Bbc Horizon Total Isolation (2008)

Fergal Keane has covered conflict and brutality for more than 30 years. From Kigali to Baghdad to Belfast, he was always at the heart of the story and became a trusted BBC face, known for reporting with humanity and extraordinary empathy.

The winter of 2013/14 was the wettest ever recorded as deadly storms battered the country for weeks on end. But previous winters have seen bitter lows of minus 22 as Britain was plunged into a deep freeze.

In one of the most magical stories ever told, a bright star led the wise men from the east to the new Messiah. Now scientists are looking back into the skies of the ancient world to find out if the Magi could have witnessed a real astronomical event. Could the star of Bethlehem have been a comet, an alignment of planets or even a supernova? Who were the wise men, and why were they watching the night skies? Could evidence from a clay tablet from Babylon, an ancient manuscript from China, a fresco in the Catacombs of Rome and biblical texts help to finally unravel the greatest astronomical story in history?

Kate Williams tells the story of how an unassuming little girl rose to be the most powerful woman in the world. At her birth few believed Princess Victoria would ascend the throne, but a number of untimely deaths and the failure of her uncles to father any children meant that Victoria became heiress to the British throne. The battle between her and her mother the Duchess of Kent, however, was to become a fierce maternal struggle, as the duchess schemed to share in the power and riches that would one day be Victoria's.

As Nasa releases the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, this film tells the inside story of the telescope's construction and the astronomers taking its first picture of distant stars and galaxies. Will it be the deepest image of our universe ever taken?

In March 2018 an international team of scientists gathered in a remote valley in the Canadian Rockies to conduct a unique experiment - to attempt to see into the heart of a massive avalanche to see if we can find ways to save lives in the future. Avalanches kill hundreds of people every year. Even in the UK 25 people have been killed by these forces of nature since the year 2000. But we know surprisingly little about them - why they happen or how they are able to produce destructive forces so powerful that they can flatten entire villages. Equally disturbing is the fact that climate change means that the pattern of avalanches is changing.

In just over 100 days, a new coronavirus has taken an unprepared world by storm, infiltrating every corner of the globe, sending entire nations into lockdown, killing thousands and infecting countless more. Across the world, governments are scrambling to react, hospitals are struggling to cope and an increasingly anxious public are starting to panic. The world's media is awash with data, information and misinformation. But what are the facts? What is COVID-19 and why is this strain of coronavirus so dangerous? What happens in our bodies when the virus attacks? How does this compare to previous pandemics? What do all the the numbers really mean, and how can data modelling help us look for an exit strategy?

Dr Chris van Tulleken, Dr Hannah Fry and Michael Mosley examine the latest research and explore some of the big questions about Covid-19 and the pandemic it has created. Michael visits the UK government's high-security laboratory Porton Down, where vaccines are being tested. He also uncovers what the experience of the 2002 SARs epidemic reveals about this one. Both were caused by coronaviruses, but certain key changes to today's virus have allowed it to infect the world, where SARs was contained.

The incredible story of how Pluto has been propelled from an unremarkable ball of ice on the edge of the solar system to a world of unimaginable complexity - where some form of alien life might exist. Featuring first-hand accounts of the incredible discoveries made by New Horizons from many of the scientists involved in the mission.

In an intensely personal and often surprising film, Alastair Campbell candidly talks about his experience living with depression and explores if radical new treatments can make a difference. He is best known for his role as Tony Blair's formidable and often contentious spin doctor, but away from the public eye, he has been dogged by crippling bouts of depression for most of his life. Some days, just getting out of bed is too hard. Therapy and anti-depressant medication is helping him keep his head above water, but is that really the best he can hope for?