China, the “Middle Kingdom,” has long been thought to have developed independently from the West. Mighty mountains and the inhospitable Taklamakan formed insurmountable barriers. But the belief in China’s isolation has been challenged by surprising discoveries. Mummies from the Bronze Age are turning this assumption upside down and recasting the cultural relationship between east and west.
The history books say that the first European to make contact with Native Americans was Christopher Columbus. New evidence tells a different story, that another civilization arrived in the New World centuries earlier. They were the Norse, a seafaring people who originated in the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They bore the name Viking, an "Old Norse" term for a pirate raid.
The post-war guilt and horrific secrets of Nazi Germany serve as a backdrop to a disturbing mind game between a young anatomist and a prostitute in a small hotel room the first Christmas following the war.
Documentary examining Germany's economic power and the automobile industry at the heart of it. Across the world, the badges of Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Mercedes inspire immediate awe. Even in Britain, where memories of Second World War run deep, we can't resist the appeal of a German car. By contrast, our own industry is a shadow of its former self.
Actor and aviator Martin Shaw takes to the skies to rediscover one of the most audacious and daring raids of World War II. On the morning of 18th February 1944, a squadron of RAF Mosquito bombers, flying as low as three metres over occupied France, demolished the walls of Amiens Jail in what became known as Operation Jericho. The reasons behind the controversial raid remain a mystery to this day. This dramatic documentary investigates the missing pieces of the story, with interviews from survivors and aircrew, and tries to find out why the raid was ordered and by whom.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Soviet Navy officer Vasily Arkhipov refused to launch a nuclear strike and saved the world from nuclear war and total destruction.
Epic political fantasy drama, envisioning what would have happened if Dick Cheney had been indicted for ordering torture, which was used to get the false confessions to make a fraudulent case for war.
In 2009 metal-detecting enthusiast Terry Herbert discovered the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure in the UK. Dan Snow travels across the old Kingdom of Mercia to unravel the secrets of the Staffordshire Hoard.
Alfred Roch, member of the Palestinian National League, is a politician with a bohemian panache. In 1942, at the height of WWII, he throws what will turn out to be the last masquerade in Palestine. Inspired by an archival photograph, A Sketch of Manners (Alfred Roch’s Last Masquerade) recreates an unconventional bon vivant aspect of Palestinian urban life before 1948. Posing silently for a group photo, the unmasked and melancholic pierrots accidentally personify the premonition of an uncertain future.
The prime minister's precious only son Ho-yeon has feelings for courtesan Wol-hyang. Ho-yeon's servant, Spot, who has always had unrequited love for Wol-hyang, drugs Ho-yeon. When he falls unconscious, she sells him off to a slave trader. Ho-yeon, waking from his drugged state, is frustrated because he can't prove he is not a slave. Ho-yeon soon learns the reality of the slaves who face injustice and rolls up his sleeves to try and save them from an unreasonable system.
Inspired by a true story. Valiant Thor, a Universal Emissary, meets with President Eisenhower in 1957 and is put on VIP status for 3 years. Thor has come to lend aid to humanity, only the military industrial complex and the shadow government want his advanced technology and will use any means to get it.
Kennesaw: One Last Mountain is an excellent dramatic presentation of the Civil War in 1864 and the role played by Kennesaw Mountain during the Atlanta Campaign. Several "untold stories" are included. Local Cobb County residents, unlikely combatants and the aftermath of the battle.
Legends of lost continents and civilizations have captivated people throughout time. Philosophers and astronomers like Aristotle and Ptolemy believed that an unknown continent existed in the Southern hemisphere. In the Age of Discovery, renowned explorers like Magellan and Cook searched the Pacific Ocean in vain for a mysterious land they called "Terra Incognita." To this day, ancestral legends throughout Polynesia speak of a lost homeland and a great civilization that disappeared into the sea. Modern science disputes the existence of unknown continents and often dismisses creation myths. But on Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, elders fiercely believe they originate from a continent that sank following a catastrophic upheaval.