BBC Factual Programmes


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Title: The Great War. Narrated by Sir Michael Redgrave. First Aired: 1964. In the early 1960s the BBC embarked on one of their most important and ambitious series ever. It was to be the definitive history of the First World War, complete in twenty-six 40-minute episodes.		Title: Civilisation. Author/Presenter: Kenneth Clarke. First Aired: 23rd February 1969 BBC2. When Kenneth Clark introduced his magnificent BBC television series Civilisation he emphasised that it was not a history of the arts, but a history of life-giving beliefs and ideas made visible and audible through the medium of art.
Title: America. Author/Presenter: Alistair Cooke. First Aired: 12th November 1972 BBC2. In this greatly expanded version of his acclaimed BBC television series, Alistair Cooke takes the story of the USA from before its discovery by Columbus to the present day.		Title: The Ascent of Man. Author/Presenter: Jacob Bronowski. First Aired: 5th May 1973 BBC1. Dr Bronowski's magnificent thirteen-part BBC television series The Ascent of Man traced our rise both as a species and as moulders of our own environment and future.
Title: Microbes and Men. Author/Presenter: Robert Reid. First Aired: 18th September 1974 BBC2. One of the most important and influential scientific theories of all time - the germ theory - was established in the quarter of a century after 1856. During this period bacteria which cause disease and death were identified and soon cures or vaccines against them were developed.		Title: The Fight against Slavery. Author/Presenter: Terence Brady and Evan Jones. First Aired: 19th March 1975 BBC2. This book covers, in somewhat more detail, the same ground as the BBC2 dramatised documentary series The Fight Against Slavery. Terence Brady wrote the book with the script-writer for that series, Evan Jones.
Title: The Secret War. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 5th January 1977 BBC1. It has been said that the First World War was fought by chemists; the Second by physicists. The highly acclaimed BBC series, The Secret War, tells the story of that later war - the "Wizard War" as Churchill called it.		Title: The Age of Uncertainty. Author/Presenter: Professor J K Galbraith First Aired: 10th January 1977 BBC2. The ideas of economists and social philosophers shape actions and events even when we are unaware of their sources. They have a decisive influence on the great rush of revolution and change through which the world has passed in the last two hundred years.
Title: Royal Heritage. Author/Presenter: J H Plumb and Huw Wheldon. First Aired: 21st April 1977 BBC1. Public display and public benefaction have seen to it that Royal patronage is rarely an entirely private matter. But even those who have seen the paintings, drawings, and furniture and other works of art shown in exhibitions in the Queen's Gallery, or visited the palaces and residences open to the public, may be surprised at the range of the collection.		Title: The Hollywood Greats. Author/Presenter: Barry Norman. First Aired: 4th August 1977 BBC1. The Golden Age of Hollywood lasted for about thirty years, from 1920 to 1950 (the dates are approximate), at which time the Fairy Godmother waved her wand, turned the whole town into a pumpkin and invested heavily in television. This series is about some of the people, the gods and goddesses, who dwelt there.
Title: Connections. Author/Presenter: James Burke. First Aired: 17th October 1978 BBC1. Connections - the companion volume to the BBC television series - is James Burke's new examination of the ideas, inventions and coincidences that have culminated in the major technological achievements of today.		Title: The Voyage of Charles Darwin. Author/Presenter: Christopher Ralling. First Aired: 31st October 1978 BBC2. The Voyage of Charles Darwin for the first time presents a selection of Darwin's autobiographical writings in a single volume illustrating the events and scenes of that momentous journey. The sources are his Diary, the later Journal which is based on it, and the short Autobiography which his wife persuaded him to write for their children towards the end of his life.
Title: The Body in Question. Author/Presenter: Jonathan Miller. First Aired: 6th November 1978 BBC2. In this new book, as in the 13-part BBC. television series with which it is linked, Dr Miller considers the functioning of the body as a subject of private experience. He explores our attitudes towards the body, our astonishing ignorance about certain parts of it and inability to read its signals.		Title: Life on Earth. Author/Presenter: David Attenborough. First Aired: 16th January 1979 BBC2. This book, like the BBC television series on which it is based, is an attempt to give us a history of nature rather than a conventional natural history, and it is told as much as possible in terms of animals and plants alive today.
Title: The Shock of the New. Author/Presenter: Robert Hughes. First Aired: 21st September 1980 BBC2. The past 100 years has been the century of change, one of the most exuberantly creative periods of human history. During that time modern art has aspired to nothing less than the remaking of society. In The Shock of the New Robert Hughes offers a brilliant survey of that art and a masterly analysis of the accelerated cultural change which it bred.		Title: JR Oppenheimer. Author/Presenter: Peter Goodchild. First Aired: 29th October 1980 BBC2. Any portrait of Julius Robert Oppenheimer as a man must always return to the crucial fact that he was, and is still seen as, the 'father of the Atom Bomb', the effective creator of the deadliest weapon ever used by mankind.
Title: Great Railway Journeys of the World. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 6th? November 1980 BBC2. Long train journeys give the traveller time for observation and reflection. In Great Railway Journeys of the World, seven distinguished writers and presenters each take a different journey and give an original and dramatic perspective on the modern world.		Title: Ireland. A History. Author/Presenter: Robert Kee. First Aired: 2nd December 1980 BBC2. The history of Ireland has been brilliantly presented in a major BBC/RTE television series by the distinguished broadcaster and historian, Robert Kee. in unravelling and explaining the dramatic events of the past, the series has helped us to understand the complexities of the problems that exist in Ireland today.
Title: The Living Planet. Author/Presenter: David Attenborough. First Aired: 19th January 1984 BBC1. The Living Planet surveys the earth, from the highest mountains to the deepest seas, from parched deserts to drenched rain-forests. Each environment presents animals with particular problems for survival, and different groups develop their own varied and often very surprising solutions.		Title: The Living Isles. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 1985? This series is a celebration of the natural history of the British Isles and tells the story of our changing landscape and its wildlife over the last 10 000 years, during which our 'living isles' have emerged from the barren terrain left by the last Ice Age.
Title: The Triumph of the West. Author/Presenter: John Roberts. First Aired: 9th September 1985 BBC2. Today there is widespread scepticism about the achievements of western civilisation. People doubt the value of its scientific and technological advances and point to their often equivocal side-effects. Paradoxically, perhaps the West has triumphed after all - even if not quite as its critics have noticed.		Title: The Day the Universe Changed. Author/Presenter: James Burke. First Aired: 19th March 1985 BBC1. Based on the popular television documentary series, The Day the Universe Changed is a best-selling history that challenges the reader to decide whether there is absolute knowledge to discover - or whether the universe is "ultimately what we say it is."
Title: Talking Pictures. Author/Presenter: Barry Norman. First Aired: 25th January 1988 BBC1. Talking Pictures is Barry Norman's witty, informative and hugely enjoyable portrait of Hollywood movie. Starting with the premiere of The Jazz Singer on 6 October 1927, the film that revolutionised the industry by including the screen's first spoken words.		Title: Around the World in 80 Days. Author/Presenter: Michael Palin. First Aired: 11th October 1989 BBC1. In the autumn of 1988 Michael Palin set out from the Reform Club to circumnavigate the world, following the route taken by Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier. The rules were simple. He had to make the journey in 80 days and never use aircraft, only forms of transport that would have been available to Fogg.
Title: The Trials of Life. Author/Presenter: David Attenborough. First Aired: 3rd October 1990 BBC1. This book, and the television series that was filmed at the same time as it was being written, is the last in a trilogy of natural histories. The first was Life on Earth, the second was The Living Planet. This last book looks at the way animals use those bodies, the way they behave.		Title: Pole to Pole. Author/Presenter: Michael Palin. First Aired: 21st October 1992 BBC1. If you thought that there would never be another journey like Around the World in 80 Days you and Michael Palin's family have a lot in common. However, less than three years after being shut out of the Reform Club, Palin was offered a journey that would be harder, longer and more dangerous.
Title: Tales from the Map Room. Author/Presenter: First Aired: May 1993? 30M. Series which explored the nature and role of mapping in various historical and social contexts.
Title: Locomotion. Author/Presenter: Nicholas Faith. First Aired: 31st October 1993 BBC2. Man discovered fire and invented the wheel. When he put the two together the machine they made changed the world. From the California coast to the Siberian Steppes; on the high speed bullet trains of Japan and in the teeming stations of India, Locomotion makes a voyage of discovery, telling the remarkable tale of the world the railways made.		Title: Life in the Freezer. Author/Presenter: Alastair Fothergill. First Aired: 18th November 1993 BBC1. Life in the Freezer is a remarkable and exciting new new natural history of the Antarctic. Less celebrated than its northern equivalent, it boasts an equal blend of extraordinary wildlife and stunning scenery.
Title: The Human Animal. Author/Presenter: Desmond Morris. First Aired: 27th July 1994 BBC1. The Human Animal which accompanies a major six-part series, shows that, however much we may think we have evolved from our animal ancestors, our instincts and behaviour are still rooted in our animal past. By denying this inheritance we are in danger of destroying everything we have strived so hard to create.		Title: Great Railway Journeys. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 1994. Trains have a magic and mystery which is being lost in the West as the motor car takes over. But in the many parts of the world they are still the main method of transport - accessible to all, uniting families, forming crucial arteries linking societies.
Title: Alien Empire. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 1995. A journey to the heart of the insect empire, using the latest computer animation and technology to offer a unique perspective on one of the most prolific and diverse life forms on the planet.		Title: The Private Life of Plants. Author/Presenter: David Attenborough. First Aired: 11th January 1995 BBC1. Without plants, there would be no food, no animals of any sort, no life on earth at all. Yet for most of the time their lives remain a secret to us, hidden, private events. In this book, and his BBC TV series, David Attenborough does look.
Title: The People's Century. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 13th September 1995 BBC1. The twentieth century has been the people's age. During the last ten decades most men and women have gained the vote. Education has been available for children outside wealthy elites.		Title: Local Heroes 1. Author/Presenter: Adam Hart-Davis. First Aired: 2nd January 1996 BBC2 30M. Award-winning science series starring Adam Hart-Davis, who cycles round the country (and sometimes the world) telling the stories of pioneers of science and invention, visiting the places where they lived and worked, telling the stories of what they did, and recreating their science with his unique demonstrations.
Title: More Great Railway Journeys. Author/Presenter: Various. Various. First Aired: 1996. In More Great Railway Journeys, which accompanies the new television series, seven intrepid individuals set out on entertaining and unusual expeditions.		Title: Wheeler on America. Author/Presenter: Charles Wheeler. First Aired: 18th February 1996 BBC2. Five-part series in which Charles Wheeler, the BBC's longest running foreign correspondent, traces the changes that have taken place in US society since President Johnson's attempt to launch a liberal revolution in the 1960s.
Title: Dancing in the Street. Author/Presenter: Robert Palmer/ First Aired. 15th June 1996 BBC2. BBC's landmark 10-part series on the evolution of rock music with the innovators of the late-1940s and 1950s.		Title: A History of British Art. Author/Presenter: Andrew-Graham Dixon. First Aired:
Title: War Walks. Author/Presenter: Professor Richard Holmes. First Aired. 26th July 1996 BBC2. For hundreds of years, battles have raged over the area of Northern France and Belgium known as the 'fatal avenue'. In War Walks, renowned military historian Richard Holmes explores six of the region's most intriguing battlefields, vividly recreating the atmosphere of their bloody history.		Title: The Aristocracy. Author/Presenter: First Aired. 29th January 1997 BBC2. Documentary series charting the changing fortunes of Britain's titled classes over the past 120 years, drawing on archive material and memories of individual aristocrats.
		Title: Local Heroes 2. Author/Presenter: Adam Hart-Davis. First Aired: 6th January 1997 BBC2 30M. Award-winning science series starring Adam Hart-Davis, who cycles round the country (and sometimes the world) telling the stories of pioneers of science and invention, visiting the places where they lived and worked, telling the stories of what they did, and recreating their science with his unique demonstrations.
Title: Stephen Hawking's Universe. Author/Presenter: David Filkin/Stephen Hawking. First Aired: 31st August 1997 BBC2. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time has sold over 9 million copied worldwide. Now, in everyday language, Stephen Hawking's Universe reveals step-by-step how we can all share his understanding of the cosmos, and our own place within it.		Title: Full Circle. Author/Presenter: Michael Palin. First Aired. 31st August 1997 BBC2. Full Circle could be subtitled Palin's Book of Wonders. As he and his television crew undertake what may be the first-ever circumnavigation of the Pacific Rim, they prove that there is an awful lot of the world Palin hasn't seen.
Title: Making Masterpieces. Author/Presenter: Neil MacGregor. First Aired. 20th October 1997 BBC2. A behind the scenes look at the National Gallery, London. The National Gallery, London, houses one of the finest collections of western art in the world. In this extraordinary series, Neil MacGregor, Director of the National Gallery, takes viewers on a special behind-the-scenes tour.		Title: War Walks 2. Author/Presenter: Professor Richard Holmes. First Aired. 14th November 1997 BBC2. Visiting the sites of six important conflicts, this series sets out to recreate episodes which have represented turning points in British history. The author describes the conduct and topography of the battles of Hastings, Bosworth, Naseby and the Boyne, the evacuation of Dunkirk, and the Blitz.
Title: The Nazis: A Warning From History. Author/Presenter: Laurence Rees. First Aired: 10th September 1997 BBC2. Outstanding six-part series on the history of the Third Reich in Germany, using archive footage and interviews with participants.		Title: The Human Body. Author/Presenter: Anthony Smith/Professor Robert Winston. First Aired. 20th May 1998, BBC1. Documentary series focusing on the seven ages of existence, using real-life examples as well as state-of-the-art photography and specially-devised medical imaging.
Title: In The Footsteps Of Alexander The Great. Author/Presenter: Michael Wood. First Aired. 14th July 1998 BBC2. Documentary series in which Michael Wood traces the progress of the legendary Greek conqueror, a journey spanning almost 20,000 miles and 16 countries.		Title: The Life of Birds. Author/Presenter: David Attenborough. First Aired: 21st October 1998 BBC1. Birds. Over 9000 species, the most widespread of all animals: on icebergs, in the Sahara or under the sea, at home in our gardens or flying for over a year at a time. Earthbound, we can only look and listen, enjoying their lightness, freedom and richness of plumage and song.
Title: Earth Story. Author/Presenter: Simon Lamb & David Sington/Aubrey Manning. First Aired: 1st November 1998, BBC2, 50 minutes. When and how was the Earth formed? What is the link between earthquakes, volcanoes and the creation of the continents? How do mountains affect our climate? What triggers Ice Ages?		Title: Great Railway Journeys 4?. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 1st January 1999 BBC2.
Title: Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age. Author/Presenter: Fred Dibnah. First Aired. 18th February BBC2 1999. Fred Dibnah has always had a passion for Britain's industrial past and its mechanical relics. Here he recounts its history, bringing to life landmark events from the eighteenth century up to the early twentieth century in his typically anecdotal and engaging manner.		Title: The Planets. Author/Presenter: David McNab and James Younger. First Aired: 29th April 1999, BBC2. During the last 40 years, human beings have broken free of the Earth and ventured out to other worlds orbiting the Sun. We have visited every planet except Pluto, discovered dozens of new moons in orbit around other planets.
Title: The Western Front. Author/Presenter: First Aired: August 1999 BBC2. Six part over-view of the 400 miles of trenches, forts and bunkers that formed the First World War's Western Front.		Title: War of the Century. Author/Presenter: Laurence Rees. First Aired: 5th October 1999 BBC2. War of the Century puts the battle between Nazism and Stalinism under the microscope in a four part series written and produced by Laurence Rees, following his BAFTA award-winning 1997 series The Nazis - A Warning From History.
Title: Walking with Dinosaurs. Author/Presenter: Tom Haines. First Aired: 8th October 1999. More than 225 million years ago, in the middle of the Triassic period, dinosaurs began to roam the Earth. But 170 million years later they had disappeared. How and why this happened continue to be among the world's greatest mysteries.		Title: Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure. Author/Presenter: Michael Palin. First Aired: 17th October 1999 BBC1. One hundred years after the birth of Ernest Hemingway, Michael Palin sets out to discover the man behind the legend: a hard-drinking womaniser who liked cats and shooting...
Title: The River. Author/Presenter. Patrick Wright. First Aired: 30th October 1999 BBC2. Patrick Wright presents a documentary series which follows the 210-mile course of the River Thames as it winds its way through national landscape, memory and imagination.		Title: Living Britain. Author/Presenter: Peter Crawford/. First Aired: 31st October 1999 BBC2. An intimate but contemporary portrait of the diverse and beautiful landscapes and charismatic wildlife of a remarkable corner of the world.
Title: Renaissance. Author/Presenter: Andrew Graham-Dixon. First Aired: 21st November 1999 BBC2. Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon embarks on a quest to rediscover the greatest intellectual and artistic movement of the last 2,000 years.		Title: Fred Dibnah's Magnificent Monuments. Author/Presenter: Fred Dibnah. First Aired: 17th February 2000 BBC2. Fred Dibnah celebrates some of Britain's great building and engineering feats.
Title: Ape-Man. Author/Presenter: Robin Mckie. First Aired: 22nd February 2000 BBC2. "Ape Man is an enthralling account of the significant fossil discoveries, the numerous personalities and the different disciplines involved in the quest to understand our origins."		Title: Journeys to the Bottom of the Sea. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 13th March 2000 BBC2. This six-part series uncovers some of the world's most extraordinary shipwrecks.
Title: Seeing Salvation. Author/Presenter: Neil MacGregor. First Aired: 2nd April 2000 BBC2. A series exploring art inspired by Christianity.		Title: Predators. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 4th May 2000 BBC1. Wildlife series, narrated by John Hannah, vividly capturing the natural world's most successful hunters in action with techniques including revolutionary miniaturised cameras worn by some of the featured animals.
Title: Road to Riches. Author/Presenter: Peter Jay. First Aired: 9th July 2000 BBC2. Money is one of the most powerful forces in all our lives. But how did we become money-makers? This landmark BBC documentary series travels through time and across continents to chart the story of mankind's progress from primitive hunter-gatherer to modern wealth creator.		Title: Brain Story. Author/Presenter: Professor Susan Greenfield. First Aired: 18th July 2000 BBC2. Series in which neurologist Susan Greenfield explores the human brain, revealing how certain areas of the brain have a direct correlation with specific human behaviours.
Title: Cousins. Author/Presenter: Louise Barrett and Robin Dunbar./Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek First Aired: 16th August 2000 BBC1. Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek embarks on her global adventure to meet monkeys, apes and other furry members of the family from which we came.		Title: A History of Britain. Author/Presenter: Simon Schama First Aired: 30th September 2000 BBC2. Award-winning historian Simon Schama presents A History of Britain, a 16 part television epic bringing history to life through the dramatic stories of key lives and moments in Britain's rich past.
Title: Superhuman. Author/Presenter: Professor Lord Winston First Aired: 15th October 2000 BBC1. Superhuman will take viewers into a world of bionic bodies, robotic surgeons, animal transplants and designer babies and includes incredible graphics which will allow the viewer to witness cutting edge footage such as medical teams undertaking implants and transplants and the body under various forms of attack - from a rampaging cancer tumour to a 70 mph car crash.		Title: Changing Stages. Author/Presenter: Sir Richard Eyre First Aired: 5th November 2000 BBC2. In a major new series, the distinguished theatre director and the former artistic director of the Royal National Theatre, Sir Richard Eyre, gives his personal view of the story of theatre in the last one hundred years. Changing Stages is an epic journey through the influences, inspirations and talents that shaped the course of theatre during the last century.
Title: Andes To Amazon. Author/Presenter: Michael Bright. First Aired: 6th November 2000 BBC2. With an astonishing variety of wildlife and spectacular landscapes, South America has the planet's greatest river system, its longest mountain chain and its driest desert.		Title: What the Romans Did for Us. Author/Presenter: Adam Hart-Davis. First Aired: 6th November 2000 BBC2. From cosmetics to concrete, fast food to frescos and lighthouses to loos, the Romans transformed numerous aspects of British life. In his new series, Adam Hart-Davis investigates the innovations and inventions the invaders brought to Britain.
Title: Conquistadors. Author/Presenter: Michael Wood. First Aired: 24th November 2000 BBC2. A new four-part series in which writer and historian Michael Wood travels across the Americas to tell the story of the Spanish Conquest of the New World in the 16th century.		Title: State of the Planet. Author/Presenter: David Attenborough. First Aired: 15th November 2000 BBC1. In the new three part series on BBC1, State of the Planet, David Attenborough makes a personal study of the impact that humans are having on the natural world and investigates the future of life on Earth.
Title: Horror in the East. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 4th December 2000 BBC2. Two-part documentary on Japan at war, examining the Japanese treatment of Allied prisoners of war.		Title: The Greeks. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 6th January 2001 BBC2. Series about the rise, demise and legacy of the Greek empire, which stretched from Asia to Spain and marked the dawn of Western civilisation.
Title: Congo. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 30th January 2001 BBC2. The Congo basin is the size of western Europe, yet its difficult terrain and history of savage warfare have left it among the most mysterious parts of the world. Though still characterised by stories of cannibalism and bloodshed, it also a vast wilderness and colour.		Title: Middle Classes: Their Rise and Sprawl. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 23rd February 2001 BBC2. Geoffrey Palmer narrates a six-part documentary series tracing the evolution of the middle class in Britain over the last century.
Title: The Human Face. Author/Presenter: John Cleese. First Aired: 7th March 2001 BBC1. John Cleese begins a four-part series exploring how we read one another's faces.		Title Walk on By: the Story of the Popular Song. Author/Presenter: Alan Lewens. First Aired: 17th March 2001 BBC2. Explores pop music from the sixties up to the present day. Including interviews and performances from Bananarama, Boy George, Michael Jackson, the Spice Girls, etc.
Title: Son of God. Author/Presenter: Jeremy Bowen. First Aired: 1st April 2001 BBC1. What can we really know about Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of Christianity? Two thousand years after his death the answer is that we know a great deal, probably more than has been known about him at any time since he walked the hills of Galilee.		Title: Talking Landscapes. Author/Presenter: Aubrey Manning. First Aired: 6th April 2001 BBC2. The History of Britain is written in the landscape. Since the earliest farmers began to cut down trees and plough the clearings over 5000 years ago, people have been moulding and shaping the land until now no two counties are the same.
Title: Art That Shook the World. Author/Presenter: Andrew Graham-Dixon. First Aired: 7th April 2001 BBC2. A series offering insight into the cultural milestones that were to have major influence on subsequent artists.		Title: Endgame in Ireland. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 24th June 2001 BBC2. This four-part series sets out to examine the formulation and realisation of the peace process as told by its major protagonists, and is extensively illustrated by archive news footage.
Title: Space. Author/Presenter: Sam Neill. First Aired: 22nd July 2001 BBC1. Space is a hugely ambitious project, a massive undertaking using state-of-the-art computer graphics to show us how stars and the universe exploded into life.		Title: Ancient Apocalypse. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 26th July 2001 BBC2.
Title: Islam: Empire Of Faith. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 13th August 2001 BBC2. Islam, followed by more than a billion people worldwide, is the world's fastest-growing religion and will soon be the world's largest. 'Islam-Empire of Faith' explores the first millennium of Islamic culture, from the revelation to Muhammad to the great Islamic empires.		Title: What The Victorians Did For Us. Author/Presenter: Adam Hart-Davis. First Aired: 3rd September 2001 BBC1. Engineering and innovation changed the face of Victorian Britain and also ushered in a new age of leisure and pleasure. As What the Victorians Did for Us reveals, their inventions include the weekend, the seaside holiday, the sports we play today and a revolution in entertainment.
Title: The Blue Planet. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 12th September 2001 BBC1. The Blue Planet is the definitive exploration of the Earth's final frontier - from the deep to the shore, from pole to pole. It reveals extraordinary life and behaviour that has never before been filmed. In some cases these have only recently been known to scientists.		Title: Battlefields. Author/Presenter: Professor Richard Holmes. First Aired: 25th September 2001 BBC2. Historian Professor Richard Holmes presents this four-part series analysing the key military campaigns of World War II.
Title: Invasion. Author/Presenter: Dan Cruickshank. First Aired: 28th October 2001 BBC2. A new, three-part series in which architectural historian Dan Cruickshank explores the heritage of Britain's defences and aims to dispel the myth that Britain was an island stronghold.		Title: Egypt's Golden Empire. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 4th November 2001 BBC2. Egypt's history is rich and complex and this new three-part series makes a fair stab at examining this, one of the greatest of all civilisations, using the diaries, poems and letters of people who lived in the New Kingdom.
Title: Blood of the Vikings. Author/Presenter: Julian Richards. First Aired: 6th November 2001 BBC2. Five-part series assessing the impact of the Vikings on Britain's history, presented by Julian Richards.		Title: Wild Africa. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 7th November 2001 BBC2. Major six-part natural-history series, filmed in 22 African countries, looking at some rare and beautiful wildlife in a variety of habitats within the continent.
Title: Walking with Beasts. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 15th November 2001 BBC1. Major new six-part series, made by the Walking with Dinosaurs team, which uses computer animation wizardry to re-create a forgotten era in natural history.		Title: Rolf on Art. Author/Presenter: Rolf Harris. First Aired: 18th November 2001 BBC1. Four-part series in which Rolf Harris examines the life and works of four of his favourite painters.
Title: Taboo. Author/Presenter: Joan Bakewell. First Aired: 21st November 2001 BBC2. Although there have been whisperings that this series on censorship is as close to pornography as the BBC is likely to get, viewers can be assured that, with the eminently sensible Joan Bakewell as presenter, it will be in the best possible taste and will be treated seriously.		Title: Bridge. Author/Presenter: Lucy Blaksted. First Aired: 25th November 2001 BBC2. Three-part series by Lucy Blaksted that explores the emotional impact of bridges on surrounding communities.
Title: The Private Life of a Masterpiece. Author/Presenter: Monica Bohm-Duchen. First Aired: 8th December 2001 BBC2. The world's most well known works of art are both instantly familiar and profoundly mysterious. What has made these images so popular, and how did they come into existence?		Title: Civil War. Author/Presenter: Dr Tristram Hunt. First Aired: 7th January 2002 BBC2. Dr Tristram Hunt uses dramatic reconstructions to re-assess the "English" Civil War of the 1640s in this four-part series.
Title: Taste. Author/Presenter: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. First Aired: 5th January 2002 BBC2. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen presents a history of interior design, travelling around Britain in search of beautiful, strange and intriguing places.		Title: How to Build a Human. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 13th January 2002 BBC2. Four part series looking at how humans are made and the ways they are shaped by genes.
Title: Ray Mears' Extreme Survival Author/Presenter: Ray Mears. First Aired: 23rd January 2002?
Title: Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain. Author/Presenter: Fred Dibnah. First Aired: 11th February 2002 BBC2. A six-part series in which steeplejack Fred Dibnah uncovers the craft and engineering skills that went into the building of Britain over the centuries.		Title: In Search of Scotland. Author/Presenter: Fiona Watson First Aired: 19th February 2002 BBC2 Scotland. In Search of Scotland; is a new ten-part television series presented by Fiona Watson that questions the nature of Scottish national identity through an expansive and detailed historical investigation of the country's history.
Title: Wellington: The Iron Duke. Author/Presenter: Professor Richard Holmes. First Aired: 2nd July 2002 BBC2 50M. In a new three-part series, military historian Richard Holmes tells the story, both on and off the battlefield, of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington.		Title: The Battle of the Atlantic. Author/Presenter: Andrew Williams. First Aired: 7th July 2002 BBC2. A look back at the German U-boat campaign which Winston Churchill described as the only thing that really frightened him during the Second World War.
Title: Reggae: the Story of Jamaican Music. Author/Presenter: Lloyd Bradley and Dennis Morris. First Aired: 4th August 2002 BBC2. Prince Buster, Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer, Lee Perry, Shaggy and Beanie are just some of the artists contributing to a three-part series chronicling the story of reggae.		Title: Wild New World. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 3rd October 2002 BBC2. Forget about designer dresses, personal groomers and luxury living, to make it big in the States in prehistoric times ferocious tusks and shaggy coats were the must- have accessories. A new BBC documentary series, Wild New World, takes viewers back in time to a land where woolly mammoths ruled the Hollywood Hills.
Title: Great Britons. Author/Presenter: Anne Robinson. First Aired: 20th October 2002 BBC2. A series of programmes looking at the achievements of influential British figures.		Title: Human Instinct. Author/Presenter: Professor Robert Winston First Aired: 23rd Oct 2002 BBC1 60M. A series in which Professor Robert Winston examines human instincts and patterns of behaviour.
Title: Britain's Best Buildings. Author/Presenter: Dan Cruickshank. First Aired: 2nd November 2002 BBC2. Series in which Dan Cruikshank explores four famous buildings.		Title: Building the Impossible. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 29th November 2002 BBC2. 50M. Two scientists are challenged by the BBC, in this four-part series, to re-create a succession of engineering feats from the past.
Title: Secrets of Leadership. Author/Presenter: Andrew Roberts. First Aired: 7th March 2003 BBC2 50m. Documentary series on leadership techniques throughout history.		Title: Designing the Decades. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 15th? March 2003 BBC2. Designing the Decades, a new four part series for BBC TWO, revisits the nation's design heritage, from the 1960s to the 1990s, and takes a journey through forty years of iconic architecture, interiors, fashion and design.
Title: Secret Lives of the Artists. Author/Presenter: Andrew Graham-Dixon. First Aired: 22nd March 2003 BBC2. Andrew Graham-Dixon sets out to reveal the untold personal stories of three great artists in this new series.		Title: Walking with Cavemen. Author/Presenter: Professor Robert Winston. First Aired: 27th March 2003 BBC1. Ground-breaking special effects illustrate the drama of human evolution in Professor Robert Winston's four-part new series.
Title: Monsters We Met. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 8th April 2003 BBC2. Human drama is combined with computer graphics to re-create lost worlds across three continents, where people really did meet monsters in the first of this new three-part series.		Title: Leonardo Da Vinci. Author/Presenter: Alan Yentob. First Aired: 20th April 2003 BBC1. 60M. Filmed across Italy and marking the 500th anniversary of the Mona Lisa, a three-part, semi-dramatised biography of Leonardo da Vinci, written and presented by Alan Yentob.
Title: Spend, Spend, Spend. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 26th April 2003 BBC2. 60M. Three-part series examining the role of money, affluence and spending in British society.		Title: Fighting the War. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 15th June 2003 BBC2. 60M. A seven-part documentary series charting British involvement in the Gulf conflict earlier this year, told through the eyes of politicians and the military personnel who fought it.
Title: In Search of Shakespeare. Author/Presenter: Michael Wood. First Aired: 28th June 2003 BBC2. 60M. Historian Michael Wood embarks on a four-part investigation into the turbulent and dangerous world of Elizabethan England to chart the extraordinary life of arguably the world's greatest writer - William Shakespeare.		Title: Human Senses. Author/Presenter: Nigel Marven. First Aired: 30th June 2003 BBC1. 30M. Zoologist Nigel Marven tracks down the biological roots of our sensory perception in the first of a six-part series.
Title: Design Rules. Author/Presenter: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. First Aired: 7th July 2003 BBC2. 30M. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen uncovers some of the fundamental rules governing interior design in a new six-part series.		Title: Rebels and Redcoats: the American Revolutionary War. Author/Presenter: Professor Richard Holmes. First Aired: 8th July 2003 BBC2. 50M. Historian Professor Richard Holmes sheds new light on the American War of Independence in a new four-part series.
Title: Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam. Author/Presenter: Fred Dibnah. First Aired: 15th July 2003 BBC2. 30M. Dibnah traces the development of steam power from the earliest experiments in the ancient world to the modern nuclear power station in a new six-part series.		Title: Every Home Should Have One. Author/Presenter: Garry Lavin. First Aired: 15th July 2003 BBC2. 30M. Designer and inventor Garry Lavin tackles the mechanics of domestic life in a new six-part series.
Title: Restoration. Author/Presenter: Griff Rhys Jones. First Aired: 8th August 2003 BBC2. 60M. Viewers can vote to help save one of Britain's endangered architectural treasures in this 11-part series, produced in consultation with many heritage societies. Griff Rhys Jones hosts, with experts Ptolemy Dean and Marianne Suhr.		Title: Seven Wonders of the Industrial World. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 4th September 2003 BBC2. 50M. Drama-documentary series, focussing on some of the key technological achievements of the industrial age.
Title: This Land. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 12the September 2003 BBC2. 30M. Six personal views of British landscapes.		Title: Wild Down Under. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 12th September 2003 BBC2. 50M. Home to such strange animals as the platypus and the koala, and with the dubious accolade of having the planet's greatest concentration of poisonous snakes, Australasia is like nowhere else on Earth. Its landscapes too, are full of surprises, from arid desert to snowy mountains.
Title: Rolf on Art 3. Author/Presenter: Rolf Harris. First Aired: 14th September 2003 BBC1. 30M. Rolf Harris brings to life the work of six famous 20th-century painters as his art show begins its third run.		Title: Landscape Mysteries. Author/Presenter: Professor Aubrey Manning. First Aired: 25th September 2003 BBC2 30M. Following the successful BBC2 series “Talking Landscapes”, Professor Aubrey Manning embarks on a set of eight new journeys in which he follows clues in the geology, natural history, and archaeology of different parts of the British Isles in an attempt to solve mysteries arising in the landscape.
Title: What the Industrial Revolution Did for Us. Author/Presenter: Dan Cruickshank. First Aired: 7th October 2003 BBC2. 30M. Six programmes in which Dan Cruickshank explores one of the most inventive periods in history.		Title: Days That Shook the World. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 21st September 2003 BBC4. Dramatic explorations of global events that had a resounding historical impact, hour-by-hour, as they unfolded.
Title: The National Trust. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 16th November 2003 BBC4 60M. Five-part-insider's look at one of Britain's most powerful and political bodies.		Title: Inventions that Changed the World. Author/Presenter: Jeremy Clarkson. First Aired: 15th January 2004 BBC2 60M. A look at key inventions that have made a global impact in this six-part series.
Title: Private Life of a Masterpiece 2. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 19th January 2004 BBC2 50M. The little-known stories behind great artworks are told in this new run of documentaries.		Title: War at Sea. Author/Presenter: Professor Andrew Lambert. First Aired: 1st February 2004 BBC2 60M. The story of the Royal Navy and its greatest battles, from Trafalgar to the Falklands.
Title: Terry Jones' Medieval Lives. Author/Presenter: Terry Jones. First Aired: 9th February 2004 BBC2 50M. In Terry Jones' Medieval Lives his mission is to rescue the Middle Ages from moth-eaten clichés and well-worn platitudes.		Title: The Third World War: al-Qaeda. Author/Presenter: Peter Taylor. First Aired: 10th February 2004 BBC2 60M. The global fightback against al-Qaeda and its allies, documented by award-winning reporter Peter Taylor.
Title: Nile Author/Presenter: first Aired: 27th February 2004 BBC2 50M. The longest river on the planet, the Nile flows from the heart of the continent, through a land with a history as rich as the river is long.		Title: When Black Became Beautiful. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 14th March 2004 BBC2 60M. How people of African-Caribbean origin came to be aesthetically accepted in fashion and the arts.
Title: Brilliantly British. Author/Presenter: Hilary Kay. First Aired: 4th April 2004 BBC1 60M. Tracing the enduring legacy of three early design gurus and revealing the secrets of their craft.		Title: The Private Life of a Masterpiece 3. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 17th April 2004 BBC2 50M. Little-known stories behind great artworks.
Title: Art & the 60s. Author/Presenter: Vanessa Engle. First Aired: 1st July 2004 BBC4 60M. Art & the 60s tells the extraordinary story of London's art world in the Sixties through interviews with the era's artists, collectors and gallery owners.		Title: Britain's Best Buildings 2. Author/Presenter: Dan Cruickshank. First Aired: 13th July 2004 BBC4 60M. In a new series - 'Britain’s Best Buildings' continues to give a unique insight into some of the nation’s favourite properties and examines their enduring appeal.
Title: Time Machine. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 11th July 2004 BBC1 60M. Imagine if you could speed through time and see life as you've never seen it before. Well, imagine no longer.		Title: Restoration 2. Author/Presenter: Griff Rhys Jones. First Aired: 13th July 2004 BBC2 60M. Viewers can vote to help save one of Britain's endangered architectural treasures in this 8-part series, produced in consultation with many heritage societies. Griff Rhys Jones hosts, with experts Ptolemy Dean and Marianne Suhr.
Title: Massive Nature. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 15th July 2004 BBC1 30M. An epic run of nature documentaries charting the behaviour of large groups of animals and their predators.		Title: Ray Mears's Bushcraft. Author/Presenter: Ray Mears. First Aired: 9th September 2004 BBC2 60M. The survival expert shows how a knowledge of the natural world facilitates the art of bushcraft - the ability to exist outdoors - in this absorbing and insightful series.
Title: Map Man. Author/Presenter: Nicholas Crane. First Aired: 16th September 2004 BBC2 30M. Explorer Nicholas Crane attempts to navigate Britain's wildest landscapes using pioneering historical maps.		Title: Journeys from the Centre of the Earth. Author/Presenter: Iain Stewart. First Aired: 21st September 2004 BBC4 60M. The Open University and the BBC are taking viewers on a journey from the centre of the Earth to some of the world’s top holiday hot-spots to uncover how the rocks underfoot have influenced the history and the make-up of the Mediterranean. Journeys from the Centre of the Earth is a six-part Open University and BBC co-production.
Title: Rolf on Art 4?. Author/Presenter: Rolf Harris. First Aired: 26th September 2004 BBC1 60M.		Title: British Isles: a Natural History. Author/Presenter: Alan Titchmarsh. First Aired: 29th September 2004 BBC1 60M. Why is the UK so diverse. beautiful and extreme? From deserts to tropical forests, Alan Titchmarsh peels back the layers ~ of time to reveal what shaped our landscape and its wildlife.
Title: Himalaya. Author/Presenter: Michael Palin. First Aired: 3rd October 2004 BBC1 60M. The itinerant ex-Python sets off on his latest adventure across the vast South Asian mountain range.		Title: A Rough History of Disbelief. Author/Presenter: Jonathan Miller. First Aired: 11th October 2004 BBC4 60M. In this first ever television history of disbelief, Jonathan Miller leads viewers on a personal journey exploring the origins of his own lack of belief and uncovering the hidden story of atheism.
Title: Magic. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 16th October 2004 BBC2 50M. The definitive guide to the history of performance magic from ancient Egypt to the 21st century.		Title: Venice. Author/Presenter: Francesco da Mosto. First Aired: 16th October 2004 BBC2 60M. The history and culture of the great Italian city brought to life by Venetian Francesco da Mosto through computer-generated imagery and dramatic reconstructions.
Title: Light Fantastic. Author/Presenter: Simon Schaffer First Aired: 1st December 2004 BBC4 60M. Light Fantastic explores the phenomenon that surrounds and affects nearly every aspect of our lives but one which we take for granted - light.		Title: Cathedral. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 3rd January 2005 BBC2 60M. Dramatised reconstructions that aim to explore the momentous events that shaped the building of Britain's greatest Cathedrals.
Title: In Search of Speed. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 6th January 2005 BBC4 60M. In Search Of Speed tells the incredible stories of the men and women who, against all odds, pushed the boundaries of technology and made history by breaking land, air and water speed records.		Title: Auschwitz: the Nazis & the "Final Solution" Author/Presenter: First Aired: 11th January 2005 BBC2 50M. Sixty years after its liberation, the story of the most infamous mass murder site in history is told in a new BBC TV series .
Title: In Search of Myths & Heroes. Author/Presenter: Michael Wood. First Aired: 4th February 2005 BBC2 60M. Michael Wood goes in search of four of the most famous myths in the world: Shangri-la, the Golden Fleece, the Queen of Sheba, and the Holy Grail.		Title: Europe: a Natural History. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 15th February 2005 BBC4 50M. A stunning four-part series, charting the dramatic events which have shaped the ever-changing landscapes and wildlife of Europe.
Title: What the Ancients Did for Us. Author/Presenter: Adam Hart-Davis. First Aired: 16th February 2005 BBC1 60M. Adam Hart-Davis seeks out the ancients - including the Incas, the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians - with his focus on their astonishing social and scientific advances.		Title: Around the World in 80 Treasures. Author/Presenter: Dan Cruickshank. First Aired: 21st February 2005 BBC2 60M. Around the World in 80 Treasures sees Dan Cruickshank and his team travel to over 40 countries over five months to unearth some of the most treasured sights on the planet.
Title: Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain. Author/Presenter: Fred Dibnah. First Aired: 8th March 2005 BBC2 30M. This new 12-part series was completed by Fred Dibnah before his death in November last year. He sets out on a grand tour of Britain's industrial past, aboard his beloved 1912 steam traction engine.		Title: The Queen's Castle. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 27th March 2005 BBC1 60M. A chance to see the Queen in public and private, this short series chronicles a year in the life of Windsor, the world's largest inhabited castle.
Title: Private Life of a Masterpiece. Author/Presenter: First Aired: 2nd April 2005 BBC2 50M. The series that reveals stories behind famous artworks returns.		Title: Journey of Life. Author/Presenter: Steve Leonard. First Aired: 14th April 2005 BBC1 60M. Wildlife photography and CGI help to illuminate the story of evolution as Steve Leonard explores the extraordinary diversity of life on Earth.