BBC Documentary Films

2001. A clandestine meeting of leading Israeli archaeologists are shown a remarkable artefact. It's a stone tablet, apparently from 1,000BC. The writing on its face describes repairs to the temple of King Solomon. It is the first archaeological evidence ever found of this legendary building.

The relic caused a sensation. But this was only just the start.

Collection of documentaries exploring the ancient world's most mysterious secrets, monuments and myths. Featuring digital recontructions and dramatisations, as well as expert interviews and testimony.

Collection of documentaries exploring the ancient world's most mysterious secrets, monuments and myths. Featuring digital recontructions and dramatisations, as well as expert interviews and testimony.

Collection of documentaries exploring the ancient world's most mysterious secrets, monuments and myths. Featuring digital recontructions and dramatisations, as well as expert interviews and testimony.

Collection of documentaries exploring the ancient world's most mysterious secrets, monuments and myths. Featuring digital recontructions and dramatisations, as well as expert interviews and testimony.

Collection of documentaries exploring the ancient world's most mysterious secrets, monuments and myths. Featuring digital recontructions and dramatisations, as well as expert interviews and testimony.

Collection of documentaries exploring the ancient world's most mysterious secrets, monuments and myths. Featuring digital recontructions and dramatisations, as well as expert interviews and testimony.

Deep in the Bolivian Andes at the height of 13,000ft stands Tiwanaku, the awe-inspiring ruins of a monolithic temple city. Built by a civilisation who dominated a vast swathe of South America, it was abandoned 1,000 years ago. For centuries it has been a mystery - how did a civilisation flourish at such an altitude and why did it vanish? Jago Cooper journeys through Bolivia's spectacular landscape to investigate the origins of Tiwanaku and finds evidence of an ancient people with amazing understanding of their environment, whose religion was based on collective effort and ritual beer drinking. 

Documentary which gets to the heart of who Jeff Lynne is and how he has had such a tremendous musical influence on our world. The story is told by the British artist himself and such distinguished collaborators and friends of Jeff as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Barbara Orbison and Eric Idle. The film reveals that Lynne is a true man of music, for whom the recording studio is his greatest instrument.

Sunflowers (original title, in French: Tournesols) are the subject of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The earlier series executed in Paris in 1887 gives the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set executed a year later in Arles shows bouquets of sunflowers in a vase. In the artist's mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions. About eight months later Van Gogh hoped to welcome and to impress Gauguin again with Sunflowers, now part of the painted décoration he prepared for the guestroom of his Yellow House where Gauguin was supposed to stay in Arles. After Gauguin's departure, Van Gogh imagined the two major versions as wings of the Berceuse Triptych, and finally he included them in his exhibit at Les XX in Bruxelles.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 -- 18 February 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.

The Genius of Design examines the Second World War through the prism of the rival war machines designed and built in Germany, Britain, the USSR and the USA, with each casting a fascinating sidelight on the ideological priorities of the nations and regimes which produced them. From the desperate improvisation of the Sten gun, turned out in huge numbers by British toy-makers, to the deadly elegance of the all-wood Mosquito fighter-bomber, described as 'the finest piece of furniture ever made', the stories behind these products reveal how definitions of good design shift dramatically when national survival is at stake. 

'The Way of the Warrior' was a documentary shot by the BBC which aired in the 80s. The last part of the series was called: 'The Samurai Way'. It was never to be released on DVD and has become rare collectors footage for martial artists all over the world.

A young(er) Risuke Otake explains and demonstrates the finer techniques and philosophies of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu. An must-see documentary for everyone who is interested in the way of the samurai.

Part of a eight part series documentary on the Martial Arts of south and south east Asia, originally broadcast on the BBC in the early 1980s. This episode starts off by following a small Kung Fu school in Hong Kong and eventually talks about the spread of Kung Fu through out the world. With this the episode follows a small British school and finally an American school with a teacher who was close friends with Bruce Lee.

Part of a eight part series documentary on the Martial Arts of south and south east Asia, originally broadcast on the BBC in the early 1980s. This episode follows the very old, yet ever developing, Philippino martial art, Eskrima. It has developed, largely, due to the use of knives in the Philippines and teaches one how to defend against and use knives or small blades.

Part of a eight part series documentary on the Martial Arts of south and south east Asia, originally broadcast on the BBC in the early 1980s. This episode follows the master of a small karate dojo on the island Okinawa where the martial art of karate was first created.

Part of a eight part series documentary on the Martial Arts of south and south east Asia, originally broadcast on the BBC in the early 1980s. This episode follows a Taiwanese master of T'ai Chi and showcases many forms of T'ai Chi and some forms of Kung Fu. 

Part of a eight part series documentary on the Martial Arts of south and south east Asia, originally broadcast on the BBC in the early 1980s. This episode follows the history and development of Aikido, Kendo and some Naginata and explains why they took the sporting path and yet still maintain their spirituality.