Secret History of Knitting

Knot just for scarves, discover the world of knitting and its very many uses throughout history - including record and timekeeping, World War II spy coding, and even as a symbol of political revolution. Film archive, cut-out animation, line drawings, graphics, historical art and posters, and re-enactments bring a fresh approach to this fascinating documentary special.

Primeval New Zealand

Travel back through time in PRIMEVAL NEW ZEALAND. For the first time science is revealing the true story about where New Zealand’s wildlife icons came from, and the reasons for their unique evolution.

Auschwitz Untold: In Colour

AUSCHWITZ UNTOLD: IN COLOUR tells the real story of the liberation of Auschwitz, for the first time in colour. By bringing colour to the original black and white archive and telling survivors’ stories, this special really brings to life and commemorates the memory of those who were murdered in the name of bigotry and hate. It acts as both a memorial to their passing and a warning to the world at a time when the memory of the Holocaust becomes increasingly abstract and remote. AUSCHWITZ UNTOLD: IN COLOUR creates a sense of “re-lived present tense” – with both testimony, and colourised archive working in unison to deliver a riveting, humanised narrative that will compel and move audiences.

Warbird Workshop

They are the planes that wrote history in the sky. Military aircraft long since pensioned off – outdated, corroded or wrecked beyond repair. But now WARBIRD WORKSHOP is prising open the hangar door to join the pilots and engineers fighting to return rare aviation relics to the skies decades – even a century – after their last flight.

Unsinkable: Japan's Lost Battleship (Musashi)

How did this unsinkable giant go down so fast? Was it overwhelming American air power? Or a fatal design flaw? Musashi was literally the King Kong of the sea— the largest and most heavily armed battleship of its time. Built in total secret Musashi was finally unleashed in the world’s largest sea battle, which began on October 24, 1944 in the Philippines. Japan’s navy gambled on winning a decisive victory to turn the tide of World War II. Instead Musashi, the pride of the Japanese fleet, ended up at the bottom of the ocean. How did this unsinkable giant go down so fast? Was it overwhelming American air power? Or a fatal design flaw? 70 years later American deep sea explorers and Japanese military experts are determined to solve this 70-year old mystery. But first they must find the missing Musashi.

Hell Below

HELL BELOW is an event-based series charting the stealth game of subsea warfare from contact to attack of the greatest submarine patrols of World War II. From the rise of the Wolfpack to the drive for victory in the Pacific, meet the masterminds who brought together the strategy, technology and tactics to make every sailor’s worst nightmare to come to life.

Secrets of the Imperial War Museum

For the first time, the Imperial War Museum has allowed cameras behind the scenes at a critical moment in their history as they unveil ambitious new £30 million galleries. With exclusive access to over 33 million priceless historical treasures and a world class film archive of more than 23,000 hours of rare film footage, this series uncovers never-before-heard first-hand accounts, and reveals the pressure faced by a team of hundreds of IWM experts and volunteers as they work tirelessly to preserve the most important objects and stories from our past.

Jack The Ripper: Written In Blood

From leading producer Nutopia, JACK THE RIPPER: WRITTEN IN BLOOD is a gripping drama-documentary series that reveals a shocking new angle on the infamous Whitechapel murders: how a gang of ruthless reporters at The Star Newspaper created the legend of Jack the Ripper, and helped him get away with murder. Across three hours, we’ll go inside the real-life thriller of how penny-a-line journalist Fred Best and his colleagues at The Star, including its cunning editor TP O'Connor, manipulated the gruesome murders to sell papers. They actively misled the police investigation by planting false leads and fabricating evidence, and printing speculation as fact. With every lurid headline and forged letter, in which they pertained to be the killer, Fred and his cohorts steered the hunt away from the real murderer and made a fiasco of Scotland Yard’s investigation. By identifying false suspects, The Star whipped up mass hysteria and turned the streets of Whitechapel into a battleground, fuelling mob justice and violent suspicion. The city spiralled into panic, with the police chasing shadows while the real killer slipped through their grasp. In their relentless pursuit of headlines, Fred and his colleagues at The Star, didn’t just create the myth of Jack the Ripper, they ensured he would never be caught. They made him the story, guaranteeing he became a sensation, whilst the tragic stories of the murderers victims were lost amidst the press hysteria. The Star’s underhand tactics laid the foundation for modern tabloid journalism, a legacy of scandal, fear, and media-fuelled frenzy, that still shapes our world today.

Battle of the Atlantic

The BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC is the forgotten front line of the Second World War. In this series engineer Rob Bell and ex-marine Arthur Williams uncover the incredible events behind this bloody and brutal conflict that claimed over 100,000 lives. They explore Nazi U-boats and British warships that battled it out above and below the waves, as well as discovering the personal stories of the brave men and women who risked everything to control the Atlantic.

The Aleutians: Cradle of Storms

This is the absorbing story of an island chain and its people who have endured and survived wave after wave of invaders. We reveal the storm-lashed islands, the 9000 year culture forever changed by fur-seeking outsiders, and the story of the impact on the Native Aleuts as the violence of a world at war arrives on their islands.