Britain at the Bookies

Britain's Big Wildlife Revival brings together some of the BBC's most respected wildlife experts to highlight the plight of Britain's most at-risk animals.

Andrew Marr discovers why the Scotland he grew up in has changed so much politically, and whether, after the Brexit vote, we will see Scottish independence and the break-up of the UK.

Evan Davis looks at the British economy and asks what our country is good at and how it can pay its way in the world,

Comedian Lenny Henry sets out on a journey to discover what makes us laugh and what role humour plays in our lives

Tony Robinson goes for a walk through some of Britain's beautiful and historic landscapes.

A three part series about women working in the British film industry during the 1950s.

From the 1930s to today, this series examines Vegas' evolution into an entertainment mecca, and its everlasting ability to reflect and refract American identity. Featuring interviews with entertainers, former showgirls, and other experts.

David Dimbleby takes to his wooden sailing boat to explore Britain's rich maritime heritage.

Clare Balding embarks on a pedal-powered odyssey across Britain to rediscover the magical world of 1950s cycling

In a landmark history series, Jeremy Paxman describes how the First World War transformed the lives of the British people, and helped shape modern Britain.

Actor Julie Walters rides upon the UK's most beautiful coastal railways.

Hugh Dennis and Julia Bradbury's adventures in four stunning British landscapes. No matter where we are, the rocky upheavals of Britain's epic past are still with us, and still drive how we live.

Celebrities travel Britain's coastline accompanied by their dogs

Celebrities take a stroll in the great British outdoors with their faithful hound.

Documentary series revealing the inner workings of Britain's railways, introducing the track-workers, train guards, drivers, police officers and management teams determined to keep the country moving.

Britain’s rich horticultural history is being lost. More and more front and back gardens are paved over - for development, for parking spaces, or because families don’t have the time or inclination to manage these spaces. The trend for easy-to-maintain lawns, patios and paving has also led to a decline in traditional gardens full of flowers, plants and trees to the extent that some of our most iconic flora and fauna have all but disappeared. Step forward the BBC’s most-loved gardening experts, who are determined to turn us back into a green-fingered nation once again.

The enormous popularity of recent British dramas such as Downton Abbey, Mr. Selfridge, and Sherlock, has led to vast interest in the real-life stories and history of the icons of Great Britain. Each episode of this series visits a famous British building or institution to explore its past and present, meeting a wide range of experts and historians along the way.

Exploring the hidden corners of the UK in search of the best the countryside has to offer.

The nation's love affair with the coast will be reawakened for this entertaining and ambitious exploration of the entire UK coastline. Every part of the 9,000-mile coast is covered to explore how we've shaped it - and how it shapes us. Hosted by a team of history and geography experts who investigate everything from life on a nuclear submarine; rebuilding the Titanic using computer images; the story behind the first Butlins holiday camp; and the birth of the Severn Bore. Discover the curious, sometimes dysfunctional, relationship between the British and the seas.

Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles. What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, free of the fustiness of traditional academe, personalising key historical events by examining the major characters at the centre of them. Not all historians would approve of the history depicted here as shaped principally by the actions of great men and women rather than by more abstract developments, but Schama's way of telling it is a good deal more enthralling as a result. Schama successfully gives lie to the idea that the history of Britain has been moderate and temperate, passing down the generations as stately as a galleon, taking on board sensible ideas but steering clear of sillier, revolutionary ones. Nonsense. Schama retells British history the way it was--as bloody, convulsive, precarious, hot-blooded and several times within an inch of haring off onto an entirely different course. Schama seems almost to delight in the goriness of history. Themes returned to repeatedly include the wars between the Scots and the Irish and the Catholic/Protestant conflicts--only the Irish question remains unresolved by the new millennium. As Britain becomes a constitutional monarchy, Schama talks less of Kings and Queens but of poets and idea-makers like Orwell. Still, with his pungent, direct manner and against an evocative visual and aural backdrop, Schama makes history seem as though it happened yesterday, the bloodstains not yet dry.