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The Day they Dropped the Bomb

   2015    History
August 6th 1945 marked the start of a terrifying new episode in human history. This documentary marks the 70th anniversary of the day when the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by a Boeing B-29 USAF Superfortress bomber, nicknamed Enola Gay after the pilot's mother". Up to 80,000 people - 30 per cent of the population - were killed by the blast and resulting firestorm and over 70,000 were injured. This documentary gives a minute-by-minute account of what happened on that fateful day, through the testimony of people who were there and rarely-seen archive footage from the time. Made on location in Hiroshima and the USA, it features unique interviews with eyewitnesses who have seldom, if ever, spoken about the experience. Several of them are no longer alive, they include the last surviving member of the crew of the Enola Gay - navigator Dutch Van Kirk who died in July 2014.

Red Army

   2015    Culture
A feature documentary about the Soviet Union and the most successful dynasty in sports history: the Red Army hockey team. Told from the perspective of its captain Slava Fetisov, the story portrays his transformation from national hero to political enemy. From the USSR to Russia, the film examines how sport mirrors social and cultural movements and parallels the rise and fall of the Red Army team with the Soviet Union. RED ARMY is an inspiring story about the Cold War played out on the ice rink, and a man who stood up to a powerful system and paved the way for change for generations of Russians. From Oscar nominated and Emmy award-winning filmmaker Gabe Polsky.

Earth: Venus Evil Twin

   2015    Science
There is a hellish planet in our solar system; covered in thick dense clouds and roasted by colossal temperatures. It will be inevitable that the Earth will someday not only be like Venus, but actually put it to shame. A billion years from now, Earth's oceans will boil off, triggering a runaway greenhouse effect, and the temperature will be so high, its all surface will melt. In the distance future, Earth could be the evil twin of Venus. To understand how our world will be destroyed we need to look at what happened to Venus.
Series: How the Universe Works Season 4

First Celts

   2015    History
The Celts - one of the world's most mysterious ancient people. In Britain and Ireland, we are never far from our Celtic past but in this series Prof. Alice Roberts and archaeologist Neil Oliver travel much further afield, discovering the origins and beliefs of these Iron Age people in artefacts and human remains right across Europe, from Turkey to Portugal. What emerges is not a wild people on the western fringes of Europe, but a highly sophisticated tribal culture that influenced vast areas of the ancient world - and even Rome". Rich with vivid drama reconstruction, we recreate this pivotal time and meet some of our most famous ancient leaders - from Queen Boudicca to Julius Caesar - and relive the battles they fought for the heart and soul of Europe. Alice and Neil discover that these key battles between the Celts and the Romans over the best part of 500 years constituted a fight for two very different forms of civilisation - a fight that came to define the world we live in today. In the first episode, we see the origins of the Celts in the Alps of central Europe and relive the moment of first contact with the Romans in a pitched battle just north of Rome - a battle that the Celts won and that left the imperial city devastated.
Series: The Celts: Blood, Iron, and Sacrifice

Which Universe Are We In

   2015    Science
Imagine a world where infinite copies of you are playing out every storyline of your life. It sounds like a plot stolen straight from Hollywood, but far from it. This is the multiverse. Until very recently the whole idea of the multiverse was dismissed as a fantasy, but now this strangest of ideas is at the cutting edge of science. And for a growing number of scientists, the multiverse is the only way we will ever truly make sense of the world we are in. Do multiple universes exist? And if so, which one are we actually in?" Imagine a world where dinosaurs still walk the earth. A world where the Germans won World War II and you are president of the United States. Imagine a world where the laws of physics no longer apply.

1945 The Savage Peace

   2015    History
When the Second World War ended, the people of liberated Europe celebrated their freedom from Nazi tyranny. Their years of suffering had ended, but for millions of Germans, the end of the conflict opened a new and terrible chapter. They suffered the appalling violence meted out to the defeated, especially to those ethnic Germans who had lived peacefully for centuries in neighbouring countries". Savage Peace uses rare and unseen archive film, the documentary tells a harrowing story of vengeance against German civilians, which mirrored some of the worst cruelty of the Nazi occupiers during the years of war. The Savage Peace includes the unique testimony of eyewitnesses and victims, who recall the horrors with searing clarity, their memories undimmed 70 years after the events took place. This a story that has, until now, been untold amidst the justified celebration of an end to an unspeakable tyranny. But as the writer George Orwell said, the treatment of the defeated Germans was a terrible crime that has gone unpunished.