The Century of self I - Happiness Machines



See also part 2, 3 and 4 below.

The Art of Russia

Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to Russia to reveal the history of the art of Russia in three episodes. First, he explores the origins of the Russian religious icon.. Then he shows how Russian art was affected by the change from a feudal nation to a hotbed of revolution. Finally he describes how art was at the forefront of throwing out 1,000 years of royal rule in Russia. BBC 4 - The Art of Russia

Episode 1 - Out of the Forest
Episode 2 - Roads to Revolution
Episode 3 - Smashing the Mould

The Art of Spain

Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to Spain to reveal the history of the art of Spain in three episodes. First, hetravels from Cordoba to Granada looking at Moorish art. Then he investigates Spain's Golden Age of art of the 16th and 17th centuries. Finally he Reveals how the north of Spain produced some of the most dazzling art of the modern age. BBC 4 - The Art of Spain

Episode 1 - The Moorish South
Episode 2 - The Dark Heart
Episode 3 - The Mystical North

The Art of Germany

Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to Germany to reveal the history of the art of Germany in three episodes. First, he looks at the art of the German middle ages and Renaissance. Then he shows how artists were at the forefront of Germany's drive to become a single nation. Finally he describes how the dark times of 20th-century German art were dominated by failed artist Hitler. BBC 4 - The Art of Germany

Episode 1 - A Divided Land
Episode 2 - Dream and Machine
Episode 3 - In the Shadow of Hitler

The Man Who Walked Across the World series - 1 hour documentaries

A series of documentary travelogues in which Tim Mackintosh-Smith follows in the footsteps of 14th Century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battutah, who covered 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents in a 30-year odyssey.
These journeys covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the west, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the east, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo. ...more

Episode 1 - Wanderlust
Episode 2 - Magicians and Mystics
Episode 3 - Trade Winds

The Story of God series - 1 hour documentaries

Professor Robert Winston presents The Story of God , a definitive three-part documentary series on the history of mankind's quest to understand the nature of God.
The Story of God is an epic 3 part journey across continents, cultures and eras exploring religious beliefs from their earliest incarnations, through the development of today's major world faiths and the status of religious faith in a scientific age.
The series examines the roots of religious beliefs in prehistoric societies and the different ways in which humanity's sense of the divine developed....more

Episode 1 - Life, the Universe and Everything
Episode 2 - No God but God
Episode 3 - God of the Gaps

The Power of Art series - 1 hour documentaries

The power of the greatest art is the power to shake us into revelation and rip us from our default mode of seeing. After an encounter with that force,we don't look at a face, a colour, a sky, body, in quite the same way again....more
Episode 1 - Caravaggio
Episode 2 - Bernini
Episode 3 - Rembrandt
Episode 4 - David
Episode 5 - Turner
Episode 6 - Van Gogh
Episode 7 - Picasso
Episode 8 - Rothko

The Genius of Beethoven series - 1 hour documentaries

The Genius of Beethoven is a 3 part docudrama of the life of the famous composer.
Ludwig van Beethoven , (December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is considered to have been the most crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time. Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne ...more

Episode 1 - The Rebel
Episode 2 - Love and Loss
Episode 3 - Faith and Fury

The Genius of Mozart series - 1 hour documentaries

The Genius of Mozart is a 3 part docudrama of the life of the famous composer. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart(27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers...more

Episode 1 - Miracle of Nature
Episode 2 - A Passion for the Stage
Episode 3 - The First Romantic

Great Map Mystery series - 25 minute documentaries

Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery is a four-part television documentary series first broadcast on BBC Two Wales in 2008 and presented by ex-Python Terry Jones. ...more
1. The Road to Aberystwyth
2. The Road to St David's
3. St David's to Holywell
4. Chester to Holyhead

Philosophy:A Guide to Happiness series - 25 minute documentaries

Alain de Botton believes that the great thinkers' works are full of practical advice on happiness. In each episode, he takes one key philosophical figure and tries to apply their teachings to a common emotional problem ...more
Episode 1 - Seneca on Anger
Episode 2 - Schopenhauer on Love
Episode 3 - Epicurus on Happiness
Episode 4 - Montaigne on Self-Esteem
Episode 5 - Socrates on Self-Confidence
Episode 6 - Nietzsche on Hardship

Guns, Germs and Steel series - 55 minute documentaries

Based on Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, Guns, Germs and Steel traces humanity's journey over the last 13,000 years – from the dawn of farming at the end of the last Ice Age to life in the twenty-first century.
Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this groundbreaking book, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns....more

Episode 1. Out of Eden
Episode 2. Conquest
Episode 3. Into the Tropics

Human, all to Human series - 50 minute documentaries

Human, All Too Human is a 3 parts series that follows the lives of three prominent philosophers; Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre....more
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
Martin Heidegger - Design for Living
Jean-Paul Sartre - The Road to Freedom

The Strange Days on Planet Earth series - 50 minute documentaries

Around the globe, scientists are racing to solve a series of mysteries. Unsettling transformations are sweeping across the planet, and clue by clue, investigators around the world are assembling a new picture of Earth...more
1 - Invaders
2 - One Degree Factor
3 - Predators
4 - Troubled Waters