Timewatch

Two-part documentary looking at the history of the native American Indians, and particularly the effects of white colonisation of the continent, and the near extinction of their peoples and culture. The first part considers the lifestyles and philosophy of the Indians and their first encounters with white settlers, which led to their falling prey to both disease and violence. The newcomers' attitude towards the Indians, and the catalogue of deceit, broken treaties and massacres are also explored.

Second part of a documentary film looking at the history of the native American Indians and particularly the effects of white colonisation of the continent and the near extinction of their peoples and culture. This looks at the continued clash between European and Native American cultures in the 100 years after the massacre at Wounded Knee, and the disastrous attempts of the government to assimilate the Indians. Indians describe what life was like on the reservations and of the attempts to obliterate their language, culture and ways.

Looks at the story of Dr Gerald Bull, the artillery designer who designed the world's best howitzers and who was working on his lifetime ambition, the supergun, when he was assassinated last year.

Looks at the story of Robert Robinson, a black American, who inadvertently ended up living and working in the Soviet Union for over 40 years, until his escape in 1974. Born in Cuba and brought up in America, he went to work for the Soviet Union that was crying out for industrial technicians, in the 1930s, disillusioned with the poverty and racism endemic in the US. Whilst there, he was elected to the Moscow Soviet without his consent, and automatically lost his US citizenship. He describes meeting Stalin and living through the hunger, cold and suspicion of the Second World War and the Cold War, and of how he eventually got out of the country.

Looks at the character and learned works of the Medieval scholar Roger Bacon, with readings and comments on some of his writings and ideas and the vast, universality of the subject matters he covered.

Documentary programme looking back at the first Palestinian Intifada uprisings between 1936 and 1939, and into the forties, against the British, revealing the strong hold guerilla forces had over a large area, and the formulation of forces, courts and a new leadership based on the peasant villages emerging in what was, to all intents and purposes, an independent Palestine. It follows how this uprising was overshadowed by the post-war Jewish one, and considers the ways in which British decisions at the time contributed to factors in the present Israeli conflict.

Looks at the history of the Cold War, and how it began even whilst the USSR and Britain and America were allies in the last stages of World War II. The origins of mutual distrust are examined, plus attitudes, plans and actions over the past forty-plus years, as well as how recent events in the USSR may have altered Cold War attitudes, or only temporarily put them on hold.

The experiences of six German soldiers who survived the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 are vividly captured through the viewfinders of the amateur film cameras they carried throughout the campaign. Lying forgotten and unseen by anyone else, the films they made cover the entire course of the invasion, from military training up to retreat, from the everyday to the horrific. Described by the soldiers themselves, these 8mm images offer a different view from the newsreels.

When the German army surrounded Leningrad in 1941, it was the beginning of a terrible 900 days of isolation for its citizens. On a meagre bread ration and with temperatures of minus 40 degrees celsius frozen corpses littered the streets. There was no light or water. It is now estimated that at least 1,200,000 people died. This remarkable German film uses previously untransmitted footage of the siege which shows the Russian suffering inflicted by the Nazis.

First of a four-part Timewatch reassessment of the life and work of Lyndon Baines Johnson , who took over as US President following the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963. LBJ will always be remembered for his role in the conflict in Vietnam: he came to power only to see his unprecedented social agenda undermined by a war he supported but never really understood. Beautiful Texas. This first programme examines his ambition and the political instinct which took him from small town rural affairs in Texas via Dallas to the highest office in the United States of America.

Documentary investigating Britain's clandestine support for the Nationalists and General Franco during the Spanish Civil War, through fear of the democratically elected left-wing Republican government becoming revolutionary in nature and being backed by the Soviet Union, and through fear for British business interests in the country. It shows how Britain caused major problems for the Republican side through economic and diplomatic cunning, and effectually aided the Republicans' downfall and Franco's success, although in a less obvious way than the German and Italian armed aid.

Second of a four-part. Timewatch reassessment of the life and work of US President Lyndon Johnson. My Fellow Americans. The new president reassured a nation stunned by John F Kennedy 's assassination and then surprised America with his forceful stand on civil rights and his programme for a Great Society.

Third of a four-part. Timewatch eassessment of the life and work of former US president Lyndon B Johnson. We Shall Overcome. Johnson had galvanised America with his appeal for racial justice and his vision for a 'Great Society'. But at the same time, he had promised not to send American troops to Vietnam. Political experts and those who knew him best explain why, without national debate or congressional approval, he expanded a war he had never understood. Johnson's vision for America was about to be overtaken by a full-scale land war in Asia.

The final part of a Timewatch reassessment of Lyndon B Johnson 's US presidency. The Last Believer. As Johnson's term of office drew to a close, riots raged in the inner cities and anti-Vietnam protesters demonstrated all over the country. With the United States as close to anarchy as at any time since the Civil War, Johnson felt he was living in a continuous nightmare. But tonight's programme reveals how those who knew him best still regard him as a great man who almost realised an impossible dream. What he wanted was time to build his 'Great Society' - but time was running out.

Charles Darwin lived in fear of disgrace because of his views. He believed that humans were just a better sort of ape, that we evolved from worms. These were shattering ideas, especially from a man trained for the Church. Using new research, historians Adrian Desmond and James Moore see Darwin not as the far-sighted hero of the Beagle voyage, but as a privileged Victorian with everything to lose by publishing the heretical views he developed in survival-of-the-fittest London. Wracked with worry, Darwin was sick for most of the 20 years it took him to pluck up courage to tell the world his brutal theory of natural selection.

Was Columbus really the first to discover America? This searching documentary sets out on a voyage of rediscovery - and comes up with a remarkably convincing case for a revision of accepted history. Five hundred years ago three ships sailed from Spain on the most famous voyage in history - west, west and always west across the unknown ocean. But now a modern Spanish ship's officer and a journalist have re-created that momentous voyage to test their astonishing theory that Columbus not only knew where he was going but also what he would find in the not-so-New World.

In the first of two programmes about the First World War, German writer Ludwig Harig makes a pilgrimage to the Somme, hoping to understand why his father was unable to speak about the war. Archive film and the moving testimony of witnesses evoke the realities of life behind the Front. And in France, he finds a generation still haunted by their memories.

Second of two programmes in which first-hand accounts provide a fresh view of life during the First World War. The Theatre of Operations The letters between military surgeon Georges Duhamel and his wife Blanche lay forgotten in a family attic for 75 years. Recently rediscovered, they reveal a poignant love story set against the backdrop of the First World War. In 1914, Blanche Duhamel moved to the frontline capital at Amiens, from where the lights of the trenches were visible, in order to be closer to her husband. Their four-year correspondence vividly conveys the daily hopes and fears of a family at war. Previously unseen film footage shows how business and pleasure continued alongside scenes of suffering as British and colonial troops came and went from the city.

In the 1830s a pioneering social investigation into child labour uncovered an appalling picture of deprivation, poverty and remorseless physical exploitation throughout Britain and sparked off a fierce debate between Victorian capitalists and reformers. Timewatch has drawn upon the testimonies of the children involved for this dramatised account.

During the Second World War, the Nazis took many art treasures for "care and safe-keeping", including the priceless collection of French Impressionist paintings built up by the industrialist Friedrich Carl Siemens in 1930s Berlin - among them works by Manet, Monet, Degas and Cezanne. At the end of the war, when the Americans and the Russians reached Berlin, these treasures went missing and have not been seen since. Timewatch goes in search of the missing treasures and unravels an extraordinary story of official looting.