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- DirectorLouise OsmondPete WoodsStarsSimon FarnabyLeon HuntJohn Ashdown-HillThis documentary looks at the search for the remains of King Richard III of England (1452-1485). After being killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field (August 22, 1485), his remains were taken to Leicester and it was believed that he was buried at Greyfriars Church. The church no longer exists and its remains were now believed to be under a car park. Phillipa Langley of the Richard III Society convinced archaeologists at the University of Leicester to lead a dig and surprisingly, as it turned out, the first skeleton they found was subsequently proven to be that of the King through DNA tests which showed a match to Canadian Michael Ibsen, a direct descendant of Richard III's sister.
- StarsStephen RashbrookPiers GibbonMark HallileyThe original British series which follows scientists, archaeologists and historians as they explore new evidence and new theories to explain enduring mysteries from human history.
- StarsRory DuffyScott WatsonRan LevyMysteries at the castle tells historically based stories about castles and other historical buildings.
- StarsHelen CastorHistorian of the medieval period, Helen Castor, presents an in depth and insightful series covering England's early Queens, from the High Middle Ages with Eleanor and get daughter-in-law Eleanor of Aquitane, through the Late Middle Ages with Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou and finishing with Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
- DirectorMichael SchwarzEdward GrayStarsFrances McDormandMichael PollanMichael Pollan, a professor of journalism and a student of food, presents the history of four plants, each of which found a way to make itself essential to humans, thus ensuring widespread propagation. Apples, for sweetness; tulips, for beauty; marijuana, for pleasure; and, potatoes, for sustenance. Each has a story of discovery and adaptation; each has a symbiotic relationship with human civilization. The film tells these stories and examines these relationships.
- One hundred years after the Ottomans joined the war, this three-part series tells the story from an Arab perspective.
- StarsEdward HerrmannTerrence HowardBased on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Siddhartha Mukherjee, this three-part series tells the complete story of cancer, from its first description in an ancient Egyptian scroll to the gleaming laboratories of modern research institutions. At six hours, the film interweaves a sweeping historical narrative; with intimate stories about contemporary patients; and an investigation into the latest scientific breakthroughs that may have brought us, at long last, to the brink of lasting cures.
- DirectorDavid BarrieStarsJeremy ChildElizabeth McGovernSamuel WestThis film examines recently discovered letters written by socialite Wallis Simpson that reveal her secret love, and chart her fear as she found herself becoming trapped into marrying King Edward VIII.
- StarsPhilippa GregoryKlaudia Lucia WyzykiewiczVicki GloverThe stories of three women at the heart of the Wars of the Roses - the 'White Queen' Elizabeth Woodville and her rivals Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville, as told by Phillipa Gregory
- 1987– 1h 17mTV-PG8.0 (163)TV EpisodeDirectorChris EyreStarsMarcos AkiatenCassidy AllaWilliam BelleauIn March of 1621, in what is now southeastern Massachusetts, Massasoit (actor Marcos Akiaten, Chiricauha Apache), the leading sachem of the Wampanoag, sat down to negotiate with a ragged group of English colonists. Hungry, dirty, and sick, the pale-skinned foreigners were struggling to stay alive; they were in desperate need of native help. Massasoit faced problems of his own. His people had lately been decimated by unexplained sickness, leaving them vulnerable to the rival Narragansett to the west. The Wampanoag sachem calculated that a tactical alliance with the foreigners would provide a way to protect his people and hold his native enemies at bay. He agreed to give the English the help they needed. A half-century later, as a brutal war flared between the English colonists and a confederation of New England Indians, the wisdom of Massasoit's diplomatic gamble seemed less clear. Five decades of English immigration, mistreatment, lethal epidemics, and widespread environmental degradation had brought the Indians and their way of life to the brink of disaster. Led by Metacom, Massasoit's son (actor Annowon Weeden, Mashpee Wampanoag), the Wampanoag and their native allies fought back against the English, nearly pushing them into the sea.
- 1987– 1h 26mTV-PG7.9 (152)TV EpisodeDirectorRic BurnsChris EyreStarsBenjamin BrattMichael GreyeyesDwier BrownEach of the episodes focuses on important historical events and concludes with a short contemporary story that links the past to the present.
- 1987– 1h 16mTV-PG8.0 (129)TV EpisodeDirectorChris EyreStarsJackson WalkerElijah AbdullahThomas N. BeltThe Cherokee would call it Nu-No-Du-Na Tlo-Hi-Lu, "The Trail Where They Cried." On May 26, 1838, federal troops forced thousands of Cherokee from their homes in the Southeastern United States, driving them toward Indian Territory in Eastern Oklahoma. More than 4,000 died of disease and starvation along the way. For years the Cherokee had resisted removal from their land in every way they knew. Convinced that white America rejected Native Americans because they were "savages," Cherokee leaders established a republic with a European-style legislature and legal system. Many Cherokee became Christian and adopted westernized education for their children. Their visionary principal chief, John Ross, would even take the Cherokee case to the Supreme Court, where he won a crucial recognition of tribal sovereignty that still resonates. The Supreme Court ruling proved no deterrent to President Andrew Jackson's demands that the Cherokee leave their ancestral lands. A complex debate divided the Cherokee Nation, with Chief Ross urging the Cherokee to stay, and Major Ridge, a respected tribal leader, urging the tribe to move West and rebuild, going so far as to sign a removal treaty himself without the authority to do so. Though in the end the Cherokee embrace of "civilization" and their landmark legal victory proved no match for white land hunger and military power, the Cherokee people were able, with characteristic ingenuity, to build a new life in Oklahoma, far from the land that had sustained them for generations.
- 1987– 1h 18mTV-PG7.8 (116)TV EpisodeDirectorSarah ColtDustinn CraigStarsKeith BassoBenjamin BrattCollin G. CallowayIn February of 1909, the indomitable Chiricahua Apache warrior and war shaman Geronimo lay on his deathbed. He summoned his nephew to his side, whispering, "I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive." It was an admission of regret from a man whose insistent pursuit of military resistance in the face of overwhelming odds confounded not only his Mexican and American enemies, but many of his fellow Apaches as well. Born around 1820, Geronimo grew into a leading warrior and healer. But after his tribe was relocated to an Arizona reservation in 1872, he became a focus of the fury of terrified white settlers, and of the growing tensions that divided Apaches struggling to survive under almost unendurable pressures. To angry whites, Geronimo became the archfiend, perpetrator of unspeakable savage cruelties. To his supporters, he remained the embodiment of proud resistance, the upholder of the old Chiricahua ways. To other Apaches, especially those who had come to see the white man's path as the only viable road, Geronimo was a stubborn troublemaker, unbalanced by his unquenchable thirst for vengeance, whose actions needlessly brought the enemy's wrath down on his own people. At a time when surrender to the reservation and acceptance of the white man's civilization seemed to be the Indians' only realistic options, Geronimo and his tiny band of Chiricahuas fought on. The final holdouts, they became the last Native American fighting force to capitulate formally to the government of the United States.
- 1987– 1h 30mTV-PG7.9 (115)TV EpisodeDirectorStanley NelsonStarsDennis BanksClyde BellecourtBenjamin BrattOn the night of February 27, 1973, fifty-four cars, horns blaring, rolled into a small hamlet on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Within hours, some 200 Oglala Lakota and American Indian Movement activists had seized the few major buildings in town and police had cordoned off the area. The occupation of Wounded Knee had begun. The protesters were demanding redress for grievances-some going back more than 100 years-and the expulsion of Pine Ridge tribal leader Dick Wilson, who governed the reservation through corruption and intimidation. In Wounded Knee, the gripping and controversial story of the armed standoff between American Indian activists and the federal government that captured the world's attention for 71 suspenseful days is brought to life.