Social & External
Unknown Role
The history of Westminster Abbey and a tour of the monuments within it; accompanied by choral music and including footage of the coronation of King George VI in 1937.
This retro documentary, based on the book by world-renowned paranormal expert and author Gaynor Baldwin, explores the haunted history of the Isle of Wight - said to be the most haunted place on earth. Also known as 'Ghost Island', no one really knows what lurks in the shadows. Dare to find out?
The story of Prince Philip's mother, who fled revolution in Greece, was experimented on by Sigmund Freud, hid Jews from the Nazis, gave all her possessions away, and founded her own religious order.
In 1977, Prince Charles was inducted as honorary chief of the Blood Indians on their reserve in southwestern Alberta. The ceremony, conducted in the great Circle of the Sun Dance, commemorated the centennial anniversary of the original signing of Treaty 7 by Queen Victoria.
Diana The Woman Inside highlights Diana as a woman and mother, rather than just a tragic icon.
The exquisite Rosslyn Chapel is a masterpiece in stone. It used to be one of Scotland's best-kept secrets, but it became world-famous when it was featured in Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code.
Melvyn Bragg explores the dramatic story of William Tyndale and his mission to translate the Bible into English, which made him a threat to the authority of the church and state.
This is the story of how a prince became a king, a revealing portrait of our new monarch across the seven decades he spent as heir to the throne. It’s a journey from cradle to crown told almost solely in his own words, from film and television recordings to private home movies and featuring a wealth of material, some of which has never been seen before. As well as drawing on home movies from the Royal Collection, the film-makers were given exclusive access to sequences featuring the prince, shot for the landmark 1969 film Royal Family, including private unseen moments.
Kirsty Young, Huw Edwards, Sophie Raworth and Claire Balding are your guides for the historic coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Saturday 6 May. From her studio outside Buckingham Palace, Kirsty will be joined by guests, including friends and colleagues of the King and Queen, who will share their personal insights. Throughout the morning, a series of films will explore the King’s passions, and a broad range of experts will join Kirsty to provide analysis of this new chapter in British history. Across the capital, a team of presenters will be in key locations to report and commentate throughout the day as events unfold. As the armed forces prepare for one of the largest military parades in living memory, JJ Chalmers will speak to servicemen and women from across the UK and the Commonwealth as they arrive in London to take their positions.
Featuring a unique conversation between The Queen and Sir David Attenborough as they walked in the garden at Buckingham Palace last summer, a landmark documentary will explore the ambition of a remarkable new initiative - a vast network of native forests across Britain and the Commonwealth, protected forever in The Queen's name.
What happens when man's reason is used as a weapon to slice through the accumulated detritus of ignorant and benighted ages and into the glorious new world of Enlightenment? The old is cleared away and the space is created for the new, but at what cost? Does reason itself have sufficient capacity to create a comprehensive world for man to exist as man, or does he become something else?
Kirsty Young celebrates the 70th wedding anniversary of the Queen and Prince Philip by examining the longest royal marriage in British history through key moments. She looks at how every step of their life together has been played out in the glare of publicity and in service of the nation, while steering it through decades of change.
England, 11th century. William the Conqueror (ca. 1027-1087) wins the Battle of Hastings (1066), changing the shape of medieval Europe and the course of English history. An account of the life of the extraordinary Norman warrior who became king.
Planned by Britain’s MI6 and then executed by America’s C.I.A., the coup d’état which follows will destroy Iran’s last democracy, and relations between Iran and the West until the present day. Most shocking of all, the truth about Her Majesty’s role will be hidden from the Queen herself, and even the all-powerful Shah who will be used by Britain and American to replace Iran’s last democratic Prime Minister. The coup will lead to political upheaval all over the Middle East for decades to come, eventually resulting in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which will end the reign of the Shah, and British and American influence in Iran, inspiring countless other Islamist revolutions around the world.
Biography of Prince George, Duke of Kent, the controversial uncle of the Queen, who became the source of scandals during the 1930s involving The German Nazi Party, homosexual tendencies and conspiracy theories about his death.
In August 1997, the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, stunned her family and catapulted the British public into one of the most extraordinary weeks in modern history. What was it about Diana that resulted in such an outpouring of grief? And what does that week reveal about Britain's relationship with the monarchy, then and now?
A documentary account of the five-week visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Canada and the United States in the fall of 1951. Stops on the royal tour include Québec City, the National War Memorial in Ottawa, the Trenton Air Force Base in Toronto, a performance of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Regina and visits to Calgary and Edmonton. The royal train crosses the Rockies and makes stops in several small towns. The royal couple boards HMCS Crusader in Vancouver and watches Native dances in Thunderbird Park, Victoria. They are then welcomed to the United States by President Truman. The remainder of the journey includes visits to Montreal, the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, a steel mill in Sydney, Nova Scotia and Portugal Cove, Newfoundland.
His opponents accused him of being homosexual. The male favorites he gathered around him during his short life gave those malevolent enemies solid arguments to do so. He would not have failed if he had proved himself to be an energetic king. But Edward II of England (1284-1327) never was a king like Edward I Longshanks, his father, or Edward III, his son, were. And his end is shrouded in myth and mystery.
25 Years is an impressionistic survey of the years from the Queen's accession to the throne in 1952 through to her Silver Jubilee in 1977. Combining archive and contemporary footage - including that of the royal visit to Canada and the US in 1976, the bicentenary year of American independence - the film explores the monarchy through a quarter-century which saw the conquest of Everest, the development of television as a mass medium, the first supersonic flight and space exploration. Through good times and bad, and tumultuous changes for better or for worse, one factor remained constant: the monarchy, in the person of Queen Elizabeth II, provided a continuity and stability which this film celebrates in her Silver Jubilee year.