Before Now And Then

In August 1945, the world was transformed in the blink of an eye when American forces dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki. The destruction was unprecedented and the bombings precipitated the end of World War II.
As global tensions rise, the unthinkable now seems possible. The threat of nuclear "weapons of mass destruction" has become real and frightening. White Light/Black Rain, an extraordinary film by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki, presents a deeply moving look at the painful legacy of the first – and hopefully last – uses of nuclear weapons in war. Even after 60 years, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue to inspire argument, denial and myth.

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the history of the Royal Collection, the dazzling collection of art and decorative objects owned by the Queen. Containing over a million items, this is one of the largest art collections in the world - its masterpieces by Van Dyck, Holbein, Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer and Canaletto line the walls of Windsor Castle, Hampton Court and many other palaces, museums and institutions around Britain.

For everyone who believes that fact is stranger than fiction there can be nothing in the world more fascinating than the search for the truth behind the most extraordinary mysteries and myths of the Twentieth Century.

On 15 April 2019, during Holy Week, a fire broke out in Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral. Just before 7pm, smoke appeared above the roof of the world-famous landmark. The fire had started in the attic underneath the spire during mass, but there were delays in discovering it, and then evacuating the building.

Stabbings, shootings, genocide, torture, abduction, robbery, serial killing and mass suicide are just a few of the horrific crimes explored in Great Crimes and Trials. True stories carefully researched and reconstructed with actual archive footage. Cases which have become almost legendary in the annals of crime and detection.

Murat is a sound recordist who lives in Istanbul. He makes an unexpected connection in his records between a grandmother and a grandchild, which becomes a trip to the family's past to strengthen their ties.

Paul Murton takes another tour of Scotland's lochs.

Ten-part series based on the book by Hew Strachan, Professor of the History of War at Oxford which tells the story as never before, dispelling the myths and offering new and provocative answers to core questions about the war's causes, conduct and legacy. It features hundreds of eyewitness accounts from frontline soldiers, generals, statesmen, children and women from all sides in the conflict. The First World War shaped the twentieth century. It sparked the Russian Revolution and launched America as a world power.

"South is the film record of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated but ultimately heroic attempt to cross Antarctica in 1914-16.As Shackleton was setting out, Britain declared war on Germany. It was to be two years before Shackleton and his men were to learn of the progress of that war, and how utterly changed was the world they had left behind. That romantic world had encouraged a cult of heroism, and it was as a heroic polar explorer that Shackleton wished to be known. He had first journeyed to the Antarctic in 1902 under Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the future rival against whom he would always be compared.

For centuries pilgrimage was one of the greatest adventures on earth, involving epic journeys across the country and around the world. This series sees Simon Reeve retrace the exciting adventures of our ancestors. He learns about the forgotten aspects of pilgrimage, including the vice, thrills and dangers that all awaited travellers. He explores the faith, the hopes, desires, and even the food that helped to keep medieval Britons and more recent travellers on the road.