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20 year-old Lady Diana Spencer laughed out loud when Prince Charles proposed to her having met her only 12 times. Five months later, she walked up the aisle - watched by three quarters of a billion people around the world - to marry what people believed was her Prince Charming. This is the true story of the seven days that led to the wedding of the decade - was it doomed before it even began?
Jul 2019
A Film Portrait of Edward Heath. Edward Heath was one of the most controversial Prime Ministers this century. He took Britain into Europe, but was brought down by the very trades unions he sought to tame. In an intimate Portrait Sir Edward talks candidly about his life and career, and of his stormy relationship with his successors.
Sep 1998
Historian Tom Holland traces the origins of Isis’ barbaric and sadistic violence which it claims is justified by the tenets and scriptures of Islam.
May 2017
How, in 1945, after the end of World War II and the fall of the Nazi regime, the defeated were atrociously mistreated, especially those ethnic Germans who had lived peacefully for centuries in Germany's neighboring countries, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. A heartbreaking story of revenge against innocent civilians, the story of acts as cruel as the Nazi occupation during the war years.
May 2015
Documentary telling the inside story of the plans by Louis Mountbatten to maneuver his nephew and heir to the Greek throne, Philip, into marrying the future queen Princess Elizabeth and the tensions that that unleashed.
Apr 2016
On the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death, Jeremy Paxman tells the story of the send-off which Britain gave to the man who led the country to victory in the Second World War. More than a million people came to line the streets of London on the freezing day in late January to pay their respects as his coffin was taken from the lying-in-state at Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral. Millions more watched the state funeral on television. Churchill was the only commoner in the twentieth century to receive the honour of such a magnificent ceremony.
Jan 2015
BBC memorial portrait of recently deceased Margaret Thatcher. With the help of never-before-seen archive material and interviews with colleagues and family, a portrait is painted of a politician who many have an opinion about and who has left a great impression, both in British politics and in the world.
Apr 2013
1966 was both the first and only time England hosted - and won - the football World Cup. 30th July was the day of the final, and exactly 50 years to that day later, those people who were there reminisce.
Jul 2016
Biographer Sir John Richardson and Picasso’s granddaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso, are the star witnesses in a documentary that reassesses the artist’s output in the years before his death in 1973. The story is of a creative spirit finding new impetus in response to both death’s approach and the censure of contemporaries and critics. Those who were members of Picasso’s private inner circle – gossip about his lifestyle also helped to fire him back up – put the later work forward as some of his frankest, wittiest and most profound.
Mar 2018
A personal portrait of the victor of Waterloo, drawing on his own vast correspondence and the letters and memoirs of those who knew him best.
In this gripping investigation, archaeologist Pepi Papakosta is on a hunt for Alexander the Great's lost tomb, and she makes an extraordinary discovery.
Mar 2019
This illuminating documentary examines the aftermath of Princess Diana's tragic death and the tense, dramatic week leading up to her funeral
Jul 2017
Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan travels to India to investigate the issue of child trafficking. As the capital Delhi prepares to host the Commonwealth Games, she talks to young boys just rescued from factories in the slums. When she learns that many have been sent away with traffickers by their own parents, Lindsay sets off to find out why. In West Bengal, parents, child victims, and a former trafficker share their stories and reveal the desperate poverty which fuels this cruel trade in children. As India's economy is booming, Lindsay asks what can be done to stop this abuse.
Apr 2010
Tom Holland explores how our ancestors sought to explain the remains of dinosaurs and other giant prehistoric creatures, and how bones and fossils have affected human culture.
Sep 2011
In August 1962, director Leslie Woodhead made a two-minute film in Liverpool's Cavern Club with a raw and unrecorded group of rockers called the Beatles. He arranged their first live TV appearances on a local show in Manchester and watched as the Fab Four phenomenon swept the world. Twenty-five years later while making films in Russia, Woodhead became aware of how, even though they were never able to play in the Soviet Union, the Beatles' legend had soaked into the lives of a generation of kids. This film meets the Soviet Beatles generation and hears their stories about how the Fab Four changed their lives, including Putin's deputy premier Sergei Ivanov, who explains how the Beatles helped him learn English and showed him another life. (Storyville)
Sep 2009
In 1897 Queen Victoria antagonized family and court with her relationship with Indian servant Abdul Karim. Originally a waiter the devious and arrogant young man won over the queen by playing on her love of Indian cuisine and romantic view of the country,teaching her Hindistani,whilst she signed letters to him 'Mother',bestowing houses and gifts on him and his family. Already shocked that a Muslim should be at the heart of the court the Royal family stepped in when Victoria announced her desire to knight him and they threatened to have her declared insane if she went ahead. It worked. And in 1901 after the queen's death Karim was banished from Royal circles,returning to India where he died.
Apr 2012
The actor, Warwick Davis, presents the story of the Owicz family and their ordeal during WWII. From a successful musical act to being tortuously experimented on by Dr. Josef Mengele in a concentration camp. This story might have been lost to history if it weren't for the family's diminutive size, which made them both a novelty as well as an inspiration.
Mar 2013
This fascinating documentary reveals the behind the scenes story of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, drawing on rare archive footage and made using eyewitness accounts of participants and historical experts.
May 2012
Jun 2018
In a single documentary to mark the 100-year anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, Sir Max Hastings presents the argument that although it was a great tragedy, far from being futile, the First World War was completely unavoidable.
Feb 2014