Richard Rhys, a painter in Victorian London, is the prime suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders. In a chance encounter he meets a wealthy reformer and socialite, Victoria Thornton, married to the richest man in England. Their passionate love affair results in a pregnancy and possible scandal and ruin. It is a story of redemption and true love.
300 Spartans-The Real Story. Putting aside the myths and legends, this documentary takes a detailed look at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC Greece leading to the last stand of the 300 Spartans and Spartan King Leonidas. On the 3rd day of the battle, when Leonidas was being surrounded, he sent most of his troops away and covered their retreat with a last stand because Spartans never retreated.
America's Founding Fathers were yearning for a nation of individual liberty. But, the origins of America were overflowing with a deep-seated paradox. The Founding Fathers were rallying the colonists to liberty, while many were slave owners.
Professor Niall Ferguson argues that Britain's decision to enter the First World War was a catastrophic error that unleashed an era of totalitarianism and genocide.
Journey back in time to a different age, when the sun never set on the British Empire and her armies were great in number. The Boer War: 1899-1902 was a turning point in British military history and would revolutionize tactics, battlefield strategy, equipment, and training. Well known participants in the Boar Wars include: Harry "Breaker" Morant, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi.
From 1989 to 1991 a string of unpredictable events happened that brought to light the rivalry between two men: Gorbachev, hindered by the economic results of his perestroika, and Yeltsin, embodying the hopes of the Russian people. Illustrated with interviews of top protagonists such as Mikhail Gobachev himself, the documentary recounts the critical last two years of the former USSR.
Between 1405 and 1433, Admiral Zheng He of China led seven epic voyages to more than 30 countries, including Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Kenya and Tanzania. The admiral and his crew gathered knowledge and wealth from Indochina to Africa for China's Ming empire. These voyages were the biggest naval expeditions mounted at the time. Zheng He was bigger than life and could have changed the course of history. But after the seven voyages, he and his Treasure Fleet were forgotten by China, and the world, for six hundred years. National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita sets sail to discover why. To celebrate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's maiden exploration voyage, Michael Yamashita traveled over 10,000 miles from Yunnan in China to Africa's Swahili coast taking over 40,000 pictures for the feature story on this great explorer, published in the July 2005 edition of National Geographic.
During the dates of celebrating the Emperor's 80th birthday, an opera troupe from southern China was invited to come to Beijing to perform for the Emperor. Afterwards, the opera troupe was granted to stay in Beijing and became what we had known as 'Peking Opera' today.
Eastern Europe, 1944. The Allies successfully bomb a dam in France, wiping out a German installation, concealing secret codes valuable for Allied decoding. A rogue band of soldiers is sent to retrieve the codes from a hidden vault in the flooded towns ruins and bring them back to the Allied headquarters. Along the way they must fight off pockets of Nazi resistance and stay alive.
In the Spring of 1798, Napoleon set out with 38,000 men and 10,000 sailors to conquer Egypt . He also brought along 167 men of science and the arts to start a scientific mission to explore the land. It was the beginning of a scholarly encounter between the West and the Muslim world.
A powerful documentary starring Morgan Freeman about the genesis of The Blues in the South and the music spreading around the world. Morgan Freeman shares his story of his experience of growing up in Clarksdale, Mississippi and his love for the Blues.
An intimate look at the extraordinary life of Master Lu Yi, hailed as the father of modern acrobatics, and the vast community of big-top lovers who share his dream of a thriving US circus industry.