Bbc

“It all began in 1971 as a game of speculation – a bit of light relief from the rigours of tectonic and oceanographic investigation in the Mediterranean basin.” American oceanographer Bill Ryan was on the scientific team which showed that the Mediterranean had been a vast desert basin until, 5 million years ago, the world’s oceans rose and burst through the Straits of Gibraltar to create the Mediterranean Sea.

It was the simplest idea but one with enormous potential. If a gene is defective in the human body, just replace it with one that works properly. Gene therapy would mean that genetic disorders would become a thing of the past. Cancer would be cured, as would cystic fibrosis and hundreds of other genetic illnesses. Scientists were justifiably excited about the idea but, this enthusiasm that would end up costing one young man his life.

Particle physicist and ex D:Ream keyboard player Dr Brian Cox wants to know why the Universe is built the way it is. He believes the answers lie in the force of gravity. But Newton thought gravity was powered by God, and even Einstein failed to completely solve it. Heading out with his film crew on a road trip across the USA, Brian fires lasers at the moon in Texas, goes mad in the desert in Arizona, encounters the bending of space and time at a maximum security military base, tries to detect ripples in our reality in the swamps of Louisiana and searches for hidden dimensions just outside Chicago.

It’s one of the greatest stories ever told. The legend of Helen of Troy has enchanted audiences for the last three thousand years. In May this year a Hollywood film staring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom will be launched in Britain. But is there any reality to the myth? Horizon has unprecedented access to the scientist with the answers. Since 1988 Professor Manfred Korfmann has been excavating the site of Troy. He has never before spoken at this length. He has made amazing discoveries – how large the city was, how well it was defended and, crucially, that there was once a great battle there at precisely the time that experts believe the Trojan war occurred. But who had attacked the city and why? Horizon then follows a trail of clues – the ancient tablets written by a lost civilisation, the sunken ship rich in treasure, and the magnificent golden masks and bronze swords of a warrior people. The film reaches its climax in a tunnel deep beneath Troy, where Korfmann has made a discovery that may reveal, once and for all, the truth behind the myth. The story that emerges is one of great passion – but not, it seems, about love.

Christopher Nupen's documentary uses Schubert's own words and music to help us feel closer to a composer who failed to achieve public recognition and financial success in his own lifetime, the first great composer in western music to live by his art alone, without patronage. With Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano), Andreas Schmidt (baritone), Michael Sanderling (cello), Antje Weithaas (violin), the Petersen Quartet and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch.

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Tim Samuels explores how in the 21st century, pornography has never been more profitable or more pervasive. Tim sees how pornography is now piped into people's lives via new technologies and how this is creating powerful new revenue streams for supposedly 'family friendly' mobile phone and credit card companies.

BBC Motion Gallery is the footage licensing division of BBC Worldwide, offering media professionals in advertising, commercials, television, film, interactive and corporate video production access to over a million hours of motion imagery for licensing worldwide. The organisation originated in London as BBC Library Sales, a division of BBC Worldwide, in 1961. It opened an office in New York in 1993, and in 1994 opened offices in Toronto and Los Angeles. BBC Motion Gallery has since opened additional offices in Hong Kong, Sydney, Mumbai, Tokyo and Paris.

When Clement Freud died in April 2009, Britain lost not only one of its best-loved broadcasters but also one of its last great polymaths - a man whose long and varied career encompassed being a Liberal MP, cookery expert, newspaper columnist and author.

Путешествие в дикие джунгли - пожалуй, один из самых экстремальных видов отдыха. Несмотря на внешнюю привлекательность этих уголков планеты, не каждый человек осмелится бросить вызов самому себе и, забыв о прелестях цивилизации, погрузиться в чарующий и опасный мир тропических лесов Амазонки, Конго и Борнео.

Two and a half thousand years ago, sport was tough. Few athletes survived the rigours of the great sporting arenas of the Ancient Greeks and only one athlete has survived the ravages of time to offer a unique insight into a remarkable ancient world. First Olympian tells the “Athlete of Taranto's” fascinating story.Fifty years ago, a skeleton was found in Taranto in Southern Italy. On opening an ancient tomb,archaeologists found the skeleton with four richly decorated jars in each corner of the tomb, revealing that the owner had an obsession for sport.