ABC Documentaries

The meals of King Henry VIII of England were among the most fantastic dishes ever created with some so outrageous, we wouldn’t dream of consuming them today. Dolphin, whale’s tongue, peacock and pies stuffed with songbirds were all on the menu. King Henry was passionate hunter and anything that moved was a potential meal. His cooks mastered the method of spit-roasting, their mouth-watering meats the envy of other European cooks. Tudor food was based on astrology as much as taste, and included elaborate gelatines - some made of deer antler, others stained with children’s urine. Even the alcoholic spirits of the time were amazingly flavoured, some with pure gold. The Tudors also believed that all food was intimately connected with the heavens and if used the correct way, herbs, plants, flowers and even cheese could provide all sorts of health benefits. Henry the VIII lived in a period of profound change in European food. While Portuguese merchants were bringing back exotic spices from the Far East, Spanish conquistadors were sending home strange new vegetables and animals from their New World conquests. Sugar became a popular staple with the Tudors and wafer candies were so highly prized they were kept under lock and key. Sculpturing the sugar into magnificent towers became an art form, one that is still practised today. Eat Like a King challenges the preconceptions of Henry being a barbaric eater with no manners. In fact Henry’s meals were refined occasions lasting hours. Driven by the rules of etiquette, they were undertaken with the formality of a religious ceremony. The new foods introduced, the invention of marvellously innovative approaches to cooking and table manners practised in Tudor times has left a legacy that is part of the international world of cuisine today.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/documentaries/stories/s853348.htm

From the moment his gang burst out of the Glenrowan Inn, Ned Kelly was set not only to take on the colony's rogue police force, but also to become Australia's very own knight in shining armour. Narrated by Jack Thompson.

The platypus has both baffled and inspired the scientific community since its discovery by Europeans over 200 years ago. Three years in the making, this blue-chip natural history film takes us down the east coast of Australia to the many serenely beautiful habitats of the platypus. Technology specially created for this film captures images from inside the nesting chamber of a wild platypus and records the extraordinary sounds of the mother suckling her offspring and we watch as they grow from newborns to adulthood.

Perpetual motion is the holy grail of science. It has sent many an obsessive and eccentric inventor to madness and suicide. A successful perpetual motion machine would alter the entire social and political balance of the world. It has been described as a 'machine to kill for'.

What happens when those who fight against traditional thinking eventually become the establishment? Charles Darwin started a revolution when he published his evolutionary theory in the late 1800s. he challenged the belief that God created the world in seven days and the theories of people such as Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, who believed that characteristics acquired during a lifetime could be passed on to the next generation. Since then , Darwinian theory has become the accepted way of thinking but now an Australian scientist, Ted Steele, is stirring things up again. Is he pursuing a false dream or is he about to change our understanding of life on earth? Charles Darwin started a revolution when he published his evolutionary theory in the late 1800s. Since then, Darwinian theory has become the accepted scientific doctrine, but now scientist Ted Steele is stirring things up again. For years, Ted and his collaborators around the world have been researching ideas that challenge a fundamental principle of biology - the Weismann Barrier - and have given new life to one of the most discredited theories in the history of science. Their proposition is based on the work of Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, published some 50 years before Darwin's The Origin of Species. Lamarck's concept is that characteristics acquired during a lifetime could be passed on to the next generation. Ted is convinced that we can pass on these genetic improvements, such as stronger immunity, to our children. Encouraged by the great science philosopher Karl Popper, Ted launched his first book in 1979. It shook the foundations of evolutionary thinking. Since then, he and his collaborators have battled with the scientific establishment, their own universities and the media to have their research accepted. Has Ted devoted a lifetime to pursuing a false dream or is he about to change what we know about life on earth? The stakes are high - reputations, careers and our understanding of evolution