Growing Up in the Universe was a series of lectures given by Richard Dawkins as part of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, in which he discussed the evolution of life in the universe. The lectures were first broadcast in 1991, in the form of five one-hour episodes.To start off part one, Dawkins discusses the amazing capabilities of the human body and contrasts these with the limited cap
They're not common, but there are people in this world who have profoundly different experiences of reality than you and I have. People who are technically blind but who can see anyway, who can feel pain in amputated limbs, who believe they are God and that they have created heaven and hell, and even people who think their own parents are imposters.These people may be called crazy, but they're
In late February of 1998 conflict erupted in Kosovo between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia forces and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) whom had air support provided by NATO. This conflict lasted until 11 June 1999. A study carried out estimated that the population has suffered 12,000 deaths.In this film we hear from the son of two Albanian immigrant
The shocking series gains access into Strangeways, a maximum security prison in Manchester with a history as rough as the inmates it houses. Three fascinating episodes unearth the idiosyncrasies and complex relationships between the most violent and dangerous men in the prison and the staff who work with them. Unique twists, like following a couple as they prepare for a wedding behind bars, and gr
Alan Davies discovers that answering that question is much harder than he originally thought after visiting mathematician Marcus du Sautoy to help him find an answer. However, this creates more questions, which requires a trip to a place dedicated to measurement, the National Physics Laboratory. Finding out the exact length of the string proves even more troublesome when Marcus proposes the string
This documentary looks at how developments in mathematics over the past 40 years have completely changed our understanding of the fundamental nature of the world we live in.As we approach tipping points in both the economy and the climate, the film examines the mathematics we have been reluctant to face up to and asks if, even now, we would rather bury our heads in the sand rather than face ha
This documentary tells the fascinating and poignant story of the closure of Britain’s mental asylums. In the post-war period, 150,000 people were hidden away in 120 of these vast Victorian institutions all across the country.Today, most mental patients, or service users as they are now called, live out in the community and the asylums have all but disappeared. Through powerful testimonies from
Where does one begin with the IRA? In the 17th century with the first Protestant settlers in the Northeast of Ireland? With Patrick Pearse's seizure of the GPO building in Dublin in 1916? With the Partition of Ireland in 1921? With the bombing campaign of the 1950s? In 1968 with the first civil rights marches? With the arrival of British troops on the streets of Belfast and Derry in 1969?Any o
A Brilliant Madness is the story of a mathematical genius whose career was cut short by a descent into madness.At the age of 30, John Forbes Nash, a stunningly original and famously eccentric MIT mathematician, suddenly began claiming that aliens were communicating with him and that he was a special messenger. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Nash spent the next three decades in and out of