For 10,000 years or more, humans created new plant varieties for food by trial and error and a touch of serendipity. Then 150 years ago, a new era began. Pioneer botanists unlocked the patterns found in different types of plants and opened the door to a new branch of science - plant genetics. They discovered what controlled the random colours of snapdragon petals and the strange colours found in wild maize.

The air we breathe, and all the food we eat, is created from water, sunlight, carbon dioxide and a few minerals. That\'s it, nothing else. It sounds simple, but this process is one of the most fascinating and complicated in all of science. Without it there could be no life on earth. It\'s that important.

Award-winning director Patrick Forbes goes beyond the headlines to film the bitter battle to govern Britain after 2016's referendum vote. Filmed over one extraordinary year, it's a story of low politics, high ambition and bitter personal animosities - at stake the biggest decision the UK has taken for decades.

This episode focuses on films examining the changing shape of the British Empire. At a time when many of its former colonies were achieving independence, Look at Life sent its film crews as far afield as Aden, Malaysia and Ascension Island to record the efforts made by Britain to manage the transition from imperial rule to the leadership of an emerging Commonwealth.

The unlikely story of how, between 1929 and 1945, a group of tweed-wearing radicals and pin-striped bureaucrats created the most influential movement in the history of British film. They were the British Documentary Movement and they gave Britons a taste for watching films about real life.

Four British astronomers celebrate 50 years of work and friendship by going on a road trip to revisit some of the world's greatest observatories.

Star Men celebrates the history of stargazing - the inventions and discoveries that have enabled us to learn so much about the universe, but more importantly to understand how much more we have yet to discover.

Lucy Worsley explores how British history is a concoction of fibs and stories manipulated by whoever was in power at the time.

Lucy debunks the foundation myth of one of our favourite royal dynasties, the Tudors.

In this episode, Lucy debunks another of the biggest fibs in British history - the 'Glorious Revolution'.

In the final episode, Lucy debunks the fibs that surround the 'jewel in the crown' of the British Empire - India. Travelling to Kolkata, she investigates how the Raj was created following a British government coup in 1858.

Alan Titchmarsh travels Britain to discover why our islands are so diverse, beautiful and extreme.

Beginning in a familiar garden setting, Alan peels back the layers of Britain's varied past. He travels to his native Yorkshire to reveal how innocent sounding place names provide evidence of a wild legacy. On Scotland's Isle of May, he discovers how white seal pups hold a clue to Britain's snowy heritage. Finally, Alan explores how diverse rock formations are a testament to Britain's turbulent past.

From Jurassic Oxford to Scotland's Himalayas, Alan explores the secret history hidden in the rocks beneath our feet. He discovers how Scotland and England drifted together from their original locations, near the Equator and the South Pole, and finds fossils which reveal that the Yorkshire Dales was once a sea with coral reefs.

Alan gets under the skin of the much misunderstood Neanderthal man, examines relics from the past and discovers that an ice sheet covering most of Britain stopped at London's Finchley Road tube station..

Alan ventures 50 metres below the Channel, scales an ancient tree in the New Forest and stalks red deer in Scotland to tell the story of how island Britain was created. He searches for clues across the country, discovering tropical nickar nuts in Scotland, palm trees growing at latitudes where polar bears should feel more at home and watching whooper swans in Cambridgeshire who arrive from Siberia for Britain's milder winters.

A century and a half ago, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Britain's most famous engineer, was about to launch a ship five times bigger than any that had ever been built before, the most revolutionary vessel the world had ever seen: the SS Great Eastern.

In the opening episode of the series, Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill takes us on a journey across stunning locations in Greece and Italy to find out how Athens gave birth to the idea of a city run by free citizens 2,500 years ago. Every aspect of daily life from defence to waste disposal was controlled not by a king, but by the Athenians themselves.

Rome was the world's first ancient megacity. At a time when few towns could number more than 10,000 inhabitants, more than a million lived in Rome. But in a world without modern technology, how on earth did the Romans do it?

A team of experts try to recreate astounding feats of engineering. Prof Chris Wise and Dr Caroline Baillie attempt to build a replica of the first submarine.

The story of the dance revolution - the beat, the clubs and the DJs that changed music culture forever.

In the first episode we follow the 4/4 beat from its disco origins through remix culture to house, techno, acid house and the current EDM explosion.

This episode celebrates the club. From Studio 54, The Loft and Paradise Garage to Shoom, illegal raves, The Hacienda, Cream and on to the contemporary megaclub brands in Las Vegas and Ibiza.

In the final, part we tell the story of the DJ. With a cast that features todays biggest DJ stars alongside house pioneers, we plot the DJ path from invisibility to centre stage. How is it that people who play records are today's highest paid music stars?

Series in which Jim Al-Khalili traces the story of how the elements, the building blocks that make up our entire world, were discovered and mapped

Series in which Jim Al-Khalili traces the story of how the elements, the building blocks that make up our entire world, were discovered and mapped.He follows in the footsteps of the pioneers who cracked their secrets and created a new science, propelling us into the modern age.

In part two, Professor Al-Khalili looks at the 19th century chemists who struggled to impose an order on the apparently random world of the elements. From working out how many there were to discovering their unique relationships with each other, the early scientists\' bid to decode the hidden order of the elements was driven by false starts and bitter disputes. But ultimately the quest would lead to one of chemistry\'s most beautiful intellectual creations - the periodic table.

In the final part, Professor Al-Khalili uncovers tales of success and heartache in the story of chemists' battle to control and combine the elements, and build our modern world. He reveals the dramatic breakthroughs which harnessed their might to release almost unimaginable power, and he journeys to the centre of modern day alchemy, where scientists are attempting to command the extreme forces of nature and create brand new elements.

The children of 9/11 - from those who were in the womb to those on the brink of adulthood - reveal how children come to terms with tragedy and how families confront grief.

Documentary arguing that Deng Xiaoping's capitalist revolution created today's China.