Q.E.D. (1982)

Does thunder make the milk go sour? Do frogs and cows really know when it's going to rain? Are bee stings good for rheumatism? And why should a dog worry about getting too close to a walnut tree? PROFESSOR DILLY enthusiastically travels the Cotswolds on the track of the old wives. He takes a light-hearted look at some of the tales our grandmothers told us. Do these time-tested rules of rural life work? Well. he tries to answer that too.

Whatever happened to Uri Geller ? He's the man who in 1973 first amazed television audiences and hard-nosed scientists with his mysterious spoon-bending. Well, he's still at it, alongside many new metal-benders who have popped up all over the world. This film takes a cool look at the phenomenon and asks whether the scientists, after ten years of research, are any nearer solving the mystery? With the help of conjurors and metallurgists, Q.E.D. puts the benders to the test. Are Un Geller and the others tricksters, or do they possess genuine para-normal powers?

The 100-foot-high wave, the little stream that suddenly becomes a raging torrent, the gale that topples trees, lorries and people. And the deadly power of the thunderbolt. Q.E.D. looks at the violence of freak weather. And, to explore our chances of surviving, John Lees, the 'Q.E.D. Test-Man', takes on the power of nature. To simulate a flash-flood, he stands below a 200-million-gallon reservoir as the sluices are progressively opened. He battles against a man-made hurricane until he blows away. And shows how to be within an inch of a direct lightning-strike - and survive.

There have been many films about lions but never one like this. Previously you have only seen the lion during the day. But lions are nocturnal animals and daytime hunts are the exception rather than the rule. Now, from Savuti in the Chobe National Park in Botswana, comes a remarkable study of the secret life of the lion. For three-and-a-half years a team of researchers has followed lions throughout the night by the light of powerful searchlights. Using low-level film lights and extra-sensitive film and lenses, their researches have been recorded. Almost incredibly, the lions became quite used to the noise of the trucks and the lights. This has made possible a unique new view of the cruel and restless life of the lion at night.

Chris Serle sets out to investigate the bugging game. In a top-floor office of a skyscraper two men are having a secret conversation. From the skyscraper across the street a snooper directs a special laser on to the office window, picking up the tiny movements in the glass every time one of them speaks. Futuristic equipment turns these movements into minute electric signals. Eventually it is decoded back into sound. Fact or fantasy? Don't ask the people in the bugging business. They've become so confused between real life and Hollywood they no longer know which is which.

Documentary which follows the life of Simon Weston, a former soldier in the Welsh Guards who sustained 46% burns when the RFA Sir Galahad was bombed by the Argentines during the Falklands War, showing how he had to learn to cope with disfiguring facial injuries and psychological scars.

The ' polygraph' lie-detector has arrived in Britain. It measures tiny changes in your breathing, perspiration, and heartbeat, as they ask you questions. Someone's hurt - did you do it? Did you steal money from the till? Did you lie when applying for your job? Q.E.D. observes the polygraph in action in America, sees a British ex-policeman in training in Atlanta, and meets a man found guilty of murder after a polygraph test. In Britain, we may soon rely on it for our national security. But is that wise? How does the polygraph work? How effective is it? Can you beat it? And who's next for the little test - could it be you?

Would you make a good eye-witness? Here's your chance to find out with some experiments that could change your mind. The evidence shows we can recall events that never happened. And recognise people that we have never seen. So Q.E.D. asks how far can we trust the evidence of eyewitnesses in the practical business of crime?

Both Tim and Jean Richardson - from East Grinstead - are ' professional parents', formally approved by the Better Baby Institute in Pennsylvania, USA. They have three children: Rufus, 5, has ' a rage to learn Beth, 3, ' would rather learn than eat'; and Harry, at 18 months, ' would much rather learn than play'and yet they are all perfectly ordinary, happy children. What's the trick? Well, Q.E.D. followed a group of learner parents through their one-week course in Pennsylvania. After all, says Glen Doman , the founder and force behind the institute, ' a child's brain is the only container that the more you put into it, the more it will hold '.

In this programme, HEINZ WOLFF steps aboard a London bus and finds himself immediately transported to a bizarre and unfamiliar world. The past. The year 1948. As he wanders round that strange era of de-mob suits, Clement Attlee , Victor Silvester and Snoek, he asks: ' What has technology actually done for our lives? How different are our homes, our clothes, our food?' What has really changed since 1948, the year when George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty Four? His journey takes him past East End hop-pickers and to the waiting BEA Dakota sitting on the tarmac at Northolt, its engines revving for the flight to Paris - a weekend treat for the well-to-do!

The Bat, the Blossom and the Biologist with Donna Howell There is in Arizona a bat that flies thousands of miles each spring to feed on the flowers of a plant that blooms only once in 25 years-and then dies. Last summer Q.E.D. went to the Sonoran Desert in pursuit of this curious but intimate relationship-for it is a trading of food for sex: the bat gets the food and the flower gets pollinated in exchange. How did such a partnership ever come about? For more than a decade biologist DONNA HOWELL has been unravelling just why two such unlikely partners got together and how they make the most of each other.