Latest Documentaries

Protecting Primates

With more than half of all primate species threatened with extinction, this episode follows scientists and conservationists working to understand and protect our closest animal relatives through groundbreaking research and conservation efforts.

S1E3Primates • 2020 • Nature

Family Matters

A look at the extraordinary social lives of primates. From devoted fathers and protective relatives to lifelong friendships and complex hierarchies, the episode explores how family bonds help primates survive and prosper.

S1E2Primates • 2020 • Nature

Secrets of Survival

Primates have adapted to survive everywhere from mountains and forests to cities and savannahs. This episode reveals the ingenious strategies used by monkeys, apes, and lemurs to find food, avoid predators, and thrive in some of the world's most challenging environments.

S1E1Primates • 2020 • Nature

Map of Money

An engaging overview of the history of money, exploring how societies evolved from barter systems to coins, paper currency, and modern financial systems. The video highlights the key developments that shaped trade, economics, and the way people exchange value throughout history.

2026 • Economics

Find your primal posture and sit without back pain

Discover how restoring your natural "primal posture" can help reduce back pain, neck pain, and other common musculoskeletal problems

TEDx • 2013 • Health

Motorway

Hannah takes a drive to the National Highways control centre for the UK’s busiest motorway to meet the team that keep the motorways running 24/7.

S3E5The Secret Genius of Modern Life • 2025 • Technology

Doorbell

The rise of the smart doorbell is one of the great tech success stories of the 21st century. Hannah heads to Los Angeles to take a deep dive into doorbell history and talk to market leaders Ring.

S3E4The Secret Genius of Modern Life • 2025 • Technology

Rollercoaster

Hannah uncovers the wild origins of the modern-day rollercoaster and gets the inside story on the UK’s newest, tallest and fastest coaster – Thorpe Park's Hyperia.

S3E3The Secret Genius of Modern Life • 2025 • Technology

Fridge

Hannah hits the production line with appliance giants Bosch to find the lifeblood at the heart of every fridge and gets a lesson in carrot droop.

S3E2The Secret Genius of Modern Life • 2025 • Technology

Aif Fryer

Hannah takes a look at the air fryer – a device that is rapidly taking over people's kitchens, cooking up everything from bread rolls to baked Alaska and almost making ovens obsolete.

S3E1The Secret Genius of Modern Life • 2025 • Technology

Lift

Hannah goes behind the scenes to look at the technology behind the lift, entering a 246m high lift shaft to test everything from the brakes to her own fear of heights.

S2E6The Secret Genius of Modern Life • 2023 • Technology

Headphones

Headphones: these marvels of miniaturisation are worn by 30 million people in the UK. Hannah Fry visits Bose to find out how the teeny earbud tech works and meets the human testers with ‘golden ears’.

S2E5The Secret Genius of Modern Life • 2023 • Technology

Recommended Documentaries

Jungles - People of the Trees

A look at humans who live in the depths of the rainforest, a perilous environment.

S1E4Human PlanetEnvironment

Why We Love Disaster News

Why are we so captivated and fascinated by news stories about disasters? Is it ghoulish and voyeuristic? Not at all...

The School of Life • 2015 • Lifehack

The Earth

The most important planet in the solar system is our home, the Earth. It is the only planet we know that harbors life. This episode looks at the growing understanding of the Earth’s complex climatic systems and the part on-orbit observation plays in the growth of knowledge about our planet.

S1E12Zenith: Advances in Space Exploration • 2021 • Technology

Per Aspera Ad Astra

"It is beyond our powers to predict the future"

4/10The Sagan Series • 1989 • Astronomy

Climate Change: A Horizon Guide

Dr Helen Czerski delves into the Horizon archive to chart the transformation of a little-known theory into one of the greatest scientific undertakings in history.

HorizonEnvironment

Grasslands - Roots of Power

A gallop across the Steppe with extraordinary 'born in the saddle' Mongolian horsemen.

S1E6Human PlanetEnvironment

Physics Documentaries

Quantum Entanglement - Atomic Physics and Reality

A historical account from 1985 of the long standing debate between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein regarding the validity of the quantum mechanical description of atomic phenomena and observation of quantum states with respect to the uncertainty principle and quantum entanglement. Starring some famous physicists, John Archibald Wheeler, John Stewart Bell, Alain Aspect, David Bohm and others. Interesting material about the famous concept of "Spooky action at a distance" as quoted by Albert Einstein, an example of his displeasure at the nature of non-locality as a consequence of quantum entanglement which is nevertheless how particles in the universe work.

1985 • Physics

What Happened to Antimatter?

Particles come in pairs, which is why there should be an equal amount of matter and antimatter in the universe. Yet, scientists have not been able to detect any in the visible universe. Where is this missing antimatter?

TED-EdPhysics

The Age of Invention

How harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity transformed the world.

S1E2Shock and Awe: The Story of ElectricityPhysics

Into the Atom

Caught up in the race to discover the atom’s internal parts — and learn how they fit together — a young British physicist, Harry Moseley, uses newly discovered X-rays to put the Periodic Table in a whole new light. And a young American chemist named Glenn Seaborg creates a new element — plutonium — that changes the world forever, unleashing a force of unimaginable destructive power: the atomic bomb.

Part 3The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements • 2015 • Physics

Can We Travel Faster than Light?

It's called the speed limit of the universe. Einstein blew all of our minds when he worked out the Theory of Relativity, and showed that space and time were malleable substances. He also theorized that we as humans can never travel faster than the speed of light, which leaves the stars and other galaxies almost impossibly out of our reach. But the dreams of Star Wars and Star Trek are not dead. In fact, there could be ways to travel faster than the speed of light - and some of them are already being tested in labs around the world.

S2E08Through the WormholePhysics

The Matter of Antimatter Answering the Cosmic Riddle of Existence

You exist. You shouldn’t. Stars and galaxies and planets exist. They shouldn’t. The nascent universe contained equal parts matter and antimatter that should have instantly obliterated each other, turning the Big Bang into the Big Fizzle. And yet, here we are: flesh, blood, stars, moons, sky. Why? Come join us as we dive deep down the rabbit hole of solving the mystery of the missing antimatter.

World Science Festival • 2018 • Physics

Economics Documentaries

The Bomb

The Bomb tells the story of the most powerful and destructive device ever invented. Learn how humans harnessed this incredible power and what challenges we have faced living with it since 1945. With newly restored footage of nuclear weaponry, some of which has only recently been declassified, go behind the scenes of the first atomic bomb, revealing how it was developed and how it changed the planet, ushering in a new era and reshaping our lives even today. Rare footage from bomb tests through the 1950s and 60s demonstrates the power and strangely compelling beauty of nuclear explosions. Hear from foremost nuclear bomb historian Richard Rhodes, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and former Secretary of State George Shultz, as well as from scientists, weapons designers, pilots, witnesses, and ordinary men and women who have lived and worked with the nuclear bomb. Examine the choices society has made--and continues to make--to live with an invention that could destroy the planet.

2015 • Economics

Controversially 1990: That Was the Year that Was

Jan Leeming narrates a look at controversies, scandals and surprises in TV, film, music and politics from 1990, when Mark Fowler rocked Walford with a dramatic return to EastEnders and a sitcom about Adolf Hitler was pulled off air after just one episode. The Poll Tax riots caused chaos on the streets of London and it was the end of the road for Britain's longest serving prime minister when Margaret Thatcher resigned. Heavy metal band Judas Priest were accused of hiding subliminal messages in their songs, and pop duo Milli Vanilli's career came to a dramatic end when it was revealed they were nothing more than a mime act.

S1E5Controversially: That Was the Year that Was • 2023 • Economics

Requiem for the American Dream

REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM is the definitive discourse with Noam Chomsky, widely regarded as the most important intellectual alive, on the defining characteristic of our time – the deliberate concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few. Through interviews filmed over four years, Chomsky unpacks the principles that have brought us to the crossroads of historically unprecedented inequality – tracing a half-century of policies designed to favor the most wealthy at the expense of the majority – while also looking back on his own life of activism and political participation. Profoundly personal and thought provoking, Chomsky provides penetrating insight into what may well be the lasting legacy of our time – the death of the middle class, and swan song of functioning democracy. A potent reminder that power ultimately rests in the hands of the governed, REQUIEM is required viewing for all who maintain hope in a shared stake in the future. A Film by Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks and Jared P. Scott

2015 • Economics

Invisible Hands

'Invisible Hands' is the first feature documentary that exposes child labor and child trafficking within the supply chains of the world's biggest corporations.

2018 • Economics

American Experience: Command and Control

Command and Control presents the terrifying, true story of what can happen when the weapons built to protect us threaten to become the very source of our own destruction. Based on The New York Times bestseller by Eric Schlosser the film tells the story of a 1980 accident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas in minute-by-minute detail through the accounts of Air Force personnel, weapon designers, and first responders who were there, revealing the incredible chain of events that brought America to the brink of nuclear disaster. In so doing, the film explores the great dilemma that the United States has faced since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you manage weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them?

2016 • Economics

Grand Central Terminal

Ade Adepitan, Anita Rani, Ant Anstead and Dan Snow take a closer look at one of the most complex and powerful cities in the world, focusing on transport links in the first edition. Anita, Ade and Ant head to Grand Central Terminal, joining the daily commute on the iconic Staten Island ferry as well as the subway, suburban railroad and citibikes. Dan visits Times Square to see how the 230 LED advertising hoardings are maintained, while Ade takes a ride in a yellow cab, discovering that the business model is under threat from newly created taxi apps.

Part 1New York: America's Busiest City • 2016 • Economics

Random! Documentaries

Addo Elephant National Park

The vast plains of Addo Elephant National Park stretch more than 600 square miles into South Africa's interior. Embark on a thrilling journey through this unique wilderness sanctuary and meet its most endangered resident: the African elephant.

S1E1Great Parks of Africa • 2017 • Nature

Freshwater

The wildlife that lives in Britain's freshwater environments. Atlantic salmon battle their way upstream in one of the greatest migrations on the planet, beavers slow the flow with their expert dam-building, and toadlets have to cross a killing zone patrolled by carnivorous leeches. Where rivers spread out to form beds of reeds, great crested grebes pair up in courtship ceremonies, and small agile birds of prey swoop low to catch dragonflies.

S1E4Wild Isles • 2023 • Nature

Gamma Ray Burst

When a gamma ray burst from two colliding stars hits the atmosphere, the deadly radiation delivers agonizing death and immediately wipes out half the planet. How will the last remaining humans survive?

S1E7Doomsday: 10 Ways the World Will End • 2016 • Environment

Airborne

Dallas Campbell and Dr Hannah Fry examine the advanced technology needed to ensure the safety of the one million people estimated to be travelling by plane at any given time. They discover the daily routines of air traffic controllers in the busiest airspace in the world and pilots flying thousands of miles at night. Plus, transporting horses by planes and in-flight medical advice.

Part 2City in the Sky • 2016 • Technology

Expanding Universe

Prof Brian Cox visits the USA retelling evolutionary history and the origin of the senses.

S1E2Wonders of LifeNature