Explore TV Series

The Secret Life of Machines is an educational television series presented by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod, in which the two explain the inner workings and history of common household and office machinery. According to Hunkin, the show's creator, the programme was developed from his comic strip The Rudiments of Wisdom, which he researched and drew for the Observer newspaper over a period of 14 years. Three separate groupings of the broadcast were produced and originally shown between 1988 and 1993 on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, with the production subsequently airing on The Learning Channel and the Discovery Channel.

A politically charged mini-series researched and written by Duncan Campbell which saw dramatic Special Branch raids on BBC Scotland. An entire production office was loaded into transit vans and confiscated by the police. + One: 'The Secret Constitution' about secret Cabinet committees that amount to a secret decision making system at the highest levels of power in the United Kingdom. + Two: 'In Time of Crisis' about secret preparations for war that began in 1982 within every NATO country. This programme revealed what Britain would do. + Three: 'A Gap In Our Defences' about bungling defence manufacturers and incompetent military planners who have botched every new radar system that Britain has installed since World War II. + Four: 'We're All Data Now' about the Data Protection Act. + Five: 'Association of Chief Police Officers' and how Government policy and actions are determined in the fields of law and order. + Six: 'Communications' with particular reference to Zircon spy satellites ...

A look at the more unusual sides of nature, medicine and human endeavor. It's all about things that just can't happen...and the people they happen to.

Documentary series which uses film and eyewitness accounts from both sides of the conflict that divided Spain in the years leading up to World War Two, also placing it in its international context.

A six-year project from conception to completion, "Vietnam: A Television History" carefully analyzes the costs and consequences of a controversial but intriguing war. From the first hour through the last, the series provides a detailed visual and oral account of the war that changed a generation and continues to color American thinking on many military and foreign policy issues.

Disney Family Album is a half hour documentary series on the Disney Channel that aired during the 1980s. It was narrated by Buddy Ebsen. The series looked at the artists and performers that help create Disney's movies and parks.

A formal critique of historical Chinese culture, arguing that developing a so-called "yellow civilization" based on the land and rivers has led to conservatism, ignorance and backwardness, and that China should develop a "blue civilization" based on the sea, while establishing a system based on the market economy.

An adventurer-filmmaker-diver recruits a former Miss Universe to travel with him to explore the wonder and terror of the world's oceans.

Major Les Hiddins of the Australian Army was born in Queensland and was always interested in Aboriginal customs and practices and how those practices helped a people survive in a hostile environment for thousands of years. When he joined the Army he developed this interest into a skill and put it to good use. Learning how to survive in the Australian bush and then to teach others the same skills. He wrote various survival manuals for the Australian Armed forces and added survival notes to the back of maps used by pilots flying over the Australian bush. In this series of programmes Les shares that knowledge with us, teaching us some of his survival skills and his great respect for the Aboriginal people that taught him.

Planet Earth is a seven episode PBS television documentary series, focusing on our planet, narrated by Richard Kiley. This vivid 7-part chronicle of discovery, documents some astonishing developments in geoscience, as it guides us to a better understanding of our planet's past, present and future. Voyage from the ocean's depths to the distant boundaries of the solar system. Planet Earth explores the geological forces that have shaped and continue to influence life on our planet, whether they come from deep within the earth's crust or the reaches of the solar system. A journey of breathtaking imagery and compelling ideas. Witness the power of the savage forces that created our world.

A documentary series by Katarina Dunér about the history of European horticulture

Bilder, die die Welt bewegten is a German documentary series, broadcast between 1980 and 1984 on ZDF. The title translates as Images That Changed The World. The series presented film footage of major natural disasters, technological disasters, and accidents. The series was directed and narrated by journalist Peter von Zahn.

Series linking the events of the year with music via newsreels, headlines, films, broadcasts and rock performance footage.

David Attenborough presents a series on fossils and palaeontology.

Three drama-documentary films set in a Paris art studio during a century of scandal and revolution, exploring the lives of French artists Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste Ingres, and Théodore Géricault.

1915 is a 1982 Australian mini series about two friends who wind up serving in World War One.

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World is a thirteen part British television series looking at unexplained phenomena from around the world. It was produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and first broadcast in September 1980. Each program is introduced and book-ended by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke in short sequences filmed in Sri Lanka. The bulk of the episodes are narrated by Gordon Honeycombe. The series was produced by John Fanshawe, John Fairley and directed by Peter Jones, Michael Weigall and Charles Flynn. It also featured a unique soundtrack composed by British artist Alan Hawkshaw. In 1981, Book Club Associates published a hardcover book with the same name, authored by Fairley and Welfare, where the contents of the show were further explored. It featured an introduction written by Clarke as well as his remarks at the end of each chapter or topic. In 1985, a paperback of this book was released by HarperCollins Publishers. The series was followed by Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers in 1985 and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe in 1994.

The renowned definitive eight part series on the rise and fall of the modern art movement presented by Australian art critic Robert Hughes.

A dramatization of the human, scientific and historical aspects leading to the development of the first atomic bomb.

Seven-part series about steeplejack Fred Dibnah

When the 20th century opened, Britain dominated world affairs, and America stood on the sidelines. Now their positions are reversed. This is the story of how it happened.

The Men Who Killed Kennedy is a nine-part United Kingdom ITV video documentary series by Nigel Turner about the John F. Kennedy assassination.

14 Episodes that survey the massive scope of the war in Europe and the Pacific.

Half-hour program on the "real-life adventure" of big business. Newsman Eric Sevareid, who served as host, described the series as neither "chamber of commerce boosterism" nor anti-establishment; rather, "an effort to report how various industrial sectors actually work."

Through interviews, the film reconstructs the life stories of eight former NATO generals from the FRG, France, Greece, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.

Watchdog is a BBC television series that investigates viewers' reports of problematic experiences with traders, retailers, and other companies around the UK. It has had great success in changing the awareness consumers have of their purchasing rights and in changing policies of companies, closing down businesses, and pushing for law changes. It is shown on BBC One and is available for online viewing or download via BBC iPlayer.

The story of the Great Patriotic War: pages of memories, documents, and chronicle. The film uses materials from the State Film Fund of the USSR, the State Archive of Cinema and Photodocuments of the USSR, the Radio and Television Fund, the Film Studio of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, the KGB of the USSR, and the Institute of Military History of the USSR.

Wild America is a documentary television series that focuses on the wild animals and wild lands of North America. By the mid-1970s, Marty Stouffer had put together several full length documentaries. At this time, he approached the programming managers at Public Broadcasting Service about a half-hour-long wildlife show, the first to focus exclusively upon the flora and fauna of North America. PBS signed for the rights to broadcast Marty Stouffer's show Wild America in 1982. The show went on to become one of the most popular aired by PBS, renowned for its unflinching portrayal of nature, as well as its extensive use of film techniques such as slow motion and close-ups. Stouffer earned $135,000 per show from PBS. The show's production ran from 1982 to 1994. The series is no longer on PBS; reruns still air in syndication on commercial television through much of the United States. In 1997, Warner Brothers released a full-length feature film entitled Wild America, which was based loosely on the biographical story of Marty Stouffer and his brothers, Mark and Marshall.

Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum, Latin for "that which was to be demonstrated") was the name of a series of BBC popular science documentary films which aired in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 1999. Running in a half-hour peak-time slot on the BBC's primary mass-audience channel BBC1, the series had a more populist and general interest agenda than the long-running Horizon series which aired on the more specialist channel BBC2. Horizon could often be difficult for a scientific novice, requiring a modicum of background knowledge beyond the reaches of many viewers, so Q.E.D. was a more approachable way of introducing scientific stories.

Originally broadcast on BBC One Scotland, 8 January 1984

BBC 1980s Submarine documentary. For the would-be submarine captain it's the moment of truth - three frigates are racing straight towards him at maximum speed. This is the 'Perisher' - the toughest course in the Navy, and reputed to cost one million pounds a man.

Reaching for the Skies was an aviation documentary TV series made by BBC Pebble Mill in association with CBS Fox. The first episode was transmitted in the United Kingdom on 12 September 1988 and in the US in 1989. Narrated by British actor Anthony Quayle, and by Robert Vaughn for its American and International releases, It was divided into 12 programs. The series producer was Ivan Rendall. Music used was mainly sourced from KPM Musichouse.

Gnostics was a 1987 four-part drama-documentary series made by Border TV for Channel 4 (UK).

Mama's Boy is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 19, 1987 until August 6, 1988.

Ten programs filmed across Europe explore the history of European art through masterpieces of architecture, sculpture, and painting. The series spans from Greek and Roman art to Christian, Byzantine, and Gothic styles, followed by the Baroque, Rococo, and the artistic movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

A series of documentaries about how people were living in the mid-1980s.

A three part series about women working in the British film industry during the 1950s.

Just Another Day is a BBC documentary series, shown over twenty thirty minute episodes. The series follows John Pitman observing a typical day in the life of places, businesses and institutions that are considered part of the British way of life.

HBO's eight-part monthly series recalls the places, the people and the events relevant to eight major strands in America's cultural and social fabric -- cowboys, radio, transportation, sex, journalism, sports, inventions and advertising -- via newsreel clips, period music, theatrical movie sequences, and on-location shootings. Host Dick Cavett steps in and out of historic scenes in this follow-up to his earlier HBO series entitled Time Was.

A music miniseries, filmed largely on location in Vienna and Germany, not only featuring Bernstein but also, noted actor Maximilian Schell, who not only provided commentary on Beethoven, but read from his letters. The miniseries contains performances of all of Beethoven's symphonies as well as several overtures, a string quartet that Bernstein re-orchestrated for the entire string section of the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Missa Solemnis, all conducted by Bernstein. It also contains commentary about the music by Leonard Bernstein.

This wonderful series goes behind the high redbrick walls of Chilton Foliat in Berkshire, where Harry Dodson carefully recreates a traditional Victorian kitchen garden. Using traditional tools Harry painstakingly transformed the weed-choked ground into a gardener's and cook's delight solving many horticultural mysteries along the way and showing how gardeners dealt with pests and how they grew exotic fruits and vegetables for the household all year round.

Salamatik (Your Saftey) is an awareness program that comes in cooperation with the Gulf Cooperation Council Joint Program Production Foundation and the Local House for Public Relations for Media, produced in 1980 by a decision of the Ministries of Health. Four parts of it were produced during that period and had a significant impact on the health awareness of every household in the community.