lan Davies attempts to answer the proverbial question: how long is a piece of string? But what appears to be a simple task soon turns into a mind-bending voyage of discovery where nothing is as it seems.

Black holes are one of the most destructive forces in the universe, capable of tearing a planet apart and swallowing an entire star. Yet scientists now believe they could hold the key to answering the ultimate question - what was there before the Big Bang?

Born and raised in Iran, film-maker Nahid Persson returns there to meet a 50-year-old man with four wives, twenty children - and an irascible, foul-mouthed mother

Talking is something that is unique to humans, yet it still remains a mystery. Horizon meets the scientists beginning to unlock the secrets of speech - including a father who is filming every second of his son\'s first three years in order to discover how we learn to talk, the autistic savant who can speak more than 20 languages, and the first scientist to identify a gene that makes speech possible.

In this edition of Dispatches, reporter Jane Moore reveals how nutritious the nation\'s breakfasts really are and the marketing techniques employed by this lucrative industry.

Manta rays are one of the most intelligent creatures in the ocean and, at up to seven metres long, one of the largest. Yet despite their size and curious nature, almost nothing is known about their lives.

Wildlife documentary. In the forests of northern Minnesota, biologist Lynn Rogers uses food to gain the trust of wild black bears, a controversial technique developed over his own forty-year journey from fear to fascination. Following the fortunes of mother bear June and her three cubs over a year, the film reveals an intimate portrait of the lives of black bears.

In this documentary from the Race: Science's Last Taboo season, Rageh Omaar explodes myths about race and IQ and reveals what he thinks are important lessons for society.

An iceberg may have sunk the Titanic, but this documentary argues that it was actually a long chain of misjudgements, human errors and misfortunes that led to this maritime catastrophe

For the past forty years, northerners John and Pauline Prescott have led a double life, spending almost as much time down south as at home in Hull. It has given this unique double act a revealing insight into the differences which divide the North and South of England today.

Documentary telling the story of silicon chip inventor Robert Noyce, godfather of today's digital world.

With the help of a hammer-wielding scientist, Jennifer Aniston and a general anaesthetic, Professor Marcus du Sautoy goes in search of answers to one of science\'s greatest mysteries: how do we know who we are?

Dispatches asks why, if the vast majority of protests pass off peacefully, police training still focuses on the worst-case scenario of riots and petrol bombs, and hears from critics of the current training who argue it is out of step with 21st century protest.

Bullied, attacked and racially-abused more than fifty times in eight weeks. That's the experience of two British Asian reporters posing as a couple and living undercover on a housing estate in Britain during summer 2009.

Dean Potter is the only person in the world who does extreme slack-lining.This hair-raising variation of tightrope-walking finds Dean high in the sky, crossing a bouncy, one-inch-thick stretch of rope without using either a pole for balance, or any kind of safety harness.

Dispatches lifts the lid on the pensions crisis. The programme names some of the blue-chip companies that have abandoned final salary pension schemes. It shows how widespread the problem of underperforming pensions is, and how difficult it is to get full compensation if things go wrong

Jeremy Vine, Sophie Raworth and Fergus Walsh travel through the UK and the world to expose the myths and the dangers of swine flu. Who is most vulnerable? How do you avoid it? And can the NHS cope?

In the wake of the swine flu outbreak, virologist Dr Mike Leahy uses over 50 years of BBC archive to explore the history of pandemics - infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites.

With British soldiers dying in record numbers and the country arguing over the wisdom of the war, Jane Corbin travels across Afghanistan to ask if the British presence has made the lives of Afghan women any better, which was one of the justifications for going to war in the first place.

In a country where the Taliban outlawed music, Afghan Star is a small but significant unifying force for the country's diverse ethnic groups; as the programme's presenter Daod Sediqi says, 'the aim is to take the people's hand from weapons to music'.

Author and filmmaker Jon Ronson asks, how do agnostics come to Christianity?

The definitive story of going to the moon, told by those who went. Between 1969 and 1972 an elite group of men achieved an incredible dream. They were, and remain, the only human beings to set foot on a planet other than our own.

The untold story of 2008's terrorist attack, in the words of its victims and the gunmen. The programme contains graphic images and descriptions of the atrocity which may upset some viewers. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Dan Reed, Terror in Mumbai tells the story of what happened.

A profile of musical legend Michael Jackson, the King of Pop who began his career at the tender age of four as lead singer with the Jackson 5 and went on to release Thriller, the best-selling album of all time.

In 2009, NASA celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. This documentary series offers audiences a unique chance to glimpse an astronaut\'s view of spaceflight.

When we want to fight plans to build a waste dump in our back yard, we take to the streets in protest. But what if that results in the police filming and searching us, noting down our car registrations and keeping our details on file for up to seven years? Panorama asks if police tactics aimed at preventing troublemakers taking over demonstrations are eroding the freedom to protest for all but the most hardened activists.

Dan Cruickshank presents a documentary revealing the story of the Dalai Lama, his secret Himalayan kingdom and the story of his exile, using eyewitness accounts from Tibetans including the Dalai Lama himself and colour archive footage of Tibet from the 1930s to 50s.

On December 17th 2003, a 25-year-old woman called Malalai Joya stood up during the Afghan Grand Assembly and declared that many of those present were 'felons' and 'criminals' who had turned the country 'into the nucleus of national and international wars'.

As westerners sip designer lattes and cappuccinos, Ethiopian coffee growers live in hardship. Black Gold travels from Ethiopia to Seattle to reveal the grinding poverty behind our daily cup of luxury.

This edition takes a look at the near life-size bronze statue of the Buddhist goddess Tara, which has long been one of the most striking and memorable exhibits in the Asia gallery of the British Museum