthals appearance.
In the second part, Ella explores the fate of the Neanderthals - asking why they became extinct, and discovering how they live on inside of us today. About 2% of the DNA of most people is of Neanderthal origin - and it continues to affect us today. Neanderthals were a people who were supremely well adapted to their environment. But about 40,000 years ago they disappeared. Why?

This featured film takes a humorous but incisive look at the best-selling instrumentalist of all time – and quite possibly one of the most famous living musicians. Listening to Kenny G investigates the artist born Kenny Gorelick – who took the pop charts by storm with his 1986 breakthrough single, 'Songbird' – exploring his talent for playing jazz so smoothly that a whole new genre, 'Smooth Jazz,' formed around him, and questioning fundamental assumptions about art and excellence.
In his own words, Kenny G speaks candidly about his musical background, his stringent work ethic, and his controversial standing in the jazz canon – along with insights from fans and critics alike.

Dr Janina Ramirez embarks on a journey through six decades of the BBC archives to create a television history of one of the most celebrated figures in art - Leonardo Da Vinci. Ramirez shows how experts and art presenters have turned to television to bring Leonardo's artwork out of galleries and into our living rooms. Through television they have explored the origins of Leonardo's boundless curiosity, his pioneering use of light and shade, and his remarkable scientific exploration.
Along the way Dr Ramirez discovers Britain's little-known version of The Last Supper, the gruesome ways Leonardo acquired his anatomical knowledge - and even what lies beneath the Mona Lisa.

In 1994, a thirteen year old boy disappeared from San Antonio, Texas. Three and a half years later, he is found alive and well thousands of miles away in a village in southern Spain with a story of kidnapping and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
The boy bears many of the same distinguishing marks he always had, but why does he now have a strange accent? Why does he look so different? Any why doesn't the family seem to notice these glaring inconsistencies? It's only when an investigator starts asking questions that this strange tale takes an even stranger turn.

Thanks to stunning reconstitutions with computer-generated images, this documentary retraces the manufacturing secrets of the largest and most exceptional city of Antiquity: Rome, the capital of the Mediterranean world. Three of its most emblematic monuments come to life. The Pantheon and its majestic dome, the sumptuous palace of Nero which covered a quarter of the city, and finally the legendary Colosseum, the largest Roman amphitheater ever built.