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Man on Wire

2008 Art

On August 7th, 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between the New York World Trade Center’s twin towers. After dancing for nearly an hour on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. This extraordinary documentary incorpor ...ates Petit’s personal footage to show how he overcame seemingly insurmountable challenges to achieve the 'Artistic crime of the century'. Show More

9/11: Inside the President War Room

2021 History

Twenty years ago, at 9.03am on 11 September 2001, America was under attack. President George W Bush was sitting in front of seven-year-olds in a classroom in Florida. Members of the president’s security detail thought the next plane could be aimed at them. The film is a claustrophobic clock-ticking thriller and tells the story of the presiden ...cy on arguably the most consequential day in recent history. As the clock ticks, the administration makes the greatest decisions of their lives: should they order fighter jets to shoot on American civilians? Should the president declare war or calm a battered nation? How would the leadership of the most powerful nation on earth grapple with the national and international implications?
This documentary tells the definitive story of the Bush administration through 12 hours of that momentous day, with first-hand testimony from President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and other senior staff who had their hands on the levers of power. The events of that day led to two decades of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. As America and its allies now withdraw from Afghanistan and the Taliban resume control, this is the story of how it all began. Show More

Three Identical Strangers

2018 History

New York, 1980: three complete strangers accidentally discover that they are identical triplets, separated at birth. The 19-year-olds' joyous reunion catapults them to international fame, but it also unlocks an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes beyond their own lives - and could transform our understanding of human nature forever. ... Show More

The Farthest

2017 Technology

Is it humankind's greatest achievement? 12 billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our Solar System and entering the void of deep space. It is the first human-made object ever to do so. Slowly dying within its heart is a plutonium generator that will beat for perhaps another decade before the lights on Voyager finally go out. But this ...little craft will travel on for millions of years, carrying a Golden Record bearing recordings and images of life on Earth. In all likelihood Voyager will outlive humanity and all our creations. It could be the only thing to mark our existence. Perhaps some day an alien will find it and wonder. The story of Voyager is an epic of human achievement, personal drama and almost miraculous success. Launched 16 days apart in Autumn 1977, the twin Voyager space probes have defied all the odds, survived countless near misses and almost 40 years later continue to beam revolutionary information across unimaginable distances. Show More

Nemesis The Sun Evil Twin

2011 Science

The theory of Némesis, a star that orbits the Sun and causes catastrophic events is explored. Nemesis is a hypothetical red dwarf or brown dwarf, originally postulated in 1984 to be orbiting the Sun at a distance of about 95,000 AU (1.5 light-years) somewhat beyond the Oort cloud, to explain a perceived cycle of mass extinctions in the geolog ...ical record, which seem to occur more often at intervals of 26 million years. Show More

Series: The Universe

The Golden Age

2016 History

This episode tells the tale of what's broadly considered China's most creative dynasty - the Song (960-1279). Michael Wood heads to the city of Kaifeng, the greatest city in the world before the 19th century. Here in Twin Dragon Alley, locals tell him the legend of the baby boys who became emperors.
He explores the ideas and inventions t ...hat made the Song one of greatest eras in world culture, helped by China's most famous work of art, the Kaifeng scroll, which shows the life of the city in around 1120. A chef makes Michael a recipe from a Song cookbook, while a guide to 'how to live happy, healthy lives for old people', published in 1085 and still in print, is discussed with local women doing their morning exercises. The Song was also a great era for scientific advance in China. Michael steers a huge working replica of an astronomical clock, made by China's Leonardo da Vinci.
Then at a crunch Chinese Premier League match, Michael tells us the Chinese invented football! The golden age of the northern Song ended in 1127, when invaders sacked Kaifeng, but they survived in the south. At their new capital, Hangzhou, Wood joins locals dancing by the West Lake, while in the countryside he meets Mr Xie with his records of 40 generations of ancestors. The final defeat of the Song took place in a naval battle in the estuary of the Pearl River in 1279. When all was lost, rather than surrender to the Mongols, a loyal minister jumped into the sea with the young boy emperor in his arms. 'So ended the glory of the Song', Wood concludes, 'but a new age would arise... as in China, it always has!'. Show More

Series: The Story of China

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