A North Bridge

Politics, tragedy and conquest combine in stories behind the building of Australia. The Bridge, Pipe Dreams and A Wire Through the Heart combine rare archival images with dramatic storytelling in showcasing three landmark events that would allow Australia to mark its place in the world. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Kalgoorlie Pipeline and the Overland Telegraph line were engineering triumphs, but the human drama in constructing Australia is even more fascinating.

Just when you thought you knew everything about WWII, Secret War uncovers more incredible stories that exist under the radar. As bombs were dropped from planes, missiles were launched and tanks were deployed all over the world, another kind of war was being waged by the Allies: a secret war – a war of espionage.

Without doubt, the recordings of Tangerine Dream have made the greatest impact on the widest variety of instrumental music during the 1980s and '90s, ranging from the most atmospheric new age and space music to the harshest abrasions of electronic dance. Founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese in Berlin, the group has progressed through a full three dozen lineups (Froese being the only continuous member with staying power) and four distinct stages of development: the experimentalist minimalism of the late '60s and early '70s; stark sequencer trance during the mid- to late '70s, the group's most influential period; an organic form of instrumental music on their frequent film and studio work during the 1980s; and, finally, a more propulsive dance style, which showed Tangerine Dream with a sound quite similar to their electronic inheritors in the field of dance music.

Great American Railroad Journeys is a documentary television series on BBC Two hosted by Michael Portillo, who had done two documentaries series before this, Great British Railway Journeys and Great Continental Railway Journeys throughout Europe. This time, he travels to the United States to take his love of the railways to a new world, discovering things he was not aware of before about the origins of the country. The core of his travels take him from the northeast part of the country to Virginia.

Neil Young is rightly regarded as one of the most influential singer-songwriters, ranking with Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney in influence and prolificacy. And much like the other two, he has amassed an extensive archive of unpublished and unreleased songs which he’s begun to touch with his massive Archive series of box sets. Road Of Plenty is perhaps the most ambitious unofficial Neil Young release in recent memory. It is a comprehensive six disc collection of songs which have never been released (and probably never will). A majority are sourced from excellent live audience recordings (since that is the only source we have for them), but there are other excellent quality studio outtakes included as well.

Michael Portillo explores Canada, armed with his Appleton's 1899 Guidebook.

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. He travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.