Following the men and women who work around the clock on Britain's longest and most iconic road, ensuring the traffic keeps moving and the public is kept safe.
Social & External
The people behind it
Michael Jibson
Self - Narrator
Documentary series revealing the inner workings of Britain's railways, introducing the track-workers, train guards, drivers, police officers and management teams determined to keep the country moving.
The enormous popularity of recent British dramas such as Downton Abbey, Mr. Selfridge, and Sherlock, has led to vast interest in the real-life stories and history of the icons of Great Britain. Each episode of this series visits a famous British building or institution to explore its past and present, meeting a wide range of experts and historians along the way.
The story of the permanently changing landscape and its wildlife of the British isles since the last ice age. In 10 episodes.
Britain’s rich horticultural history is being lost. More and more front and back gardens are paved over - for development, for parking spaces, or because families don’t have the time or inclination to manage these spaces. The trend for easy-to-maintain lawns, patios and paving has also led to a decline in traditional gardens full of flowers, plants and trees to the extent that some of our most iconic flora and fauna have all but disappeared. Step forward the BBC’s most-loved gardening experts, who are determined to turn us back into a green-fingered nation once again.
Documentary examining the winners and losers in Britain's booming gambling revolution.
In a unique experiment, five teachers from China take over the education of fifty teenagers in a Hampshire school to see whether the high-ranking Chinese education system can teach us a lesson.
Explores the scientific, social, economic and environmental consequences of supposedly time-saving inventions, ideas and objects. Throughout a lifetime, the minutes that are actually lost or saved can add up to days, weeks, months or even years.
A politically charged mini-series researched and written by Duncan Campbell which saw dramatic Special Branch raids on BBC Scotland. An entire production office was loaded into transit vans and confiscated by the police. + One: 'The Secret Constitution' about secret Cabinet committees that amount to a secret decision making system at the highest levels of power in the United Kingdom. + Two: 'In Time of Crisis' about secret preparations for war that began in 1982 within every NATO country. This programme revealed what Britain would do. + Three: 'A Gap In Our Defences' about bungling defence manufacturers and incompetent military planners who have botched every new radar system that Britain has installed since World War II. + Four: 'We're All Data Now' about the Data Protection Act. + Five: 'Association of Chief Police Officers' and how Government policy and actions are determined in the fields of law and order. + Six: 'Communications' with particular reference to Zircon spy satellites ...
Exploring the hidden corners of the UK in search of the best the countryside has to offer.
A mission to help families change the way they shop - without changing their lifestyle. A host of money-saving tips and tricks to put hard-earned cash back in people's pockets.
Property and design enthusiast Tinie Tempah follows homeowners as they unleash their inner architect and build beautiful, often radical and 'out there' home extensions.
A three part series about women working in the British film industry during the 1950s.
Paul’s fascination with trains stems from his childhood. His father was a driver on the London Underground and when, as a young boy, Paul witnessed his dad driving a train across Putney Bridge, it sparked a lifelong fascination of railways. Now, he is following in his father’s footsteps by joining the drivers upfront and in control of some of the world’s most amazing trains and experiencing the best views as he travels through breathtaking landscapes in the UK and Europe. From steep gradients and tight curves to pinpoint platform stops, Paul will learn what it takes to keep these mighty machines on track. Visiting Germany, France, Switzerland, Wales, Northern England and Isle of Wight, he’ll meet the people who keep the railways running - from engineers and conductors to passengers with fascinating stories of their own.
The dramatic inside story of 6 November 1956, the final day of the Suez Crisis. A day that changed Britain forever. Exactly as it happened - hour by hour, minute by minute.
Kevin will travel the length and breadth of the country to uncover the stories behind some of Britain’s most remarkable buildings and structures, exploring why places as diverse as Coventry Cathedral and the Penguin Pool at London Zoo have been judged worthy of the highest level of protection. This is heritage with the doors thrown open, as Kevin is invited into parts of these structures the public never normally sees, as he meets the people who care for them and gets hands-on himself.
The Piano is a new talent show that will profile the best amateur pianists in the UK, performing on pianos at four stations around the country. Unbeknownst to the contestants, it's not just a documentary: it's also a competition. The contestants are secretly being judged, and the four best of them - one from each station - will perform at the Royal Festival Hall to an audience of thousands in the final episode.
The story of the NHS in unprecedented times.
"It's queer, it's kinky" - the average man on the street might find lesbianism strange, but for the women interviewed in this surprisingly nuanced TV documentary, it's just an ordinary part of their lives. The women - butch, femme and everything in between - articulately discuss their lives, experiences and struggles with everyday discrimination, busting the myths that homosexuality is a disease and that gay women are doomed to loneliness. Among the interviewees are Esme Langley (speaking outside in woolly hat and coat), founder of the Minorities Research Group, Charlotte Wolff, a psychotherapist and sexologist whose 1971 book Love Between Women offered some of the first serious research into lesbianism, and Doreen Cordell, a social worker with the Albany Trust, a charity providing counselling and support to the LGBT community.
Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles. What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, free of the fustiness of traditional academe, personalising key historical events by examining the major characters at the centre of them. Not all historians would approve of the history depicted here as shaped principally by the actions of great men and women rather than by more abstract developments, but Schama's way of telling it is a good deal more enthralling as a result. Schama successfully gives lie to the idea that the history of Britain has been moderate and temperate, passing down the generations as stately as a galleon, taking on board sensible ideas but steering clear of sillier, revolutionary ones. Nonsense. Schama retells British history the way it was--as bloody, convulsive, precarious, hot-blooded and several times within an inch of haring off onto an entirely different course. Schama seems almost to delight in the goriness of history. Themes returned to repeatedly include the wars between the Scots and the Irish and the Catholic/Protestant conflicts--only the Irish question remains unresolved by the new millennium. As Britain becomes a constitutional monarchy, Schama talks less of Kings and Queens but of poets and idea-makers like Orwell. Still, with his pungent, direct manner and against an evocative visual and aural backdrop, Schama makes history seem as though it happened yesterday, the bloodstains not yet dry.
A look at life in Windsor Castle over the last 80 years, including the tragedies, triumphs, romances and scandals of the Royal Family.
Motoring programme featuring reviews of and reports about cars of all types.
Three years after Long Way Round, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman set off on a 15,000-mile journey from the northernmost tip of Scotland to the southernmost tip of South Africa, mixing their love of motorcycles with the lure of far-flung roads.
This compelling series investigates the motives and m.o. of female murderers. While males are often driven by anger, impulse and destruction, women usually have more complex, long-term reasons to kill.
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly television episode on BBC One. The running time of the first two series was 30 minutes, being extended to 45 minutes in the third. BBC Three also broadcast a cut-down edition of the programme, lasting 15 minutes, shown after the repeats on Sundays and Fridays and after the weekday evening repeats of earlier seasons.
Best friends Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman gear up for their fourth Long Way series—this time going from Ewan's home in Scotland to Charley's in England. They'll take the scenic route, of course, through 17 European countries on cranky old bikes.
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.
An in-depth look at the history and pop cultural significance of horror films.
Infographics and archival footage deliver bite-size history lessons on scientific breakthroughs, social movements and world-changing discoveries.
The epic motorcycle adventure continues in this third chapter of the Long Way series, as Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman journey to glorious landscapes across South and Central America—on the backs of prototype electric Harley-Davidsons.
Drivers, managers and team owners live life in the fast lane — both on and off the track — during each cutthroat season of Formula 1 racing.
An insider's look at the engineering and scientific miracles behind the things that form the modern world.
Don Wildman unearths relics from the world's greatest institutions to reveal secrets from the past. He examines each artifact to illuminate history's most incredible triumphs, sensational crimes and bizarre encounters.
Award-winning actor and nervous explorer Eugene Levy steps out of his comfort zone for a whirlwind tour of the world's most beautiful and intriguing destinations.
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
Biography is a documentary television series. It was originally a half-hour filmed series produced for CBS by David Wolper from 1961 to 1964 and hosted by Mike Wallace. The A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987. The older version featured historical figures such as Helen Keller and Mark Twain, or long-dead entertainment figures such as Will Rogers or John Barrymore. The A&E series has placed the emphasis on such people as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Plácido Domingo, Freddie Mercury, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Eric Clapton, Pope John Paul II, Gene Tierney, Selena, Diego Rivera, Mao Zedong and Queen Elizabeth II, and fictional characters like The Phantom, Superman, Hamlet, Betty Boop, and Santa Claus. The program ended up profiling enough figures that in 1999, A&E spun it off into an entire network, The Biography Channel.
Oscar and Grammy Award-winning producer and artist Mark Ronson explores the intersection of technology and musical innovation with his heroes and fellow hitmakers – including Paul McCartney, DJ Premier, Charli XCX, Dave Grohl, and Questlove.
An immersive, action-packed and discovery-led series following International teams of Egyptologists as they unearth the world's richest seam of ancient archaeology - Egypt's Valley of the Kings.
A kaleidoscopic portrait told in two parts tracing the life of the imaginative artist.
Through bodycam footage, texts and interviews with loved ones, this documentary investigates the horrifying murder of four University of Idaho students.
A look at the life and work of legendary comedian George Carlin.