The Matrix of Race

It was the challenge of a lifetime. While the coronavirus was spreading in Wuhan, China, scientists were already mobilizing to fight back. Inside The Great Vaccine Race, a documentary from The Nature of Things, is the dramatic story of the high-stakes mission to defeat a killer virus and save millions of lives.

A new age of space exploration, and exploitation, is dawning. But surprisingly, some of the boldest efforts at putting humans into space are now those of private companies started by a handful of maverick billionaire businessmen.

The Palio is the oldest horse race in the world, and turns the Italian city of Siena into a high-stakes battleground of strategy, intrigue and simmering machismo. In the eye of the storm stand the jockeys - adored if they succeed, despised if they fail.

Don Wildman explores the race to the moon between the US and the Soviet Union. He straps into a human centrifuge, meets an astronaut who actually went there and learns just how close America came to losing.

In 1919, four Australians became the first men to fly across the globe. Theirs was an extraordinary feat of endurance, and a milestone for mankind. Yet 100 years later, Sir Ross Smith, his brother Sir Keith Smith and mechanics Wally Shiers and Jim Bennett are all but forgotten. As the centenary approaches, it’s time to inspire a new generation.