Cypher Seer Origins (2011)

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

Michael Grade traces the raucous history of the music hall in a revelatory journey that takes him from venues such as Wilton's Music Hall in London to Glasgow's once-famous Britannia. Talking to enthusiasts and performers, Lord Grade discovers the origins of this uniquely British form of entertainment and revisits some of the great acts and impresarios, from Charles Morton and George Leybourne to Bessie Bellwood and Marie Lloyd.

The series uncovers some extraordinary warrior skeletons from history: Samurai, Crusaders and The British Navy.

Professor Brian Cox follows up the sensational WONDERS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM series with this epic look at the universe; a series that asks the questions who are we? Why are we here? And where do we come from? and attempts to find the answers. Tracing our origins further before the dawn of humankind to the start of the universe itself, Professor Cox reveals the creation of over 100 billion galaxies is also the story of our own evolution too.

Dr Adam Rutherford takes the viewer on a rollercoaster ride as he explores the consequences of one of the biggest scientific projects of all time - the decoding of the entire human genome in 2000.

Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou examines how archaeological discoveries are changing the way people interpret stories from the Bible.

Us Brits take our music very (very) seriously. It is often part of a whole scene which can include fashion, drug habits, social events and in the extreme, a whole ethos. We are very protective of something we put so much time and effort into and criticism goes to the core. The Northern Soul scene started over four decades ago and was never meant to be more than a passing fad. It just got so good we couldn’t bear to let go, or grow up. We still have an emotional attachment to records played by teenagers to teenagers an eon ago. The music was all brand new to us at that time and being brought up in a culture thousands of miles away from its source, we had to make it up as we went along. Knowledge was limited and we had no idea of the circumstances or origins of the recordings. For all we knew, Barnaby Bye could have come straight outta Philly’s black ghetto. Actually, we wouldn’t have cared had we known they had long hair and flares; the beat and sound was all. Dance records were what we wanted. They were usually based on the classic Motown sound, but we veered off up many a dark musical alley. Soul revisionism didn’t happen until the momentum and euphoria finally calmed down in the late 70s.

Filmmaker Mark Hall traces the origins of sushi in Japan to its status today as a cuisine that has spawned a worldwide industry. This explosion in demand for sushi over the past 30 years has brought with it problems of its own, as fish stocks have steadily depleted.

Two similar, but different, instruments that reach around the globe in their origins. Bouzouki from the Aegean and Ronroco from Latin America reach across the seas to come together. The metallic sounds of the Bouzouki with the pastoral nature of the Ronroco ignite a beautiful, yet disparate timbre.