In this edition, the continuing controversy surrounding the war-time role of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Victims of a bad press, they remained tactfully silent, but now answer back through Maitre Blum their lawyer, who gives her first television interview.
The China of the Manchu Emperors and the signing of the treaties which gave Britain Hong Kong. Why do the Chinese regard these treaties as unequal?
What would have happened if on Monday 7 August 1558 a Spanish Army had marched on London from the invasion beaches of Margate? Timewatch re-examines the fate of the 16th-century Spanish task force and asks how close did it come to success?
Sir Thomas More, who lost his head on the scaffold in 1535. In 1937 he was made a saint. Now the heroic reputation of the ' man for all seasons' is under attack. Timewatch looks again at the life of a Tudor statesman.
On the Fiftieth anniversary of Hitler becoming German Chancellor, Winchester reports from Washington and Nuremberg on the process of de-nazification that began in 1945. He examines how America wanted to mould the defeated [West] Germany in it's own image through forced re-education.
John Tusa investigates the work of a lifetime -the completed new edition of The Diary of Samuel Pepys. He talks to Robert Latham , editor of this unparalleled document of Restoration society, who has uncovered previously unknown details of Pepys's life.
Fifty years ago, British politics was dominated by campaigns for peace. What are the parallels with the 1980s? John Tusa reports.
Richard III - hunchback murderer of the princes in the Tower, or victim of Tudor propaganda? On the 500th anniversary of his coronation, historians go into battle again over his reputation.
Following the arrest of Klaus Barbie , butcher of Lyon, memories of Nazi collaboration have again returned to haunt ageneration of Frenchmen.
During the Falklands war, the Argentinians made great capital of the last time they'd fought the British -and won, in 1806.
After Parliament's vote on hanging, an investigation into the history of Tyburn and the mass public executions in the 18th century. Did hanging deter?
From Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, designed by Albert for his family, the many different sides of his remarkable character are brought into focus.
A remarkable newly discovered archive of silent film reveals hospital life in the 1920s and 30s. How did people afford medical care in the days before the National Health?
A "Timewatch" special which looks at the early years of the Prince Consort, which culminated with his marriage to Queen Victoria
In May 1945, British soldiers near the Austrian border town of Klagenfurt handed over 26,000 Yugoslav anti-Communist refugees to Tito's Communist partisans.
1984 opens amid the greatest fears of international tension and nuclear holocaust since the Cold War. Lord Bullock, biographer of British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, talks about the foundation of NATO and how the West learnt to deal with the Soviet Union after the War.
Among the Nazi war leaders tried at Nuremberg, Hitler's successor Admiral Doenitz, received the lightest sentence of all. Now new research suggests Doenitz was far more deeply implicated in the atrocities of the Third Reich than previously imagined.
A meeting with the man who met the men who charged with the Light Brigade. Now aged 97, he has devoted his life to tracing all those who took part in the most celebrated action in Victorian history.
Did Victorian wives really 'lie back and think of England'? New research suggests they enjoyed a far more liberated sex life than conventional image allows.
In 1924, 28 million people visited the last of the great imperial exhibitions at Wembley - now it is almost forgotten.
Timewatch re-examines The Case for King William. Why did William of Normandy believe the Crown of England was his right? "The Norman Church and Castle Hastings", wrote the chroniclers, "was a fatal day for England." What do we know of the barons who stamped their authority on their newly-conquered possessions?
The private papers of Germany's last Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, uncover his secret life. In public the figurehead of swaggering Prussian militarism, in private a manic personality obsessed with fantastical schemes for himself and Germany.
In North Carolina they are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first settlement in North America. Colonisation of the New World was Walter Ralegh 's most ambitious scheme, but what was its aim?
It was the first modern General Election. Two parties, two national leaders - the King versus Parliament. With a computer analysis of the crucial results, Timewatch fights again the election that marked a watershed in English political history.
Christopher Andrew uncovers new evidence that pitch invasions, mob riots and attacks on rival supporters were at their height before 1914.
How true are historical novels? GORE vidal's Lincoln draws the political battlefield in Washington during the American Civil War. What does it add to our portrait of one of America's greatest presidents?
In 1839, 7,000 Welsh miners and ironworkers marched on Newport to demand their democratic rights. The result was the last mass treason trial in British history.
Heroes inevitably suffer at the hands of those who worship them, few more so than one of the most popular of all, Nelson. Since his death in 1805, how have subsequent generations perceived him?
Why have successive presidents celebrated the cowboy as all-American hero? The Age of Chivalry is Dead But did it ever flourish? How true is the picture painted of the knights in shining armour, enchanted castles and fabulous tournaments in medieval romance.
In 1900 the railway workers of Taff Vale embarked on a strike which has political implications to this day. Timewatch examines the first great clash between the Trades Unions and the law.
'Let not poor Nellie starve.' With those words Charles II, the 'Merry Monarch', died 300 years ago. Of all British sovereigns, this womanising, yachting, horse-racing king has a fond place in popular myth. During his 25-year reign England returned from the horrors of civil war to peace and plenty.
Churchill and Roosevelt exchanged 2,000 letters during the Second World War. Collected for the first time, they reveal the tensions behind the friendship and Britain's collapse as a great superpower.
By 1945 the Allies and the Nazis had stockpiled five times more chemical weapons than had been used throughout the First World War. They were never used. Why?
In April 1945. British and American troops were sweeping across Western Germany. Charles Wheeler was among them. They stopped 50 miles short of the German capital and Berlin became the prize of the Russian army. Forty years on. Charles Wheeler tells how the Soviet Union fought its bloodiest final battle and how the manner of its victory determined the future of Berlin, and Europe, in the postwar world.
Treason under Elizabeth I became a matter not of actions but of belief. William Shawcross examines the growth of Elizabethan conspiracy theory.
Under Marechal Petain , one of France's most popular leaders, some of the French collaborated with the Nazis and enthusiastically participated in Hitler's 'Final solution'.
Robert Owen is widely regarded as a leader of the labour movement. David Drew finds that it might be more accurate to view him as the precursor of scientific management.
From one of England's High Courts Peter France introduces three stories from our legal past.
Peter France interviews Aubrey Burl, authority on stone circles, about the history of the Stonehenge site before construction of the existing circle. Peter France looks back to ealier this year when the hill fort at Maiden Castle was at the centre of English Heritage's controversial plans to preserve our past which still rages and which have split the world of archaeology .
From the Public Records Office in London Peter France introduces three films which reflect the way official records are preserved for future generations.
Peter France introduces two stories which throw new light on the life and times of Henry Tudor, who took the throne of England from Richard III 500 years ago. The first film indicates the problems facing Margaret Rule and her assistant Andrew Fielding. The second reassesses the life of Henry VII - the king who may well have commissioned the Mary Rose.
From the British Museum, Peter France presents three films which reveal the way visionaries and others dealt with the 'outsider' as they set out to perfect a society, a state and a national image at the turn of the 19th century. To achieve the first, English reformers constructed a new prison system - only to find that within 20 years it was a total failure. To achieve the second, the Brothers Grimm falsified their country's original folk tales to define behaviour ' acceptable to the architects ' of the new Germany. And to achieve the third, satirical cartoonists vilified the national characteristics of the Welsh, the Scots and the Irish to build up the concept of pure Englishness.
Peter France introduces three stories about the lives of women in worlds dominated by men. First "The Nine Day Queen" then "Most Dangerous Women" followed by "The World of Mary Ellen Best".
During World War 2, Britain's MI6 recruited a French spy and infiltrated him into a rival secret service; the Special Operations Executive (SOE). That spy went on to betray much of SOE's activities to the Nazis? This program explore why.
In Hollywood, Peter France re-discovers a classic documentary of the 30s. In 1936, two young men trying to make their way in Hollywood were brought together by their hatred of Fascism. Where most of their compatriots supported Fascism or preferred not to know, Irving Allen and Herbert Bregstein were exceptional in seeing the dangers ahead and trying to do something about it. Using all their own time and money, they made a film. The Road to War used newsreel to try to alert the American people to the mounting horror of war in China, Ethiopia, Italy, Germany, Austria and Spain. But America did not want to know and the film disappeared without trace until last year.
Peter France presents a selection of films screened in the series over the past year, and reveals the origins and backgrounds to the stories.
A few weeks ago, a Victoria Cross, won at the battle of Rorke's Drift more than 100 years ago, was sold at auction in London.
The Domesday Book was completed 900 years ago but it says little about the daily worries and concerns of the people whose land and animals are recorded in so much detail.
This summer the National History Museum of Bulgaria in Sofia put on display more than 160 silver bowls and jugs, which had been found a few months earlier by a farmer and his wife digging an irrigation ditch.
Peter France presents three films which reflect the extent to which codes of 'honour', allegiance' and 'behaviour' have had their effect on British history. How far should men go to defend their honour?
Peter France picks two stories from the past series which deal with men of mystery.
Oliver Cromwell was a tyrant, a repressed religious bigot who murdered a king, ruthlessly ended the world's first socialist movement and had grand designs to make himself King Oliver I. Oliver Cromwell was a superb man - patriotic, a magnificent warrior and civilised with a tremendous sense of humour, a bursting conscience in matters of state and religion and personally unambitious. Which assessment even approaches the truth? Views of Oliver Cromwell vary as much today as when Parliament asked him to become King in 1657. How do modern historians view the parliamentarian who some have called the greatest Englishman?
In Georgian times, a crippling illness struck thousands of cider drinkers in the west of England, who found mysterious relief only by taking the waters at Bath Spa. In Victorian England, prostitutes, seen as carriers of venereal disease, were forcibly detained and treated in hospitals until they were considered unlikely to infect the male population - particularly the lower ranks of the Army and Royal Navy. Peter France introduces two stories which show how previous generations have dealt with the problem of lead pollution and a disease in its time as worrying as AIDS.
Mary Queen of Scots has come down to us as a tragic heroine - but what kind of respect does she command as a 16th-century ruler? Anne Boleyn is usually seen either as a scheming predator or as a pathetic figure executed because she failed to produce a male heir for Henry vm. Historians Jenny Wormald and Eric Ives set out to show that the popular images of Mary and Anne have to be radically reassessed and Peter France sets their tragic stories into the context of the religious turmoil of the 16th century.
This month Peter France , with change in mind, presents three films. The first highlights the distortions which followed the last attempt by central government to impose educational benchmarks on the majority of British schools. The second records the memories of disinherited Londoners who recall the community spirit of a Notting Hill street torn down for redevelopment 25 years ago. The third allows Cambridge don, David Cannadine , the chance to explore present attitudes to British history.
What really happened in Russia in October 1917? How far can we rely on the vivid films from the period to give us a true picture of the Revolution and, of incidents such as the storming of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg? Christopher Andrew, in a critical examination of documentary evidence and the memories of Russian emigres who were eyewitnesses to the events of 1917, steers a path through the propaganda, censorship, carelessness and sheer misunderstanding that have distorted the historical record in Russia and the West for the past 70 years.
In Georgian times a crippling illness struck thousands of cider drinkers in the west of England. Their only relief was found in the waters at Bath Spa - relief that remained unexplained until the manned space programme of the 20th century. Twelve Good Men and True The Bar Theatrical Society re-enacts the trial in 1670 of William Penn and William Mead which established the right of a jury to return an independent verdict.
Timewatch joins the American Manuscript Society on a visit to London to learn of their enthusiasms and their obsessions.
Political life has always been full of mysteries and secrets. The Zinoviev Letter led to the defeat of the first Labour Government in 1924. Was it genuine - or was it an early attempt to use 'red scare' tactics to bring down a democratically elected government? And if so, who sent it? The Prince of Transylvania received a pension from Charles II and a magnificent burial in Rochester Cathedral. But was he a prince or a con-man - and why was he so hideously murdered? Christopher Andrew and Gabriel Ronay investigate two political mysteries.
From the Age of Chivalry exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts Peter France introduces two films which examine the reality behind the ideal. When Manfred von Richthofen died in 1918 he had become a figure of myth; a knight of the air with 80 victories to his credit. But the legend of the Red Baron hid a quiet, aloof man whose aristocratic sense of honour drove him to his death.
Twenty-six years ago Adolph Eichmann , the Nazi officer, was tried in Jerusalem. Timewatch explores the trial through a controversial book, Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt. Arendt, a philosopher, had written with great insight on the historical position of Jews in modern western society and on the rise of Nazism. It was therefore with a sense of deep hurt and outrage that many Jews read her reports from Jerusalem. She questioned the legality and political purpose of the trial, she portrayed Eichmann as 'banal rather than evil' and she made sweeping comments on questions of Jewish resistance and cooperation. Using archive film of the trial and interviews with friends, historians and survivors of the camps in New York and Jerusalem, this documentary pieces together the different reactions to Arendt's arguments, and to the painful process of turning the Holocaust into history.
Three reports which examine the ways our historical record in films and in books and maps, is under threat from neglect, damage and mistreatment.
Two reports on the control and effect of mass communications in the past.
Report on the mystery surrounding the identity of a prisoner who died at the Bastille in Paris in November 1703. He had been imprisoned for 34 years and had be forced to wear a mask.
Report on events in Holland in 1944, when the Nazis cut off all food supplies in retaliation for Dutch support of the Arnhem landings.
During the summer of 1943, the SOE'S largest network in occupied France, collapsed and more than 400 of the French Resistance were arrested. At the centre of this disaster stood the figure of Henri Dericourt , one of SOE's most trusted agents. However, Dericourt had also been working for German Intelligence. Following the publication of a new book (All The King's Men by Robert Marshall ), which examines the events surrounding the collapse of SOE's network, Timewatch have updated this programme, originally transmitted in 1986.
Two films on the darker side of British history over the past 150 years. "The Diary of an English Spy", looks at the training of secret agents at a Spy School before WW1. "and One Law for the Poor", on the 1832 Anatomy Act which denied the poor the freedom to bury their dead, and supplied medical schools with human bodies for study.
Why did the practice of pistol duelling come to such a sudden end in England? How far was Britain responsible for the Zulu Wars of the last century? What was life really like for the medieval peasant? Peter France presents a personal choice of films first screened last year which he particularly enjoyed working on and watching.
Report on recent radiocarbon dating tests on the Turin Shroud, believed by millions to be the burial cloth of Jesus. Programme follows the preparation of the Shroud, and film of the tests carried out in Zurich.
Report on the legend of Jack the Ripper, revealing for the first time the true contents of the police and Home Office files on the case, and drawing on the expertise of historians and of those who have encountered today's killers.
Dramatised documentary about Annie Besant, the 19th century social reformer and campaigner for the use of contraception, who led the matchgirls strike from the Bryant and May factory.
Story of the Glorious Revolution of 5th November 1688, when William of Orange landed at Brixham to take the English crown.
Report on the case of Nikolai Bukharin, Lenin's advisor and editor of Pravda and Izvestia in the 1920s and 1930s. Bukharin was executed in 1938 after the last of Stalin's show trials. Gorbachev has openly denounced this action, and Bukharin's widow Anna has been allowed to talk about her husband for the first time in 50 years.
During the Nazi occupation of eastern Poland, a small group of Jews tried to save themselves by hiding in the sewers under the city. Four survivors talk about their fourteen-month ordeal of living below ground.
Leading historian Eric Hobsbawn offers Peter France some insights into his personal understanding of the 19th century and, in the process a world that was about to disappear for ever.
It has always been believed that the attack on Pearl Harbour was a total surprise, but witnesses from around the world are now coming forward with stories of Washington being repeatedly warned of the attack.
Introduced by Christopher Andrew. Two stories tonight reflect the contribution made to history by non-professionals.
Christopher Andrew presents two eye-witness accounts of the past - 500 years apart. The 15th-century letters of Margaret Paston push aside people's misconceptions about medieval women as passive objects and Harriet Walter brings to life a woman of immense strength, resourcefulness and courage. The second film provides startling testimony to a horrifying episode of post-war murder of Polish Jews, filmed secretly by a crew from the Polish trade union Solidarity. Few films from eastern Europe have raised such disturbing questions.
Documentary revealing new evidence about the so-called "Night of the Long Knives" - Harold MacMillan's Cabinet re-shuffle of July 1962, in which he sacked the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a third of the Cabinet.
Did the atomic bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki really shorten the war and save Allied lives? Based on American archive records, this dramatic account of the decision to use the atomic bomb reveals the reality of power politics - and pinpoints the origins of the Cold War.
Documentary exploring how poverty in the English countryside in the years before the First World War, has been hidden behind an image of a rural paradise created by artists, writers and poets of the period which survives to the present day, as demonstrated by the huge success of Edith Holden's "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady"
Leon Trotsky was one of the architects of the Russian Revolution and creator of the Red Army. Brilliant and eloquent, and expected to succeed Lenin, he was forced into exile, airbrushed out of Soviet history and murdered in 1940 on the direct orders of Joseph Stalin. Today, as Stalin's terrible heritage is being slowly dismantled, this film, using archive footage and personal memoirs, looks at the life and ideas of the revolutionary who was the dictator's first and greatest enemy.
During the Second World War, Italian forces in Yugoslavia murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians. Historians have now exposed the startling political reasons why there was never an Italian equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials. Michael Bryant narrates the story of the implementation of Mussolini's policy of Italianisation in the Balkans.
At the end of the Second World War, conclusive evidence of war crimes was presented against more than 1,200 high-ranking Italian Fascists. Yet despite constant protests from the governments of Yugoslavia, Greece and Ethiopia, not one Italian war criminal was ever extradited to stand trial for crimes committed during the Italian occupation of their countries. Michael Bryant tells the story of how, for political and military reasons, the British and American governments chose to block the extradition of any Italian war criminals, many of whom by then held key positions in the Italian government.
Was the last prisoner of Spandau Prison in Berlin really Rudolf Hess, one time deputy to Adolf Hitler, or a doppelganger put in his place by the Nazis before his incredible flight to Britain in 1941? Claims have been made in recent years that the body of the man who died in Spandau Prison in 1987 at the age of 93 bore none of the chest wounds suffered by the real Hess in the First World War. Christopher Andrew talks to wartime witnesses and forensic experts in a personal investigation to establish whether the strange case of Rudolf Hess is a genuine example of the conspiracy theory of history.
Looks at Napoleon's attempts to rewrite history and portray himself in a favourable light, and at accounts of his life from the writings of his self-appointed biographer, Count Emmanuel Las Cases, and his British doctor, Barry O'Meara. It takes the form of dramatised conversations between Napoleon and the other two, with historians intervening to comment on Napoleon's version of events
The Communist party of Hungary has been forced to surrender its monopoly on truth but it still controls access to the official archives. Any truths about the past 40 years must, therefore, come from the people themselves: witnesses, participants and victims, whose accounts are being gathered by historians, sociologists and film-makers. The history they recall has already had its effect on the pace of reform.
A special edition of Timewatch looks back at the events at Dunkirk in 1940 through the personal accounts of survivors and using eye-witness accounts and archive film, the programme recalls the political and human dilemas surrounding the evacuation of the army at Dunkirk 50 years ago.
A TIMEWATCH special in which Count Adolf Heinrich von Arnim visits his former castle, lands and estates in East Germany, which he and his family were driven from by the Russians in 1945. It considers some of the changes that have occurred to the property and also the mixed reaction of locals, some of whom are welcoming, others of whom are suspicious and fear he has come to claim back land redistributed amongst the villagers after the war.
Examines recent allegations of the ill-treatment and policies of starvation of German prisoners in Allied POW camps in 1945. The programmes examines whether the American authorities, with images of Nazism and concentration camps fresh in their minds, deliberately set out to punish the Germans.
Looks at the co-operation in America between the police and archaeologists in homicide cases where a body is found, the skills of the archaeologist being particularly relevant for digging up bodies, studying fragments of bone and decomposed bodies, and dating them. It reveals the techniques that they use, and also looks at the West Yorkshire Police's use of archaeologists as well.
Shows the extent to which archaeology is losing out to an underworld of looters, smugglers and dealers, and reveals the clandestine face of the art market and the forces which are destroying ancient sites throughout the world, by concentrating on the Sipan tombs. The discovery of the tombs of the Lords of Sipan in Northern Peru caused a sensation when they were discovered by a family of grave robbers in 1987. The programme reveals how gold from Sipan ended up in the hands of wealthy collectors in the US and exposes the detailed workings of an international antiquities smuggling ring.
Documentary looking at the day-to-day life and beliefs of the last remaining group of nine Shakers who live in the village of Sabbathday Lake, Maine. It looks at the history of the sect and its continued lifestyle, with its emphasis on prayer and celibacy. Shakers themselves talk about their life and beliefs, and also express concern and distaste for the current rage in the American antiques market for `Shaker' furniture, which can go for astronomical prices.
Investigates the roots of anti-Semitism in England and the story of England's Medieval Jews, and their treatment, culminating in massacres and their expulsion from England on 1st November 1290.
Documentary looking at the Indian troops that fought in the First World War and their experiences and treatment in the trenches, gleaned from letters written by the soldiers themselves and British officers observations.
Explores the beginnings of the Vietnam War and uncovers some remarkable facts about the role of the US and Britain at the end of World War II, with the US originally supporting Ho Chi Minh and his communist independence movement doing everything possible to ensure their success, including both arming and training them.
Tells the story of the African hero John Chilembwe and his raising of a group of black insurgents who broke into the planter's William Livingstone's house and cut off his head. it considers the characters and backgrounds of the two, and looks at the event in the light of British colonialism and African nationalism.
Two-part documentary looking at the history of the native American Indians, and particularly the effects of white colonisation of the continent, and the near extinction of their peoples and culture. The first part considers the lifestyles and philosophy of the Indians and their first encounters with white settlers, which led to their falling prey to both disease and violence. The newcomers' attitude towards the Indians, and the catalogue of deceit, broken treaties and massacres are also explored.
Second part of a documentary film looking at the history of the native American Indians and particularly the effects of white colonisation of the continent and the near extinction of their peoples and culture. This looks at the continued clash between European and Native American cultures in the 100 years after the massacre at Wounded Knee, and the disastrous attempts of the government to assimilate the Indians. Indians describe what life was like on the reservations and of the attempts to obliterate their language, culture and ways.
Looks at the story of Dr Gerald Bull, the artillery designer who designed the world's best howitzers and who was working on his lifetime ambition, the supergun, when he was assassinated last year.
Looks at the story of Robert Robinson, a black American, who inadvertently ended up living and working in the Soviet Union for over 40 years, until his escape in 1974. Born in Cuba and brought up in America, he went to work for the Soviet Union that was crying out for industrial technicians, in the 1930s, disillusioned with the poverty and racism endemic in the US. Whilst there, he was elected to the Moscow Soviet without his consent, and automatically lost his US citizenship. He describes meeting Stalin and living through the hunger, cold and suspicion of the Second World War and the Cold War, and of how he eventually got out of the country.
Looks at the character and learned works of the Medieval scholar Roger Bacon, with readings and comments on some of his writings and ideas and the vast, universality of the subject matters he covered.
Documentary programme looking back at the first Palestinian Intifada uprisings between 1936 and 1939, and into the forties, against the British, revealing the strong hold guerilla forces had over a large area, and the formulation of forces, courts and a new leadership based on the peasant villages emerging in what was, to all intents and purposes, an independent Palestine. It follows how this uprising was overshadowed by the post-war Jewish one, and considers the ways in which British decisions at the time contributed to factors in the present Israeli conflict.
Looks at the history of the Cold War, and how it began even whilst the USSR and Britain and America were allies in the last stages of World War II. The origins of mutual distrust are examined, plus attitudes, plans and actions over the past forty-plus years, as well as how recent events in the USSR may have altered Cold War attitudes, or only temporarily put them on hold.
The experiences of six German soldiers who survived the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 are vividly captured through the viewfinders of the amateur film cameras they carried throughout the campaign. Lying forgotten and unseen by anyone else, the films they made cover the entire course of the invasion, from military training up to retreat, from the everyday to the horrific. Described by the soldiers themselves, these 8mm images offer a different view from the newsreels.
When the German army surrounded Leningrad in 1941, it was the beginning of a terrible 900 days of isolation for its citizens. On a meagre bread ration and with temperatures of minus 40 degrees celsius frozen corpses littered the streets. There was no light or water. It is now estimated that at least 1,200,000 people died. This remarkable German film uses previously untransmitted footage of the siege which shows the Russian suffering inflicted by the Nazis.
First of a four-part Timewatch reassessment of the life and work of Lyndon Baines Johnson , who took over as US President following the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963. LBJ will always be remembered for his role in the conflict in Vietnam: he came to power only to see his unprecedented social agenda undermined by a war he supported but never really understood. Beautiful Texas. This first programme examines his ambition and the political instinct which took him from small town rural affairs in Texas via Dallas to the highest office in the United States of America.
Documentary investigating Britain's clandestine support for the Nationalists and General Franco during the Spanish Civil War, through fear of the democratically elected left-wing Republican government becoming revolutionary in nature and being backed by the Soviet Union, and through fear for British business interests in the country. It shows how Britain caused major problems for the Republican side through economic and diplomatic cunning, and effectually aided the Republicans' downfall and Franco's success, although in a less obvious way than the German and Italian armed aid.
Second of a four-part. Timewatch reassessment of the life and work of US President Lyndon Johnson. My Fellow Americans. The new president reassured a nation stunned by John F Kennedy 's assassination and then surprised America with his forceful stand on civil rights and his programme for a Great Society.
Third of a four-part. Timewatch eassessment of the life and work of former US president Lyndon B Johnson. We Shall Overcome. Johnson had galvanised America with his appeal for racial justice and his vision for a 'Great Society'. But at the same time, he had promised not to send American troops to Vietnam. Political experts and those who knew him best explain why, without national debate or congressional approval, he expanded a war he had never understood. Johnson's vision for America was about to be overtaken by a full-scale land war in Asia.
The final part of a Timewatch reassessment of Lyndon B Johnson 's US presidency. The Last Believer. As Johnson's term of office drew to a close, riots raged in the inner cities and anti-Vietnam protesters demonstrated all over the country. With the United States as close to anarchy as at any time since the Civil War, Johnson felt he was living in a continuous nightmare. But tonight's programme reveals how those who knew him best still regard him as a great man who almost realised an impossible dream. What he wanted was time to build his 'Great Society' - but time was running out.
Charles Darwin lived in fear of disgrace because of his views. He believed that humans were just a better sort of ape, that we evolved from worms. These were shattering ideas, especially from a man trained for the Church. Using new research, historians Adrian Desmond and James Moore see Darwin not as the far-sighted hero of the Beagle voyage, but as a privileged Victorian with everything to lose by publishing the heretical views he developed in survival-of-the-fittest London. Wracked with worry, Darwin was sick for most of the 20 years it took him to pluck up courage to tell the world his brutal theory of natural selection.
Was Columbus really the first to discover America? This searching documentary sets out on a voyage of rediscovery - and comes up with a remarkably convincing case for a revision of accepted history. Five hundred years ago three ships sailed from Spain on the most famous voyage in history - west, west and always west across the unknown ocean. But now a modern Spanish ship's officer and a journalist have re-created that momentous voyage to test their astonishing theory that Columbus not only knew where he was going but also what he would find in the not-so-New World.
In the first of two programmes about the First World War, German writer Ludwig Harig makes a pilgrimage to the Somme, hoping to understand why his father was unable to speak about the war. Archive film and the moving testimony of witnesses evoke the realities of life behind the Front. And in France, he finds a generation still haunted by their memories.
Second of two programmes in which first-hand accounts provide a fresh view of life during the First World War. The Theatre of Operations The letters between military surgeon Georges Duhamel and his wife Blanche lay forgotten in a family attic for 75 years. Recently rediscovered, they reveal a poignant love story set against the backdrop of the First World War. In 1914, Blanche Duhamel moved to the frontline capital at Amiens, from where the lights of the trenches were visible, in order to be closer to her husband. Their four-year correspondence vividly conveys the daily hopes and fears of a family at war. Previously unseen film footage shows how business and pleasure continued alongside scenes of suffering as British and colonial troops came and went from the city.
In the 1830s a pioneering social investigation into child labour uncovered an appalling picture of deprivation, poverty and remorseless physical exploitation throughout Britain and sparked off a fierce debate between Victorian capitalists and reformers. Timewatch has drawn upon the testimonies of the children involved for this dramatised account.
During the Second World War, the Nazis took many art treasures for "care and safe-keeping", including the priceless collection of French Impressionist paintings built up by the industrialist Friedrich Carl Siemens in 1930s Berlin - among them works by Manet, Monet, Degas and Cezanne. At the end of the war, when the Americans and the Russians reached Berlin, these treasures went missing and have not been seen since. Timewatch goes in search of the missing treasures and unravels an extraordinary story of official looting.
In October 1834 the Houses of Parliament burned down. Which architectural style would best express Victorian values? Architects, politicians, and the general public took sides in a fierce debate between the Classic and the Gothic, echoed in today's battle between Classicists and Modernists.
In 1942 the Japanese Imperial Army began construction work on a railway line through the dense jungle between Thailand and Burma. In just 15 months, 26,000 allied PoWs who were forced to labour on the project died from ill treatment, malnutrition and disease. A former prisoner explains that it took many years to be able to come to terms with and understand the experience. But there were other victims of the railway. A quarter of a million Asian labourers were conscripted by the Japanese to work alongside the PoWs. As many as 100,000 of them may have died. One Malaysian recalls: "There were nights when six, seven or even ten people hanged themselves in the latrines." Kwai tells the full story of the "Death Railway", made famous by the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai.
The first of a two-part special to mark the 100th anniversary of Tito's birth. In late 1943 Winston Churchill made what he would later describe as one of the biggest mistakes of the war. On the advice of his special envoy to Yugoslavia, he transferred British weapons and support from the anti-communist resistance under General Draja Mihailovich to the communist partisans, led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito. That decision effectively condemned Yugoslavia to 40 years of communist rule and destroyed the reputation of General Mihailovich, who ever since has been portrayed as a Nazi collaborator.
When Marshal Tito imposed a communist dictatorship on Yugoslavia in 1945, the western allies regretted their support for the wartime resistance leader. But when, three years later, Tito fell out with Stalin, the west backed him once again. Timewatch examines how Tito was able to play east against west to his own advantage and leave behind him a legacy which haunts Yugoslavia to this day.
Until now, the three-man Argentine junta which led the invasion of the Falkland Islands has kept its secrets. Tonight, for the first time, a junta member, Air Force General Basilio Lami Dozo , speaks out. His Exocet missiles were the most deadly threat to the British Task Force. And an in-depth look at the US Secretary of State Alexander Haig 's attempt to avert a war - and save his own job. He promised President Reagan, "We'll walk this kitty back". Shuttling between General Galtieri and Margaret Thatcher - who dubbed him "Woolly AI" - Haig's moments of elation and disappointment, revealed here for the first time, became increasingly desperate as the Task Force steamed steadily southwards - to war.
First of two programmes about the sister of Germany's great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the man Hitler and Mussolini claimed was their inspiration. In Paraguay the blond, blue-eyed people of New Germany speak the same Saxon as their ancestors did when they arrived there more than 100 years ago. They are the result of a bizarre racial experiment carried out by Elisabeth Nietzsche, who founded the colony with Bernard Forster, a racist, Jew-baiting schoolteacher. Her relationship with Forster had led her brother to break off contact with her. But when Friedrich Nietzsche was declared insane, it was Elisabeth who returned to Germany to take control of his affairs. Tonight's film visits Paraguay to meet the descendants of the people she chose for their "purity of blood" to form a new Fatherland.
The second part of a two-programme study of Elizabeth Nietzsche, sister of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietsche. After the suicide of her husband and the failure of their "Aryan utopia" in Paraguay, she returned to Germany to look after her dying brother. Over the next thirty or more years, she falsified his writings and distorted his ideas to such an extent, that to this day his name is still directly associated with European fascism. The programme uses material from the Nietzsche Archive in Weimar, formerly part of East Germany, to reveal that Elizabeth Nietzsche was wooed by both Mussolini and Hitler and how she became one of the most powerful women in the Third Reich.
Examines the planning of the assassination of SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich in 1942. Considered to be the most dangerous man after Hitler in Nazi Germany, Heydrich was the architect of the "final solution". His assassination provoked terrible reprisals.
The first of three programmes about `Gladio', the secret terrorist network operating in Europe. Discusses the network's creation, after the end of the Second World War, from a group of Nazis remaining in occupied territories, and in resistance to the rise of communism. Reveals the role of the CIA in the political affairs of post-war Europe through their manipulation of `Gladio' and the network's influence in the internal affairs of almost every European country.
Second of three programmes exploring the influence of `Gladio' a terrorist network organisation operating in Europe. This programme examines the Bologna railway bombing in 1980 ostensibly by the Red Brigade. The programme argues that the Brigade had been inflitrated by right-wing agents who conducted a series of atrocities that so terrified citizens that they called for greater state security.
Third of three programmes exploring the influence of `Gladio', a secret terrorist network operating in Europe. Discusses the development in the 1980s of a type of terrorism which used the media in order to influence public opinion and destabilise democratic society. Includes an examination of the kidnap and subsequent murder of the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.
Shows how the Red Scare of the 1950s affected ordinary men and women in America, as they were forced to respond to questions about whether they belonged to the Communist Party. Archive footage paints a picture of suspicion and repression, very different from the saccharine images usually associated with the US in the 1950s.
Presents evidence to suggest that McCartyism should more accurately be called Hooverism since it was J. Edgar Hoover who orchestrated and authorised the surveillance and harassment of many ordinary American citizens on the basis of the flimsiest of pretexts.
The final part of this series contrasts the experiences of those who named names with those who refused to cooperate with the McCarthy hearings.
Drama-documentary based on life of Sir Ernest Satow who travelled to Japan in 1862. He quickly got to know the radical young samurai determined to overthrow the corrupt government of the Shogun and lead Japan into a new age.
Continues the story of Ernest Satow, a junior diplomat living in Japan in the 19th century. His unique understanding of the forces struggling for supremacy in Japan enabled him to have a direct influence on the events leading to the Civil War of 1868 and to the restoration of the Mikado.
Traces the origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis to the American reaction to the Cuban Revolution. This first part tells the story of the various US-inspired attacks against Cuba and the life of Fidel Castro, who is interviewed about those years. Khrushchev decided to protect Cuba by placing nuclear missiles there and Kennedy responded by demanding their removal.
The concluding part of the `Cuban missile crisis' story. October 1962, the dramatic story of the US naval blockade, the shooting down of a US spy plane and the Soviet preparations for a nuclear response to a USA invasion of Cuba is told by insiders from both the Kremlin and the White House and by Fidel Castro himself.
Examines what life was like for the ambitious black man in the southern states of America at the turn of the century, when those who bought land or ran for political office faced the threat of the lynch mob, and smiling at a white woman or talking back to a white boss could end with a man chained to a pile of wood and set on fire. The programme argues that the northern states bear equal responsibility for the rule by lynch law in the south, as northern politicians repeatedly voted against any federal anti-lynching legislation in Congress.
A personal account by actor Kenneth Griffith of the rise and fall of Irish nationalist hero Roger Casement. Knighted by the British for his humanitarian work in Africa and South America, in 1913 Casement switched his efforts to the cause of Irish Home Rule. During the First World War he went to Germany, seeking help from the Kaiser. On the eve of the Easter Rising in 1916, as he returned to Ireland with a shipment of German arms, he was arrested, tried and hanged for treason.
The extraordinary story of one of the war's most secret alliances - between the US Naval Intelligence and the Mafia. Denied for 50 years, the pact was in fact begun on the New York waterfront and sealed in the mountains of Sicily. Now the key players speak for the first time about the deal uniting US Intelligence with "Lucky" Luciano and Don Calo Vizzini - the most feared Godfathers of their day. In Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, head of Italy's newest political party and the Mafia's number one target, talks about the tragic legacy of this most unholy alliance.
The origins of the troubles in Northern Ireland and new evidence of the Irish government's role in the emergence of the Provisional IRA. With interviews with Irish ex-cabinet ministers and former leading members of the Republican movement, it details Dublin's funding of the IRA, why it favoured the more radical elements and how the Irish governement plotted to invade Northern Ireland in 1970.
Tells the story of 200,000 Polish children stolen by the Nazis during World War II. They were taken to the Reich. The younger children were given over for adoption by Nazi families and the older ones went to Hitler Youth Camps or worked for German families as maids or farmhands. Those who did not fit were sent to concentration camps. The film focuses on the experiences of two cousins who were stolen on the same day. One was 4 years old and the other was 10. They both eventually returned to Poland but the experience marked them in different ways.
A new profile of the man who was director of the FBI for nearly 50 years. It would appear that the Mafia had some kind of hold over him. The American Mafia, it is asserted, had damaging evidence about Hoover's sex life and they knew about his homosexuality. Hoover's attitude to organised crime underwent a sea change between the 1930s and 1940s. He turned a blind eye during the vital years of its growth allowing it to gain a firm grip on American society.
Explores the social history of the contraceptive pill with the help of three generations of women. The inventors of the pill hoped it would solve the world's population crisis, but it turned out instead to be the chosen birth control method of the Western world, not of the developing countries. Suggests that after decades of sex without responsibility, HIV and AIDS have sent sexual attitudes back to the fearful pre-pill days of the 1950s.
Delves into the myth surrounding William F. Cody who entertained millions of people throughout the world with the adventures of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show between 1883 and 1916.
Asks whether Britain's area-bombing campaign during World War Two was a necessary strategy to defeat Hitler or a war crime.
Pepole who were involved in the carrying out of the death penalty recall their experiences and emotions. Includes comments from Syd Dernley, the last living hangman, who considered it `just a job'; the prison chaplain Leslie Lloyd-Rees; and the last living judge to have sentenced a man to hang - Lord Denning. Also includes footage of the last working gallows in Britain at Wandsworth Prison.
New archaeological research has given fresh insight into what happened in the Roman amphitheatre. Cruelty and violence became the cornerstone of political and social life. The entertainment often ended in horrible scenes of torture and bestiality. Features computer reconstructions of the Colosseum.
Tells the story of the largest armoured battle ever fought. It took place at Kursk, south of Moscow in 1943. It lasted seven weeks, resulting in 254,470 dead on the Russian side and 100,000 on the German side. Hitler was determined to launch this last great offensive on the Eastern Front which, in the event, he lost. The programme uses archive footage of the battle, specially-shot scenes of the terrain where the battle was fought and the testimony of many who fought there.
he inside story of how 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands, starved themselves to death in the Maze Prison in 1981, featuring interviews with surviving strikers, IRA victims and politicians including Dr Garret Fitzgerald and Lord Whitelaw.
Documentary following a meeting in Israel of two adult groups: one comprising the children of Nazi war criminals, the other - children of Holocaust survivors. The meeting was arranged by Israeli psychologist Dan Bar-On in an attempt to exorcise their shared past.
Investigative biography of Lee Harvey Oswald. Covers his life from a troubled childhood to his service in the US Marines, to his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959 and his return to the United States in 1962. Aims to enable the viewer to make a decision about who was reponsible for Kennedy's assassination.
Report on the extent of the tyranny of Mao Tse Tung's regime from 1949 until his death in 1976. His rise to power and the revolution which swept away the corruption of Chiang Kai Chek was accompanied by optimism, but in the followinging 25 years he was to almost destroy China. His doctor speaks of Mao's sexual encounters with young girls and a former Red Guard reveals that cannibalism played a part in the Cultural Revolution.
Explores the role of British merchant seamen during World War II, through the personal testimony of the men who braved the North Atlantic storms and U-boat attacks to keep Britain supplied with essential provisions.
When Gregori Efimovich Rasputin Rasputin was murdered in 1916, rumour and political expediency set to work to paint him as a villain, responsible for the downfall of the Romanov empire, an insane alcoholic capable of any sexual extravagance. This film biography reappraises the myth of the "Mad Monk", using new information as well as first-hand accounts to rescue Rasputin from unjust historians. "He wasn'ta a Svengali figure, controlling the Tsarina," says producer Laurence Rees. "He didn't force people to kill themselves. That legacy is desperately unfair."
Long before the CIA's Gary Power's U2 was shot down in 1960, the RAF had been flying secret spy flights over the Soviet Union. These "peacetime" missions were dangerous, provocative and part of a 20-year undeclared espionage war waged high over the Soviet Union. Over 40 allied aircraft were shot down and over 250 aircrew lost. British, American and Soviet air force pilots involved tell their story, while relatives of missing air crew are now trying to find out what happened to their loved ones.
In the decades leading up to reform of the divorce laws in 1969, thousands of women suffered the injustices of a system that treated a failed marriage as a criminal offence. In the second of three programmes this week on divorce, Timewatch tells the stories of some of these women, and the terrible price they paid to end their marriages.
Winner of seven international film festival awards, the Polish documentary Birthplace is being shown on British television for the first time. Fifty years ago, the Nazis forced Jewish families into hiding. Henryk Gryndberg was then 6 years old. Tonight's film follows him on a personal investigation as he returns to the Polish village of his birth in an attempt to find some trace of his family.
A debate with representatives from government and the civil service of the 1950s and 60s about the immigration policy and legislation of Great Britain during that period. Participants include Enoch Powell, Merlyn Rees and John Bean, founder of the British National Party.
The question of how the i First World War was started has been one of the great controversies of the 20th century. The flashpoint was the assassination in Sarajevo of Franz Ferdinand , heir to the Hapsburg throne. But it was the reaction to his death of a handful of imperial warlords that led to four years of fighting and the death of over eight million people. The producers of this documentary, marking the 80th anniversary of Franz Ferdinand 's death, have been round Europe - from Sarajevo to St Peters-burg - culling archive film from eight countries to piece together the mysteries and intrigues that led to the Great War.
Through special access to the secrets of the Spanish Inquisition's own archives, a very different version of events from that of popular mythology is uncovered about the Inquisition. It was certainly not blameless and on occasion would be ruthless. However its actions pall in comparison with the scale of persecution in other European countries. In the 16th century for example, 10 times as many heretiocs were burned in England as in Spain. The programme examines and how and why the myth of the Inquisition developed.
In the final few months of the Second World War, Hitler's revolutionary V1 and V2 missiles terrorised southern England. In London alone, 25,000 homes were levelled and 8,000 people killed as this country became the first to suffer major ballistic missile bombardment from beyond its borders. In remarkable film footage, screened for the first time, of the weapons in various stages of planning and production, Nazi archives reveal how Germany established a technological advantage that could have changed the outcome of the Second World War.
A film about the horrors of the English Civil War, using letters, diaries and memoirs of ordinary people in 17th-century England. The historical characters of Parliamentarian Lord Saye and Sele, and Royalist Sir Edmund Verney, are represented by their own descendants. Other characters - a soldier, a lawyer, and a political activist - are represented by their modern day counterparts.
The tale of one man's attempt to rewrite the history of the world by redating Egypt's greatest mystery, the Sphinx. Until now, no one can say for sure why, when or by whom the famous statue was carved. The experts think it is Egyptian and 4,500 years old, but maverick investigator John West claims to have new and conclusive evidence that the Sphinx was constructed many thousands of years before the Pharaohs
In the centenary year of his birth, and using previously unseen home movies, this film explores the contradictions of the Ukranian peasant's son. He contributed to the crises in Berlin and Cuba, yet he hated the arms race. As Stalin's henchman he had plenty of blood on his hands, yet he denounced his former master and ensured that the terrorwould never return.
Niccolo Machiavelli 's name is synonymous with political intrigue, but recent analysis of his work suggests that he was a political pragmatist whose best-known book, The Prince, is as relevant today as it was some years ago in 16th-century Italy. Reading extracts from The Prince is Ian Richardson , who played Francis Urquhart in House of Cards.
tells the story of the woman judged to be such a danger to public health that she was incarcerated by the city of New York for 23 years. In the winter of 1906, Dr George Soper was summoned to Oyster Bay, Long Island, to investigate a mystery. Why had typhoid fever broken out in the house of a rich New York banker? He uncovered an extraordinary trail of sickness and death left by roving Irish cook Mary Mallon. Two of the people who met Typhoid Mary in her isolation hospital speak for the first time about their mysterious friend. Her story quickly became a medical legend which still has resonance today. Faced with an Aids epidemic, does the state have a right to lock up people for the good of society?
Three children of victims of the Holocaust tell the almost unbelievable stories oftheirparents' survival. From ghetto, through concentration camp, on to displaced persons camp, and out to a new life beyond, these stories are harrowingand inspiring in turn.
The first of two Timewatch programmes on the Vietnam War begins a short season of Vietnam Stories. Using unique archive material from Vietnam and interviews with US agents, this programme tells the story of the friendly relations in 1945 between the United States government and Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
The second of two Timewatch programmes on the Vietnam War. The reports of young journalists like Martin Bell, David Jessel, Brian Barron and Julian Pettifer brought the front line of the war into the front room. This review of the BBC's coverage includes dispatches that were often moving, like those on the fate of Vietnamese children orphaned by the war, or broadcast under conditions of great personal risk, as when Julian Pettifer came under fire in Saigon in 1968.
A portrait of Oscar Wilde and his family. Includes contributions from his grandson Merlin Holland and Lady Alice Douglas a descendant of Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas.
A look at the final days of Adolf Hitler's life, with a definitive account of how he died. Fearing that Hitler had survived the war and escaped from Berlin, Stalin's security services launched a massive secret investigation. 'Operation Myth' began with brutal interrogations of captured survivors from Hitler's bunker, and ended with forensic detective work that led to the discovery of Hitler's skull.
Examines the doomed struggle of the Ibos to secede from Nigeria, during the 1967-1970 Biafra War. Includes interviews with the wartime leader Colonel Ojukwu, British High Commissioner Sir David Hunt and other witnesses.
Sets out to discover whether the Vikings deserved their reputation for rape and pillage, and explores how they might have achieved their remarkable feats of navigation and discovery. Reveals new evidence that is leading to a change in the modern perception of the Viking people. Contributors to the programme include the yachtsman, Robin Knox-Johnston.
Pocahontas was the first heroine of American history. Disney has released a romanticised cartoon version of her story, but the real story is far more interesting. Filmed in Virginia, Norfolk and Kent, the programme tells the tale of the native American.
The word kamikaze is synonymous with death. But not every kamikaze who vowed to die in the Second World War fulfilled his promise. Shot down on route to the target, or still waiting to be called when the war ended, there were a handful of kamikazes who survived. Tonight's film,featuring first-time interviews with the survivors and archive footage, reveals how a nation turned suicide into strategy. The special fury of the kamikaze is captured in some of the most vivid combat footage ever filmed and interviews with US veterans illustrate the difficulty of fighting an enemy determined to die.
Looks at the revolution that took place in the home. At the beginning of this century one in three working women was a domestic servant, this documentary looks at the way we live, the design of our houses and how the role of women was caught up with the changes that the First World War, gas and electricity brought to the home.
The 1930s were a golden age for Hollywood and its gangsterfilms. But behind the screen, the Mob was turning a small-time protection racket, which targetted projectionists, into a million-dollar shakedown. What began as extortion soon became a mutually beneficial arrangement. Timewatch went to Hollywood and Chicago to uncover the story of how movie moguls and Mobsters joined forces to keep the dream factory going, whatever the cost.
Traces the story of the tank during the First World War. Uses archive film and accounts from Tank Corps veterans to build up a picture of this technological novelty which was pushed to the limits in battles sometimes, as in the Third Battle of Ypres, with disastrous consequences.
Reveals the history behind the temple at Karnak in Egypt which took 2,000 years to build and was the greatest religious shrine of the ancient world.
Investigates Stalin's real role in the Korean War. Includes documents from the Soviet archives and interviews with key witnesses.
Explores the mysteries surrounding Sir Francis Drake's last voyage to the West Indies, which ended with his burial at sea off the coast of Panama in 1596. Also investigates the truth behind his reputation as a great naval hero.
Update of a 1973 documentary looking at offenders at the Peper Harrow young offenders institution. This programme follows the lives of six of the offenders asking whether the centre helped them break the circle of violence.
Brings to life the interviews carried out by Henry Mayhew in Victorian London which he undertook to document ordinary people's lives.
Documentary exploring the reputation of Field Marshall Douglas Haig, once known as "The Butcher of the Somme". There is now a new perspective on the man and veterans of the Somme as well as historians give their views. Includes archive footage of the general.
Norman Schwarzkopf discusses his military hero Hannibal and how his strategies were the inspiration for the allies' tactics in Desert Storm in the Gulf War. Follows Hannibal's route from the ruins of Carthage to the walls of Rome, recreating ancient battles with the aid of computer graphics.
Seeks to sort out the fact from fiction regarding Rennes-le-Chateau in Southern France.
Recounts the story of Will White through his letters home. He was one of thousands of amateur prospectors who rushed to the Klondike river in 1896 for the Goldrush.
Uses newly released archive film and testimonies from former prisoners in this documentary discussing the tens of thousands of foreigners who were sent to the Soviet Union's labour camps.
Investigation into how close the world came to a nuclear war in the 1960s. Looks at evidence that between 1948 and 1964 Curtis E LeMay and Thomas Power, who controlled the nuclear bombers of US Strategic Air Command, built up a huge nuclear arsenal and made plans for a US first strike called "preventative action" without presidential knowledge. It claims they tried to provoke the USSR into a nuclear strike with over-flights of US spy planes. Also considers the war mentality and state of minds of LeMay and other top American generals of the time and the Cuban missile crisis.
Documentary revisiting the town of Aberfan where in 1966 a coal tip collapsed and killed over one hundred children. Uses personal photographs and archive film to remember what happened and how people have coped.
Reunites three of those who fought in the Hungarian uprising in 1956, Bela Liptak, Greg Pongratz and Imre Mecs who view the orginal 1986 film CRY HUNGARY and discuss how far the ideas of the revolution were achieved.
A Women Making Movies release of a British Broadcasting production.
Re-examines the claim that a Welsh Prince, named Madoc was the first European to discover America, reaching there in 1170 and settling with the Mandan Indians of North Dakota.
Recounts the stories of British secret agents in the Second World War. Uses archive footage and personal testimonies from people such as Oluf Reed-Olsen, Brian Stonehouse and Tony Brooks.
Uses diaries, memoirs, photographs and archive film to examine the role that the media played in the Boer War 1899-1902.
Documentary showing the changes in childbirth over the past fifty years. Looks at the shift to hospital deliveries after the Second World War and the dehumanising experience that many women complained they suffered from. Discusses how the switch to hospitals changed the relationship between the mother and the midwife.
Uses archive footage, recently released documents and interviews with war veterans to discuss the Karen tribe of Burma's role in fighting against the Japanese in the Second World War. After the war the Allies rejected Karen's demands for independence. Veterans who fought with the Karen in the war returned to Burma to help their old friends and by 1949 aided and trained by elite British forces they had overrrun nearly all of Burma. They were prevented from victory by British intelligence cutting supply lines and the consequences of this defeat which has been a constant state of civil war against the Burmese government are explored in the documentary.
Documentary which reassesses a project from 1977 which was designed to discover more about prehistoric life. A group of young people lived and worked on a replica of an Iron Age farm. The success of the project is questioned in the light of recent archaeological discoveries. The orginal volunteers now middle-aged go back to the site to talk about the experience.
The true story behind the real bridge and the man who had to supply the men to build it, Lt. Col. Toosey. Toosey left behind nearly 50 hours of audio-tapes detailing his experiences in captivity. The programme draws on these tapes, interviews with British and Japanese war veterans, and previously unseen post-war correspondence with Toosey's former captor, Sergeant Major Saito.
As Christianity became the dominant force in Europe, a religious movement was shaping the ancient Mayan civilisation of Central America. It was based upon the arrival of a messianic "fire child" into Mayan territory in AD 378. This film reveals evidence from an excavation in Honduras that suggests the Mayans were responsible for a cult of blood sacrifice.
In 1988, the third film about the inspirational life of Alison French, who has cerebral palsy, saw her get married to Mark John. Ten years and two children later, she talks candidly about her experiences as a disabled person as well as her new career as a youth and community worker
Drawing on secret documents which will be released to the Public Records Office for the first time in November 1997, this programme examines the role played by the mysterious Vernon Kell, known as `K', in the setting up of MI5 in 1909, and documents the fight against German spies sent to Britain during World War I.
Transatlantic slavery was responsible for the largest, long-distance, forced migration in history. But, since Europeans did not venture into the interior until after abolition, how did around 12 million Africans fall into their clutches? This programme delves into history and finds that, contrary to popular belief, most of the business was conducted by black slave merchants trading on the coast with Europeans.
Stored deep underground by Soviet authorities, secret files documenting the life of Lenin were hidden away for decades in a labyrinth of vaults, behind blast-proof steel doors, specially strengthened to withstand nuclear attack. The programme's exclusive access to the intimate dossiers reveals a disturbed man with a turbulent personal life whose political reign involved terror tactics against the enemies of socialism to force the pace of revolutionary change and direct orders for mass executions.
Twenty-five years ago, the Ugandan Asians arrived in Britain. Expelled from their homes in Uganda, they came with just £50 in their pockets to face two very different sides of British hospitality. This year, a report has shown them to be one of the most successful communities in Britain, and Uganda has asked them to return. With interviews, propaganda footage and news archive, this programme explores the emotional history of the Ugandan Asians and examines how they feel about Britain and the home they left behind.
This film explores the myths that surround the legendary Egyptian queen, and attempts to unravel the truth behind a life, and death, that helped to shape the civilised world for the next 500 years.
A fresh look at why Hitler abandoned plans to invade Britain in 1940 and prepared, instead, to attack the Soviet Union.
Nine former grammar-school boys recall their schooldays and reflect on how that system affected their lives.
In 1976, a mummified body was found in a ghost train at a Californian fairground, which researchers claimed belonged to an incompetent outlaw called Elmer McCurdy. This documentary investigates what happened to his remains after his death, delving into the world of showmen and exploitation movie-makers.
The historical documentary series continues with a look at the two great wars led by the Roman Emperor Trajan against the people of Dacia. No written documentation of this campaign survives, but its story is depicted in stone on Trajan's Column, a monument that has towered above Rome for almost 2,000 years. Using this sculptured frieze as a starting point, the film retraces the steps of Trajan's army and the course of the wars, and uncovers the military secrets of an empire founded on war.
A look at Las Vegas, the world's gambling capital. Over 30 million people visit each year, but most are unaware that it was the clean-living Mormons who played a major part in creating `sin city'.
As the Aborigine people fight for their land rights, Australia's historians are uncovering new evidence that white settlers made concerted efforts, through breeding and eugenics, to wipe out the native Australians.
An estimated quarter-of-a-million homosexuals fought for Britain during the Second World War. At the time, homosexuality was still a criminal offence, but the authorities mostly turned a blind eye during the national crisis. Tonight's programme tells the story of these forgotten fighters, revealing the extent to which homosexual activity was condoned within the ranks.
The story of World War One from the point of view of Lloyd George, Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922. After the British victory, he declared that the whole event was one of sorry military incompetence and senseless sacrifice.
It is accepted in American history that the Pilgrim Fathers were a group of religious separatists who founded the first permanent colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts, after sailing to the New World to avoid oppression. As tonight's programme reveals, not only were the Pilgrims not the first European immigrants to America, but their journey very nearly ended in disaster and initial attempts to establish a colony were met with death from exposure, disease and starvation.
Swiss banks stand accused of collaborating with the Nazis before and during the Second World War. But 60 years ago, when the US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau began investigating this collaboration, he found the Swiss were not alone. Tonight's film looks at Allied bankers-including British and Americans - who continued to do business with the Nazis during the war and how Morgenthau's inquiry led to some of the biggest names in British and American street banking.
Tonight's programme follows historian Andrew Roberts across the Indian subcontinent as he argues that Britain should take pride in its imperial past. His opinions are then forcefully challenged in a discussion chaired by Kirsty Wark.
In October 1993, elite units of the US army were pinned down on the streets of Mogadishu in Somalia by forces of Mohammed Farah Aidid, whom they were trying to capture. The ensuing battle left 18 American soldiers dead and 75 wounded. This programme explores this peace-keeping mission gone wrong.
In the thirties Grey Owl tricked the establishment into believing he was the world's first eco-warrior. Archie Belaney was in fact a Briton who had emigrated to Canada at 17 and set out on a mission to fool everyone that he was an American Indian.
In 1944, American submarines attacked two Japanese boats in the South China Sea, unaware that the vessels were crammed with more than 2,000 Allied PoWs. Among more than 1,000 who survived the attack were British gunner Wilf Barnett and Australian engineer Ray Wheeler. In tonight's programme, the pair recall their harrowing ordeal and their friends who died.
In America in 1889 it was thought that the fairest way for people to acquire land was to line them up on the edge of a vast open space and let them race across the plains to stake their claims. "Survival of the fittest was a very fashionable idea at the time," says narrator Samuel West at the start of this fine film about the Oklahoma land runs. Having galloped through the statistics (there were 13 million acres of available land in the former Indian territory divided into 168-acre plots), the rest is devoted to personal stories told by the descendants of the Land Runs and it's fascinating stuff. We hear about the reactions of young brides on seeing the isolated shacks that were to be their homes, the hardships of the early years, the occasional fun of a square dance or a rodeo, and the pioneer spirit that was still evident when a massive bomb exploded in Oklahoma City in 1995.
When English explorer Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles travelled to the heart of the Indonesian island of Central Java in the early 1800s, he found a jungle-covered hill littered with a few statues. Spurred on by stories of a lost temple, his careful excavation uncovered a massive structure in the shape of a pyramid. Now, following recent renovations, more questions about the temple's fascinating history can be answered.
Marcelle and Elise are two elderly French women who live at opposite ends of the country but shared similar experiences in the Second World War. During the German occupation of France, when their husbands deserted them, they had affairs with German soldiers. In 1944, the women suffered public humiliation as punishment for their so-called collaboration horizontale. This alternative portrait of the occupation interweaves archive footage with testimony from Marcelle and Elise, neighbours and resistance fighters.
In 1909 the Florida, carrying Italian immigrants to New York, and the Republic, carrying American tourists to Europe, collided on a freezing north Atlantic night. The lives of over 1,500 passengers and crew were held in the balance as the ships became dependent on a new technology - the wireless. What happened played a crucial role in determining the outcome of the Titanic tragedy three years later.
Two-and-a-half million Indians fought for Britain in Second World War campaigns from Egypt to the Far East. Subject to some of the most brutal attacks on the Allies and decorated for bravery, they were forgotten by the British and disowned by India. This film recreates the era and interviews survivors of the largest volunteer army in military history.
Danish politicians sparked a storm of controversy in 1969 by voting to legalise all forms of pornography, so becoming the first country to approve such a move. Why did a traditionally religious nation take this step?
The history documentary series returns with the story of the captured German spies who were then turned into double agents and used by MI5 to deceive Hitler during the Second World War. Newly released MI5 documents and interviews with former members of MI5 and its top-secret interrogation centre, Camp 020, tell how the double agents played a crucial role in the Normandy landings.
For four centuries Ivan the Terrible has epitomized the image of a vicious, cruel despot and tyrant. In his own land he is remembered as a statesman who held his country together through difficult times.
Loathed by the intellectual establishment after its construction in 1889, the Eiffel Tower is now a cherished symbol of Paris. Tonight's film relates the story of the tower's construction and hears from people whose lives are linked to it.
In September 1943, 191 men from Montgomery's 8th Army-who had helped to drive Rommel's troops out of Africa - refused to take part in the Allied fight for Salerno, Italy. Interviews, reconstructions and previously classified documents show how errors forced the soldiers into a predicament that caused their war pensions to be reduced, their medals reclaimed and their honour questioned.
In 1946 almost half a million German prisoners of war were still being held in Britain. Interviews, archive footage and photographs shed light on the experiences of the people of Oswaldtwistle, a Lancashire town that offered the hand of friendship to the prisoners of war located near the town.
After the liberation of France in summer 1944, over 10,000 women faced the People's Tribunals charged with "la collaboration horizontale". Two women who had affairs with German soldiers recall their public humiliation, while testimony from neighbours and resistance fighters builds up a picture of wartime collaboration that was not always black and white.
Nelson: historians examine the myths of Nelson's navy and paint a very different picture.
in 1836 nearly 200 Texans were slaughtered at the Alamo including Davy Crockett, by 1,600 Mexicans. The story captured the American imagination, but in the retelling the truth became distorted Over 160 years on, can fact be separated from fiction?
Escapologist Harry Houdini was one of the icons of the early 20th century. Restored archive footage and interviews with historians and illusionists recall his extraordinary impact on audiences and reveal the secrets behind some of his most amazing escapes.
A chance to see unique footage shot in the twenties and thirties by passengers to India
Dan Cruickshank investigates the circumstances and rituals surrounding death in Victorian Britain by piecing together the fate of five apparently unrelated corpses. The story he uncovers is one of bizarre extremes - of bodysnatchers and the bodies they snatched; of inner-city graveyards so overflowing that the limbs of the dead could be seen protruding from the newly dug earth; of the great new cemeteries where a tomb cost as much as a terrace of houses in east London; of the suspicious resistance which greeted the 'heathenish' practice of cremation; and of the carnage of the Western Front where Victorian ideals about death - and the afterlife - were finally shattered by the violence of the Great War.
Chronicling the construction of the Empire State Building in New York, which was the world's tallest skyscraper when opened in 1931. The programme investigates the building's history through interviews with the people who contributed to the construction of this iconic building.
Hollywood's portrayal of Thomas More , Henry VIM 's Lord Chancellor, is that of a saint but in truth, he was much more complex and interesting man. This drama-documentary, presented by Professor John Guy , follows the last seven years of More's life, when England turned from being a Catholic to a Protestant nation, and assesses the part More played in his own downfall.
Historical drama-documentary. Professor John Guy attempts to unravel the myth of Thomas More, a man whose final years covered one of the great turning points of British history.
Ten years into his reign, the notorious emperor Nero attempted to build the largest palace the Romans would ever see, the Domus Aurea or "Golden House". What remains of the building today lies alongside the Colosseum, barely noticed, but after 30 years of renovation it has reopened to the public.
The story of bank robber John Dillinger, who in the Depression era of 1930s America became the first person to be named public enemy number one.
In 1941 the first large-scale paratroop attack took place when Hitler ordered the invasion of Crete. Within a week Churchill gave the order to evacuate the island, but the two leaders' interpretations of the battle could not be more different. This film evokes the horror of the conflict, examines the war leaders' conclusions and the lessons that are still relevant to paratroopers today.
Examining the largest palace which Rome would ever see.
In 1974 Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, a 52 year old Japanese officer, made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle. Never having received his formal surrender orders, he had, for nearly thirty years, loyally continued fighting the Second World War. Until now Onoda has never talked to Western Press. The Last Surrender pieces together his complex and ultimately sinister story.
A film examining the debutante experience of 1939 through the eyes of a colourful collection of debs and debs' delights, including the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, the Duke of Wellington, and the Duchess of Northumberland. While Europe was steeling itself in the face of fascist aggression, the upper-class marriage market was in full swing, and here the participants talk vividly about the parties, ballgowns and broken hearts.
Twenty-one years after the series STRANGEWAYS was screened, the original producer and director Rex Bloomstein, returns to the prison to see how things have changed. He traces the story of eight former inmates and staff who featured in the series. Prisoners Vinny Valente, Harry Longmuir, Barry Bispham and Terry McDonald speak of their experiences. In 1980 4,000 young offenders passed through the Borstal Allocations Centre in Starngeways. One of these was Paul Wood. His tragic fate after Strangeways is told by his sisters.
A documentary examining the mystery behind the demise in December 1943 of Germany's supposedly unsinkable warship, and a look at the current quest to detect the wreck by Norway's navy.
A Gladiator movie consultant helps eight volunteers to follow Roman military training.
Towards the end of the Second World War, many German towns with minimal strategic or industrial importance suffered "saturation bombing". The historical strand throws new light on the political decisions behind the Allied campaign's final stages, and tells the story of raids on two such towns.
An investigation into new research about the first 30 years of the Nazi leader's life. The programme challenges the claim. made in `Mein Kampf' that he had a long-held blueprint for politcial power, revealing instead that Hiter was a drifter and opportunist. Also assesses the evidence for and against Hitler's homosexuality.
The Iron Bridge is an icon of the Industrial Revolution the world’s first metal structure and an outstanding example of 18th-Century British technical ingenuity.Yet, incredibly, no-one knows how this vast aerial jigsaw spanning the river Severn in Shropshire was actually constructed. Timewatch sets talented young engineer, Jamie Hillier, the task of solving the mystery.
Following the military and civilian divers working to unravel the reasons behind the sinking of both HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse by the Japanese Air Force in the South China Sea in December 1941, a loss considered to be one of Britain's greatest maritime disasters.
The story of the No Gun Ri massacre in which Korean civilians were killed by the American army. Uses eyewitness accounts (from the civilians and army) as well as recently declassified documents.
From the Sex Pistols' trip down the Thames to the royal bonfire in Windsor Great Park, from street parties in Fulham to village fetes in Hampshire and Worcestershire, the Queen's Silver Jubilee was commemorated in very different ways. Timewatch explores the celebrations of June 1977, including a sedan-chair race, a singing landlady and the BBC's Nationwide Jubilee extravaganza.
Love, greed, murder, rape and political treachery were ingredients in the doomed 16th-century relationship between Mary, Queen of Scots and her lover, the Earl of Bothwell. Dr Saul David investigates Bothwell's plot to kill Mary's husband, Lord Darnley- was the queen herself involved? Love letters of hotly contested authenticity may hold the key to explaining this extraordinary affair.
This programme unravels the mystery surrounding the 1943 sinking of the battle cruiser Scharnhorst, pride of the German navy. Today's Norwegian navy has used the latest sonar technology to detect the 2,000-man vessel.
Documentary exploring the public's enduring fascination with the White Star Line's most famous ship, the Titanic. The programme attempts to uncover the truth behind the many myths which have grown up around her sinking in 1912, and asks why the tragedy continues to attract such attention.
Timewatch looks at the Red Army's sweep to Berlin and battle for the city, and the great loss of life and suffering endured. Historian Antony Beevor looks at the scale and tactics of the battle, and at the rapes, murder, looting and destruction that went on against the civilian population, not just Germans but liberated camp and slave labour victims as well.
After the Soviets forced the Germans to surrender, Joseph Stalin secretly purged Leningrad, executing the people who had ensured it's freedom, and imprisoning their families. This documentary draws on previously classified Russian documents and survivors' testimony to explain the dictators actions.
Documentary investigating what really occurred at the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn : the scene of Custer's Last Stand. The programme aims to reveal the truth behind the events that have passed into American folklore, exposing as myth the Hollywood image of the chivalrous soldier who gave his life defending his crack troops against a ferocious attack from a deadly enemy.
Using dramatic reconstructions and filmed throughout Egypt, this documentary unravels the story of King Akhenaten, the country's heretic monarch, who 3,300 years ago introduced a new religion and demanded to be worshipped like a god. At his side was Queen Nefertiti, one of the greatest iconic figures of the ancient world. What brought this enigmatic couple's reign to a sudden and disastrous halt?
In 1849, Harvard professor John White Webster was hanged for the slaying and dismemberment of prominent Bostonian George Parkman, apparently over money. Historian Simon Schama investigates the case in the light of ongoing doubts about Webster's guilt, and attempts to solve the celebrated murder mystery once and for all.
The discovery of a shipwreck off Salcombe in Devon, uncovers much more than a glittering haul of Islamic coins and jewellery - it also reveals a forgotten time, when coastal Europe lived in terror of the `Barbary Pirates', buccaneers from North Africa. Was the wreck an infamous Barbary `xebec', on its way to another slave raid?
After ruling for more than 1,000 years and becoming masters of astronomy and architecture, the Maya abandoned their cities in the Central American jungle and vanished, creating one of history's most enduring mysteries. Here, archaeologist Kathryn Reese-Taylor and her team of international experts journey into the snake-infested Guatemalan jungle to uncover the reasons behind the ancient civilisation's collapse, hoping that the discovery of the lost city of Naachtun will answer the 1,000-year-old riddle
An ambitious restaging of the Rainhill Locomotive Trials using replica engines, providing the rivals of Stephenson's Rocket with a fair chance to beat the famous locomotive : which won the original 1829 competition by default. Through this remarkable event, the story of the world's first inter-city railway is told : a tale of innovation and brinkmanship
Film about the man remembered as Egypt's last great pharaoh, using an ancient papyrus to reveal the dark workings of a leader in crisis. Shot in Cairo, Luxor and the Valley of the Queens, a story of conspiracy, vengeance and murder is uncovered.
Documentary examining how the whole nature of warfare changed after the first few months of the First World War, moving from initial traditional cavalry skirmishes between the German and British troops to trench warfare and stalemates that lasted the rest of the War. Looks at the reasons for this.
Using colour footage found hidden in suitcases at the Chaplin family villa, Timewatch presents a new analysis of the film The Great Dictator and recounts the parallel stories of Charlie Chaplin and Hitler - two men born in the same week. As the Nazi leader launched his blitzkrieg, Chaplin's satire of Adolf Hitler was near completion. By the time the movie arrived in England - at the height of the Blitz - it was regarded as the greatest tonic imaginable for the British people, and it went on to bank more than twice as much as any other Chaplin film.
Concorde, the world's only supersonic jet, reached the end of its flying days in 2003, but the love affair between the public and the plane is likely to endure for many years longer. This documentary reveals the inside story of how such a remarkable plane was designed and built, and how it survived against all odds to become an international icon and in the process changed the face of air travel for ever. Told by celebrity frequent fliers like David Frost and Henry Kissinger, by engineers, test pilots, stewardesses and charter passengers, this is the story of Concorde's life and death.
Battle re-enactments shot on location and dramatisation of Queen Victoria's journals illustrate the story of how, in what is now South Africa, Britain experienced a humiliating military defeat.
In January of 1953, unusual weather conditions caused Britain's worst national peacetime disaster of the 20th century. A storm surge flooded the eastern coast of England, killing more than 300 people and leaving thousands homeless. Fifty years later, 'Timewatch' re-examines a calamity which is largely forgotten today.
A profile of 19th-century circus strongman-turned-adventurer, Giovanni Belzoni, who was responsible for unearthing some of ancient Egypt's greatest treasures. Among his exploits was the discovery of the tomb at the heart of the great pyramid and the Temple of Abu Simbel. Sadly, a bitter feud with his employer meant he died in obscurity, while a rival claimed the fame.
The truth about the disappearance of the RAF's "most valuable pilot". In 1944, Wing Commander Adrian Warburton went missing in action, sparking a 60-year mystery. One of the most glamorous and highly decorated pilots of World War II, he was known as "Lawrence Arabia of the sky". He became a living legend on the besieged Mediterranean island of Malta, where he flew daredevil reconnaissance missions and fell in love with a beautiful cabaret dancer. He disappeared during a controversial American mission over Germany and for decades speculation was rife about the reasons he vanished without trace. Theories ranged from suicide to racing back to Malta to be with his one true love. But in the summer of 2002, a diverse group of historians, archaeologists and air crash investigators from Europe and America began unraveling a series of seemingly unrelated investigations. But when pieced together, they created a compelling theory about Warburton's disappearance. What caused a German historian and a Welsh hobbyist to realise they were on the right track? Why did a burnt roll of film seem to hold the most vital clue? How did the RAF conclude " beyond all reasonable doubt" that this was the man they were looking for?
Who was Piltdown Man? Early in the twentieth century the story of Piltdown Man came out at just the time when British scientists were in a desperate race to find the missing link in the theory of evolution. Since Charles Darwin had published his theory on the origin of species in 1859, the hunt had been on for clues to the ancient ancestor that linked apes to humans. Sensational finds of fossil ancestors, named Neanderthals, had already occurred in Germany and France. British Scientists, however, were desperate to prove that Britain had also played its part in the story of human evolution, and Piltdown Man was the answer to their prayers - because of him, Britain could claim to be the birthplace of mankind. On 18 December 1912 newspapers throughout the world ran some sensational headlines - mostly along the lines of: 'Missing Link Found - Darwin's Theory Proved'. That same day, at a meeting of the Geological Society in London, fragments of a fossil skull and jawbone were unveiled to the world. These fragments were quickly attributed to 'the earliest Englishman - Piltdown Man', although the find was officially named Eoanthropus dawsoni after its discoverer, Charles Dawson. Dawson was an amateur archaeologist, said to have stumbled across the skull in a gravel pit at Barkham Manor, Piltdown, in Sussex. Some forty years later a team of English scientists attempted to discover if Piltdown Man was genuine or a deliberate fraud. So what had really happened?
A re-examination of the World War One Gallipoli landings, which were designed to break the deadlock of the 1915 Western Front, but became a massive blunder claiming 250,000 Allied casualties and almost destroying Churchill's burgeoning political career. Featuring underwater footage of submerged British battleships, and interviews with relatives of those who fought and died.
A dramatised documentary following the experiences of Henry Metelmann a German soldier caught up in the most destructive conflict in history - Hitlers invasion of Russia. The film travels the route that Metelmann and his fellow soldiers took and sees how the choices he made meant he emerged from the war a brutalised man. The film is Metalmanns confession.
The amazing true story of Britain's X-Files examines the bizarre and intriguing history of Britain's UFO phenomena. The journey takes in sceptical prime ministers, senior RAF officers, and royal believers Prince Philip and Lord Mountbatten. The X-Files opened in 1950 when Clement Attlee's government established the extraordinary Flying Saucer Working Party, and ended in 2000 when the Ministry of Defence disbanded its UFO intelligence unit.
The passenger liner Persia was sunk off Crete, while the passengers were having lunch, on December 30, 1915, by German World War I U-Boat ace Max Valentiner (commanding U-38). The Persia sank in five to ten minutes, killing 343 of the 519 aboard. The sinking was highly controversial, since it broke naval international law, or the "Cruiser Rules", that stated merchant shipping carrying passengers should be given opportunity for the passengers to disembark before combat could commence. A warning shot across the bow should have been given first. Instead, the U-Boat fired a torpedo with no warning. At the time of sinking, Persia was carrying a large quantity of gold and jewels belonging to the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh.
This programme explores the secretive life of the Ferrari brand creator, Enzo Ferrari, who died in 1988.
Dr John Davies presents a history of Wales. In this episode he introduces an intriguing archaeological detective story, as the discovery of an eighty-foot medieval merchant ship hidden deep in the mud of the River Usk reveals a longlost story of piracy and bloody civil war.
A revealing look at whether King George III was really the mad king who lost America, introduced by HRH the Prince of Wales himself. Our future king helps explore the life of Britain's longest-reigning king, revealing a dutiful, plain-living monarch and loving family man whose 60 years on the throne saw a flowering of the arts and sciences.
It's one of the most notorious murders of all time - the killing of Grigory Rasputin in Russia in 1916. The accepted version of events was supplied by self-confessed murderer Prince Felix Yusupov. Acting with a group of fellow conspirators, he is famously said to have poisoned, then shot and finally drowned Rasputin. But astonishing new evidence has now come to light linking the British Secret Service with the murder
On 11 September, 1943, a small team of men set out on what official records described as 'the most daring attack of the Second World War'. The secret mission pitted just a handful of British volunteers against an enemy several thousand strong. Crammed into four-man midget submarines, they battled for eleven days across treacherous Arctic seas. Their objective - an impregnable Norwegian fjord holding a foe one thousand four hundred times their size. The battleship Hitler called 'the Beast' - Tirpitz.
For years, it has been believed that the Black Death, which swept through Europe in the Middle Ages, was Bubonic Plague. In the light of powerful new research, the true identity of this medieval killer has come under scrutiny. Timewatch explores whether the terrifying speed and deadly impact of the Black Death could possibly be explained by an epidemic of Bubonic Plague.
Documentary telling the story of the Black African Kingdom of Kush and its battles with ancient Egypt for supremacy of the Nile Valley. The kings of Kush ruled Egypt for 100 years and became the most powerful emperors of the ancient world. Though archaeologists were convinced Kush's influence had been underestimated, they had lacked proof until the recent discovery of an inscription in a tomb that tells of an invasion by a Kushite army.
Over 20 years after the Tudor ship Mary Rose was lifted from Portsmouth harbour, maritime archaeologists attempting to complete the jigsaw return to the wreck site. It tells of not only the artefacts discovered - cooking utensils, prayer books, weapons - but also reveals the stories of the sailors themselves. Dramatic reconstruction and detailed graphics provide a picture of what life would have been like on a Tudor warship.
In 52BC, the future of Rome and Gaul - and that of their peoples - hangs in the balance. It will be determined in three great encounters. The battles are the culmination of a momentous personal duel between two great leaders. A duel, which this documentary recreates. The name of one leader, Julius Caesar, will resound through history. His rival a young chieftain called Vercingetorix is virtually unknown. Vercingetorix's people, the Gauls, are history's victims. In a bitter eight year campaign, through what is known as France, Caesar killed a million people, took a million more hostage and destroyed 800 cities. Julius Caesar's Greatest Battle is told through the eyes of Mark Corby a Roman historian with a professional admiration for Caesar and Neil Faulkner an archaeologist for whom Rome's great achievement was no more than robbery with violence. Mark takes on the role of Caesar and Neil that of Vercingetorix in this gripping 50 minute documentary.
Leading criminologist David Wilson reopens one of the most compelling mysteries of all time: the death of Russia's first dictator. He was a man who took what he wanted and ruled his huge empire by terror - but was Ivan the Terrible himself murdered? David Wilson's investigations begin with age-old rumours that Ivan was strangled by enemies in his court, his search takes him across Russia, back to London, unravelling a story of intrigue centring around the English Queen Elizabeth I. Timewatch gathers medical experts and forensic scientists to prove that Ivan was in fact poisoned, and by someone he trusted, but there's one final twist in the tale...
Forget the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus, the greatest public spectacle in ancient Rome took place in the Forum, where trials were packaged as entertainment, with life or death outcomes. Thousands flocked to see the spectacles, drawn by the prospect of lurid tales of murder, intrigue and violence. After all, there was no state prosecution service so the law was only open to the rich and famous, meaning the trials were a fascinating window on a world of debauched privilege. The stars of these bloody shows were the lawyers and the greatest of them all was Cicero (Paul Rhys). Proud of his achievements, Cicero kept a record of his most famous case. This dramatisation of his trial transcripts makes for compulsive viewing, packed full of numerous twists and intriguing characters such as Sextus Roscius Junior (Mark McGann). Accused of his father’s murder, the odds are stacked against him: not only did he have the means, motive and opportunity but the prosecutor is Erucius (Owen Teale) – one of the finest in the city. Nevertheless, by the time Cicero has finished, not only is Sextus Junior absolved, but Cicero has unmasked a conspiracy that reaches right to the top of Roman society.
A complete re-appraisal of the death of this notorious 20th Century dictator. Was the official account of Stalin’s death a cover-up for what really happened? Secret KGB files are examined for the first time to discover the truth.
Documentary that looks back to the furore caused by Princess Margaret's affair with Peter Townsend, a divorced commoner. Billed as a constitutional crisis, Margaret's dilemma was the first modern royal scandal which would shape the future of royal relations with the media. In 1955 she chose to sacrifice love for duty by ending the affair, but new evidence presented here suggests that hers was a needless sacrifice.
At 9am on 20 January 1607, a massive wave devastated the counties of the Bristol Channel. It came without warning, sweeping all before it. The flooding stretched inland as far as the Glastonbury Tor. Two hundred square miles of Somerset, Devon, Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire were inundated. Up to 2,000 people died. Yet for 400 years, the killer wave of 1607 has been forgotten. Timewatch relives the terror and the human tragedy of 1607 and follows the research of two scientists who are increasingly convinced that the wave was not simply a freak storm but a tsunami.
Archaeologists Tony Wilmott and Dan Garner lead us through three months of hard graft, excavating Britain's largest Roman ampitheatre in Chester, possibly built by Emperor Vespasian, the man who built the Colosseum in Rome. With the help of computer animation, they bring Chester's magnificent ampitheatre back to life.
Two experts try to piece together how the biggest volcanic eruption ever recorded, at Mount Tambora in eastern Indonesia in 1815, brought about worldwide climate change and altered the lives of hundreds of thousands of people
At the end of World War II Japan was under American control. It was widely anticipated that Emperor Hirohito would face trial for war crimes, but no trial ever took place. This film sets out to explore why, and to ask whether the Emperor escaped his responsibility. The film's archival footage provides powerful testimony about a nation on the verge of war, the atrocities committed during the war in the name of the country, the fierce and tragic battles fought by the people, and the country's post-war management. Based on his aide's diaries and other records, the dramatisation sheds light on the Emperor's decisions to go to war, continue the war and end the war.
Documentary which re-examines the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 - one of the most famous, yet least understood events in British history. It shows how the plot was almost England's 9/11, and asks why a group of young Englishmen became so radicalised and so hell-bent on terrorism. Computer graphics recreate what the Houses of Parliament looked like in 1605, and show just how close the plotters came to success.
There have been many ruthless dictators in the last century, who have killed millions in their quest for power, but few have managed to inflict such enormous damage on one small country. During Pol Pot's four-year reign of Cambodia he exterminated nearly a third of his own people. Between one and three million Cambodians died during the three years, eight months and 20 days of Pol Pot's rule. Timewatch examines the history behind the horror
The tragic loss of the SS City of Benares was the worst disaster involving British children in World War Two. Timewatch producer and director Steve Humphries tells their story.
Timewatch producer David Stewart describes filming the story of the men who put the Führer on the psychoanalyst's couch at the height of World War Two.
In 2003, archaeologists set out to solve two ancient murder mysteries. The victims were incredibly rare bog bodies. Timewatch discovers who these men were, when they lived and how they died.
Dramatised documentary telling the gripping story of a deadly duel at sea and one of the best intelligence bluffs of WWII. Commodore Henry Harwood takes on Captain Hans Langsdorff and the pride of the German navy, the Graf Spee, in a battle of courage and wit. One would return home a hero, while the other would lose his reputation, his ship, and ultimately his life.
Three modern day women trace their ancestors and uncover the rags-to-respectability tale of three feisty convict women who bucked the system and became the unlikely founding mothers of modern Australia. Timewatch follows this extraordinary story which starts with The Lady Juliana, the all-female transport ship sent out to Australia, and its cargo of whores, thieves and canny con artists who saved a dying colony and redeemed themselves.
When the remains of two soldiers from World War One were discovered in a field in France in 2003, a unique unit of the American military was called in to identify them. This case proved to be one of their greatest challenges.
Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, a unique unit of the American military goes in search of two pilots who were shot down in 1967 while returning from a dangerous bombing mission over Hanoi.
Timewatch examines The Secret History of the Mongols, said to have been written by the Khan's adopted son, to reveal how an illiterate nomad inspired his successors to conquer the largest land empire the world had ever seen.
In October 1178 Baldwin set out to construct a castle which would destabilise Saladin's nascent empire and shift the balance of power in his own favour - the fortress of Jacob's Ford. His new castle was designed to be a defensive tool as well as an offensive weapon, to severely inhibit Saladin's ability to invade the Latin kingdom while simultaneously undermining the sultan's security in Damascus. If completed, this fortress could thwart Saladin's ambitions for an empire stretching into northern Syria and Mesopotamia.
Timewatch investigates the discovery of 30 decapitated Romans in York. Who were they and what happened? An expert team takes us on this fantastic detective story that goes right to the heart of the Roman world.
The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 saw its people take on the might of the Nazis. Timewatch examines one of the most heroic, and tragic, military operations undertaken by any resistance movement in World War Two.
Documentary about an epic battle which changed the course of the American Civil War and transformed the face of naval warfare forever. It was the world's first combat between the ironclads, The Monitor and The Merrimack, but the technology which made these ships almost invincible also changed the nature of life on the seas. Shut out from daylight, depending on their machine for the air they breathe, the crew of the Monitor immediately feared their own vessel, naming her the iron coffin.
In the early hours of Wednesday 18 April, 1906, America's greatest ever natural disaster struck San Francisco. Told through the words and images of those who were there, Timewatch marks the centenary by revealing the true extent of the catastrophe.
Documentary about Noor Inayat Khan, who in 1943 became the first woman wireless operator to be sent into war-torn France. It was the most dangerous job in SOE, Churchill's secret army, and she was not expected to survive long. The daughter of an Indian mystic and a writer of children's stories in pre-war Paris, she was a curious choice for a secret agent, but became London's vital link with Nazi-occupied Paris. Betrayed, captured and tortured, Noor revealed nothing before she was executed.
Dramatised documentary telling the true story of how the HMS Venturer hunted down and sank the U-Boat U864 in February 1945, the only time two submarines duelled to the death underwater. Eyewitness accounts, secret and long-forgotten archive material and a dive into the Baltic's frozen depths bring to life the full amazing story of U864's last hours.
Documentary which tells the inside story of the rise and fall of Beatlemania, using previously unseen archive footage and interviews with those who accompanied the Fabs on tour. By 1966 the Beatles had played over 1,400 gigs, toured the world four times and sold the equivalent of 200 million records. At the height of their popularity, and without warning, they pulled the plug and never toured again.
In 1783, thousands in Britain died as a result of an environmental disaster, choking on poisonous gases from a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland. The ensuing winter was one of the harshest ever recorded and claimed even more lives. This forgotten disaster has remained a mystery for the past 200 years. 'Timewatch' reveals the evidence and reviews the likelihood of a repetition.
It is unique in the Roman World. A spectacular and complex stone barrier measuring 74 miles long, and up to 15 feet high and 10 feet thick. For 300 years Hadrian's Wall stood as the Roman Empire's most imposing frontier and one of the unsung wonders of the ancient world. Almost 2,000 years after it was built, Hadrian's Wall is proving to be a magical time capsule - a window into the human past. Archaeologists have properly excavated less than 1per cent of it, but they have unearthed extraordinary findings. With presenter Julian Richards Timewatch journeys back through time to unlock the secrets of a lost world.
Long before World War II, in WWI in fact, Germany began the world's first strategic bombing campaign. In an attempt to demoralize the people of Britain, in early 1915 a German zeppelin airship dropped bombs on the Norfolk town of Great Yarmouth. It was the start of a campaign lasting two-and-a-half years which killed 1,500 people. Timewatch reexamines the forgotten Blitz.
After quarreling over a bank loan, two men took part in the last fatal duel staged on Scottish soil. BBC News's James Landale retraces the steps of his ancestor, who made that final challenge. On 23 August 1826, two men met at dawn in a field just outside Kirkcaldy in southern Fife. Only one walked away alive. One was David Landale, a linen merchant and pillar of the community. The other was George Morgan, a soldier-turned-banker with a fiery temper. The pair had quarreled over a bank loan, an argument that had led the banker to spread rumours about his client's creditworthiness. The merchant had in turn taken his accounts elsewhere and written a stiff letter of complaint to the Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh. And that is where it would have stayed had not Morgan's temper got the better of him one morning when he struck Landale about the head with an umbrella in Kirkcaldy High Street.
The story of the worst British disaster of the Falklands conflict of 1982 is told in Timewatch: Remember The Galahad. Two troopships were bombed by Argentine planes at Fitzroy Inlet, with the loss of 50 lives. One of them, Sir Galahad, was packed with Welsh Guards who had been waiting for six hours in broad daylight to disembark. Twenty-five years on, survivors and others affected by the tragedy tell how this act of war continues to shape so many lives.
In 1970 a flight with more than twenty children on board was hijacked by a Palestinian guerrilla group. It was the only time a British commercial aircraft has ever been hijacked. Timewatch probes the ethics of negotiating with hijackers and discusses the alternatives.
A team of archaeologists and scientists comb Crete for conclusive evidence that Europe's first great civilization, the Minoans, was destroyed by a devastating natural disaster. Is it possible that the sudden fate of the Minoans was the origin of Plato's tale of Atlantis, the fabulous city that was swallowed by the sea?
Told in their own words, these are the hair-raising stories of four young Jewish children in France secretly hidden from the Nazis. They were taken in by individuals and organisations determined that even as their parents were killed, they should live.
Thanks to the revolutionary work of forensic anthropologists Dr Fabian Kanz and Professor Karl Grossschmidt, 'Timewatch' has been able to establish a detailed picture of how gladiators may have lived, fought and died 2000 years ago in Ephesus. A tombstone identified one 50 year-old body as gladiator trainer Euxenius. His remains, and the skeletons of 68 other gladiators nearby, reveal much about the diet, lifestyle, medical care and fighting conditions of the legendary warriors.
In June 1953 Britain was still suffering from the privations imposed by World War II. Despite the hardships, the country was excited by a once-in-a-lifetime event. A young queen was beginning her reign. Thanks to television, the common Briton was able to see his monarch crowned for the first time in Britain's 1000 year history. Observers and participants shared their memories of the historic occasion.
The Timewatch strand returns with the story of how, in July 2007, 61 men and women set off on an extraordinary voyage to sail the world's largest reconstructed Viking ship from Denmark to Ireland. This film follows their seven-week journey and reveals the emotional and physical challenges the crew face as they cope with having less than a square metre each in which to work, live, eat and sleep - with no shelter from the weather. In their efforts to sail like the Vikings of old, the crew are pushed to the limit when they encounter larger waves and stronger winds than they've ever faced before.
Researchers and historians are still arguing about why Omaha Beach was the hardest beach to capture in the D-day landings. Presenter Richard Hammond analyses the latest theories with Dr Simon Trew of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
In January, the MSC Napoli ran aground, spilling its cargo on Branscombe beach in Devon. The public were delighted, but the authorities were determined to police opportunists. Looters of the Napoli were reviving a centuries' old tradition: 'wrecking'. Author Bella Bathurst discovers the social history of a national crime.
Dr Saul David investigates the violent world of the medieval melee tournament. Unlike the better known joust, this was a brutal brawl with sharpened weapons, few rules, and one undisputed champion- William Marshal. Saul investigates Marshal's life, discovering his epic rise from a tournament champion to the Regent of England who saved a kingdom on the battlefield. Saul also experiments with Marshal's weapons.
More than 3000 years ago, the rebel Pharaoh Akhenaten marched his people from his capital Thebes to build a new city in the desert. It took 20 years to build. The people of this city worshipped in the world's first monotheistic religion, overseen by Akhenaten and his beautiful Queen Nefertiti. The city was designed as a religious utopia. But, after 25 years of digging, experts are suggesting that Akhenaten was nothing but a despot.
The stories of the one million post-war Britons who paid ten pounds to emigrate to Australia under the Assisted Passage Scheme. It was one of the biggest planned migrations of the twentieth century. The catch was that they had to stay for a minimum of two years. Many loved their new country, but one quarter fled home disillusioned, fleeing 'pommy bashing' or believing that they had been sold a lie.
An investigation into a radical theory that Stonehenge, far from being a place of burial as is commonly assumed, was in fact a place of healing - a Bronze Age Lourdes. The investigation takes in forensic testing of bones excavated over the past decades and hard-won permission for the first dig in 50 years at the Henge, watched live online by millions of viewers around the world. Does the theory of the healing stones bear up to modern-day forensic science?
Tsunamis are among the most destructive forces known to Man, but most of us in Britain think they are one thing we don't need to worry about. Professors Simon Haslett and Ted Bryant have already challenged this view with their belief that the Bristol Channel flood of 1607, one of Britain's greatest natural disasters, was in fact a tsunami. But the story doesn't stop there. In Britain's Forgotten Floods, Simon and Ted investigate evidence for what they believe are at least four more British tsunamis.
Timewatch exclusively reveals the dramatic true story behind the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, when Imperial troops and Chinese rebels laid siege to the diplomatic quarter in Beijing. Told through Chinese sources and the diaries and memoirs of the outnumbered European defenders, the siege helped to bring down the imperial monarchy, precipitating a century of destruction, revolution and ultimate renewal.
The story of how an unassuming little girl rose to be the most powerful woman in the world. At her birth few believed Princess Victoria would ascend the throne, but a number of untimely deaths and the failure of her uncles to father any children meant that Victoria became heiress to the British throne. The battle between her and her mother the Duchess of Kent, however, was to become a fierce maternal struggle, as the duchess schemed to share in the power and riches that would one day be Victoria's.
Michael Palin tells the story of how the First World War ended on 11th November 1918 and reveals the shocking truth that soldiers continued to be killed in battle for many hours after the armistice had been signed. Recounting the events of the days and hours leading up to that last morning, Palin tells the personal stories of the last soldiers to die as the minutes and seconds ticked away to the 11 o'clock ceasefire.
A mile off the coast of the channel island of Alderney lies a shipwreck that could rewrite English naval history. Presenter Saul David joins a team of divers and experts as they attempt to find and raise the ship's four-hundred-year-old cannons. By recasting and firing them, they hope to demonstrate how Elizabeth I became the mother of British naval dominance.
Over 40 years after her launch, Timewatch boards the most iconic ocean liner in the world as she embarks on her final voyage and glides gracefully towards retirement. The world's longest-serving and best-loved cruise ship has come a long way since her humble beginnings as piles of steel and timber on the River Clyde. Overcoming technical problems, rogue waves and even bomb threats, she has enjoyed an eventful and colourful career that has won the hearts of millions. A proud reminder of the dazzling golden era of ocean liners, she is a time capsule offering a tantalising peek into a distant age of discovery and decadence. Built at the end of the swinging sixties, she defied cultural trends and became a reassuring bastion of Britishness and tradition in an ever-changing world.
Hollywood portrayed them as the most glamorous outlaws in American history, but the reality of life on the run for Bonnie and Clyde was one of violence, hardship and danger. With unprecedented access to gang members' memoirs, family archives and recently released police records, Timewatch takes an epic road trip through the heart of depression-era America, in search of the true story of Bonnie and Clyde.
In the late 18th century, Captain James Cook led three great voyages of discovery which pushed the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the earth. In just over a decade, his ability as a navigator and chart maker would add one-third to the map of the known world. For many he was the greatest explorer in history, but for others he was a ruthless conqueror. While the exploits of Captain Cook are well documented, much less is known about James Cook the man. Presenter Vanessa Collingridge sets out on her own voyage of discovery - travelling in his footsteps to uncover the forces that drove him to success, and ultimately to his own death.
Edward Mannock VC and James McCudden VC rose from modest backgrounds to become two of Britain's greatest fighter aces in World War One. As the number of their victories grew, so did their chances of dying in flames. Timewatch tells the story of their battle to survive against the odds, and of the 90-year-old mystery surrounding the death of one of them.
For centuries archaeologists have been trying to work out how the ancient Egyptians raised huge stone blocks to the top of the Great Pyramid. This documentary presents a radical theory by French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin. He believes that an internal ramp was used, which is still inside the Pyramid waiting to be discovered. If he is right, it is the greatest discovery since Tutankhamun.
A small group of British men have some unfinished family business in Antarctica. One hundred years ago, their ancestors, under the leadership of the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton, tried and failed to become the first men to reach the South Pole. Following in their footsteps, the team set off on a 900-mile trek across frozen wastelands. Timewatch follows their remarkable journey.
The investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales took place in 1969. It was a day of pomp and pageantry but also a day of bombs and threats to the lives of the royal family. Huw Edwards goes back in time to investigate the events of an extraordinary day when police, politicians and royalty held their breath as a few nationalist extremists violently plotted against the investiture of Prince Charles. Show less
Over two nights in November 1940, the city of Coventry was reduced to rubble by an aerial bombardment that was so devastating that a new word was coined to describe it – Coventrated. It was the most terrifying air raid on a British city in the war so far, and was to prove a turning point in the conflict. The Luftwaffe weren't just attacking the many armaments factories that surrounded the city – their firepower was directed against ordinary civilians and their homes.
Historian Bettany Hughes unravels one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time. She presents a series of geological, archaeological and historical clues to show that the legend of Atlantis was inspired by a real historical event, the greatest natural disaster of the ancient world.
Documentary that reveals the secret story behind one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II, a feat that gave birth to the digital age. In 1943, a 24-year-old maths student and a GPO engineer combined to hack into Hitler's personal super-code machine - not Enigma but an even tougher system, which he called his 'secrets writer'. Their break turned the Battle of Kursk, powered the D-day landings and orchestrated the end of the conflict in Europe. But it was also to be used during the Cold War - which meant both men's achievements were hushed up and never officially recognised.
Lord Ashdown, a former special forces commando, tells the story of the 'Cockleshell Heroes', who led one of the most daring and audacious commando raids of World War II. In 1942, Britain was struggling to fight back against Nazi Germany. Lacking the resources for a second front, Churchill encouraged innovative and daring new methods of combat. Enter stage left, Blondie Hasler. With a unit of twelve Royal Marine commandos, Major Blondie Hasler believed his 'cockleshell' canoe could be effectively used in clandestine attacks on the enemy. Their brief was to navigate the most heavily defended estuary in Europe, to dodge searchlights, machine-gun posts and armed river-patrol craft 70 miles downriver, and then to blow up enemy shipping in Bordeaux harbour. Lord Ashdown recreates parts of the raid and explains how this experience was used in preparing for one of the greatest land invasions in history, D-day.
James Holland presents an analysis of the legendary 1943 Dam Busters raid, a low-level night mission that took 19 Lancaster bombers deep into the heart of enemy territory to destroy German dams with a brand new weapon - the bouncing bomb. Of the many extraordinary things about the Dams raid, the biggest is that it almost never happened. When finally green lit, it set off an incredible race against time to form and train a new squadron. Their mission was to deliver a weapon that did not yet exist. Unprecedented by any scale, and even more remarkable because the crews were not the experienced elite that legend sometimes suggests, Holland believes this truly is the greatest raid of all time. Yet, whilst arguing that the true impact of the successful raid has been underestimated, he also sets out to investigate whether the results should have been even greater.
Following on from his hugely successful BBC2 documentary, Operation Mincemeat, based on his book of the same name, writer and presenter Ben MacIntyre returns to the small screen to bring to life his other bestselling book - Agent Zigzag. As part of the Timewatch series, MacIntyre reveals the gripping true story of Britain's most extraordinary wartime double agent, Eddie Chapman. A notorious safe-breaker before the war, Chapman duped the Germans so successfully that he was awarded their highest decoration, the Iron Cross. He remains the only British citizen ever to win one. Including remarkable and newly discovered footage from an interview Chapman gave three years before his death in 1997, the programme goes on the trail of one of Britain's most unlikely heroes - a story of adventure, love, intrigue and astonishing courage.
Dan Cruickshank investigates the circumstances and rituals surrounding death in Victorian Britain by piecing together the fate of five apparently unrelated corpses. The story he uncovers is one of bizarre extremes - of bodysnatchers and the bodies they snatched; of inner-city graveyards so overflowing that the limbs of the dead could be seen protruding from the newly dug earth; of the great new cemeteries where a tomb cost as much as a terrace of houses in east London; of the suspicious resistance which greeted the 'heathenish' practice of cremation; and of the carnage of the Western Front where Victorian ideals about death - and the afterlife - were finally shattered by the violence of the Great War.
In this Timewatch special, historian Bettany Hughes unravels one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time. She presents a series of geological, archaeological and historical clues to show that the legend of Atlantis was inspired by a real historical event - the greatest natural disaster of the ancient world.
King Edward VII has always been an enigma. Twentieth-century dynasty builder and sex addict, boorish philistine and civilised cosmopolitan - he was all of these. Using extensive new research, this documentary unravels the mystery of a thoroughly modern monarch and shows that his legacy is still relevant today.
