Welcome to our Documentary List. Please find below a list of Archaeology and History documentaries with some basic details about them. In addition, these can be viewed via the hyperlinks in the 5th column. There are also some short videos.
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Season / Episode | Title | Duration | Hyperlink | TV Channel | Type | Year | Production Company | Director / Producer | Narrator / Presenter | Ships Featured | Comments | Air Date | |
Beauty of Maps | Beauty of Maps | Beauty of Maps | Beauty of Maps | Beauty of Maps | Beauty of Maps | Beauty of Maps | |||||||
Beauty of Maps | 1 | Medieval Maps - Mapping the Medieval Mind | 29:25 | Medieval Maps - Mapping the Medieval Mind | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | The Hereford Mappa Mundi is the largest intact Medieval wall map in the world and its ambition is breathtaking - to picture all of human knowledge in a single image. The work of a team of artists, the world it portrays is overflowing with life, featuring Classical and Biblical history, contemporary buildings and events, animals and plants from across the globe, and the infamous 'monstrous races' which were believed to inhabit the remotest corners of the Earth. The Mappa Mundi, meaning 'cloth of the world', has spent most of its long life at Hereford Cathedral, rarely emerging from behind its glass case. The programme represents a rare opportunity to get close to the map and explore its detail, giving a unique insight into the medieval mind. This is also the first programme to show the map in its original glory, revealing the results of a remarkable year-long project by the Folio Society to restore it using the latest digital technology; the map has a chequered history. Since its glory days in the 1300s it has languished forgotten in storerooms, been dismissed as a curious 'monstrosity', and controversially almost sold. Only in the last 20 years have scholars and artists realised its true depth and meaning, with the map exerting an extraordinary power over those who come into contact with it. The programme meets some of these individuals, from scholars and map lovers to Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry, whose own work, the Map of Nowhere, is inspired by the Mappa Mundi. | 19/04/2010 | ||||
Beauty of Maps | 2 | London: City Maps - Order Out of Chaos | 28:37 | London: City Maps - Order Out of Chaos | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | This is the story of three maps, three 'visions' of London over three centuries; visions of beauty that celebrate but also distort the truth. It's the story of how urban maps try to impose order on chaos. On Sunday 2 September 1660, the Great Fire of London began reducing most of the city to ashes, and among the huge losses were many maps of the city itself. The Morgan Map of 1682 was the first to show the whole of the City of London after the fire. Consisting of sixteen separate sheets, measuring eight feet by five feet, it took six years to complete. Morgan's beautiful map symbolised the hoped-for ideal city. In 1746 John Rocque produced at the time the most detailed map ever made of London. Like Morgan's, Rocque's map is all neo-Classical beauty and clinical precision, but the London it represented had become the opposite. In engravings of the time, such as Night, the artist William Hogarth shows a city boiling with vice and corruption. Stephen Walter's contemporary image, The Island, plays with notions of cartographic order and respectability. His extraordinary London map looks at first glance to be just as precise and ordered as his hero Rocque's but, looking closer, it includes 21st century markings such as 'favourite kebab vans' and sites of 'personal heartbreak'. | 20/04/2010 | ||||
Beauty of Maps | 3 | Atlas Maps - Thinking Big | 28:53 | Atlas Maps - Thinking Big | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | The Dutch Golden Age saw map-making reach a fever pitch of creative and commercial ambition. This was the era of the first ever Atlases - elaborate, lavish and beautiful. This was the great age of discovery and marked an unprecedented opportunity for mapmakers who sought to record and categorise the newly acquired knowledge of the world. Rising above the many mapmakers in this period was Gerard Mercator, inventor of the Mercator projection, who changed mapmaking forever when he published his collection of world maps in 1598 and coined the term 'Atlas'. The programme looks at some of the largest and most elaborate maps ever produced, from the vast maps on the floor of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, to the 24 volume atlas covering just the Netherlands, to the largest Atlas in the world, The Klencke Atlas. It was made for Charles II to mark his restoration in 1660. But whilst being one of the British Libraries most important items, it is also one of its most fragile so hardly ever opened. This is a unique opportunity to see inside this enormous and lavish work, and see the world through the eyes of a King. | 21/04/2010 | ||||
Beauty of Maps | 4 | Cartoon Maps - Politics and Satire | Cartoon Maps - Politics and Satire | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | The series concludes by delving into the world of satirical maps. How did maps take on a new form, not as geographical tools, but as devices for humour, satire or storytelling? Graphic Artist Fred Rose perfectly captured the public mood in 1880 with his General Election maps featuring Gladstone and Disraeli, using the maps to comment upon crucial election issues still familiar to us today. Technology was on the satirist's side with the advent of high-speed printing allowing for larger runs at lower cost. In 1877, when Rose produced his 'Serio Comic Map of Europe at War', maps began to take on a new direction and form, reflecting a changing world. Rose's map exploited these possibilities to the full using a combination of creatures and human figures to represent each European nation. The personification of Russia as a grotesque-looking octopus, extending its tentacles around the surrounding nations, perfectly symbolised the threat the country posed to its neighbours. | 22/04/2010 | |||||
Birth of Empire - English East India Company | 58:45 | Birth of Empire - English East India Company | TV doco | ||||||||||
Digging for Britain | Digging for Britain | Digging for Britain | Digging for Britain | Digging for Britain | Digging for Britain | Digging for Britain | Digging for Britain | ||||||
Digging for Britain | 1.1 | The Romans | 49:20 | The Romans | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | Acorn Media UK | Alice Roberts | Dr Alice Roberts follows an entire year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations the length of the country. The results are astonishing - and sometimes disturbing. Roman finds include the mystery of 97 babies murdered by the Thames, a fabulous Roman coin hoard found in Somerset and a man buried on a layer of dead animals. | 19/08/2010 | ||
Digging for Britain | 1.2 | Prehistory | 49:55 | Digging for Britain - Prehistory | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | Acorn Media UK | Serena Davies | Alice Roberts | Dr Alice Roberts continues her journey through this season's most important archaeology, with an amazing array of finds from prehistory. Her journey takes her from Orkney to Devon by land, sea and air. In Norfolk, flint tools unearthed this year push the earliest human occupation back by 200,000 years, to around one million years ago. In Orkney an early farm yields glimpses of our ancestors' earliest religious beliefs and customs - cattle skulls buried within building walls, and tiny household goddesses. In Devon, we find one of the oldest known shipwrecks. And a bronze age burial holds a mystery, and touching evidence of grief echoing down over 2000 years. | 26/08/2010 | |
Digging for Britain | 1.3 | Anglo Saxons | 49:00 | Digging for Britain 1.3 The Anglo Saxons | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | Acorn Media UK | Sarah Jobling | Alice Roberts | The Anglo-Saxons - they divided our land and heralded the arrival of the Dark Ages. But were they really just barbarians? Dr Alice Roberts continues her journey through a year of archaeology, visiting the key sites that are throwing light on this most mysterious of periods. She visits the royal seat of power at Bamburgh, Northumbria and sees how the skeletons tell tales of violent death, but also of tenderness. There's a remarkable community project in a shopping centre in Sittingbourne where people are curating the grave goods of their own ancestors. And there are treasures that make her wonder just how dark the Dark Ages really were. | 02/09/2010 | |
Digging for Britain | 1.4 | The Tudors | 51:23 | Digging for Britain 1.4 The Tudors | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | Acorn Media UK | James Gray | Alice Roberts | In the final episode of the series, Dr Alice Roberts goes in search of the Tudor age, a time that saw momentous changes across all aspects of British life. Along the way, Alice visits excavations at Shakespeare's first theatre in London's Shoreditch, where the Bard began his career and Romeo and Juliet was first performed. Alice also joins a team sifting through Shakespeare's rubbish at his last home in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and finds revealing clues about his carefulness with money. In a remote corner of Wales, Alice meets a team of archaeologists uncovering the brutal realities of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, a conflict that would change the very fabric of Britain. On the muddy banks of the Thames, Alice discovers the rich history of a forgotten royal palace, which was home to the Tudor kings and queens. And she learns about a mysterious Tudor shipwreck which dates from this age of exploration and trade. | 10/09/2010 | |
Digging for Britain | 2.1 | Britannia | 58:56 | Britannia | TV doco | 2011 | James Gray / Tim Robinson | Alice Roberts | Dr Alice Roberts follows an entire year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations the length of the country. The results are astonishing and sometimes disturbing. This episode concentrates on Roman Britannia, where finds include the thickening mystery of 97 baby skeletons found by the Thames, a newly discovered town in rural Devon that turns history on its head, and a Roman cult figure buried for 1700 years beneath a fort. | 09/09/2011 | |||
Digging for Britain | 2.2 | Invaders | 58:53 | Invaders | TV doco | 2011 | James Gray / Tim Robinson | Alice Roberts | In this week's episode, Dr Alice Roberts travels back to the Viking Age in Britain and visits excavations that are revealing a different side to these seafaring pirates from Scandinavia. She looks for signs of the earliest Viking settlers in the Outer Hebrides, and in Orkney - where Viking dominance outlasted anywhere else in Britain - she visits the excavation of a Viking chief's citadel and finds evidence of their way-of-life. There's an extraordinary collection of silver and gold that demonstrates the furthest reaches of the Vikings' trading empire and excavations in York - famously the capital of Viking England. This episode also includes a fresh look at some of our most celebrated Viking finds, such as the fantastic Lewis Chessmen, which are currently the subject of major new research. | 16/11/2011 | |||
Digging for Britain | 2.3 | Age of Bronze & Iron | 59:02 | Age of Bronze & Iron | TV doco | 2011 | James Gray / Tim Robinson | Alice Roberts | Dr Alice Roberts travels back to the Ages of Bronze and Iron to discover what kind of a place Britain was before the Romans invaded. With no written history, only archaeology can provide the clues. Alice uncovers a world that is complex, sophisticated and pretty strange. She examines the two Hebridean Bronze Age skeletons known as the Cladh Hallan mummies. Not only do they appear to have been mummified, new analysis has revealed they are made up of a jigsaw of different people. What did our ancestors use the mummies for? And are there more British mummies out there? In Norfolk, Alice gets her hands dirty helping to pull up timber from a huge prehistoric monument that has been hidden in mud for at least 2,000 years. And she visits the famous Roman town of Silchester, near Reading, where archaeologists are digging below the Roman layers to reveal the Iron Age settlement that lies beneath, uncovering evidence for a sophisticated pre-Roman lifestyle. Alice also examines the evidence that suggests Silchester could be the place where two British chiefs took a stand against the Romans. | 24/09/2011 | |||
Digging for Britain | 2.4 | Ice & Stone | 59:10 | Ice & Stone | TV doco | 2011 | James Gray / Tim Robinson | Alice Roberts | In the final episode of the series, Dr Alice Roberts goes in search of our elusive Stone Age ancestors. Along the way she visits the Channel island of Jersey where she meets a team of archaeologists hoping to shed new light on the much-maligned Neanderthals, and embarks on a kayak survey of the coastline looking for undiscovered sites hidden in the cliffs. At the Natural history museum Alice comes face to face with the dark side of our Ice Age ancestors lives - she sees evidence of cannibalism and the ritual use of human skulls. And she meets a team who are hoping to unlock the secrets of Stonehenge, not on Salisbury plain, but in the remote Preseli Hills of Wales. | 30/09/2011 | |||
Digging for Britain | 3.1 | East | 58:50 | Digging for Britain 3.1 East | TV doco | 2015 | Edward Hart | Alice Roberts | Professor Alice Roberts and archaeologist Matt Williams present 2014's most outstanding archaeology. In the summer, archaeologists have been unearthing our history in hundreds of digs across Britain. They have gone to extraordinary lengths to uncover long lost treasures - retelling our story in a way only archaeology can. With unique access to some of the country's best digs, our teams have been self-shooting their excavations to make sure the audience is there for every moment of discovery. In this episode, we're in the east of Britain, and the archaeologists join us back in the Norwich Castle Museum to look at the new finds and what they mean. | 03/02/2015 | |||
Digging for Britain | 3.2 | West | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 3.2 West | TV doco | 2015 | Edward Hart | Alice Roberts | In this episode, we're in the west of Britain, and the archaeologists join us back in the Dorset Country Museum to look at the new finds and what they mean | 10/02/2015 | |||
Digging for Britain | 3.3 | North | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 3.3 North | TV doco | 2015 | Edward Hart | Alice Roberts | Professor Alice Roberts and archaeologist Matt Williams present 2014's most outstanding archaeology from the north of Britain. Sitting in the heart of the Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, the Ness of Brodgar houses a 5,000-year-old temple at the heart of a sacred landscape, built out of stone over hundreds of years. We catch the unearthing of a Roman altar dedicated to Jupiter that was originally carved in the 2nd century, when Maryport was part of the coastal defences linked to Hadrian's Wall. 11,000 years ago Flixton in Yorkshire was an island used by our very earliest ancestors, and it has preserved vital clues about their world and the wild horses they hunted and ate. In Ardnamurchan, a 5,000-year-old cemetery - housing burials from the Bronze and Iron Ages... and an intact Viking boat burial. A Tudor-era aristocrat's feasting hall is revealed... and how one night the revelry came to a very abrupt end. One of the richest hoards of Pictish treasure ever found reveals the metalworking secrets of the mysterious tribes who ruled Dark Ages Scotland. | 17/02/2015 | |||
Digging for Britain | 3.4 | Ireland | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 3.4 Ireland | TV doco | 2015 | Edward Hart | Alice Roberts | |||||
Digging for Britain | 4.1 | West | 58:59 | West | TV doco | 2016 | Edward Hart | Alice Roberts | Professor Alice Roberts and archaeologist Matt Williams present the year's most outstanding archaeology. During the summer, archaeologists have been unearthing our history in hundreds of digs across Britain. They've gone to extraordinary lengths to uncover long-lost treasures, retelling our story in a way only archaeology can. With unique access to some of the countries best digs, our teams have been self-shooting their excavations to make sure the audience is there for every moment of discovery. This episode heads to the west of Britain, while archaeologists join us back in the Salisbury Museum to look at the new finds and what they mean. Marden Henge: The communal sweat lodges and feasting remains that illuminate the lost rituals of Stonehenge. Durotriges: A glimpse into the bizarre animal sacrifice rituals offered to their gods by a mysterious Celtric tribe of the first century BC. Trellech: An enormous lost Welch city is discovered seven centuries after it disappeared from historical record. Kent's Cavern: A team swap trowels for pneumatic drills in a search for the hidden entrance of the site where Britain's earliest human remains have been found. Jersey: Archaeologists are fighting against mother nature to find the evidence of a Stone Age hunter-gather campsite. Staffordshire Hoard: Conservators painstakingly reassemble the elaborate weaponry of the Anglo-Saxon warriors we didn't know existed. | 10/03/2016 | |||
Digging for Britain | 4.2 | East | 59:14 | East | TV doco | 2016 | Edward Hart | Alice Roberts | Professor Alice Roberts explores the year's most exciting archaeological finds in the east of Britain. A team unearths a mass grave, divers search the Thames for clues to a 17th-century tragedy, and a metal detectorist makes the find of a lifetime. | 17/03/2016 | |||
Digging for Britain | 4.3 | North | 58:56 | North | TV doco | 2016 | Edward Hart | Alice Roberts | Professor Alice Roberts explores the year's most exciting archaeological finds in the north of Britain. A team discovers clues to Scotland's first kingdoms, metal detectorists unearth a hoard of Viking treasure, and a new housing development reveals a graveyard of Iron Age warriors. | 24/03/2016 | |||
Digging for Britain | Special | Britain's Pompeii - A village lost in time | 59:00 | Britain's Pompeii - A village lost in time | TV doco | 2016 | Alice Roberts | ||||||
Digging for Britain | 5.1 | West | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 5.1 West | TV doco | 2016 | Graham Cooper | Alice Roberts | This episode looks at the west of Britain, and archaeologists are in the lab to look at the new finds and what they mean. Finds include: the lost WWI training trenches on Salisbury Plain; Britain's first 'double henge' - discovered just down the road from Stonehenge - where the evidence suggests our ancestors feasted and made sacred offerings as part of a visit to the ritualistic Stonehenge landscape; and luxury foreign goods discovered at Tintagel, the legendary childhood home of King Arthur. | 06/12/2016 | |||
Digging for Britain | 5.2 | East | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 5.2 East | TV doco | 2016 | Gemma Hagen | Alice Roberts | This episode is from the north of Britain, where finds include: evidence for the first Roman siege in Britain, including the biggest cache of Roman bullets discovered anywhere; Britain's most famous monastery - Lindisfarne - rediscovered for the first time since it was violently sacked by the Vikings 1,000 years ago; and the incredible discovery of the ancient Scottish man-made islands that entirely rewrite our understanding of Stone Age tech. | 13/12/2016 | |||
Digging for Britain | 5.3 | North | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 5.3 North | TV doco | 2016 | Alex Rowson | Alice Roberts | This episode looks at the east of Britain. Finds include: new revelations from 'Britain's Pompeii' - the 3,000-year-old perfectly preserved village in Cambridgeshire - including how our Bronze Age ancestors designed their homes, and their kitchens packed with food and equipment; the theatre where Shakespeare premiered Romeo and Juliet and Henry V, complete with sound effect props and evidence that Shakespeare's original audience was much rowdier than you might expect; evidence that we may have finally found the location of the Battle of Barnet, the famous Wars of the Roses site where Edward IV defeated Warwick the Kingmaker in a bloody battle that would eventually bring the Tudor dynasty to England's throne. | 20/12/2016 | |||
Digging for Britain | 6.1 | West | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 6.1 West | TV doco | 2017 | Nick Gillam-Smith | Alice Roberts | We discover the camp from which Vikings invaded Britain, and find groundbreaking new evidence that the world-famous Avebury stone circle isn't just a sacred site but a place where our ancestors lived and worked - a discovery that's also changing our understanding of neighbouring Stonehenge. In Staffordshire, the oldest Iron Age gold in Britain is unearthed - a set of beautiful gold torcs, mysteriously abandoned 2,500 years ago. | 22/11/2017 | |||
Digging for Britain | 6.2 | East | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 6.2 East | TV doco | 2017 | Alex Rowson | Alice Roberts | We unearth the biggest collection of Roman writing tablets in Britain, giving insight into what Roman London was really like. Off the coast of Kent, we dive into the English Channel to complete the biggest marine excavation since the Mary Rose - an 18th-century East India Company ship, packed with silver. Also in Kent, we're on the detective trail to find the very first evidence of Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain - an ancient fort scattered with human skulls and weapons. | 29/11/2017 | |||
Digging for Britain | 6.3 | North | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 6.3 North | TV doco | 2017 | Fiona Cushley | Alice Roberts | Alice discovers the well-preserved writing tablets, swords and domestic items left by Romans at Vindolanda during a time of British rebellion. On the Scottish island of Iona, there are traces of a long-lost monastery and pilgrimage site that was originally built by the legendary saint Columba, and has been compared to Jerusalem. In the east of Scotland, a weapons hoard belonging to a wealthy Bronze Age warrior is unearthed. | 06/12/2017 | |||
Digging for Britain | 6.4 | The Horseman of Hadrian's Wall | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 6.4 - The Horseman of Hadrian's Wall | TV doco | 2017 | James Gray | Alice Roberts | In this special, Professor Alice Roberts reveals the forgotten story of the Roman Army's secret weapon in Britain - their cavalry. These fearsome horsemen were the key to defending Britain's most famous Roman monument fortification, Hadrian's Wall. Alice sets off across Hadrian's Wall to investigate any evidence the Roman cavalry left behind, while a team of archaeologists and historical re-enactors attempt to re-stage a Roman cavalry tournament - a spectacle that no one has seen for over 1,600 years. We follow the team's training as they prepare for the performance, and Alice joins them at a public display in Carlisle where 30 riders perform in front of a crowd of spectators. To put the cavalry's story in context, the film also explores the latest archaeological digs happening across the UK, each of which is searching for new evidence of the Roman cavalry. On her journey across Hadrian's Wall, Alice visits some of the most iconic sites associated with the Roman cavalry, including Chester's Roman fort, Vindolanda fort and museum and Hexham Abbey. Along the way she builds a picture of the horsemen's lives here on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. | 13/12/2017 | |||
Digging for Britain | 7.1 | North | 2018 | Alice Roberts | Professor Alice Roberts celebrates the biggest and best archaeological discoveries of 2018 from the north of the UK. Each digging team has been filming its own excavations, giving us an unprecedented view of each excavation as it happens. Alice begins the programme with a prehistoric Pompeii at the Black Loch of Myrton. Uncovering incredibly preserved 2500-year-old houses, archaeologists are stepping back in time and glimpsing what life was really like in an Iron Age village. We follow archaeologists uncovering a previously unknown Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Lincolnshire full of spectacular and unusual grave goods. We go on the hunt for a lost Second World War reconnaissance Spitfire in Norway and piece together the story of its brave pilot. Deep in the vaults at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, we explore one of its greatest treasures, the Westness Brooch. We also head to the island of Rousay in Orkney, where archaeologists rescue a Neolithic tomb before it gets washed away and discover an incredible trace of our ancestors on a rare Pictish stone. In Salford, a major regeneration project is unearthing the largest jail in Georgian England and its radical approach to crime and punishment. Roving archaeologist, Raksha Dave gets privileged access behind the scenes in the conservation labs at Vindolanda Roman fort and discovers what really happens when the digging stops. | 28/11/2018 | |||||||
Digging for Britain | 7.2 | West | 59:16 | Digging for Britain 7.2 West | TV doco | 2018 | Alice Roberts | Professor Alice Robert explores this year's most exciting archaeological finds from the west of Britain. Every new discovery was filmed by the archaeologists themselves giving us an unprecedented view of each excavation as it happens. In this episode, we join a team as they undertake the largest maritime investigation since the Mary Rose and reveal the extraordinary story of HMS Invincible. At Silchester, archaeologists investigate a Bathhouse that reveals how the Romans stamped their mark on Britain. A buried military camp in Hampshire shows why German soldiers were key to our security in the 18th century and archaeologist Raksha Dave goes behind the scenes to tell the tragic tale of individuals from a 19th-century pauper's graveyard. | 05/12/2018 | ||||
Digging for Britain | 7.3 | East | 2018 | Louise Ord | Alice Roberts | Professor Alice Roberts explores this year's most exciting archaeological finds from the East of Britain. Every new discovery was filmed by the archaeologists themselves giving us an unprecedented view of each excavation as it happens. In this episode, we join a team in Suffolk as they uncover an ancient lost monument as old as Stonehenge. We travel a little further East than usual to a WWI battlefield in France to explore one of Britain's earliest and most disastrous tank battles, and then return to Suffolk as archaeologists try to make sense of some disturbing Roman burial practices. Also, one lucky metal detectorist chances upon a coin hoard that gives us insight into the effect the English civil war had on the lives of ordinary people. Our roving archaeologist, Raksha Dave goes behind the scenes at an archaeological lab in Brighton and follows an investigation into a lost medieval village. | 12/12/2018 | ||||||
Digging for Britain | 7.4 | Iron Age Revealed | 2018 | Alice Roberts | Alice Roberts follows the excavation of Iron Age Britain's most spectacular grave. A team of archaeologists in East Yorkshire have uncovered the remains of only the third upright chariot burial ever found in Britain, and the only chariot burial ever found in this country with the chariot harnessed to two standing ponies. This sensational find is the lead dig for the Digging for Britain Iron Age special. | 19/12/2018 | |||||||
Digging for Britain | 8.1 | West | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 8.1 West | TV doco | 2019 | Sophie Smith | Alice Roberts | Archaeological discoveries with Professor Alice Roberts. In the Cotswolds, a secret location, which appears to be a high-status Anglo Saxon cemetery, gives up a very precious and fragile artefact. | 20/11/2019 | |||
Digging for Britain | 8.2 | North | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 8.2 North | TV doco | 2019 | Gareth Sacala | Alice Roberts | More than is expected is found in the remains of a house thought to be the childhood home of Lady Jane Grey. Plus the graveyard of a Victorian workhouse sheds new light on the Great Famine of 1845. | 27/11/2019 | |||
Digging for Britain | 8.3 | South | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 8.3 South | TV doco | 2019 | Sophie Smith / Gareth Sacala | Alice Roberts | How a lobster led archaeologists to the discovery of an 8000-year-old neolithic settlement. And Naoise Mac Sweeney visits a construction site as it gives up the secrets of its Elizabethan past. | 04/12/2019 | |||
Digging for Britain | 8.4 | World War II Special | 59:00 | Digging for Britain 8.4 World War II Special | TV doco | 2019 | Sophie Smith / Gareth Sacala | Alice Roberts | The team are on an archaeological hunt of our more recent past as they follow the search for artefacts from World War II. | 11/12/2019 | |||
Digging up Britain's Past | Digging up Britain's Past | Digging up Britain's Past | Digging up Britain's Past | Digging up Britain's Past | Digging up Britain's Past | Digging up Britain's Past | |||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 1.1 | Viking Invasion | 45:00 | Viking Invasion | TV doco | Helen Skelton and Alex Langlands head to Lindisfarne and the Isle of Man to uncover the secrets of Viking burial grounds. Presenters Helen Skelton and Alex Langlands, along with a team of archeologists, explore fascinating periods in British history through a current archaeological dig. In the first episode, Helen and Alex head for the island of Lindisfarne, where archaeologists are trying to locate the site of an eighth-century monastery. Among their finds is a graveyard and a number of skeletons, which may be those of both monks and pilgrims. | 05/01/2019 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 1.2 | Henry VIII's Lost Palace | 44:47 | Henry VIII's Lost Palace | TV doco | Helen Skelton and Alex Langlands join a new dig at Elsyng Palace, one of nearly 60 royal residences owned by Henry Vlll and one of his favourite homes during his last decade. The dig unearths more clues to the palace's architecture and splendour, and of Henry's life and times, with finds including the remnants of a working oven and a 16th-century groat - worth about four pence in Tudor times - featuring a portrait of Henry's face. | 12/01/2019 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 1.3 | Stonehenge | 44:59 | Stonehenge | TV doco | Helen Skelton and Alex Langlands explore the history of Stonehenge, examining the stones that make up the structure, their acoustic properties, and how they were transported 120 miles from their origins in Salisbury Plain to form the circle. Helen also visits a village where builders were believed to have lived during the site's construction and meets scientists who have analysed the bodies buried beneath the monument. | 19/01/2019 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 1.4 | Peasants | 44:43 | Peasants | TV doco | Helen Skelton and Alex Langlands head to the village of Poulton in Cheshire to see a location where archaeologists have dug up nearly 1,000 human skeletons. The remains have revealed secrets about life during the Black Death, including signs of backbreaking agricultural work, poor nutrition and battles. | 02/02/2019 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 1.5 | Robin Hood and King John | 45:00 | Robin Hood and King John | TV doco | A recent dig found evidence of the King's lavish lifestyle. | 09/02/2019 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 1.6 | Witches | 45:09 | Witches | TV doco | Can a site on the Lancashire-Yorkshire border shed more light on the Pendle Witch trials of 1612? Helen Skelton and Alex Langlands investigate the Pendle Witch trials of 1612. The presenters visit Lancaster Castle, where the suspects were held, read James I's infamous book on demons, and talk to archaeologists who claim to have found the site of the supposed coven's meeting place. Plus, a look at the role a nine-year-old girl played in sealing the fates of the accused women and how the trial influenced British legal history. | 16/02/2019 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 2.1 | The Lost Roman Town - Silchester | 45:19 | The Lost Roman Town - Silchester | TV doco | Archaeologists and presenters Raksha Dave and Alex Langlands return to explore more fascinating periods in British history through archaeological digs. In the first episode, the pair join a team from Reading University at a site in Silchester, near Reading, as they examine one of the best-preserved Roman sites in Britain. | 04/01/2020 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 2.2 | The Royal Navy's Greatest Ship - The Invincible | 45:13 | The Royal Navy's Greatest Ship - The Invincible | TV doco | Raksha Dave & Alex Langlands | HMS Invincible | Raksha Dave and Alex Langlands examine the history of HMS Invincible, which was captured from the French in 1747 and helped transform the Royal Navy with the lessons it taught about organisation and ship design. For more than 260 years, HMS Invincible lay at the bottom of the Solent, but archaeologists are now diving beneath the waves in a £2m excavation to discover more about this game-changing ship. | 11/01/2020 | ||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 2.3 | The Real Game of Thrones | 45:00 | The Real Game of Thrones | TV doco | Archaeologists conduct a dig at Auckland Castle in Co Durham, which 700 years ago was home to a group of power-crazed bishops who behaved more like warriors than religious leaders. The experts head to Dirleton Castle in East Lothian to reveal the role one of the men played in defending England from William Wallace's army, and also try their hands at the art of stained glass-making, and fire a working trebuchet - the ultimate medieval weapon of war. | 18/01/2020 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 2.4 | Industrial Revolution - Bridgewater | 45:00 | Industrial Revolution - Bridgewater | TV doco | Centuries ago, canals were the liquid highways of Britain, transporting raw materials and finished goods all over the country. Their arrival kick-started the Industrial Revolution, which was to turn Britain into a superpower. The very first water superhighway was the Bridgewater Canal, completed in 1761 to carry coal to Manchester from the mines in Worsley. Here, a team of archaeologists from Salford University roots out this industrial past, working with volunteers to excavate the very coal mine that inspired the creation of the canal. | 25/01/2020 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 2.5 | The Real War Horse | 44:51 | The Real War Horse | TV doco | Raksha Dave and Alex Langlands search for the remains of a First World War stable at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire, where thousands of horses would have been housed and trained for the front line. They join a team comprised of archaeologists and the military attempting to uncover the role this building played in the war effort. They also visit Britain's oldest cavalry regiment, examining tools that soldiers would have used to look after their steeds, and hear the story of Warrior, known as the horse the German's could not kill. | 08/02/2020 | ||||||
Digging up Britain's Past | 2.6 | Elizabeth I | 44:55 | Elizabeth I | TV doco | Archaeologists hunt for a lost garden fit for a Queen. | 15/02/2020 | ||||||
TV doco | |||||||||||||
Great Experiments - Another time, another place | 24:36 | Great Experiments - Another time, another place | TV doco | ||||||||||
Ireland's Treasures Uncovered | 58:57 | Ireland's Treasures Uncovered | TV doco | ||||||||||
Map Man | Map Man | Map Man | Map Man | Map Man | Map Man | Map Man | Map Man | ||||||
Map Man | 1.1 | William Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland (1747-53) | 29:00 | William Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland (1747-53) | BBC | TV doco | 2004 | Nicholas Crane | Following the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the British Army desperately needed accurate maps of the Scottish Highlands if it was to govern the area. Young military engineer William Roy was given the task of producing them. Will his maps see Nick safely through the treacherous terrain? | 16/09/2004 | |||
Map Man | 1.2 | John Ogilby's Britannia (1675) | 29:00 | John Ogilby's Britannia (1675) | BBC | TV doco | 2004 | Nicholas Crane | Can Nick use the first ever road map - a 329-year-old document - to lead him over the notorious Trans-Pennine Pass? With the help of experts he tries the journey on his mountain bike in midwinter, having ago at dimensuration (road surveying), and finding old roads might fade away, but never disappear. | 23/09/2004 | |||
Map Man | 1.3 | Harry Beck's London Underground Map (1933) | 29:00 | Harry Beck's London Underground Map (1933) | BBC | TV doco | 2004 | Nicholas Crane | The 1933 tube guide revolutionised the face of underground mapping and travel for ever. Having realised two years before that circuit diagrams were a perfect model for a new map of the network, electrical engineer Harry Beck created the blueprint that's wholly relevant today. Why did he exclude everything at street level? What dictated his choice of colour for each line? Minding the gap, Nicholas Crane checks out the facts. | 30/09/2004 | |||
Map Man | 1.4 | The Gough Map (1360s) | 29:00 | The Gough Map (1360s) | BBC | TV doco | 2004 | Nicholas Crane | Created in the time of Geoffrey Chaucer, the 14th-century Gough map of Britain was a landmark in map-making and was still in use 200 years after it was drawn. But what do the red lines signify along the coast, and why is there a massive green wilderness dominating the centre of Wales? While exploring these mysteries, Nicholas Crane attempts to use the map to find his way on foot from Snowdon to St David's. | 07/10/2004 | |||
Map Man | 1.5 | Greenville Collins' Coasting Pilot (1693) | 29:00 | Greenville Collins' Coasting Pilot (1693) | BBC | TV doco | 2004 | Nicholas Crane | Before the late 1700s sailors couldn't fix their position at sea and had to sail close to land, increasing the risk of shipwreck. So when Greenville Collins' charts of Britain's coastline were published in 1693, hundreds of lives and ships were saved. Explorer Nicholas Crane navigates Cornish waters in a square-rigger of the period to reveal the extent of Collins's achievement. | 14/10/2004 | |||
Map Man | 1.6 | William Smith's Geological Map of England & Wales (1815) | 29:00 | William Smith's Geological Map of England & Wales (1815) | BBC | TV doco | 2004 | Nicholas Crane | No one thought rocks were that important until they studied Smith's revolutionary, multi-coloured geological map of Britain. Years before Darwin, Smith overturned all the existing ideas about mineral prospecting, fossils and the origins of the Earth. Modern explorer Nicholas Crane's investigation examines how Smith arrived at his ideas. | 21/10/2004 | |||
Map Man | 1.7 | Christopher Saxton's Atlas of England & Wales (1577) | 29:00 | Christopher Saxton's Atlas of England & Wales (1577) | BBC | TV doco | 2004 | Nicholas Crane | In just five summers, Saxton produced the first national atlas, providing Elizabethans with thirty-four beautifully engraved, hand-coloured county maps. But maps are created for all sorts of reasons and as he motorbikes across Norfolk (Saxton's first map), Nick discovers that Saxton's survey was as much about identifying possible political troublespots as rivers and windmills. Nick comes up with fascinating evidence that Norfolk was the heartland of Catholic conspiracy-making in the late 1500s. He also tries to solve the puzzle of Saxton's amazing omission from his Norfolk map: the Norfolk Broads. | 28/10/2004 | |||
Map Man | 1.8 | Martin Hotine's Ordnance Survey (1935-1950) | 29:00 | Martin Hotine's Ordnance Survey (1935-1950) | BBC | TV doco | 2004 | Nicholas Crane | Being an OS surveyor in the 1930s was back-breaking work, as Nicholas Crane discovers. Braving the wilds of the Scottish Highlands, he conducts his own triangulation survey - will his efforts measure up to the exacting standards demanded by Britain's national mapping agency? | 04/11/2004 | |||
Map Man | 2.1 | Bartholomew's Cycling Map of England and Wales (1896-1903) | 29:00 | Bartholomew's Cycling Map of England and Wales (1896-1903) | BBC | TV doco | 2005 | Nicholas Crane | Journeys around Britain using historic maps as a guide. Nicholas Crane starts by investigating the work of Victorian cartographer John Bartholomew, who capitalised on the popularity of cycling in the 1880s with his series of maps charting the best routes, and retraces his guide to the Lake District. | 05/09/2005 | |||
Map Man | 2.2 | Timothy Pont's Maps of Scotland (1583) | 29:00 | Timothy Pont's Maps of Scotland (1583) | BBC | TV doco | 2005 | Nicholas Crane | Nicholas Crane retraces the steps of 16th-century cartographer Timothy Pont, who marked out the first detailed maps of Scotland. At that time, this was a dangerous task since wild wolves roamed the countryside and rival clans didn't take kindly to outsiders on their territory. | 12/09/2005 | |||
Map Man | 2.3 | MacKenzie's Chart of the Orkney Islands (1748) | 29:00 | MacKenzie's Chart of the Orkney Islands (1748) | BBC | TV doco | 2005 | Nicholas Crane | Nicholas Crane harks back to the 1740s to follow in the footsteps of Murdoch Mackenzie, an Orkney schoolmaster who mapped the treacherous waters between the north coast of mainland Scotland and the islands. Crane uses Mackenzie's original methods for setting up baselines on land and frozen lochs. | 19/09/2005 | |||
Map Man | 2.4 | John Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (1611-12) | 29:00 | John Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (1611-12) | BBC | TV doco | 2005 | Nicholas Crane | Nicholas Crane follows the routes recorded by 17th-century cartographer John Speed. The maps are unusual in that they don't list any roads, recording instead county boundaries. The presenter uses these documents to find his way along the England-Scotland border, before heading to Berwick, a town which Speed measured exactly in 5ft paces. | 26/09/2005 | |||
Map Man | 2.5 | John Cary's Inland Navigation (1796) | 29:00 | John Cary's Inland Navigation (1796) | BBC | TV doco | 2005 | Nicholas Crane | Nicholas Crane examines John Cary's 18th-century maps recording the routes of Britain's canals. These documents were noted for their remarkable geographical accuracy, but finding the waterways proves difficult, since many have been filled in or turned into railway lines. | 03/10/2005 | |||
Map Man | 2.6 | William Mudge's Ordnance Survey, 1st Edition (1809) | 29:00 | William Mudge's Ordnance Survey, 1st Edition (1809) | BBC | TV doco | 2005 | Nicholas Crane | Nicholas Crane examines the first Ordnance Survey map. The epic task of plotting out an entire nation to a scale of one inch to one mile fell to Lieutenant William Mudge, who began the project in Kent and Essex before moving on to Devon - the most likely targets for French attack during the Napoleonic era. | 10/10/2005 | |||
Map Man | 2.7 | Mrs P's A-Z (1936) | 29:00 | Mrs P's A-Z (1936) | BBC | TV doco | 2005 | Nicholas Crane | The story of how writer and traveller Phyllis Pearsall single-handedly created the first London A-Z. Setting herself the task of walking the capital's 23,000 streets for 18 hours a day, she completed her mammoth task in 1936. Nicholas Crane tries to find his way around the city using only her map. | 17/10/2005 | |||
Map Man | 2.8 | Thomas Raven's Clandeboye Estate Maps (1625) | 29:00 | Thomas Raven's Clandeboye Estate Maps (1625) | BBC | TV doco | 2005 | Nicholas Crane | Nicholas Crane examines a map commissioned in 1625 to settle a property conflict in which cartographer Thomas Raven was hired to resolve the situation once and for all. Nick attempts to trace the disputed boundary, and also discovers what became of a mysterious village. | 24/10/2005 | |||
Maps: Power, Plunder & Possession | 1 | Windows on the World | 58:19 | Windows on the World | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | Professor Jerry Brotton explains the creation and importance of maps, discovering the latest technology that is improving the cartographer's art and revolutionising man's knowledge of the world. On a visit to the world's oldest map, etched into a hillside 3,000 years ago, he considers how different cultures have approached map-making over millennia, often as a tool for expansionism and political control | 18/04/2010 | ||||
Maps: Power, Plunder & Possession | 2 | Spirit of the Age | 59:03 | Spirit of the Age | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | Professor Jerry Brotton examines the way maps have reflected contemporary politics and belief - and in some cases inspired them. He studies medieval religious cartography on maps showing pilgrims the routes to Jerusalem or heaven, Victorian illustrations of the world - with every nation awarded a score according to how `civilised' they were deemed to be - and modern mapping of social problems including infant mortality and HIV | 25/04/2010 | ||||
Maps: Power, Plunder & Possession | 3 | Mapping the World | 58:56 | Mapping the World | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | Professor Jerry Brotton explains how maps encouraged the plunder and conquest of far-off lands as fabled riches drove explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Walter Raleigh to the New World. He explores the founding of America and the myth of Eldorado, before discussing how cartography made international enterprise possible through the Dutch East India Company and similar ventures | 02/05/2010 | ||||
Once in a lifetime | The last place in England | 51:03 | Once in a lifetime - The last place in England | ITV | TV doco | Yorkshire TV | Barry Cockcroft | The first in a series of six documentaries about the people and places of West Cornwall. Made in 1982 my Yorkshire TV. Directed by Barry Cockcroft. | |||||
Seven Ages of Britain | Seven Ages of Britain | Seven Ages of Britain | Seven Ages of Britain | Seven Ages of Britain | Seven Ages of Britain | Seven Ages of Britain | Seven Ages of Britain | ||||||
Seven Ages of Britain | 1 | Age of Conquest | 58:23 | Age of Conquest | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | David Dimbleby | David Dimbleby tells the story of Britain through its art and treasure. This, the first episode, begins with the Roman invasion and ends with the Norman Conquest. David travels throughout Britain in search of the greatest works of art from the time: the mosaics of Bignor Roman Villa, the burial treasure of Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon poetry and Alfred the Great's Jewel. He also goes abroad, throughout Europe, to find objects either made in Britain, or which tell us something about our past. | 31/01/2010 | |||
Seven Ages of Britain | 2 | Age of Worship | 58:16 | Age of Worship | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | David Dimbleby | The story of British art in the Middle Ages, spanning from the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 to the death of Richard II in 1400. It was an age defined by worship - whether worship of God, the king, or one's lady love. David Dimbleby looks at the finest creations of the medieval Church, like the stained glass of Canterbury Cathedral and the colourful Bury Bible, and is winched 40 feet off the ground to see a rare surviving church Doom - a painting of the Last Judgement - close up. | 07/02/2010 | |||
Seven Ages of Britain | 3 | Age of Power | 58:12 | Age of Power | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | David Dimbleby | Mary Rose | This episode looks at the Tudors and spans from Henry VIII's accession in 1509 to the first performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII 100 years later. David Dimbleby shows how the Tudors used art as an instrument of power and propaganda. Featuring a look at Henry VIII and the gilded tomb in Westminster Abbey he commissioned for his father, as well as the Field of Cloth of Gold painting made to celebrate his diplomatic triumph over the French. | 14/02/2010 | ||
Seven Ages of Britain | 4 | Age of Revolution | 57:58 | Age of Revolution | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | David Dimbleby | In the 17th century, when the people of Britain learned to question everything. The result was the Civil War, in which everyone, including artists, had to take sides. Out of it came a reinvented monarchy, a scientific revolution and, ultimately, the great Cathedral of St Paul's. Highlights include the courtly portraits of Rubens, Van Dyck and Peter Lely, and the fabulous creations of the Royal Society. | 28/02/2010 | |||
Seven Ages of Britain | 5 | Age of Money | 58:25 | Age of Money | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | David Dimbleby | In the 18th century, the triumph of commerce led to the emergence of a new 'middle' class, a group of people who craved pleasure and novelty, and developed its own tastes in art. The result was a golden age in painting, with Hogarth, Reynolds and Gainsborough re-inventing the British style. The story ends in 1805 with the burial of Horatio Nelson, a commoner, at the heart of St Paul's: the supremacy of the middle class assured. | 07/03/2010 | |||
Seven Ages of Britain | 6 | Age of Empire | 58:23 | Age of Empire | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | David Dimbleby | David Dimbleby travels through Britain, America and India, tracing the descent from adventure and inspiration into moral bankruptcy as the Empire became a self-serving bureaucratic machine. | 14/03/2010 | |||
Seven Ages of Britain | 7 | Age of Ambition | 58:55 | Age of Ambition | BBC | TV doco | 2010 | David Dimbleby | In the last episode, David Dimbleby looks at how the 20th century saw ordinary Britons upturning ancient power structures and class hierarchies. The catalyst was the First World War, which embroiled the whole nation and called traditional values into question. The result was an ever-growing 'democratization' of culture, with art coming off gallery walls, becoming an instrument of self-expression at the service of the individual. | 21/03/2010 | |||
Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | |||||||
Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | 1 | The Road To Aberystwyth | 22:31 | The Road To Aberystwyth | BBC | TV doco | 2008 | Terry travels the road from the English border to Aberystwyth and begins to suspect there is more to Ogilby's atlas than meets the eye. | 13/05/2008 | ||||
Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | 2 | The Road To St David's | 22:47 | The Road To St David's | BBC | TV doco | 2008 | On the way to St David's, Terry discovers that this was never a road at all. The mystery deepens as dark forces behind the making of the map are revealed. | 20/05/2008 | ||||
Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | 3 | St David's To Holywell | 22:29 | St David's To Holywell | BBC | TV doco | 2008 | Following an ancient pilgrim route, Terry discovers that the map contains a dangerous secret, with a trail of intrigue leading all the way back to the throne of England and King Charles II. | 27/05/2008 | ||||
Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery | 4 | Chester To Holyhead | 22:43 | Chester To Holyhead | BBC | TV doco | 2008 | The final leg of Terry's journey is the most hazardous of all. Terry becomes the first person to follow this route successfully for 180 years. At the end of his journey, he finally uncovers the deadly political plot which was the real purpose of the map. | 03/06/2008 | ||||
Time Team | Time Team | Time Team | Time Team | Time Team | Time Team | Time Team | Time Team | ||||||
Timewatch | Timewatch | Timewatch | Timewatch | Timewatch | Timewatch | Timewatch | Timewatch | ||||||
Timewatch | 1998.9 | The Pilgrim Obsession | 48:45 | The Pilgrim Obsession | BBC | TV doco | 1998 | ||||||
Voyages of Discovery | Voyages of Discovery | Voyages of Discovery | Voyages of Discovery | Voyages of Discovery | Voyages of Discovery | Voyages of Discovery | Voyages of Discovery | ||||||
Voyages of Discovery | 1 | Circumnavigation | 59:13 | Circumnavigation | BBC | TV doco | 2006 | Ferdinand Magellan set out 500 years ago to find the westward route to the riches of the Spice Islands. But, contrary to popular perception, he never reached them. Rose explains the dramatic sequence of events that led his scurvy-riddled crew to continue around the world without him. The incredible expedition was laced with bloody mutiny and murder, but its achievement was to fundamentally change the lives of the generations that followed, influencing life even today. | 23/11/2006 | ||||
Voyages of Discovery | 2 | The Making of Captain Cook | 59:23 | The Making of Captain Cook | BBC | TV doco | 2006 | Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of one of the greatest ever sea adventures, which transformed Captain James Cook into a national hero and dramatically changed the course of history. Two and a half centuries later, Captain Cook is still a household name, but his achievements are often misunderstood; contrary to popular perception, he did not discover New Zealand and Australia. Intrepid Rose follows his journey down under and uncovers the real story of Captain Cook. | 30/11/2006 | ||||
Voyages of Discovery | 3 | Ice King | 59:14 | Ice King | BBC | TV doco | 2006 | Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of his hero Fridjtof Nansen who, in 1892, announced a daring plan to be first to the North Pole, an idea considered so off-the-wall that no scientist would volunteer to join him on a venture they believed was nothing short of suicide. He allowed his ship to become stuck in the crushing pack ice, hoping it would drift to the Pole, and then set off on foot across the frozen wastes. Nansen became the forefather of polar exploration, inventing practical techniques that today allow people to survive, travel and work in the most hostile and forbidding places on our planet. | 07/12/2006 | ||||
Voyages of Discovery | 4 | Figure of the Earth | 59:30 | Figure of the Earth | BBC | TV doco | 2006 | Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of three Frenchmen who couldnt stand each other, yet set off on an eight-year scientific mission in one of the most hostile places on the planet. Their plan, to settle an international row by measuring the shape of the planet, took them to the disease-ridden rainforests and oxygen starved peaks of the Ecuadorian Andes. Rose follows in the footsteps of the 18th Century explorers who were complete innocents abroad and had no idea of the horrors they were letting themselves in for. Despite disease, death and some highly disastrous sexual liaisons, the men made discoveries that fundamentally changed all our lives. | 14/12/2006 | ||||
Voyages of Discovery | 5 | Hanging by a Thread | 57:57 | Hanging by a Thread | BBC | TV doco | 2006 | Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of the USS Squalus submarine which became stranded on the bottom of the Atlantic in 1937. No one had ever been saved from a stricken sub beneath the ocean before, but maverick designer Charles Momsen, who had been ignored by the navy top brass, was suddenly called into action to bring up the crew. Rose meets the last living survivor from the sub and one of the men, now 103, who helped save him. The rescue kick-started a whole new era of technology, laying the foundation for modern deep sea diving. | 21/12/2006 | ||||