Long before the oil industry transformed the Gulf region,
pearl diving was the biggest industry in Bahrain. The unique
combination of fresh water and salt water created the
perfect habitat for oysters, making the best, most
captivating natural pearls in the world.
The quality of Bahraini pearls was renowned across the
globe. Like Cartier, people...
Presented and narrated by eminent actor Sir Derek Jacobi,
Charles Dickens’s England for the very first time traces
the life and work of Dickens through a compelling journey
which uncovers the important and intriguing places, towns
and cities that inspired some of the most famous settings in
literature.
Over 100 locations all over England are visited,...
On 11th June 1955, the world of playboy racers and their
exotic cars exploded in a devastating fireball. On the home
straight early in the Le Mans 24-Hour race, future World
Champion Mike Hawthorn made a mistake and pulled the trigger
to a massacre. French driver Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes 300
SLR smashed into the crowd,...
Shooting the War shows World War Two in Britain and Germany
as it has rarely been seen: through the lens of home movie
makers. Some of these amateur film enthusiasts were soldiers
who took their cameras to the front line and filmed men at
war; others who stayed at home recorded everyday life on...
This unique series tells the story of man’s relationship
with the land. It charts the revolution that food production
in Britain underwent in the 20th century, and examines the
impact this had on the lives of farmers and consumers alike.
With epsiodes focusing on milk, fruit and vegetables,
wheat, and beef, as well as intimate...
The Tudor dynasty lasted 118 years and changed England
forever. After years of civil war, The Tudors started the
process that would eventually bring peace, stability and
change to the land, and many of the places that witnessed
this change still exist in the landscape today.
During the medieval period it was the great cathedrals...
Uncle Hitler introduces us to the descendants, family
members, acquaintances and employees of Adolf Hitler. The
documentary focuses on exploring the unknown story of
Hitler's family and the dramatic fates of those related to
the most hated man in history.
It also explores the genetic history of Eva Braun to
determine if Hitler and his wife...
Marking the 80th anniversary of the Wall Street Crash, this
film looks back at the great financial disaster which shook
the 20th century. Startlingly topical in view of the bleak
banking crisis of today, the film traces the background and
backlash of 1929 with astonishingly fresh and detailed
archive footage.
The Wall Street Crash spread...
Prince Charles Edward was Queen Victoria’s favourite
grandson. In 1900, the sixteen-year-old Prince was the only
viable British contender for the hugely wealthy Dukedom of
Saxe Coburg and Gotha in Germany. Ordered to go by Queen
Victoria, he took the title and was transformed from a
British Prince into a German Duke – Herzog Carl...
Operation Valkyrie: The Plot To Kill Hitler is the
definitive film on Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and
the ‘Valkyrie’ conspiracy to assassinate Hitler on 20th
July, 1944. Produced in collaboration with the official
German Foundation dedicated to the memory of the
conspirators, it features testimonials and eyewitness
accounts from all of the aristocratic families involved...
Ukrainian film director Sergey Bukovsky takes the viewer on
a poignant journey of discovery as he and several Ukrainian
students absorb the testimony of local people who escaped
brutal execution and those who rescued friends and
neighbours during the Holocaust. A collection of men and
women share the details of their experiences, and we are
afforded...
A Chinese odyssey, this is the epic story of the female
soldiers of the Long March - a massive military retreat of
over 200,000 troops on foot over 12,500km between 1934 and
1937. Only one per cent of the soldiers were female.
Most of them were teenagers fleeing poverty, cruelty and
general discrimination against females. ...
SACCO AND VANZETTI tells the story of Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists who
were accused of a murder in 1920, and executed in Boston in
1927 after a notoriously prejudiced trial. It is the first
major American documentary film about this landmark story.
The ordeal of Sacco and Vanzetti came...
Presented by Tim Collins, this three-part series presents a
portrait of the twentieth century by following the fortunes
of three history-making ships. From the Titanic's fateful
launch to the sinking of the Bismark, from the German sea
blockade to the departure of the TS Canberra to fight in the
Falklands, we experience the century of...
This film is not just a history of the Internationale but a
history of the meaning this song has carried to all those
who have raised their fists and sung it in the hope of a
better future. The Internationale is an anthem which has
been sung in most places and languages of the...
The printing press was the world’s first piece of
mass-production technology. Its invention changed the world
as dramatically as splitting the atom or sending men into
space. It ignited a cultural revolution which shaped the
modern age. It changed the way our brains work, replacing a
spoken culture with a written one. It is the...
Tim Collins re-investigates Britain’s critical desert
campaign, and the controversial battle tactics needed to
take on the unbeaten Panzer army in total war, preventing
Hitler from gaining Egypt, Iraq and the oilfields.
Foreshadowing current world events, this oil-rich region was
crucial to the war effort. These are the World War II
battles that shaped the Middle...
From the thrill of riding in a chopper across the beautiful
Vietnamese countryside to the life and death situations they
faced in theatre and intensive care, the women tell the
untold stories of their Vietnam War. Maggie, Colleen,
Terrie, Jan, Diane and Ann were young women with a passion
for life, determined to leave their...
His legacy is the endless daily movement made by one
airliner after another between the world’s cities. Yet
when he first conceived the engine that would make feasible
such mass air travel, aeroplanes were wood and canvas
contraptions powered by car engines, that flew low and slow.
The programme reveals how Frank Whittle invented the...
The Allies were determined to inflict total defeat on their
enemies, at any cost. But following Victory the big three,
Britain, American and Russia, fought each other for
supremacy. This definitive new series covers the conflicts
in the final days of the war on both the European and
Pacific fronts. The shape of the world...
Rolls Royce cars – once things of utter beauty, the last
word in engineering, carriage of kings and aristocrats. But
now? Are they anything more than tawdry status symbols for
celebrities, bankers and plumbers?
This is the tale of Phantoms, Shadows and Ghosts; the rise
and fall of a great British Institution – a company...
From pimp to politician, from celebrity 'guru' to vilified
murderer, Michael X was Britain's most notorious and
flamboyant Black Power leader. This is a tale that spans the
sixties and seventies - years of turbulent social change in
Britain - which were as much about race as 'flower power'
and sexual liberation. 'Michael X' is...
A fascinating 200-year journey through the history of
British interior design, 'No 57: The History of a House',
examines how design has affected one Georgian house and its
inhabitants in Bristol, from when it was first built in 1779
right up to the present day. Throughout the series,
presenter Maxwell Hutchinson, a former president of...
Uncovering shocking foreign office communications and using
fascinating footage never seen on television before, this
documentary shows how British double-dealing during the
First World War ignited the conflict between Arabs and Jews
in the Middle East.
This is a story of intrigue among rival empires; of
misguided strategies; and of how conflicting promises to
Arabs and Jews...
In the dead of night in March 1945, almost seventy desperate
young German prisoners of war tunnelled from a camp in
Bridgend in Wales and escaped over the sand dunes. The film
follows the fate of the POWs, many of them committed Nazis,
as they were tracked by armed soldiers, the Home Guard,
dogs, local...
During the 1967 Six Day War, Israel attacked the USS
Liberty, an American spy ship. Israel has always claimed
this was a tragic accident based on mistaken identification,
while the ship's survivors maintain that the attack was
intentional. This film reveals the full story of collusion
and cover-up for the first time, and shows how...
At the end of the Second World War, ten thousand prisoners
of war waited for liberation by the advancing Russian Red
Army. The Nazis dashed these hopes and forced the prisoners
to march out of Stalag Luft III in the dead of winter toward
the centre of the collapsing Third Reich. This is an
extraordinary...
The untold story of an American civil rights hero. Fred
Korematsu's bold decision to resist the forced internment of
Japanese Americans during World War II illustrates the power
of ordinary citizens to defy injustice. His arrest and
conviction, the constitutional issues raised by his Supreme
Court case, and his ultimate vindication 39 years later
stand as...
This is the story of the critical Eastern Line of the
Underground Railroad and the role it played in the 19th
Century anti-slavery movement in America. This film focuses
on the collaboration between white Quaker Abolitionist
Thomas Garrat and William Still and chronicles their efforts
to help thousands of fugitives to freedom with the help...
One thousand years ago on the banks of the Limpopo River
existed Southern Africa's first city, which traded gold and
ivory with the Arabs, Indians and Chinese. In this film
archaeologists and historians follow a thousand years of
untold African history revealing the controversial discovery
of this ancient site and its golden artefacts.
As Beijing celebrated half a century of Communist rule,
America and China were once again confronting each other
over Taiwan. This fascinating documentary includes
interviews with Nixon, Kissinger and the other main players.
Produced by an award-winning production team, 'Playing the
China Card' tells the story of the two nations' stormy
relationship over the last fifty...
On May 15th 1948 the British government, officially
responsible for maintaining law and order in Palestine,
decided to abandon the country, leaving behind a war which
has led to the dispossession of over three quarter of a
million Palestinian Arabs and the creation of the State of
Israel. One man, an officer who witnessed those...
Comrade Philby is the fascinating story of a British agent
and Oxbridge gent who turned spy for the Russians. Harold
Adrian Russell Philby, known to his Muscovite companions as
Comrade Kim, defected to the Soviet Union in 1963, working
as a British affairs consultant until his death in the late
1980 s. He was buried...
In 1941, the Bielski brothers managed to flee the towns
where Jews were being rounded up by the Nazis, and escaped
to the forest. They vowed to welcome any Jew who could make
their way to them, and by 1943, 1500 partisans were living
in an underground village in a forest in Byelorussia.
Everyone in...
Heil Herbie takes an offbeat look at the history of the
Volkswagen Beetle. The film opens up the secret history of
the world's most popular car with a light, often amusing
touch, exploring its origins as Hitler's dream car through
to the flower power Sixties and Seventies and up to the
present day.
Bronze at the...
