Stephen Tompkinson's adventure begins in dramatic fashion when his maiden flight over South Australia's Flinders Ranges ends in a crash landing at 40 mph. But he presses on to the Barossa Valley, where a serene flight over the vineyards is followed by a far from calm cricket match against local winemakers - the outcome of which sends Stephen packing for Victoria and a spell on the mighty Murray River. Stephen's bid to win Australia’s biggest balloon competition continues. A childhood dream is fulfilled when he walks out onto the pitch of the Melbourne Cricket Ground during an Aussie Rules game - and trumped the following morning when his balloon flies through the ground's goalposts. His balloon truck gets a makeover and the city's Greek festival nearly ends in a diplomatic incident. Then heavy rain prevents him flying over Canberra - and to get back on track he risks a flight to 10,000 feet. Actor Stephen Tompkinson's attempt to win Australia's prestigious Canowindra Balloon Challenge concludes in this final
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.
Comedian Anh Do returns to Vietnam to rediscover the land of his birth. He gives us a special insight into modern day Vietnam, from local family life to incredible culinary delights and the best adventures Vietnam has to offer.
A cinematic documentary series that explores the rise and fall of some of the most nefarious and notorious criminals brought to justice by the United States government. From thugs to lethal beauties, outlaws to kingpins, each episode profiles these gangsters and reveals their sinister motives, transgressions and the circumstances that eventually led to their downfall.
With archive film including home movies and FBI surveillance material, the award-winning Crime Inc. tells the true story behind the world's most powerful crime syndicate, the Mob, La Cosa Nostra or The Mafia. Interviews with mob members turned informants, including former boss Jimmy 'The Weasel' Fratianno, reveal the inner workings of the mafia, from the ritual of becoming a "made" man and their code of honor, to the harrowing and detailed descriptions of their work, accompanied by equally graphic images and film footage.
The business world can be a dangerous place. Corporate predators are on the prowl and fellow directors may even attempt a boardroom coup to save their own skins. This BBC series takes the world's most infamous business battles or corporate takeover struggles and examines them in detail through the eyes of key decisions-makers, revealing the behind-the-scenes clashes of the business world.
Untrained mariner Timothy Spall has spent a fortune on technology for his new challenge - the unpredictable Irish Sea - as he and his wife continue their mini-odyssey around Britain
Ceramics are one of the oldest and most-fundamental art forms around. Ceramics are used for everything from eating and drinking to celebrating birth, marriage or even death. Many people believe that ceramics contain social DNA and reveal about the taste and habits of a nation. This three-part series explores the history of the art form in Britain, beginning in Tudor times, and traces the evolution of different techniques and styles used in the art of pottery. The programme also explores key figures who helped put British ceramics on the map and revolutionised the industry.
The World According to Paris is an American reality documentary television series on Oxygen. The series debuted on June 1, 2011 and ran for one season. Oxygen decided to pass on a second season of the series. The series' eight-week run averaged only 293,000 viewers and a 0.2 rating among adults 18-49, making it Oxygen's least-watched series of 2011.
For more than 2,000 years, a mathematical riddle has baffled the world’s greatest minds. It’s a problem of such difficulty that it has tormented those brave enough to tackle it. Some have given up in despair. Others have been driven mad. Primes are fundamental to mathematics yet they seem to surface entirely randomly along the number line. But are the primes truly random or is there some hidden pattern? It’s the greatest unsolved problem of mathematics. In The Music of the Primes, Marcus du Sautoy investigates the fascinating story of great mathematicians who have all grappled with the problem of the primes
Weird Nature is a 2002 documentary television series produced by John Downer Productions for the BBC and Discovery Channel. The series features strange behavior in nature—specifically, the animal world. The series now airs on the Science Channel. The series took three years to make and a new filming technique was used to show animal movements in 3D.
Each episode, however, tended to end with a piece about how humans are probably the oddest species of all. For example, in the end of the episode about locomotion, the narrator states how unusual it is for a mammal to be bipedal. In the episode about defences, the narrator explains that humans have no real natural defences, save for their big brains.
Survival is one of television's longest-running and most successful nature documentary series. Originally produced by Anglia Television for ITV in the United Kingdom, it was created by Aubrey Buxton, a founder director of Anglia TV, and first broadcast in 1961. Survival films and film-makers won more than 250 awards worldwide, including four Emmy Awards and a BAFTA.
40 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994.
Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On.
Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery is a four-part television documentary series first broadcast on BBC Two Wales in 2008 and presented by ex-Python Terry Jones. As described on the BBC's website, "Terry Jones sets out on a series of journeys through Wales following the world's first road atlas: John Ogilby's Britannia, published in 1675."
Whicker's World is an award-winning British television documentary series that ran from 1958 to 1994, presented by journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker.
Originally a segment on the BBC's Tonight programme in 1958, Whicker's World became a fully-fledged television series in its own right in the 1960s. The series was first shown by the BBC until 1968, and then by ITV from 1969 to 1983, when it was produced by Yorkshire Television, in which Whicker himself was a shareholder. The series returned to the BBC in 1984, and to ITV again in 1992.