Episode 1

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.

Neil Oliver travels back to Ice Age Britain as he tells the story of how the island and its people came to be over thousands of years.

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Major real-life air disasters are depicted in this series. Each episode features a detailed dramatized reconstruction of the incident based on cockpit voice recorders and air traffic control transcripts, as well as eyewitnesses recounts and interviews with aviation experts.

Driven was a motoring television programme launched by Channel 4 in 1998 as a rival to the successful and long-running BBC series Top Gear. The style was similar to its rival, but with additional features such as the "Driven 100", a road test of three cars in the same class, where each car would be given marks for qualities such as practicality, desirability and cost of ownership. The car with the highest total score would be the winner. The programme launched with the concept that the presenters should interact with each other rather than present items on their own, as was then the case on Top Gear. The first series also featured a "headquarters", a racing team truck, set on a former air force base at which cars were put through their paces. These concepts resurfaced in the reborn Top Gear soon after.

Nigel Spivey reveals how the images which surround us today come from the ancient world. It's an epic journey spanning five continents and a hundred thousand years of history.

Six young fashion lovers swap shopping for the factories and backstreet workshops of India to learn how the clothes they wear are manufactured.

Whether it's a fire disaster or a car accident - every operation demands everything from the 112 team and brings them closer together.

Declassified is an American television series produced by Ten Worlds Productions on The History Channel that originally aired on November 9, 2004. The series takes viewers inside vaults and archives around the world to reveal the untold stories of modern history. With the fall of the Iron Curtain and the advent of market economies worldwide, new footage and materials are flooding out of formerly secret organizations like East Germany's Stasi, the Kremlin, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and state television in Korea. Declassified reveals the stories behind the previously unseen footage with relentless, fast-cut montage and a rock beat. Declassified fuses modern graphics and editing, story-telling, rock music and expert interviews to bring to light the thrilling and secret tales of our modern era. The show's director Kosh, winner of three Grammy Awards, is the former creative director for Apple Records and designer for the Beatles and Eagles. Produced and created by Susan Shearer, John J. Flynn and Kosh. Executive produced by Carl Lindahl for the History Channel.

Discover the remarkable ways animals of all shapes and sizes are adapting to make the most of opportunities in the newest and fastest changing habitat on the planet - our cities.

Rick Stein takes an epic culinary journey by sea, down rivers and overland to explore the Far East's diverse food cultures.

Two times guinness world record holder and world-renowned endurance rider Kevin Sanders has a dream. Kevin an ex motorcycle courier, wants to gather up a team of ordinary people, train them and lead them on the very first motorcycle expedition ever to attempt a Trans-Asian crossing via Mount Everest from London to Beijing - a staggering 21,000 kilometers.

A designer uses clients' life stories to transform their homes.

Britain at Low Tide explores remarkable stories that are revealed when the tide goes out

Exclusive interviews and acoustic performances with the legends responsible for some of the most famous songs of our times. Each acclaimed songwriter discusses their unique musical inspiration and writing processes before giving an exclusive intimate acoustic performance of some of their seminal songs.

Follow firefighters, paramedics and EMTs from across the country as they bravely put their lives on the line responding to emergency rescue calls.