James May's Things You Need To Know

Psycho

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Science Investigators

Everyone knows the pit stops from Formula 1 races: choreographed and rehearsed to perfection - each team member is a cog in an unbelievably complex machine. But let’s put things into perspective: pit stops during races are one thing, but they can’t hold a wrench up to the mega pit stops this show´s got for you. Mega Pit Stops documents how stressful the fight against the clock is when a cruise ship descends to the pit stop or one of the fastest trains in the world has to be completely overhauled in just ten days.

Voir grand

Dr Helen Czerski examines the world of sound waves.

This ground-breaking two-part series takes us inside two of the most amazing structures in the natural world: our hands and feet.

Chris Jackson, Xand Van Tulleken and Aldo Kane take part in an extraordinary expedition to one of the world's most dangerous, spectacular and least known volcanoes.

Kate Humble joins a team of geologists at the Vanuatu archipelago to investigate some of the most active volcanoes in the world - and to predict if another major eruption might be imminent.

A groundbreaking expedition to the Arctic investigates the unknown world of icebergs, exploring the creation, life and death of these frozen behemoths for the first time

Signing up for the 2006 season of the most extreme and exciting motorsport, six-part series Engineering the World Rally joins the Subaru World Rally Team as they and 2003 champion, Petter 'Hollywood' Solberg, fight for the championship through six countries and 11 months of intense competition. This ultimate off-road challenge pits massively powerful four-wheel drive rally cars - in the hands of some of the world's greatest drivers - against the toughest and most varied terrain on the planet. These guys hurtle down narrow twisty roads, along bumpy, dusty tracks, through deep water and across solid ice at speeds exceeding 130mph. They're supported by teams of dedicated engineers and mechanics, together with their straight-talking bosses and success-hungry sponsors. It's a world of fragile egos, high emotions and constant human drama. With unprecedented access, Engineering the World Rally gets under the skin of the Subaru WRC team and follows their every move as they engineer and prepare the cars for each event, test and shakedown, and enjoy the highs and suffer the lows of each three-day rally. It is an emotional rollercoaster of action both behind-the-scenes and on the rally stage.

Get set for It’s Not Rocket Science, a brand new entertainment series that celebrates science and the world around us through thrilling, big-scale experiments and emotive personal stories. Fronted by actor Ben Miller, stand up comedian Romesh Ranganathan and presenter Rachel Riley, all of whom share a passion for science and technology, the fast paced and informative six-part series brings science to life in all its many forms, showcasing brand new gadgets and technology, and using awe inspiring innovation. Every week, one of the presenters will put their lives in jeopardy in a series of daredevil, high-risk experiments, where only science can save them. Rachel plays with fire, quite literally, as she zip wires through a wall of flames, Ben Miller finds himself strapped to a high speed wrecking ball and hurtling towards Romesh, and Romesh is pinned to the floor with a full size fridge plummeting towards him. Resident scientist Dr Kevin Fong will preside over the high-octane activity as the trio put their trust in science to survive…

Stephen Hawking’s Science of the Future investigates the very latest game changing innovations. Each episode takes one area of progress and sends five top scientists out to actively test the inventions and breakthroughs that are driving it. The team explore human upgrades, the virtual world, bio-mimicry, high-tech emergency responses, and more. Featuring a wide range of examples, from advanced robotics and breathtaking digital actors, to cutting edge smart homes and electronic brain stimulation, the series reveals how science is delivering astonishing improvements to all our lives. Using the evidence they gather, the team reveals the year when each innovation will be rolled out for us all to benefit from, and Hawking then draws out his own uniquely insightful predictions about what our world will be like in the years to come.

This is your chance to reach out and touch the past! Just as a forensic anthropologist analyses bones, and a historian deciphers ancient texts, we now have the technology to "read" the buildings, ruins and landscapes where history was made. The series, presented by Dallas Campbell, teams Steve Burrows (pictured), the brains behind the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, with a team of pioneering laser scanning experts from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Technologies to unlock the secrets of the world’s greatest engineering and cultural achievements. Locations include the Colosseum, Petra, Machu Picchu, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Pyramids and Jerusalem.

Scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs are revolutionizing the way people see, touch, taste, hear, and smell with cutting-edge advances in technology.

It is 2014 and the machines have not taken over…yet. The newest, most technologically advanced series from H2™, Rise of the Machines, reveals how the inventions behind the world’s most extreme machines have enabled them to evolve beyond humanity’s wildest imagination. This visually stunning series uses mind-blowing CGI animations to reveal the extraordinary engineering at the heart of the world’s most extreme machines. From the world’s biggest mega truck to the world’s fastest train to a revolutionary heavy lift ship, ground breaking CGI animation explodes the machines apart to reveal the ingenious inventions hidden under their skin that enables the teams who drive, fly and sail them to be at the top of their game. This series takes us inside these machines in close up detail and explores what helps these elite ships, trucks, trains and aircrafts rise above all others.

What propelled the construction of higher and higher buildings? Which technologies made the discovery of the oceans possible? How are gravity defying bridges designed? What will the future of the aircraft industry be? Combining bluechip photography with innovative CGI, all set in spectacular locations across the world, this documentary series highlights the history of human ingenuity.

Tour de force

Nowhere else in the world is so regularly ravaged by infernos of the intensity, scale and destructive force of the Australian bushfire. As our population grows and spreads and as the effects of climate change are felt, the danger to loss of life and property escalates. What do we know about bushfires and how can we prevent their devastating consequences? Not surprisingly, Australia is a world leader in fire research and the complex and technologically sophisticated job of fire fighting and prevention. Inside The Inferno takes us into the terrifying heart of major fire events, unfolding the research that explains how fires start, grow and change; and how we predict them, prevent them, fight them and hopefully survive these violent natural disasters. Inside The Inferno explores not only the devastating mega fires such as Black Saturday in Victoria 2009 and the Canberra fires of 2003, but also major fire-fronts that received little attention.

In the series, "Wallace will take a light hearted and humorous look at the real-life inventors, contraptions, gadgets and inventions, with the silent help of Gromit. The series aims to inspire a whole new generation of innovative minds by showing them real, but mind-boggling, machines and inventions from around the world that have influenced his illustrious inventing career" (the BBC press statement). Peter Sallis reprised his role as the voice of Wallace. The filmed inserts are mostly narrated by Ashley Jensen, with one in each episode presented in-vision by Jem Stansfield. John Sparkes also voices a portion in the unseen character of archivist Goronwy.