Alvey: Derbyshire Customs

A Man Vanishes examines the concept of Johatsu, tackling the phenomenon of people missing in Japan over the years. It picks one such person from the list, someone who had seemed to disappear from the face of the earth due to embezzlement from his company, and the filmmakers begin an investigative documentary into the reasons behind and attempt at tracking him down.

Was it a cult? A charismatic bandleader convinces four generations of Midlands factory workers to dedicate their lives, and their children’s, to his obsession with leading the world’s best marching band, whatever the cost.

Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, this four-hour mini-series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country.

It is April 15th, 1989. Thousands of fans are rushing into Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield to watch the FA-Cup semi-final between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forrest. The day ends with one of the greatest tragedies in football: 96 people do not survive the catastrophe of Hillsborough. 766 get injured. The 30-minute-long documentary especially gives a voice to the survivors.

The Packard Motor Car Company and its 5-million square foot plant became a symbol of the American Dream in the heart of the Motor City. Packard left town in 1954, but the plant still stands as a symbol of decay. The half-mile stretch of rubble and ruin tells a story of failed politics and criminal activity, of scrappers and arsonists who went too far, and of the perseverance of one business to stick it out. The lawless plant has become a haven for street artists and curiosity seekers from around the world, including a developer from Peru.

See how Sally Jenkins and her driver, Thomas, run Hertfordshire's mobile library service with military precision.

In this three part documentary we look at all topics South Africa has to offer. THE BIG FIVE focuses on the kings of animals, lion, rhinoceros, elephant, leopard and the African buffalo. Armed with 3D cameras, we visited the Kings of the savannah and the jungle, where we sensed the fascination that emanates from the largest animals in the wild. In SAFARI we look behind the scenes of a park and found out what it means to pursue eco-tourism and just what the opportunities and the risks are. Finally, we discover the WEST CAPE region and its unique flora and fauna, swim with whales and sea lions, follow penguins and – as a highlight – we meet the white sharks. Join us on a spectacular 3D journey.

Documentary overviewing the 2005 Ashes Cricket test series

In the 19th century, China held the monopoly on tea, which was dear and fashionable in the West, and the British Empire exchanged poppies, produced in its Indian colonies and transformed into opium, for Chinese tea. Inundated by the drugs, China was forced to open up its market, and the British consolidated their commercial dominance. In 1839, the Middle Empire introduced prohibition. The Opium War was declared… Great Britain emerged as the winner, but the warning was heeded: it could no longer depend on Chinese tea. The only alternative possible was to produce its own tea. The East India Company therefore entrusted one man with finding the secrets of the precious beverage. His mission was to develop the first plantations in Britain’s Indian colonies. This latter-day James Bond was called Robert Fortune – a botanist. After overcoming innumerable ordeals in the heart of imperial China, he brought back the plants and techniques that gave rise to Darjeeling tea.

Valtos is a story told from thirty years hence, in the last moments of its narrator, who awoke one day in 1987 'with the knowledge that I had been duplicated during the night, and that I was an inferior replica of myself'. There follows a relentless, epic, pursuit of an absconding phantom - his 'original' - which ends in catastrophe at Valtos, a place at once ethereal and terrifying.

A representation of queer and feminist imagery that was mainly shot in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, remote and developing areas in southwest China, and metropolitan cities like Beijing from 2000 to 2004 to document the social changes in contemporary China. The director sympathetically and erotically represents a variety of women, including women as laborers, women as prayers, women in the ground, women in marriage, and women who lie on the funeral pyre with their dead husbands. Her camera juxtaposes the mountains and rivers in old times, the commercialized handicrafts as exposition, the capital exploitation of the elders’ living space, and the erotic freedom of the young people in a changing city.

Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron & Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.

David Attenborough investigates the remarkable life and death of Jumbo the elephant - a celebrity animal superstar whose story is said to have inspired the movie Dumbo. Attenborough joins a team of scientists and conservationists to unravel the complex and mysterious story of this large African elephant - an elephant many believed to be the biggest in the world. With unique access to Jumbo's skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History, the team work together to separate myth from reality. How big was Jumbo really? How was he treated in captivity? And how did he die? Jumbo's bones may offer vital clues.

Near the region of Angkor Watt, a group of children capture a baby elephant and are just growing attached to it when it is sold to a travelling safari. Pursuing the new owner, a boy manages to steal it back, and the children free it to return to its mother.

Rocksteady to both a visual and musical documentary of the big shots of the English 2-Tone movement of the late 1970s that has the exhaustive, high-energy performances exploding onto stage. Jump, shout, twist and crawl and dance to the tunes of Ska and its anthems of its rough riders and three-minute heroes captivated in the moment of a generation of England's concrete jungles and razor blade alleys. No longer on your radio but now on stage, together, with the likes of Madness, The Specials and The Beat et al, this concert footage of an era is a must-see, rare and fascinating look into a once vibrant youth culture of working-class England and its musical dance craze.

Africa's largest herd of elephants and a fearless pride of young lions come face to face in an epic fight for survival. Rarely do their worlds collide, until now. This is no chance conflict; nature has played its part. Drought has weakened the elephants and the lions are desperately hungry. The dawn of the giant killers has arrived

Sir David Attenborough investigates the discovery of a 200 million year old Ichthyosaur on the Jurassic Coast in southern England. Using state of the art technology and CGI David brings the story of the fossilised ichthyosaur out of the rock and shows us what this creature was really like as it lived during the Jurassic time period.

In 1963 in the countryside in England, fifteen men pulled off 'The Great Train Robbery' netting today's equivalent of $85million. This incredible film features Gordon Goody, one of the instigators of the crime, for the first time ever, revealing the identity of the missing mastermind behind Britain's most famous heist- the elusive and mysterious 'Ulsterman'.

Come on a voyage of discovery and experience the many wonderous splendors of England, the country described in Shakespeare's Richard II as "This precious stone set in a silver sea." Enter the hallowed chambers of the House of Lords, fanciful Brighton Pavilion, the great cathedrals of St. Paul's and Canterbury. Explore delightful stately homes, such as Blenheim Palace (where Churchill was born) and Wilton House (where D-Day was planned). Enjoy uniquely English events, such as Trooping the Colour and the Henley Regatta. Soar high above for breathtaking aerials of Cheddar Gorge, the magnificent Lake District, and stark castles along the Northumberland coast. From the White Cliffs of Dover to Hadrian's Wall, from quaint villages with thatched-roof cottages to the splendid cities of Bath and Cambridge, you'll soon echo the sentiments of the poet Robert Browning, "Oh, to be in England..."

September 3rd, 1939. Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany, only two days after the Wehrmacht invades Poland. This day, the sad date when the fate of the world changed forever, the Phoney War began: eight months of uncertainty, preparations, evacuations and skirmishes.