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Montezuma

   2009    History
Montezuma Dan Snow journeys to the ancient heart of Mexico in search of the lost civilisation of the Aztecs and their last and greatest ruler, Montezuma II (1502-1520). Montezuma inherited an empire of five million people, stretching from present-day Mexico to Nicaragua, from his uncle. His rule was marked by incessant warfare. Enemy states were growing more powerful and conquered tribes were becoming more rebellious. Within months of taking the throne in 1502, he went changed a man of good reason into a pitiless autocrat who declared himself a god, believing that fear and ruthlessness were the only ways to stop the empire falling apart. Yet it was at the hands of Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors that Montezuma met his downfall. But what was his relationship with Cortes, and why did such a ruthless leader submit to his captors with such relative ease? As Dan Snow visits the ruins and picks through current excavations, he pieces together the evidence of a gripping story: a divine tragedy of errors, the clash of civilisations, the end of a world - and a very human God.

Canyonlands

   2003    Nature
Journey through the long-vanished corners of prehistoric North America, beginning when man first entered the vast, unspoiled continent some 14,000 years ago, in this appealing BBC documentary. Witness ancient beasts, mammoths, mastodons, giant bears, and sabre-toothed cats, and see the legacies each has passed to their modern successors. Computer animation and digital effects bring to life mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, short-faced bears, glyptodonts, and a plethora of smaller animals in a lush Ice Age mosaic.
Series: Prehistoric America

American Serengeti

   2003    Nature
Journey through the long-vanished corners of prehistoric North America, beginning when man first entered the vast, unspoiled continent some 14,000 years ago, in this appealing BBC documentary. Witness ancient beasts, mammoths, mastodons, giant bears, and sabre-toothed cats, and see the legacies each has passed to their modern successors. Computer animation and digital effects bring to life mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, short-faced bears, glyptodonts, and a plethora of smaller animals in a lush Ice Age mosaic. Discoveries from sites across America are the basis for the reconstructions.
Series: Prehistoric America

Walking with Cavemen: Blood Brothers

   2003    History
'Blood Brothers' follows the lives of two species, Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis who embody two alternative ways of ape-man life. Although heavyset, with distinctive gorilla-like faces, the boisei are gentle characters. They live within a strict social structure and are led by a dominant male whose strength and power holds the group together. The habilis have taken a different approach to survival. They don't have the specialisms of the boisei but instead have developed into the archetypal jack-of-all-trades, inquisitive scavengers prepared to try almost anything to survive. Tough, active, gregarious and noisy, they are always on the move and always alert to the possibility of a meal. But in the near drought of the dry season the habilis are struggling. It seems as if their way of life cannot help them when conditions are tough.
Series: Walking with Cavemen

Amazon Jungle

   2005    Nature
A visit to the Amazon jungle - the world's largest rainforest and home to the widest variety of plants and animals on Earth. he diversity of life in the jungle is so great that in just two square miles scientists have counted 3,000 varieties of ants, 530 types of birds and 11 species of monkey. But despite the huge range of life that flourishes here, survival is never easy.
Series: Wild South America

Constellations

   2008    Science
A constellation is a group of stars that are connected together to form a figure or picture. Explore some of the 88 official constellations and learn about some of the highlights of each.
Series: The Universe