Channel Four (Great Britain)

The tale of an 18th-century physician who takes eight years to travel through a variety of fantastical lands, only to have everyone but his wife take him for a madman when he returns home.

In 1985, two young British friends travelled to a remote corner of Peru. Ambitious mountaineers, their aim was to conquer the unclimbed west face of a notorious 21,000 ft. peak "Siula Grande". Their story has become part of mountaineering legend.

Climb into a roller coaster and remain seated for an exhilarating exploration of the science and psychology behind America's adrenaline rush. Every year, roller coasters evolve. Some get bigger, faster, longer and more terrifying, hurtling riders upside-down, backwards and down steep descents - sometimes at speeds nearing 80 miles per hour. Momentum, friction, gravity, energy, acceleration, and centripetal force are simply the physical laws behind...

National Geographic takes you inside the hidden world of animal pregnancy in a way never before possible. Featuring state-of-the-art computer graphics and real-time, moving 4-D ultrasound imagery allows the viewer to see the unique world of animal fetal development.

Origins explores how the universe and our planet began amid chaos and eventually gave birth to the first stirrings of life.

Vivid descriptions and analysis of historical personalities with costumed actors, historical locations, and portraits to visually enliven the story of the English crown from the fall of Rome to the 1660s.

The West once ruled more than half the world. The religion it exported, Christianity, is still followed by a third of mankind. Above all, the way people live, or aspire to live, are unmistakably an invention of the West. All over the world, more and more humans eat a Western diet, wear Western clothes and live in Western housing. Niall Ferguson explains how by juxtaposing, we can uncover the keys, the six killer applications, of Western ascendancy....

Just how good were the good old days? Travel back in time with the Bowler family, smitten by the idea of experiencing the Victorian lifestyle right down to corsets, chamber pots and cutthroat razors, as they turn back the calendar to spring of 1900. Their eye-opening experiences of the grueling demands of a bygone era help them to understand another era with an exceptional clarity and a unique perspective.

In August, 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton, renowned explorer set sail with 27 men on his ship The Endurance. His plan was to be the first expedition to cross the Antarctic continent. Marooned on four feet of ice, in over 8,000 feet deep water, Shackleton and his crew survived some 635 days and nights, without proper shelter or rations, enduring the harshest conditions imaginable.