BBC Documentaries Collection

BBC Wild Moves



Air: Flying isnt just for the birds. Chris Packham takes to the air to show how all kinds of animals fly.
Water: Ever wondered why fish are, well, fish-shaped? Chris Packham explores the weird and wonderful life that lives beneath the waves.
Land: Chris Packham shows how animals from elephants to kangaroos tackle the challenges they face when moving about on land


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BBC LSD The Beyond Within



This documentary explores the mysterious effects of a synthetic drug known as LSD.
We are firstly introduced to the inventor of the drug, and the first person to ever experience the mind-blowing effects that it offers. We quickly see how the drug takes off from an accidental mix in the laboratory, to a popular medically experimental drug, and quickly becomes the most popular drug of choice of the youth of America. As the recreational drug use grows, it develops into a sub-culture of its own, and forever will be remembered in the history books.
However the drug had many other users and everyone wanted to experiment with it. Great artists, composers and writers such as Aldous Huxley saw the drug as a spiritual gateway that gave them inspiration to do what they were best at. Even the US government had plans to experiment with it.


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BBC A Turtles Guide to the Pacific



A loggerhead turtle journeys across the Pacific, meeting dolphins and whales, sharks and giant squids, and typhoons and fishermen along the way.
She swims over deep canyons, and uses underwater mountain tops like motorway service stations.

Blue whales thunder by like juggernauts, and sharks dance a beautiful midnight ballet around her.
Pacific means peaceful, but it is clearly not.
One minute she is under fire from marlin, the next swimming over a coral reef, with crocodiles as well as sharks.


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BBC Pyramid Beyond Imagination



In the middle of the desert stands the most extraordinary of all human monuments. Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, this is the only one that has survived.

Why did an ancient people go to these incredible lengths to create such a monument? And how did they go about it?

Pyramid – Beyond Imagination will not just tell you, it will show you. Based on the latest archaeological discoveries, and combining dramatic reconstruction with state-of-the-art CGI, Pyramid reveals how the mighty structure of the Great Pyramid was built.

The program follows worker Nakht as he is conscripted from his village to work on the Great Pyramid and moves his way up through the ranks to become a senior overseer. Through his eyes we see the construction of the greatest tomb known to man.

Brilliantly polished casing stones clad the pyramid and the top sparkles with a gold capstone. The base covers 13 acres and is level to within less than an inch. It is aligned to the four points of the compass to near perfect precision. Inside, intricate networks of passageways lead to three chambers. In one the King will be laid to rest in a vast granite sarcophagus along with unimaginable riches. Here, he will become a medium for all his subjects between heaven and earth, god and man, life and death and all order will depend upon him.

Many engineers believe that even with the help of 21st century technology, they still could not build anything like the Great Pyramid. This accuracy is phenomenal in any epoch, and an almost supernatural feat for the ancient Egyptians.

For 4,500 years, men have reeled before this most extraordinary of all human monuments and asked how and why it was built.


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BCC Life In Cold Blood Complete



Sir David Attenborough brings viewers the final chapter of his epic overview of life on Earth, as he transforms perceptions of cold-blooded animals in this landmark series.
Reptiles and amphibians are sometimes thought of as slow, dim witted and primitive. In fact, they can be lethally fast, spectacularly beautiful, surprisingly affectionate and extremely sophisticated, says David.
Using the very latest in filming technology including ultra-high-speed, thermal, miniature and on-board cameras David reveals their surprising and intimate lives and discovers the secret of their success.
At the end of each episode, a 10-minute feature, Under The Skin, produced in collaboration with the Open University, examines the technology used by scientists.

1. �The Cold Blooded Truth�

Broadcast 4 February 2008, the first episode discusses the keys to success of reptiles and amphibians, looking at thermoregulation, parental care and the time-scales on which reptiles operate. Attenborough begins in the GalAfpagos Islands, using thermal imaging to demonstrate how marine iguanas warm their bodies by basking in the sun before feeding. Meanwhile, the lizard inhabitants of a Minorcan island have a relationship with its indigenous dead horse arum plants. Attenborough visits Dassen Island to witness one of the world’s greatest concentrations of tortoises around 5,000 of them. Few reptiles are active at night, but crocodiles can rely on water that retains much of its daytime temperature. Conversely, amphibians’ moist skin would be damaged by the sun and so most are nocturnal. An exception is the waxy monkey leaf frog, which can deal with sunlight by covering its body in a wax secretion. A puff adder illustrates the relative inactivity of reptiles compared to mammals: one large meal can last up to a year. When it hatches at the onset of winter, the young painted turtle stays underground, near frozen until the spring when it can emerge. Attenborough wonders if the dinosaurs’ immense size allowed them to maintain warm blood. The largest living reptile is the leatherback turtle and indeed is able to do so because of insulating body fat. Under the Skin looks at the hunt for the pygmy leaf chameleon, filmed in Madagascar.

2. �Land Invaders�

Broadcast 11 February 2008, the second programme explores the world of amphibians, of which there are some 6,000 known species. Attenborough visits Australia to illustrate how they became the first back-boned creatures to colonise land: the lungfish, which is capable of breathing air, and whose ancestors became the first amphibians. The largest of them is the Japanese giant salamander and two are shown wrestling for territory. In North America, the marbled salamander spends most of its life on land, yet is still able to retain the necessary moisture in its skin through the damp leaf litter. A female caecilian is filmed with her young, whose rapid growth is discovered to be the result of eating their mother’s skin re-grown for them every three days. The most successful amphibians are frogs and toads. Their calls are most active during the breeding season: females are impressed by both volume and frequency. However, gestures are sometimes needed and the poisonous Panamanian golden frog uses a conspicuous form of ’semaphore’. Most other frogs rely on camouflage and the South American red-eyed tree frog is an example. An African bullfrog is shown defending its exposed tadpoles by digging a canal for them. Meanwhile, the male marsupial frog keeps its young moist by carrying them in its skin pouches. Under the Skin examines the filming of the last population of Panamanian golden frogs, which is threatened by a fungal disease.

3. �Dragons of the Dry�

Broadcast 18 February 2008, the third instalment takes a look at the immense diversity, social skills and displays of the lizards. While they are highly adept at camouflage, occasionally there is a need to break cover in order to ward off rivals. Attenborough holds up a mirror to an anole and causes it to extend its colourful throat flap as a warning sign. Madagascar is host to over 60 species of chameleon but one of the largest, Meller’s chameleon, is native to Malawi and two rival males are shown jousting. A female South African dwarf chameleon demonstrates its ability to change colour when communicating to a potential mate, and the chameleon’s muscular tongue is depicted lassoing its prey. In southern Australia, Attenborough uses a baited fishing rod to attract the attention of a rare pygmy bluetongue skink, thought to have been extinct for over thirty years until it was rediscovered in 1992. Shinglebacks are among the most devoted lizards and breeding pairs can reunite each year for up to two decades. Alongside South Africa’s Orange River, large groups of flat lizards feed on the swarms of black flies, but the males also use the occasion to indulge in social squabbling. The Mexican beaded lizard is one of the few with a poisonous bite, but males do not employ it when wrestling each other. Finally, Attenborough comes face to face with a perentie, Australia’s largest monitor lizard. Under the Skin focuses on filming in Australia.

4. �Sophisticated Serpents�

Broadcast 25 February 2008, the fourth episode focuses on the most modern reptiles, the snakes, exploring how they have managed to become successful despite their elongated body shape. Attenborough explains how they evolved from underground burrowers to surface hunters, losing their limbs in the process. With the aid of infrared cameras, a timber rattlesnake is shown lying in wait for a mouse and sensing its repeated path before despatching and eating it. A snake’s constantly flickering tongue is used to gather and evaluate the molecules of its surroundings, and Attenborough visits Carnac Island to witness a population of blind tiger snakes, which feed on the chicks of nesting gulls. He also confronts a Mozambique spitting cobra, which quickly sprays venom over the presenter’s protective face visor. The similarities in colouration between the harmless kingsnake and potentially lethal coral snake are highlighted. An example of a snake that can tackle unusual prey is the Queen snake, which almost exclusively hunts newly-moulted crayfish. A pair of rival male King cobras are seen battling and infant cobras are shown hatching: their venom is immediately as fatal as that of their parents. In Argentina, a yellow anaconda evades nearby caimans to give birth to live young. Finally a turtle-headed sea snake feeds not on fish, but on their eggs laid on a coral reef. Under the Skin discusses the filming of timber rattlesnakes during inclement weather.

5. �Armoured Giants�

Broadcast 3 March 2008, the final programme covers the most ancient of the reptiles: the crocodiles and turtles. In the GalAfpagos Islands, among the giant tortoises, Attenborough explains how the creatures came to develop their shells as a defence against predators. This is demonstrated by the eastern box turtle, whose shell includes a hinged â€~drawbridge’. The aquatic pig-nosed turtle is unusual in that its eggs need to be submerged before hatching, whereas those of other species would drown; Attenborough illustrates this by dropping an egg into a jar of water: it immediately hatches. In the open ocean, male sea turtles attempt to separate a rival from its mate by attacking and overwhelming the pair, stopping them from taking in air. In northern Australia, Attenborough observes a large gathering of crocodiles at a flooded coastal road: they time their arrival to ambush migrating mullet. The complex communication and body language of the American alligator is investigated and in Argentina, the calls of young caimans help their mother locate and lead them to a nursery pool. The mother’s maternal instinct extends to releasing unhatched babies by gently crushing their eggs in its jaws. In Venezuela, a female spectacled caiman in charge of an entire crA‚¨che leads the infants from a drying river bed on a trek to permanent water. Under the Skin explores filming on the GalAfpagos Islands and Attenborough’s meeting with Lonesome George.



Sample Screens

BBC Plane Crashes The Wrong Stuff



Documentary on the commercial airline pilots, and the factors causing human errors in flying.
Can the â€~human element’ ever be taken out of flying or is it true that when people work with sophisticated technology, accidents will always happen.
This BBC Horizon video looks at work being done by psychologists to analyse and prevent catastrophes.


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BBC The Lost Civilisation of Peru



The rise and fall of the Greeks of the Andes


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BBC The Mystery of the Jurassic



For years scientists have been trying to find the mysterious evolutionary master key responsible for transforming the dinosaurs into world-beaters. In the early Jurassic, 200 million years ago, they were a relatively small group of primitive creatures. By the late Jurassic, 50 million years later, they had become the magnificent array of carnivores and giant plant eaters that would dominate the planet for millions of years. In between lies the mysterious period of the middle Jurassic in which all these changes must have happened. But what were they? What was it that transformed the dinosaurs?


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BBC Red star in orbit



This is the story of the Russian Right Stuff. From the first rocket-powered gliders to the epic journey to Mars, this trilogy of films charts the triumphs and tragedies of the Soviet space programme.

Exclusively revealing the realities of the Soviet Space Programme, Windfall Films gained remarkable access to the real history of the cosmonauts. For the first time, they speak out about the hidden truth of these precarious missions something they had never dared do before

Until recently, launches were only reported after the authorities were sure everything had gone according to plan. Near catastrophes and disasters were excluded from the history books.

Finally it was possible to talk about the lives lost and the mistakes made. Unreleased archive film was being found. The mist of secrecy surrounding the aborted moon missions was beginning to lift. It was the perfect opportunity for Windfall to examine the mysteries and secrets of the Soviet space programme.


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BBC 25 years in space



TWENTY FIVE YEARS IN SPACE
Producer, Max Whitby ; Horizon editor Graham Massey.

Reviews developments in space flight from 1957, when Sputnik was launched,
through to the landing on the moon; and the transmission of pictures of Mars
back to Earth.
BBC, 1982.

It is a nicely paced documentary that shows the progress of man in space from 1957 to the space shuttle and the early space stations. It provides some interesting contrasts in UK vs US views on space.

Some fascinating panel segments with members of England scientific community commenting on the meaning of space travel.

It finishes with some speculation from the sixties of the meaning of man in space.

Lots of raw footage with no re-enactments, no â€ovoice of godâ€? overdubs.


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BBC Pandoras Box by Adam Curtis



For 15 years, Adam Curtis has concentrated on a cultural history behind the politics of the 20th century and beyond. In 1992, he made Pandora’s Box, six â€ofablesâ€? on the consequences (often dangerous) of political and technocratic rationality, especially when used to crush common sense and a clear reporting of the facts. Nothing concerns Curtis more than the way public relations and spin doctoring have become ways of masking the true nature of modern history – and nothing is so vital to the new forms of modern bureaucratic totalitarianism, the dulcet â€oorderâ€? that has come to fill the ground left by fascism and communism. In other words, the â€oenlightenedâ€? problem solving favored in the most advanced countries, but employed to obfuscate democratic impulses.



01 The Engineers Plot.

The revolutionaries who toppled the Tsar in 1917 thought science held the key to their new world. In fact, it ended up creating a bewildering world for millions of Soviet people. In this light-hearted investigation, one industrial planner tells how she decided the people wanted platform shoes, only to discover that they had gone out of fashion by the time that the factory to manufacture them had been built.


02 To The Brink of Eternity.

Focusing on the men of the Cold War on whom â€~Dr Strangelove’ was based. These were people who believed that the world could be controlled by the scientific manipulation of fear – mathematical geniuses employed by the American Rand Corporation. In the end, their visions were the stuff of science fiction fantasy.



03 The League of Gentlemen.

Thirty years ago, a group of economists managed to convince British politicians that they had foolproof technical means to make Britain great again. Pandora’s Box tells the saga of how their experiments have led the country deeper into economic decline, and asks – is their game finally up?


04 Goodbye Mrs Ant.

A modern fable about science and society, focusing on our attitude to nature. Should we let scientists be the prime movers of social or political change when, for instance, DDT made post-war heroes of American scientists only to be put on trial by other scientists in 1968? What kind of in-fighting goes on between rival camps before one scientific truth emerges, and when it does emerge, just how true is it?



05 Black Power.

A look at how former Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah set Africa ablaze with his vision of a new industrial and scientific age. At the heart of his dream was to be the huge Volta dam, generating enough power to transform West Africa into an advanced utopia. But as his grand experiment took shape, it brought with it dangerous forces Nkrumah couldn’t control, and he slowly watched his metropolis of science sink into corruption and debt.



06 A is For Atom.

An insight into the rise and fall of nuclear power. In the 1950s scientists and
politicians thought they could create a different world with a limitless source of nuclear energy. But things began to go wrong. Scientists in America and the Soviet Union were duped into building dozens of potentially dangerous plants. Then came the disasters of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl which changed views on the safeness of this invisible fuel.


Sample Screens

BBC In The Footsteps Of Alexander The Great



Combining popular history with adventure and travel, Michael Wood (In Search of the Trojan War) embarks on an odyssey of discovery, following the ancient triumphal march of Alexander of Macedonia from Greece to India, to bring us new insights into a man whose myth and achievements still resonate down the centuries.

The journey took the film crew through 16 countries and four war zones. They traveled over 20.000 miles on everything from foot, camels, and horses to helicopters, boats, and jeeps.



Sample Screens

BBC The Quest for Tannu Tuva









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BBC Earth Story (Complete)





Sample Screens

BBC Richard Feynman Pleasure of Finding Things



The Pleasure of Finding Things Out was filmed in 1981 and will delight and inspire anyone who would like to share something of the joys of scientific discovery. Feynman is a master storyteller, and his tales – about childhood, Los Alamos, or how he won a Nobel Prize – are a vivid and entertaining insight into the mind of a great scientist at work and play.

In this candid interview Feynman touches on a wide array of topics from the beauty of nature to particle physics. He explains things that are hard to grasp in layman’s terms much like Carl Sagan did in the cosmos series. His explanation of the scientific method covers what we know, why we know it and most importantly, what we don’t know and the pleasure of figuring it out.


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