Timeshift digs into the archive to trace the extraordinary story of the ultimate sanction. At the beginning of the 19th century you could still be hanged in Britain for offences such as stealing a sheep or shooting a rabbit. Even children as young as seven were sent to the gallows. The last hanging in this country took place as recently as 1964.

Professor Iain Stewart examines the powerful geological forces that unleashed the devastating Japanese earthquake, and explores how the release of this power of the planet brought Japan to the brink of a nuclear meltdown.

Andrew Marr looks at life in Britain at the time of the 2011 Census, revealing unexpected trends and facts about a country we only think we know.

This episode looks at how, with harsh interrogation techniques increasingly off-limits, spy agencies, have developed a controversial high-tech method of targeting and killing suspected terrorists with pilotless drone aircraft.

The Secret War on Terror reveals the astonishing inside story of the intelligence war which has been fought against Al Qaeda over the last decade since 9/11.

Documentary telling the unexpected story of how arguably the greatest work of English prose ever written, the King James Bible, came into being.

The science behind the earthquake and tsunami that have devastated Japan

This story of the lives of three Australian women told with remarkable honesty demonstrates how fascinating and complex so-called 'ordinary' life can be.

Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archive to discover how our understanding of intelligence has transformed over the last century. From early caveman thinkers to computers doing the thinking for us, he discovers the best ways of testing how clever we are - and enhancing it.

Financial journalist Ben Laurance looks at whether the coalition\'s keystone policy, the Big Society, may actually benefit big business, while the public and voluntary sectors feel the pinch of austerity Britain.

Michael Mosley takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.

Compilation of performances from the BBC archives of top Island Records artists, including Cat Stevens\'s Father and Son, Roxy Music\'s Do the Strand, Stir It Up by Bob Marley and the Wailers, Steel Pulse, U2, PJ Harvey, Baaba Mal and Amy Winehouse.

Documentary telling the story of what happened to blues music on its journey from the southern states of America to the heart of British pop and rock culture, providing an in-depth look at what this music really meant to a generation of kids desperate for an antidote to their experiences of living in post-war suburban Britain.

Collection of performances by British and American blues artists on BBC programmes such as The Beat Room, A Whole Scene Going, The Old Grey Whistle Test and The Late Show.

David Attenborough returns to the island of Madagascar on a very personal quest.

The story of a Mumbai slum school choir who perform a concert at the city's prestigious National Centre for the Performing Arts.

The exquisite Rosslyn Chapel is a masterpiece in stone. It used to be one of Scotland's best kept secrets, but it became world-famous when it was featured in Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code.

A look at the role and responsibilities of local authorities in the UK, the workings of Westminster, different electoral systems and democracies around the world.

The impact of the Berlin Wall and life under Communism, European Union migration and wider immigration to the UK.

In 1903, on the island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, a syphilitic and alcoholic Frenchman called Paul Gauguin died of a heart attack. At that point nobody realised the incredible impact Gauguin\'s work was to have on modern art.

In June 2009, disgraced financier Bernard L Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding thousands of investors out of billions of dollars in a giant…

Documentary about the pioneering computer animation studio Pixar, featuring contributions from the studio's bosses and a host of actors who have lent their voices to their creations, including Tom Hanks.

A career-spanning documentary on the Rolling Stones, with concert footage from their "A Bigger Bang" tour. Directed by Martin Scorsese

From the giant King Cobra to the tiny sawscaled viper, India is home to many of the world\'s deadliest snakes. Now a new report has revealed that India is in the middle of a snakebite epidemic of epic proportions, with a loss of human life far in excess of any official figures.

Wildlife documentary following the search for grizzly bears in the beautiful Cascade Mountains of Canada. Wildlife filmmaker Jeff Turner has spent a lifetime tracking grizzly bears around the world, and now he has come home to spend a year in the mountains of his youth to discover if the grizzly is still surviving in this beautiful area of British Columbia.

Dr Alice Roberts asks one of the great questions about our species: are we still evolving? Alice follows a trail of clues from ancient human bones, to studies of remarkable people living in the most inhospitable parts of the planet, to the frontiers of genetic research to discover if we are still evolving - and where we might be heading.

Mark Henderson was taken hostage in Colombia in 2003. Now he's returning to Colombia to meet one of his kidnappers and understand the truth behind his imprisonment.

Britain is a less equal society than at any time since World War One. In Who Gets the Best Jobs, Richard Bilton investigates access to the professions - and finds that the best jobs are being snapped up by an increasingly small gene pool

Bafta Award-winning film-maker Jezza Neumann's shocking portrait of Palestinian children living in the aftermath of war.

Travelling across three continents, Justin Rowlatt investigates the spread of Chinese influence around the planet and asks what the world will be like if China overtakes America as the world's economic superpower.