Timewatch

WINDSORS' WAR: 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. OPERATION HURRICANE: Britain's first atomic test took place 30 years ago. Film of that secret explosion has been specially declassified by the Ministry of Defence for Timewatch. CHATHAM DOCKYARD: Now under threat of Government closure, the story of its contribution to naval history from the Armada to HMS Victory, to the Falklands.

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? SCOTLAND AND THE GREAT WITCH HUNT OF THE 17TH CENTURY: A thousand women were strangled or burnt. Was this persecution a political act by James VI which got out of hand? Why was it directed at women? The recently discovered diary of a Lancashire weaver JOHN O'NEIL who, a century ago, recorded his experiences as an early trades union leader in the recession of the 1860s. New research on the founding father of the Irish Republic, EAMON DE VALERA. Was he as committed to a united Ireland as was always believed, or was he prepared to compromise?

'IF THE SPANISH ARMADA HAD LANDED ...' 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? WHAT MAKES BEGIN TICK? Vladimir Jabotinsky was the philosopher behind the fighting Jew and is the man whom Menachem Begin considers his mentor. Timewatch examines the vision of Jabotinsky and its influence on Begin both in his early life and in his years as Britain's most wanted terrorist. LLYWELYN AP GRUFFYDD - THE FIRST AND LAST INDEPENDENT PRINCE OF WALES: Simon Winchester tells his story and assesses his important place in Welsh nationalism today.

Film 1: Sir Thomas More, the Tudor statesman who lost his head on the scaffold in 1535, was made a saint in 1937; now the heroic reputation of the 'man for all seasons' is under attack. Film 2: Unemployment in Britain 150 years ago when the workhouse became the symbol of oppression and poverty that lasted over a century. Bernard Clark investigates the Poor Law of 1834, designed to cut spending on the poor and unemployed and which left bitter memories for generations. Film 3: The Russian spy scare of 1927 when the British Cabinet unwittingly betrayed to Moscow the code-breaking secrets of British intelligence.

HOW DO YOU DEMOCRATISE A NAZI? On the 50th anniversary of Hitler's elevation to the chancellorship of the Third Reich Simon Winchester reports from Washington and Nuremberg on how America in 1945 tried to remake a nation in its own image through a process of forced re-education. THE VENERABLE BEDE - BRITAIN'S FIRST HISTORIAN: Who was he? Where and how did he live? Why is he so important? The story of a remarkable man who, over a thousand years ago, could have travelled from Northumbria to Rome. THE LEVELLERS: three months ago in Putney church Michael Foot and other members of the Labour Party associated themselves with the men of the 'New Model Army' who spoke there 300 years before. Who were these men who, in their radicalism, saw Cromwell as the modern equivalent of establishment and right wing? How does the philosophy of these Levellers find echoes in the Labour Party today?

In a new edition of THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS, editor Robert Latham has uncovered previously unknown details of Pepys's life. THE WEEDERS: Are civil servants destroying vital historical evidence when they decide Government records should not be kept? THE HISTORICAL CLEOPATRA: As the BBC drama series ["The Cleopatras"] approaches its climax, Timewatch asks, "Was Cleopatra's reputation as a lustful tyrant really deserved?"

THE PEACE MOVEMENT IN THE 1930s AND TODAY: Fifty years ago, British politics was dominated by campaigns for peace. What are the parallels with the 1980s? THE LAST MUGGLETONIAN: In 1652, the Muggletonians were a radical sect in Revolutionary England. Simon Winchester traces their secret survival until the death of the last Muggletonian in 1979. THE VICTORIAN POLICE: What sort of force was the Police intended to be? With a new Police Bill before Parliament, Bernard Clark returns to their original beat.

THE LOVED AND HATED KING: 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. THE SILENT YEARS OF TELEVISION: In 1950 politics were not allowed on British television. By the end of the decade television dominated the political scene. As an election approaches John Bowman asks how television has changed British political history. ANIMALS AND MEN: Throughout history man has used animals for food, companions and labour. John Tusa talks to Keith Thomas about his new history of Man and the Natural World -the background to today's concern for animal liberation and ecology.

FRANCE AND THE NAZIS: Following the arrest of Klaus Barbie, butcher of Lyon, memories of Nazi collaboration have again returned to haunt a generation of Frenchmen. Dr Christopher Andrew goes to Drancy, the Paris housing estate turned in 1940 into a transit camp for Auschwitz and uncovers the ghost of Marshall Petain's Vichy Government. He talks to stout supporters of the 84-year-old Marshall, such as tennis champion Jean Borotra. FAKING HISTORY: The Hitler diaries are just the latest in a long line of historical forgeries. The Drake Plate found near San Francisco in 1936 and which claimed California for Queen Elizabeth I was shown to be fake in 1977. The Vinland Map was bought in 1959 for ~£100,000 as the first map to show the North American Continent. Instead it was shown to be a forgery in 1967. Are there other fake historical documents masquerading as genuine? Can any fake survive today's scientific analysis? Timewatch talks to the experts.

BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE: During the Falklands war, the Argentinians made great capital of the last time they'd fought the British - and won, in 1806. SIMON Winchester reports. BODYLINE BOWLING: Was the England captain, Douglas Jardine, aware of the political implications when he said that he would regain the Ashes but lose a dominion? Timewatch talks to cricket veteran Gubby Allen. DEATH ON THE DOLE: In a time of high unemployment John Bauman looks back at how the health of the unemployed was damaged in the 1930s. LOUIS XIV: The story of the 'Sun King' of France, who was the first 'politician' deliberately to mould his own favourable image by setting up the 17th-century equivalent of Saatchi and Saatchi.

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, who disarmed then machine-gunned them. Who was responsible? Timewatch has investigated the records and, for the first time, British officers and Yugoslav survivors describe what happened. In 1348, the Black Death killed one in three of the population. Until now we have always assumed it was an outbreak of bubonic plague. Now a zoologist suggests a far more fearsome disease was the cause. Christopher Andrew investigates.

PREVENTING THE THIRD WORLD WAR: 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. THE KITCHENER ENIGMA: In 1916 Lord Kitchener was drowned on his way to Russia. Now underwater pictures reveal clues as to how his ship, HMS Hampshire, was sunk. Will they lay to rest the rumour that still remains about the secrets surrounding the Imperial War Lord? THE LAST BATTLE IN ENGLAND: In 1745 the Stuarts had their last chance of being restored to the English throne. Bonnie Prince Charlie reached Derby but then retreated. If he had marched on towards London, could he have seized the crown?

THE LAST FÜHRER: 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. 'THEY BE EVIL PEOPLE': Such was how British newspapers described the Russians in the late 17th century. A cautionary tale of how Englishmen in the 1720s feared Tsar Peter the Great planned to conquer the world. THE CULT OF THE DEAD: How different were medieval attitudes towards death from our own today? The wills and funeral expenses of the 16th century help provide an answer.

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE: 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. KOREA AND THE BOMB: Newly-released documents reveal the extent of American plans to use atomic weapons in the Korean War. The British feared they were being kept in the dark and risked being dragged into world war. SIR ARTHUR BRYANT: Britain's most famous popular historian celebrates his 85th birthday. His latest book celebrates the greatness of our past. But is it good history?

SEX AND THE VICTORIANS: 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. GOD SAVE THE KING was first associated with George III. Why did the king who lost the American colonies become adored by his people, with the first royal souvenirs manufactured in his name? STALIN'S FAMINE: Fifty years after millions of Ukrainian peasants died in Stalin's collectivisation, survivors remember the tragedy the Soviet Union still ignores. Malcolm Muggeridge recalls reporting the suffering.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION: In 1924, 28 million people visited the last of the great imperial exhibitions at Wembley - now it is almost forgotten. GOING MAD IN THE 19TH CENTURY: In 1807 there were 2,000 certified lunatics in England. By 1880 there were more than that in one institution. ROBERT OWEN: Celebrated as defender of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, founder of the Cooperative Movement and a father of British socialism; was Robert Owen in fact a Victorian capitalist, his social reforms designed for greater profits?

REAGAN'S COWBOYS: 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. THE HIDDEN HIPPOPOTAMUS: A hundred years ago the scramble for Africa by the European imperial powers began. Timewatch reconstructs a single incident between Christian missionary and African chieftain that suggests the dominance of European over African was not always as straightforward as might be thought.

TAFF VALE: 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. THE ISLAND AND ITS PAST: How the people of the Isle of Dogs in the Thames Estuary are rediscovering their past. SPECIAL BRANCH: At the height of her powers, Victorian Britain boasted that she didn't need a political police. After explosions in the Underground, the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament, she changed her mind. Timewatch investigates the birth of the Special Branch.

'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. David Drew looks at some of the lasting achievements of the age of Charles II and at the man who, somewhat waywardly, presided over them.

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. A BLACK AND TERRIBLE TROOP was the name given to a gang of burglars and forgers who terrorised Westmorland 300 years ago. Timewatch traces their rise and fall through the private papers of the Justice who ran them to earth. RING A RING O' ROSES is the nursery rhyme everyone knows has its roots in the Great Plague. But does it? Iona Opie investigates its origins.

THE UNUSED WEAPON: 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? Robert Harris reports. SUICIDE OF A CAVALIER: At the battle of Newbury in 1643, Lord Falkland charged headlong to his death. His friends thought it was suicide. Now a psychiatrist has reopened the case and offers an explanation. THE FORGOTTEN BRITISH EMPIRE: Who has heard of Carausius? Yet in the third century, he ruled Britain as his separate empire and defied the power of Rome. Timewatch uncovers the few traces of him that remain.

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. With previously unseen film of the battle and its aftermath, some in colour, the story is told by men and women veterans of the Russian forces, the Hitler Youth who defied them, and a man who was with Hitler in his final hours.

Three films which reflect the way official records are preserved for future generations. Film 1: Christopher Andrew examines the extraordinary story of how the MS Automedon, entrusted with top secret documents, fell into enemy hands a year before the fall of Singapore and delivered to the Japanese priceless information which changed the course of the Second World War. Film 2: Peter Ibbotson reveals how the authorities decide which documents are thrown away and which are to be kept for future generations. Film 3: In a case which has parallels with modern phone-tapping scandals, Jeremy Black uses documents from Chancery Lane to show how the Foreign Office and the Post Office intercepted political mail in the early 18th century as Britain edged towards stable parliamentary democracy.

Two stories shed new light on the life and times of Henry Tudor, who took the throne of England from Richard III 500 years ago. Film 1: The problems facing Margaret Rule and her assistant Andrew Fielding as they put back into the hull of the Mary Rose the thousands of timbers and artefacts which have helped to give a picture of the men who manned the guns of the British Navy in the early 16th century. HENRY VII: Reassessing the life of Henry VII - the king who may well have commissioned the Mary Rose. David Starkey argues none of the glories of the Tudor dynasty would have been possible without the peace and prosperity which came from his astute control of finance and politics.

Three films presented from the British Museum reveal how 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. Film 1: English reformers constructed a new prison system - only to find that within 20 years it was a total failure. Film 2: The Brothers Grimm falsified their country's original folk tales to define behaviour 'acceptable to the architects ' of the new Germany. Film 3: Satirical cartoonists vilified the national characteristics of the Welsh, the Scots and the Irish to build up the concept of pure Englishness.

Three stories presented from the Virago bookshop in Covent Garden about the lives of women in worlds dominated by men. THE NINE DAY QUEEN: Lady Jane Grey was used by men of power when she was alive, and by male propagandists when she was dead. A new film about her life is to be released next month. What interpretation do its makers offer of the 16-year-old girl who was beheaded for treason more than 400 years ago? MOST DANGEROUS WOMEN shows how close the leaders of a women's international peace movement came to getting the most powerful men in the world to stop the Great War in the middle of 1915. THE WORLD OF MARY ELLEN BEST illustrates how one woman artist left a vivid record of the domestic surroundings of her time simply because she was denied the opportunities freely available to her male contemporaries.

In January 1943 lone British agent Henri Dericourt was dropped over occupied France. His mission was to organise the reception and departure of RAF flights crucial to the secret work of SOE - the Special Operations Executive. Dericourt quickly earned a stellar reputation, but within six months of his arrival, the SOE's largest network in France was wiped out and more than 400 French resistance workers arrested. Post-war investigations established that Dericourt had fed secrets to the Germans ever since he had begun his work in France. But Dericourt was no simple traitor. What then was his role in the disaster and for whom was he really working?

In 1936 '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. Its rediscovery and the memories of the men who made it - Irving Allen and Herbert Bregstein - exposes American attitudes to Fascism as the world headed for war.

Peter France presents three films which reflect the extent to which codes of 'honour', allegiance' and 'behaviour' have had their effect on British history. 1: Christopher Andrew examines the demise of duelling 100 years ago. 2: Ian Dear tells the story of the duplicity behind the victories which kept the America's Cup in New York for 130 years. 3: Phillip Knightley shows the process by which British Intelligence secrets have been leaked steadily since the end of the Second World War.

Views of Oliver Cromwell vary as much today as when Parliament asked him to become King in 1657: a tyrant, a repressed religious bigot who murdered a king; a patriot, civilised with a tremendous sense of humour, and conscience in matters of state and religion. How do modern historians view the parliamentarian who some have called the greatest Englishman?

Two stories showing how previous generations have dealt with the problems of pollution and disease: DEVONSHIRE COLIC: 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.

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 VIII. 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.

1: The last attempt by central government to impose educational benchmarks on the majority of British schools. 2: Disinherited Londoners recall the community spirit of a Notting Hill street torn down for redevelopment 25 years ago. 3: Cambridge don David Cannadine explores current attitudes toward British history.

Christopher Andrew and Gabriel Ronay investigate two political mysteries. 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?

Three films examine the ways our historical record is under attack. In fireproof vaults, millions of feet of film shot on nitrate stock in the first half of this century are decomposing - their images in danger of being lost for ever. In publishing houses, the paper deliberately chosen to print the written word since the end of the last century is destroying itself at a steady rate. In dealers' galleries, maps and the historical record which accompanied them have been systematically separated to satisfy enthusiasts, collectors, and the demands of the marketplace. Where will the destruction lead?

The control of national television is seen by regimes the world over as a necessary adjunct to their survival today. Peter France presents two films about the control and effect of mass communications in other times. The first tells the story of the financial control of the political press by the establishment in early 19th-century Britain, and the second the psychological power of a dramatic radio broadcast in the USA 100 years later, when the young Orson Welles petrified a nation.

Henry Lincoln investigates the story of the 'Man in the Iron Mask' and - using evidence which only came to light last year - separates fact from romantic myth.

In September 1944, in retaliation for Dutch support of the Arnhem landings, the Nazis cut off all food supplies to the population of western Holland. Stocks fell through the following winter until by March 1945 the official ration was down to 500 calories a day. As four million people faced death from starvation, the only hope of relief lay in persuading the Germans to negotiate an unprecedented truce.

Christopher Andrew presents two stories from the darker and more secret side of British history over the past 150 years. THE DIARY OF A VERY ENGLISH SPY is an insight, based on a unique document, into the training and instruction given to secret agents at a British spy school during the First World War where elements of present spycraft were first perfected. '... AND ONE LAW FOR THE POOR': How the 1832 Anatomy Act denied the poor and the destitute the freedom to bury their dead but supplied anatomy schools - previously reliant on stealthy body snatchers - with a regular and legal supply of human cadavers.

How old is the Shroud of Turin? To millions of believers it's the burial cloth of Jesus, to sceptics it's a clever medieval fake. Recently the age of the shroud was finally determined by radiocarbon dating. A Timewatch team went to Turin to follow the preparation of the shroud for the scientists, and to Zurich to film the actual tests.

During the Nazi occupation of eastern Poland, a small group of Jews in the city of Lvov tried to save themselves from the death camps by hiding in the sewers beneath the city for more than 14 months. Timewatch reunited four remaining survivors in 1988 to record their accounts. The oldest, Mundek Margulies, journeyed back to Lvov (now part of the Soviet Union) and with co-operation from local authorities, went down into the sewers and through the maze of tunnels to help describe this extraordinary episode of human courage and endurance from the Jewish Holocaust.

What effect did Charlie Chaplin have on the sale of tea? What first caused the sudden and surprising popularity of tennis and golf? And to what extent was the middle class of England responsible for changing an era of optimism and peace into the nightmare of the First World War? Eric Hobsbawm, one of Britain's leading historians, offers some insight into the 19th century and describes a world that was about to disappear for ever.

For nearly 50 years the world has been led to believe President Roosevelt's statement that the attack was a total surprise and completely unsuspected by the neutral Americans. But witnesses from all over the world are now coming forward to tell a different story - that Washington was repeatedly warned about the coming attack. Two men who certainly weren't told that they were the likely target for a Japanese air strike were the commanders responsible for the safety of the fleet at Pearl Harbor, 2,000 miles out into the Pacific. Here the whole story is told for the first time - beginning with the breaking of the vital Japanese Naval Code by the British more than two years before.

Two stories reflect the contribution made to history by non-professionals. BRITISH AND GUARANTEED: A look at those who re-create their childhood and the golden age of British engineering by collecting Frank Hornby's celebrated model trains. A BATCHELOR'S DELIGHT: Anne Batchelor has spent four years tracing her family line back to 1527. Among her ancestors is the Elizabethan lutenist, Daniel Bachiler.

Two eyewitness 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. 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.

In July 1962, Harold Macmillan sacked a third of his Cabinet, including Chancellor of the Exchequer and some of his oldest political friends. Did the normally unflappable Macmillan panic? Was there, as Macmillan claimed, a plot to overthrow him and, if so, who was behind it? Rare archive film and interviews with Macmillan's closest confidants and victims of his purge offer new evidence for this unprecedented act of political butchery.

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.

Timewatch explores the myth of the man who had a vision of a united Europe 175 years ago.

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.

In 1945 the German State and its army disappeared. Recently, harrowing tales from Germans who were prisoners in American camps at that time have begun to emerge. A Canadian author has alleged that nearly a million German soldiers died while prisoners of the Allies. His figures are disputed, but did the American authorities, with images of concentration camps fresh in their minds, set out to punish Germans?

In the USA it is becoming standard practice for police to call in archaeologists and anthropologists with their skills at excavation and bone analysis to help them unravel murder cases. Now a British police force is looking at what the academics can offer them.

In January 1987 a band of grave robbers broke into a royal tomb at Sipan in northern Peru. The treasure they plundered was worth millions. Within months it had been smuggled by way of London to Los Angeles. Timewatch examines the international trade in antiquities, and uncovers a tale of ancient gold and modern greed.

Historians and archaeologists have started to reassess some of the ingrained myths of American history. American Indians lived in sophisticated societies, and many more died as a result of the European settlement of North America than has so far been imagined. Andrew Sachs narrates the story of how Puritan prejudices helped to generate false views of Indians.

Every year the Sioux nation of South Dakota pays homage to more than 300 unarmed Indians killed by US troops on 29 December 1890. For the survivors and their descendants, it was the beginning of a deliberate and systematic process to destroy their way of life. One hundred years after those events, witnesses recall the terrible emotional scars caused by the US government's disastrous attempts to Europeanise the American Indian.

The assassination a year ago of Dr Gerald Bull prevented Saddam Hussein from acquiring a 'supergun'. Bull designed the world's best howitzers, many bought by Iraq, but the supergun remained his lifelong ambition. David Taylor chronicles how the Canadian scientist who plundered the lost secrets of Nazi terror weapons became the victim of his own obsession.

In 1934, Robert Robinson, a young black car worker from Detroit, was blacklisted by America after renewing a short-term contract from the Russians to work in the First State Ball Bearing Plant in Moscow. During his enforced 44 years inside the Soviet Union, Robinson was coerced to work alongside Stalin on the Moscow Soviet and ultimately to take citizenship. He finally succeeded in escaping while on a visit to Uganda. Now 84 and living in Washington, DC, Robert Robinson recounts his extraordinary life and observations of the Soviet Union during a crucial period in its history.

A death ray to combat the Antichrist; the effectiveness of astrology; the bizarre sexual practices of the Brahmins; and the impossibility of a society whose sole aim is money and gain. These are some of the ideas which the eccentric medieval scholar Roger Bacon wanted to transmit to the Pope when he wrote to him in 1268. It is a work which gives us a glimpse of the strange and compelling mental landscape of the Middle Ages.

For the last three years Palestinians have been involved in an Intifada against the Israeli occupation of their homeland; 50 years ago the British administration in Palestine was faced with an armed Arab rebellion which was suppressed with a brutality as severe as that employed by the Israelis today. The aftermath of the first Intifada is still seen by many Palestinians as contributing directly to the problems of the Middle East.

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.

Tells the full story of the "Death Railway", made famous by the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai. In just 15 months, 26,000 allied PoWs who were forced to labour on the project died from ill treatment, malnutrition and disease. 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.

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. Part 1 of 2.

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. Part 2 of 2.

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.

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, sister of Germany's great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the man Hitler and Mussolini claimed was their inspiration. Nietzsche 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. Part 1 of 2.

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 Calò 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. NEW SEASON.

Examines the origins of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and reveals startling new evidence of the Irish government's crucial role in the emergence of the Provisional IRA. With the help of 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 its more radical elements, and how the Irish government secretly plotted to invade Northern Ireland in 1970. Peter Taylor reports.

During the Second World War the Nazis snatched 200,000 Aryan-looking Polish children from their mothers to replenish the "master race" back in Germany. This film tells the extraordinary story of two cousins who were stolen on the same day, 4-year-old Alojzy and 10-year-old Leon. Alojzy was adopted by a "good" Nazi family and soon forgot his Polish past, becoming a model German. When Alojzy was told at age 12 of his Polish parentage, he was horrified, believing the Poles to be Untermensch ("less than human"). It was years before he could accept his real mother and years before the Polish people forgave him his German identity.

A new profile of the man who was director of the FBI for nearly 50 years. This investigation of Hoover's private life reveals that top gangsters had evidence of his secret, homosexual love life and used it to blackmail him. Tainted by ties to organised crime, Hoover turned a blind eye to the Mafia during the vital years of its growth.

Described as "the greatest invention since the wheel" by novelist Angela Carter, the contraceptive pill played a crucial role in the sexual and social revolution of the 60s and 70s. With the help of archive footage from 'Up the Junction', 'Juliet Bravo' and 'Absolutely Fabulous', and interviews with women who talk frankly about the effect the pill has had on their sexual and working lives, Timewatch asks whether the introduction of the pill was a blessing or a burden.

A new look at the legend of William F Cody. From 1883 to 1916, millions of people throughout the world thrilled to the adventures of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show, where Indians danced to the rhythms of war and cowboys rode to the rescue. These vivid re-enactments of life on the plains were accepted as fact and handed down from generation to generation. Using rare film fragments and talking to those who remember Cody, Timewatch uncovers the true story behind the legend.

One In four British merchant seamen died during the Second World War. Life on board ship was dangerous, poorly paid and carried a far higher casualty rate than any of the armed services. Yet their bravery and sacrifices have barely been recognised. In this programme the merchant seamen who faced the North Atlantic storms and the deadly U-boat menace to keep Britain supplied during the war years tell their own brave and moving story.

When Grigorii Efimovich 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.

Since 1949, dozens of planes and up to 200 US, British and allied air-crew have been lost in an undeclared aerial espionage war between the western powers and the Soviet Union. Many of them were believed to have been captured, tortured and imprisoned by the Soviets. TIMEWATCH reveals the true extent of British and US casualties, and the extraordinary personal stories of those who took part in the secret air war.

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. Timewatch tells the stories of some of these women, and the terrible price they paid to end their marriages.

While the British government publicly operated an open-door policy to immigrants, in private it was terrified about the growing black population. Documents released under the 30-year rule and obtained by Timewatch reveal the government's true concerns were for interbreeding and therefore diluting the essential British character, rising crime, and health problems as immigrants came from colonies riddled with disease. Jonathan Dimbleby hosts a debate with representatives from the government and civil service in the 50s and 60s including Enoch Powell and John Bean, a founder member of the British National Party.

The question of how the 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 Petersburg - culling archive film from eight countries to piece together the mysteries and intrigues that led to the Great War.

Three children of victims of the Holocaust tell the almost unbelievable stories of their parents' survival. From ghetto, through concentration camp, on to displaced persons camp, and out to a new life beyond, these stories are harrowing and inspiring in turn.

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 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 candid portrait of Oscar Wilde and his remarkable family, including revelations by his grandson Merlin Holland and Lady Alice Douglas, a descendant of Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas.

On the 25th anniversary of the end of the 1967-70 Biafran war, Timewatch examines the doomed struggle of the Ibos, known as "the Jews of Africa", to secede from Nigeria. It was a war which touched the world as no other African war has done; a story of political manoeuvres and surprising propaganda victories. Novelist Frederick Forsyth, who lived in Biafra to cover the war, British High Commissioner Sir David Hunt, and other witnesses to the tragedy add their personal recollections.

The modern view of Vikings is that they were not very different from anyone else at the time. Timewatch travels to Iceland, the Shetlands, and Sicily to investigate the evidence and solve the riddle of Viking navigation.

The temple at Karnak in Egypt, founded around 1500 BC, was the greatest religious shrine of the ancient world, taking 2,000 years and the work of 80,000 people to complete. Yet much of what went on behind its walls was kept hidden. With the aid of computer reconstructions and film shot at religious sites in Egypt, Timewatch reveals its fascinating hidden history.

Some historians have always suspected that Stalin was behind the Korean War, but the Soviets have denied involvement. By obtaining documents from recently opened archives and finding new eyewitnesses, Timewatch has uncovered evidence that Stalin was involved in the war and that over 70,000 members of the Soviet military took part.

Four hundred years ago today, Sir Francis Drake was buried at sea off the coast of Panama after unsuccessfully trying to recapture past glories. History records that his reputation lay in tatters just eight years after defeating the Spanish Armada. This film retraces his strange final odyssey and finds that, contrary to prevailing belief, it was a shrewdly planned venture thwarted by ill fortune. The truth lies with the Guayou Indians of Colombia, in the letters of the men who sailed with him, and with those who tried to stop him.

A 1973 documentary from the 'Man Alive' series portrayed the lives of six teenage male offenders and their time in Peper Harow, a community in Surrey that promoted a policy of treatment rather than punishment. This film shows the youngsters as they were then and, over two decades later, updates their stories. Was the radical Peper Harow rehabilitation experiment a success? Have the men managed to break the cycle of violence that was such a part of their lives?

Had documentary film-makers roamed the streets of London in the mid-19th century, they would have encountered an extraordinary range of characters. A rat catcher, a woman who sells dog dirt, and a depressed street clown are brought to life in this programme, capturing their tragic, amusing, and moving stories. Based on transcribed interviews with a wide range of working people as part of a survey of London labour and life by Henry Mayhew, the Victorian journalist and founder of Punch magazine.

A special edition of the historical documentary series. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig has been lampooned as the worst type of British officer for his command of the army in the First World War. But did he, as accused, send thousands of British to a futile death? On the 80th anniversary of the battle of the Somme, Timewatch explores a newly emerging historical debate.

A Second World War love affair between German housewife Lilly Wust and young Jewish lesbian Felice Schragenheim.

Christopher Columbus is popularly believed to have been, in 1492, the first European to discover America. However, some historians are convinced the New World was known before he set sail. Examines their claims and looks into the belief that the Mandan Indians of North Dakota are partly descended from a 12th-century Welsh prince.

A wireless operator who survived torture and a Nazi concentration camp, a 20-year-old sabotage expert, and an MI6 agent who filmed his own undercover operations are just three of the British secret agents whose stories of bravery behind enemy lines in the Second World War are told in this historical documentary.

The Boer War of 1899-1902 saw correspondents and cameramen play a major part in war propaganda for the first time. Diaries, memoirs, photographs and films form part of an examination of the media's role in a conflict that saw young journalists Winston Churchill, Rudyard Kipling and writer Edgar Wallace make their names.

For centuries babies were born at home, their mothers assisted through the birth by other women. But 50 years ago, childbirth was taken out of the home and into hospitals. The transition was made in the name of safety but, as tonight's programme reveals, the emphasis on personal care and humanity was lost in the process. Mothers, midwives, and obstetricians reflect on the effect this has had on the traditional relationship between mother and midwife.

When war broke out in South East Asia in 1941, one hill tribe - the Christian, English-speaking Karen - distinguished itself in the fight against Japan. Karen helped halt the Japanese, taught British Army regulars to fight in the jungle, and worked with Force 136 - the British sabotage unit immortalised in the fiction film 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'. Fifty years later they are fighting for their independence. Using newly unearthed archive material and documents, Timewatch tells why the Karen feel abandoned by the British and how they remain in a brutal civil war with the Burmese.

Examines why Hitler abandoned plans to invade Britain in 1940 and prepared, instead, to attack the Soviet Union. NEW SEASON 1/6.

Nine grammar school boys recall their schooldays and reflect on how that system affected their lives. With former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke, film director David Puttnam, author Barry Hines, and biologist Steve Jones. 2/6.

In 1976 the chance discovery of a mummified body inside a ghost ride in Long Beach, California, unearthed a chain of events leading all the way back to 1911 Oklahoma territory and a bungled train robbery by small-time burglar Elmer McCurdy. 3/6.

Roman Emperor Trajan led two great wars 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. Starting here, 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. 4/6.

Las Vegas, the world's gambling capital: Over 30 million people visit each year, most of them unaware that clean-living Mormons played a major part in creating "sin city". 5/6.

As the Aborigine people fight for their land rights, Australia's historians extract revelations from the archives. Letters and diaries from the Australian frontier help unravel the true story of Australia's land war as white settlers' attempt to maintain racial purity. 6/6.

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.

A pistol shot at noon in 1889 signaled the start of the first race between thousands of desperate men and women to stake their claim on government land in north-western Oklahoma. Tonight's programme sifts through archival footage and meets descendants of those battling pioneers who still own the land today.

When English explorer Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles travelled to the heart of the Indonesian island of Central J-a-v-a 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 passenger liners Florida - carrying Italian immigrants to New York - and 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.

In 1946 almost half-a-million German prisoners of war were still being held in Britain, with the ban on fraternisation lifted only in December. Interviews, archive footage, and private photographs shed light on the experiences of the people of Oswaldtwistle, a Lancashire town that extended the hand of friendship to its former bitter enemy at Christmas.

Opened 70 years ago, the Empire State Building remains one of the enduring symbols of New York City. Tonight's programme explores its colourful - and tragic - history. NEW SEASON 1/6.

Heinrich Himmler was regarded as Hitler's most loyal henchman. But in the last days of the war, his role in a plot to make peace with the west emerged: the final act of a fascinating drama of double-dealing and ideological compromise. 2/6.

Hollywood's portrayal of Thomas More, Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor, is that of a saint but in truth he was a 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. 3/6.

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. 4/6.

During the Great Depression the American public looked for real-life anti-heroes to match the gangster movies - and found one in John Dillinger. A desperado, a bank robber, a bad man no jail could hold, his reputation grew until he was named the country's first Public Enemy Number One. But J Edgar Hoover would use Dillinger's celebrity to burnish his own reputation and that of his new national police force, the FBI. 5/6.

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. 6/6.

Investigates new research on the early years of the Nazi leader, which have always been mired in controversy. Surprising new information comes to light about his first love amid recent claims that the young Hitler was homosexual. NEW SEASON 1/x.

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.

The sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in December 1941 is recognised as one of Britain's greatest maritime disasters. Follow a team of military and civilian divers trying to unravel the mystery of why the ships were damaged so catastrophically and sank so fast.

In July 1950, No Gun Ri in Korea witnessed one of the largest civilian massacres in US military history. This film, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, hears from eyewitnesses on both sides of the war and uses recently declassified documents to tell the shocking story.

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.

A shipwreck off Devon uncovered much more than a haul of Islamic coins and jewellery - it also revealed a forgotten time when coastal Europe lived in terror of the "Barbary pirates". The story behind the ship, and why over a million Europeans vanished into North Africa in the 250 years from 1570. First of six new installments.

For over 1,000 years, Maya kings ruled Central America's jungles. While Europe was just emerging from the Dark Ages, they were great architects, artists, and mathematicians. Then, at the height of their power, they abandoned their cities and vanished. Follow archaeologist Kathryn Reese-Taylor on an expedition to unravel the mystery.

Stephenson's Rocket is famous because of the contest it won in 1829. Few realise it triumphed by default when its two rivals had to withdraw because of faulty parts. Using replica engines, Timewatch gives the rivals a second opportunity to beat The Rocket in a full-scale restaging of the Rainhill Trials. Throughout the event, the story of the world's first intercity railway is relayed.

Ramesses III is remembered as Egypt's last great pharaoh, but the truth was very different. With the help of papyrus that was never intended to survive, the dark workings of a pharaoh in crisis are revealed. It's a story of conspiracy, vengeance, and murder that belies the positive image of his reign that Ramesses III wanted future generations to believe.

The first action involving the British in the First World War was a cavalry skirmish - German lances against British swords. Within eight weeks, it was transformed into a bloody trench stalemate that would last for three years. Why did the whole nature of warfare change so dramatically during this one brief period?

Due to be taken out of service on Friday, the world's only supersonic passenger plane is finally brought to ground. But our love affair with Concorde looks set to endure for years to come. Celebrity frequent fliers, engineers, pilots, and stewardesses tell the story of an icon.

Examining the UFO phenomenon in Britain since the 1950s, when alleged sightings began and Clement Attlee formed the Flying Saucer Working Party. The documentary recalls how UFOs became a symbol of the communist threat during the Cold War and - with access to previously secret files - shows how paranoia over these mysterious vessels struck at the heart of the political, military, and royal establishments. NEW SERIES 1/5.

On 30 December 1915 the Persia, a passenger ship loaded with gold bullion bound for Bombay, was torpedoed by the notorious U-boat ace Max Valentiner, killing over ## people and sending the liner to the bottom of the sea. For 88 years, the wreck's whereabouts has remained a mystery. However, salvage experts Moya and Alec Crawford believe they can locate the Persia - and her precious cargo. 2/5.

Glamour, money, sex, and danger are all synonymous with the Ferrari brand, and all were evident in the life of its creator, who died in 1988. He was prepared to manipulate, test, and shape everyone around him to achieve his dream. But he also led a secretive life - explored here. 3/5.

The well-preserved remains of an 80ft medieval merchant ship came to light in 2002 on the banks of the River Usk in Newport, Gwent. Two of the archaeologists involved - Kate Hunter and Nigel Nayling - delve into its history, uncovering secrets dating back to the Wars of the Roses. 4/5.

He's best known for having suffered bouts of mental illness and losing the American colonies, but what was King George III really like? With contributions from the Prince of Wales, Timewatch re-examines the life of Britain's longest-reigning king who, despite a painful metabolic condition, was a dutiful, plain-living monarch whose 60 years on the throne saw a flowering of the arts and sciences. 5/5.

Could the British Secret Service be linked with a murder that, for nearly 90 years, has been attributed to self-confessed culprit Prince Felix Yusupov? Acting with a group of fellow conspirators, he is said to have poisoned, shot, and finally drowned the allegedly mad monk Grigori Rasputin in the Russian city of St Petersburg in 1916. Former Scotland Yard commander and murder detective Richard Cullen travels back to the scene of the crime to re-examine the evidence. NEW SERIES 1/6.

Criminologist David Wilson conducts an investigation into the death of Russia's first dictator, who ruled the country during the 16th century. Beginning with rumours that Ivan was strangled by enemies close to him, the historical murder mystery then takes Wilson across Russia and on to the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Forensic science finally reveals the way in which Ivan was dispatched - but who was responsible?

Rome, 81 BC: Sextus Roscius is accused of patricide. If found guilty, he faces a brutal execution. Defending him is a young lawyer - Cicero. Using the actual trial record, this drama reconstructs one of the most celebrated murder trials in history. NEW SERIES 1/5.

When Stalin's death from a brain hemorrhage was announced in March 1953, the true details surrounding his death were immediately suppressed: the Soviet Communist Party's power would crumble if foul play was suspected. Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore plays detective, travelling to Moscow to investigate. For the first time, the content of secret KGB files is examined and the official version of Stalin's death is denounced as lies, while interviews with witnesses and experts present an array of motives and suspects. 2/5.

Her romance with a dashing fighter pilot was the stuff of fairy tales - yet the prospect of marriage between the Queen's sister and Group Captain Peter Townsend, a divorced commoner, divided opinion. In 1955 she ended two years of tabloid speculation by choosing duty over love - but was it a needless sacrifice?

It's 9am on 20 January 1607: a 12ft-high wall of water devastates the counties of the Bristol Channel, killing in the region of 2,000. The catastrophe altered the coastline for ever - yet it's been all but forgotten. Scientists Ted Bryant and Simon Haslett team up to find archaeological evidence to support their belief that the event was not a freak storm but a tsunami.

A love of bloody spectacle led the Romans to build amphitheatres all over their Empire. In Britain there were at least 25, the largest in Chester where archaeologists Tony Wilmott and Dan Garner spend three months excavating a complex site of ruins. With the help of computer animation, they bring the amphitheatre back to life.

Eighteen months ago, National Museum of Ireland archaeologists set out to solve a pair of ancient murder mysteries after the discovery of two bodies perfectly preserved by the peat bog in which they had been buried many centuries before. Follow the entire investigation into who these men were, when they lived - and how they died. NEW SEASON 1/6.

A deadly duel at sea - featuring one of the Second World War's great tactical bluffs - is the focus of this dramatised documentary. Commodore Henry Harwood takes on Captain Hans Langsdorff and the pride of the German navy, the Graf Spee. 2/6.

In 1789 the first all-female transport ship set sail from Britain for the struggling colony at Sydney Cove. Three of today's high-flying Australian women trace their ancestry back to the passenger list and find three feisty girls from the Georgian underworld. 3/6.

France 2003: A unit of the American military that aims to bring home all missing US servicemen sifts through the remains of two First World War soldiers. 4/6.

Over 1,300 American pilots were declared missing in action as a result of the Vietnam War. Nearly 40 years on, a special unit of the American military (JPAC) revisits the site where the fighter jet of Major Herman Knapp and his co-pilot Lt David Austin was shot down while returning from a bombing raid over Hanoi. With only 30 days allowed to excavate the site, can JPAC find the servicemen's remains and close the case? 5/6.

Reputed to have been written by Khan's adopted son, 'The Secret History of the Mongols' reveals a very different man to the butcher of legend: a devoted husband, politician, and legislator. This documentary examines the book to show how an illiterate nomad inspired his successors to conquer the largest land empire in history. 6/6.

The fascinating story of how, in February 1945, HMS Venturer hunted down and sank the U-boat U864 - a sub on a deadly secret mission. This documentary uses eyewitness accounts, archive material, and a dive into the Baltic's frozen waters to bring the full story of the boat's last hours to life. 1/6.

By 1966 the Beatles had played over 1400 gigs and sold 200 million records. At the height of their popularity, the Fab Four decided they would never tour again. Previously unseen archive footage plus interviews with those who accompanied the band on tour tell the inside story of Beatlemania, from death threats and plane crashes to diplomatic wrangles and, ultimately, disillusionment. 2/6.

A huge volcanic eruption in Iceland in 1783 spewed out poisonous gases that enveloped Europe, killing thousands of Britons. The ensuing winter was one of the worst ever and cost countless more lives. This environmental disaster is well known in Iceland, but its impact on Britain has until now been a mystery. 3/6.

A stone barrier 74-miles long, up to 15ft high, and 10ft thick: Hadrian's Wall stood as the Roman Empire's most imposing frontier for 300 years. Almost 2,000 years after it was built, archaeologists have properly excavated less than one per cent of it, but they have unearthed extraordinary findings. Julian Richards journeys back in time to unlock its secrets. 4/6.

Unlikely as it seems now, the first aerial bombardment of Britain was a Zeppelin raid on the unfortunate Norfolk town of Great Yarmouth with one fatality. The next three years saw a terror campaign that would take hundreds of lives and whose psychological effect was arguably as harrowing as the Blitz of the Second World War. 5/6.

Timewatch recalls the last days of the 600-year-old ritual of duelling, telling the story of two men who set out with pistols into the Scottish countryside on 23 August 1826 after arguing over money. 6/6.

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. NEW SEASON 1/6.

The D-Day landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy on 6 June 1944 is widely regarded as a great victory, but the operation was almost an unimaginable disaster. Very little actually went to plan on the day - the majority of the landing craft missed their targets while US troops suffered heavy casualties. How was success secured in the face of adversity? 2/6.

In January 2007 the MSC Napoli ran aground, spilling its cargo on a Devon beach. Opportunists plundered the ship's booty while the authorities struggled to police the scene. But the looters of the Napoli were reviving a tradition that stretched back centuries: wrecking. Author Bella Bathurst goes in search of the wreckers, in an epic journey that takes her from the Isles of Scilly to the Orkney Islands, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, and from dramatic mythology to the remarkable social history of a national crime. 3/6.

The medieval mêlée tournament was a brutal free-for-all with sharpened weapons, few rules, and one undisputed champion: William Marshal. Military historian Dr Saul David journeys into Marshal's knightly world, training as he did, trying out his weapons, and charting his epic rise from a money-grabbing tournament champion to the Regent of England who saves a kingdom on the battlefield. 4/6.

More than 3,000 years ago the rebel Pharaoh Akhenaten marched his people from Thebes to a desert plain beside the Nile. Within 20 years a huge new city was constructed dedicated to the Pharaoh's new god. This would be a place of abundance overseen by Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti. After 25 years of digging, forensic evidence sheds new light on life and death under the rebel pharaoh. Was he really a benign leader or a ruthless despot with a keen eye for propaganda? 5/6.

Some 30,000 Brits head for Australia each year - just a fraction of the one million who gambled on the ten-pound assisted-passage scheme through the 1950s and 60s, in one of the largest planned migrations of the 20th century. One of the conditions of the deal was that they stay for a minimum of two years. This insightful film charts the lives of nine of the emigrants. 6/6.

A mile off the coast of Alderney in the Channel Islands lies a 16th-century shipwreck that could rewrite England's naval history. Here, Saul David joins a team of divers and experts as they try to raise the ship's timeworn cannons. By recasting and firing one of them, the team hopes to provide an insight into how Elizabeth I became the mother of British naval dominance. NEW SEASON 1/7.

Over 40 years after the QE2's launch, the world's longest-serving cruise ship is set to embark on her final voyage. This celebratory film hops aboard to pay tribute to the much-loved ocean liner as she glides gracefully towards retirement. As well as exclusive footage of the trip, there's a look back over the vessel's glittering history, from humble beginnings on the River Clyde to her status as a British icon. 2/7.

The tale of outlaws Bonnie and Clyde enjoyed a renaissance during the 1960s - Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway portrayed the duo on screen, while Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot teamed up to add Gallic cool to the story. But the reality of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's life on the run was one of violence and danger. Access to gang members' memoirs, family archives, and police records provides an epic road trip through the heart of depression-era America in search of the truth. 3/7.

In the late 18th century, Captain James Cook embarked on three great voyages that pushed the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the Earth. For many, Cook remains the greatest explorer in history; for others, he was a ruthless conqueror. Vanessa Collingridge sets out to uncover the motivations of this controversial figure. 4/7.

They rose from modest backgrounds to become two of Britain's greatest First World War fighter pilots. But as the number of Edward Mannock and James McCudden's victories grew, so did the chances of their going down in flames. This programme tells the story of their battle to survive against the odds - and of the 90-year-old mystery surrounding their deaths. 5/7.

For centuries archaeologists have been trying to work out how the ancient Egyptians raised huge stone blocks to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza. French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin believes an internal ramp was used and that it's still inside the structure waiting to be unearthed. If he is right, it could be the greatest discovery since Tutankhamun. 6/7.

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 revealing the secret story of how two men hacked into Hitler's personal super-code machine. Their break turned the Battle of Kursk and powered the D-Day landings.

Lord Ashdown tells the story of the Cockleshell Heroes, who took part in one of the most audacious commando raids of World War II - to blow up enemy shipping in Bordeaux harbour.

James Holland presents an analysis of the 1943 mission to destroy German dams with a brand-new weapon - the bouncing bomb. Extraordinarily, the raid almost never happened.

Ben MacIntyre reveals the true story of Britain's most extraordinary wartime double agent, Eddie Chapman. Featuring remarkable footage of Chapman three years before his death.