Maps of Britain
★ 7 · 2024 · Documentary
Britain is connected by miles of roads, canals, and railway. This series explores the history of how we get around this ancient island.
Episodes
1. The Motorway Map of Britain45m · A surprisingly bumpy ride through our love-hate relationship with motorways. The godmother of the road sign discusses her iconic designs. Plus, our favourite and most hated service stations.
2. The Canal Map of Britain45m · A look at Britain's beloved canal network via a fact-filled cruise along the first superhighways of the Industrial Revolution. In the age before mechanisation, a frenzy of canal-building saw a new army of workers carve out the British landscape, digging out hundreds of miles of waterways using picks, shovels and muscle.
3. The Railway Map of Britain45m · Charting the high and lows of Britain's railway - the invention created at the dawn of the 19th century that would change Britain and the world forever - from the Industrial Revolution to HS2.
4. The Sewer Map of Britain45m · Investigating the hidden secrets of the sewers, from London's current Tideway Tunnel, to the Romans' solution almost 2,000 years ago.
5. The Underground Map of Britain45m · A fact-fuelled ride through London's tube network, mapping out the history of the world's first - and most iconic - underground railway system. Viewers discover how this 160-year-old marvel of engineering manages to carry 1.3 billion passengers a year.
6. The Coastal Map of Britain45m · The rise and fall of the UK's greatest ports, from the first international traders arriving on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, through the arrival of the Romans, Elizabeth I's extension of British territory, and the huge impact of the tea trade and the Industrial RevolutionMore Like This
Penguins on a Plane: Great Animal Moves
2014
Penguins on a Plane: Great Animal Moves follows the expert handlers entrusted with transporting some of the world's most precious and challenging cargo safely to their destinations.
More info →
Speed
2019 · ★ 6
Investigating mankind's insatiable necessity to move faster and further; for pleasure, for work, to explore, to survive.
More info →
Transamazonica: A Highway to the Past
2021 · ★ 10
The Transamazon highway was a gigantic saga, the greatest example of the pharaonic works of the Brazilian military government. But the road that would promote national integration was best known for linking the famine of the Northeast with the misery of the Amazon. This haunting docuseries follows the story of the construction of this highway and its morbid consequences.
More info →
Hot Roads - The World's Most Dangerous Roads
2011
A risky expedition along thoroughfares that harbor mortal danger for those who use them or live on them. They run through deserts, ice, and snow, deep in the jungle, along water, and over mountains: the world's most dangerous roads, truly "hot roads." Many have died along these roads.
More info →
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
2003 · ★ 6.7
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World is a 7-part British documentary/docudrama television miniseries that originally aired from 4 September 2003 to 16 October 2003 on BBC. The programme examines seven engineering feats that occurred during the Industrial Revolution.
More info →
The Machines That Built America
2021 · ★ 7.2
The stories behind innovations such as TV, radio, phones, airplanes, motorcycles and power tools as well as the inventors including Nikola Tesla, William Harley, Alexander Graham Bell, Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker.
More info →
Our Guy in China
2016 · ★ 7
Guy Martin's love of industry and endeavour leads him to China, where he reveals the unseen side of its innovation, technological development and gigantic manufacturing.
More info →
Canals: The Making of a Nation
2015 · ★ 6.3
Liz McIvor looks at who built the nation's canal network, who funded it, those who worked on it and how they were regenerated following WWII.
More info →
The Red Empire
2022 · ★ 8
The story of an empire: From its founding in 1922 to its dissolution in 1991, the Soviet Union was shaped by revolutionary idealism, but also by oppression and decay. The USSR evolved from Stalinist terror through the Thaw under Khrushchev to political processes such as glasnost and perestroika under Gorbachev. Finally, in 1991, it collapsed.
More info →
InterCity 125: The Train That Saved Britain's Railways
2018
Intercity 125 – Britain's own original high-speed train – rules the rails today, but this national icon is set to give way to hi-tech imports. It's time to celebrate the heroic story of a design classic that saved Britain's railways from terminal decline.
More info →
The Past at Work
1980
The birth and development of the Industrial Revolution is explored by visiting factories, mines, and other industrial relics where the modern world was made -- not by statesmen and philosophers, but by men, women and children with dirt on their hands.
More info →