Inside the Milky Way takes viewers on an astounding journey across 100,000 light-years to witness key moments in the history of the Milky Way. Using the latest science, NGC constructs a 3-D state-of-the-art CGI model of our galaxy. We'll peer into the heart of the Milky Way on the hunt for super-massive black holes, watch how stars are born and die, fly out and above the plane of our galaxy to und
It was the defining moment of the 20th Century – the scientific, technological, military, and political gamble of the first atomic attack. This drama-documentary attempts to do what no other film has done before – to show what it is like to live through a nuclear explosion. Set in the three weeks from the test explosion in New Mexico to the dropping of the bomb, the action takes viewers into the
In a frank and personal documentary, author Sir Terry Pratchett considers how he might choose to end his life. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2008, Terry wants to know whether he might be able to end his life before his disease takes over.Travelling to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland, Terry witnesses first hand the procedures set out for assisted death, and confronts the point at which he wo
Our Sun has served Earth well for almost five billion years. It has bathed us with heat and energy and sustained life on our planet. But like people, our home star is mortal.In five billion years, it will stop nurturing its planetary offspring. In this documentary we voyage some five billion years into the future to see how the Sun will eventually end its existence and affect the future of life
In 2011, after more than 30 years of service, America’s space shuttle Discovery will take to the skies for the last time. Its story has been characterized by incredible triumphs, but blighted by devastating tragedies – and the BBC and Horizon have chronicled every step of its career.This unique and poignant Horizon Guide brings together coverage from three decades of programmes to present a bi
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
The Most Dangerous Man in America is the story of what happens when a former Pentagon insider, armed only with his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file cabinet full of classified documents, decides to challenge an Imperial Presidency-answerable to neither Congress, the press, nor the people-in order to help end the Vietnam War. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg shook America to its foundations
Elephants can live for 70 years. But what happens when one of these magnificent beasts dies in the wild? This stunning film turns normal wildlife documentaries on their head to find out what happens after death, as a five-tonne adult elephant is transformed into six million calories worth of fat, meat and guts, feeding a whole new cycle of life. The documentary gives scientists the chance to watc
A series of films about how humans have been colonised by the machines they have built. Although we dont realise it the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers. This is the story of the dream that rose up in the 1990s that computers could create a new kind of stable world. They would bring about a new kind global capitalism free of all risk and without th