Open University.

David Attenborough returns to the world's oceans in this sequel to the acclaimed documentary filming rare and unusual creatures of the deep, as well as documenting the problems our oceans face.

On January 22, 1992, a real estate agent named Stephanie Slater was subdued, gagged at knifepoint, and held captive for eight days. This program explores her ordeal as a case study in memory-aided investigation; it also juxtaposes Slater's case with an extended psychology experiment in which ten volunteers have taken part to assess the value of eyewitness testimony. Illustrating the phenomenon known as contextual reinstatement and its central role...

Today we can hardly imagine life without electrical power - it defines our era. It creates human connections. It is the lifeblood of civil society. But how did we arrive here, at a place in which our understanding of electricity is matched, if not overwhelmed, by our dependence on it? Bringing the scientific history of electricity to a dramatic conclusion, this program describes how a new age dawned - how researchers discovered electric fields and...

Medieval philosophers believed that certain numbers had magical properties and, in a sense, they were right. This program explores irrational, negative, prime, and imaginary numbers and the surprising ways they manifest throughout the physical world. Professor Marcus de Sautoy explains key concepts about pi and other numbers by using examples such as the harmonious design of Chartres Cathedral; the ratios that govern both music and the distress cries...

I have asked for this time tonight in order to announce my answer to the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena for additional Watergate tapes and to tell you something about the actions I shall be taking tomorrow; about what I hope they will mean to you; and about the very difficult choices that were presented to me. These actions will at last, once and for all, show that what I knew and what I did with regard to the Watergate break-in and cover-up...

Because we are able to measure energy, satellites in space can take the temperature of oceans and calculate the thickness of sea ice to within a millimeter's worth of accuracy. The ability to quantify heat, light, and electricity has transformed our lives, but how did we learn to measure these seeming intangibles with such precision? From lightning bolts and Watt engines to electromagnetic waves and single electrons, this program explores the measurement...

Ten people are asked to re-create, from memory, an abstract painting they viewed two months earlier. A fascinating psychological exercise, to be sure-but the experiment will soon become much more than a session with paints and brushes. This program documents the volunteers' unwitting immersion in a staged crime, which they witness during a "break" in what they think is the real test. When a lunch-time pub patron is apparently murdered and the Greater...

Rome was once the center of Christian persecution, but the martyrdom there of Paul and Peter began the unfolding of a historical epic that ended with the seat of empire becoming the spiritual capital of the Western Latin church. This program charts the development of Roman Catholicism, traveling to the ancient Port of Ostia, churches in Ravenna, and a remote Celtic monastery to show how Constantine took Christianity from a religion for the downtrodden...

The 1970s and '80s were a time of turmoil and dislocating change in Britain as customs and values were repeatedly challenged-a period in which, as Angela Carter put it, there was nothing sacred. This program examines the evolution of the British novel during the period 1970-90, spotlighting Fay Weldon, Angela Carter, Penelope Fitzgerald, John Berger, Malcolm Bradbury, Hanif Kureishi, Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Martin Amis, Margaret Drabble, Jeanette...

How did an island on the fringe of Europe come to rule over one quarter of the planet? How did so small a country get such a big head? This program shows how spectacular displays of imperial power were employed to dazzle Britain's subjugated peoples and helped develop the image of British royalty into an object of awe and admiration. The film travels to India, where local soldiers and maharajahs aided a handful of British traders in taking over vast...