One Million Years

"If you get to the point that you couldn't care less about the evolution of a buffalo or a butterfly, you are probably somewhat of an intellectual pygmy. I think it's fascinating how life has come into existence! I think it's incredible what has happened."

One of special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen's pre-Seventh Voyage of Sinbad efforts, 20 Million Miles to Earth borrows a few pages from King Kong. An American spaceship crashlands off the coast of Sicily. The rescue party discovers that the astronauts have inadvertently brought back a curious gelatinous mass from the planet Venus. This lump of goo rapidly evolves into be a living reptilian creature, which scientists label an "Ymir". While being subjected to laboratory experimentation, the Ymir begins growing by leaps and bounds, and before long the gigantic monstrosity has escaped and is wreaking havoc in Rome. After battling a zoo elephant and taking a swim in the Tiber, the gargantuan creature holes up in the Colosseum, where the film's pyrotechnic finale occurs.

The Shape Of Life tells the gripping and magnificent tale of the beginnings of all animal life. Using innovative camera techniques to capture rarely seen creatures and breathtaking computer animation to reveal stunning detail, this digital high definition series tells the stories of the revolutionary findings and scientific breakthroughs in biology, genetics and paleontology that are rewriting the book of life. The series celebrates the splendors and struggles of evolution, unveiling eight biological designs that are the underpinnings of nearly all animal life. A Co-Production of Sea Studios Foundation and National Geographic Television.

The Greatest Places begins by noting that Earth is "the most diverse planet in the solar system," and impressive computer-generated graphics depict the very early history of the planet, showing vividly how geological events formed the continents. Particular sites around the world (the "greatest places" of the title) are then visited, and some dazzling cinematography displays the exotic locations spectacularly. A trip into the jungles of Madagascar demonstrates how the island, isolated as it was for 40 million years, developed unique wildlife, including many species of lemurs. High atop the Tibetan plateau, nomads are seen herding yaks and Buddhist pilgrims are filmed against the stunning peaks of the Himalayas. A "holy lake" in Tibet dissolves into a shot of the mighty Amazon River, and the ecosystem of the South American jungle is explored. And the world's largest island, Greenland, is scanned by cameras that linger on the sheer enormity of glaciers as well as on the native peoples who manage to live at extreme low temperatures. Near the end of the film the narrator notes that "life is a reflection of the landscape." And the breathtaking film shot in these remote but magnificent locales does demonstrate beautifully the awesome diversity of both landscape and life on Earth.

Fifty years after the end of World War II, historians now are coming to the consensus that Russia played the decisive role in the defeat of Hitler. At least 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians perished at home and on the battlefield in the bloodiest struggle of our century.

Frankie Dunn has trained and managed some incredible fighters during a lifetime spent in the ring. The most important lesson he teaches his boxers is the one that rules life: above all, always protect yourself. In the wake of a painful estrangement from his daughter, Frankie has been unwilling to let himself get close to anyone for a very long time. His only friend, Scrap, an ex-boxer who looks after Frankie's gym, knows that beneath his gruff exterior is a man who has been seeking, for the past 25 years, the forgiveness that somehow continues to elude him. Then Maggie Fitzgerald walks into his gym…

A story that is "stranger than fiction". Every so often, a story appears that is so fantastical that if it were to be dramatised, audiences would spurn it for being just too out there, too ridiculous to take seriously. The story of Christian Carl Gerhartsreiter, otherwise known as Clark Rockefeller, is one of these.

Documentary series which recreates life in the Cenozoic period by using a combination of computer-generated imagery and animatronics.

Prehistoric Park is a six-episode docu-fiction television mini-series that premiered on ITV on July 22, 2006 and on Animal Planet on October 29, 2006. The program was produced by Impossible Pictures Limited, who also created Walking with Dinosaurs. In 2007, ITV cancelled Prehistoric Park because it was critical. It was replaced by Primeval. Each episode is an hour long including commercial breaks.