Michael Wood tells the tale of China's first great international age under the Tang Dynasty (618-907). From the picturesque old city of Luoyang, he travels along the Silk Road to the bazaars of central Asia and into India on the track of the Chinese monk who brought Buddhism back to China. This tale is still loved by the Chinese today and is brought to life by storytellers, films and shadow puppet plays. Then in the backstreets and markets of Xi'an, Michael meets descendants of the traders from central Asia and Persia who came into China on the Silk Road. He talks to Chinese Muslims in the Great Mosque and across town hears the amazing story of the first reception of Christianity in 635. Moving south, Michael sees the beginnings of China as an economic giant. On the Grand Canal, a lock built in 605 still handles 800 barges every day! The film tracks the rise of the silk industry and the world's favourite drink - tea. Michael looks too at the spread of Chinese script, language and culture across east Asia. 'China's influence on the East was as profound as Rome on the Latin West', he says, 'and still is today'. Finally, the film tells the intense drama of the fall of the Tang. Among the eyewitnesses were China's greatest poets. In a secondary school in a dusty village, where the Chinese Shakespeare - Du Fu - is buried in the grounds, the pupils take Michael through one famous poem about loss and longing as the dynasty falls. And in that ordinary classroom, there is a sense of the amazing drama and the deep-rooted continuities of Chinese culture.

In less than two years, Al Capone has risen from a humble bookkeeper to second-in-command of Johnny Torrio's criminal empire in Chicago. The empire is worth the modern-day equivalent of $35 million. Capone purchases a home for his family and moves them from New York to Chicago. Torrio and Capone expand their empire from Chicago's South Side to the North Side, which is controlled by Chicago's second largest gang, the Irish. Violence erupts as ruthless Irish gang leader Dean O'Banion protects his territory and bootlegging business from Torrio and Capone.

In the second episode of the series, the Germanic tribes strike as Marcus Aurelius succumbs to disease, leaving a skeptical Emperor Commodus to prosecute a war that doesn't interest him.

The photographer of the second episode of the series is Richard I'Anson, who documents a fire rite, attempts to photograph the elusive Himalayan snow leopard and captures the colorful Festival of Holi.

In the second episode of the series, as Steven starts creating a new life for himself, he pursues a lawsuit against Manitowoc County law enforcement officials for corruption in his case.

In the second episode, Professor Iain Stewart discovers how flowers have transformed our planet. He journeys to the remote islands of the South Pacific to track down the earliest flowers. In the deserts of Africa and rainforests of Vietnam, he sees how they brought brilliant colour to the most barren landscapes and sculpted the earth itself. And he learns how they drove the evolution of all animals - kick-starting our human story.