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

As the new football season kicks off this August, the television institution that is Match of the Day celebrates 50 years since it was first aired. This definitive documentary charts the history of this iconic programme and highlights its long-ingrained place at the heart of Saturday night television.

Series in which historian and author Helen Castor explores how the people of the Middle Ages handled the most fundamental moments of transition in life - birth, marriage and death.

Most of the time we try not to think about death, but the people of the Middle Ages didn't have that luxury. Death was always close at hand, for young and old, rich and poor - even before the horrors of the Black Death, which killed millions in a few short months.

For a medieval women approaching the moment of labour and birth, there were no antiseptics to ward off infection or anaesthetics to deal with pain. Historian Helen Castor reveals how this was one of the most dangerous moments a medieval woman would ever encounter, with some aristocratic and royal women giving birth as young as 13.

Unlike birth and death, which are inescapable facts of life, marriage is rite of passage made by choice and in the Middle Ages it wasn't just a choice made by bride and groom - they were often the last pieces in a puzzle, put together by their parents, with help from their family and friends, according to rules laid down by the Church.

Professor Mary Beard looks beyond the stories of emperors, armies, guts and gore to meet the everyday people at the heart of ancient Rome's vast empire

Melvyn Bragg explores the relationship, from 1911 to 2011, between class and culture

In this three-part series, Melvyn Bragg explores the relationship, from 1911 to 2011, between class and culture. Melvyn starts with the period from 1911 to 1945.

Melvyn Bragg looks at how his generation of writers, artists and film makers entered the breach made by the Angry Young Men of the Fifties, and came to dominate the culture and television, sweeping aside an earlier, powerful and more class bound generation. Alongside them were the teenagers whose new wealth and energy was spawning a rich pop culture, in music, art and fashion

Melvyn looks at the last 30 years of culture in the UK, and examines whether class is still relevant to what culture we create and consume.

Melvyn Bragg examines the lives, work and legacy of two men whose ideas have had tremendous consequences both in their own time and down the centuries: John Ball and Thomas Paine.

Melvyn Bragg tells the remarkable story of the 18th-century English radical political writer, Thomas Paine (1737-1809).

Geologist Iain Stewart retraces the steps of a band of maverick pioneers who made ground-breaking discoveries in the landscape of Scotland about how our planet works.

Iain Stewart follows in the footsteps of the founding father of geology, James Hutton. This Scottish rogue was a profound and original thinker who, 250 years ago, overturned ancient beliefs about how and when the world was formed. His ideas clashed with those of the most eminent scientist of his day. Lord Kelvin was determined to prove Hutton wrong.

Iain finds out how gung-ho geologist Edward Bailey discovered Scotland was once home to super volcanoes. And how unsung hero Arthur Holmes solved the mystery of what makes continents move across the surface of the globe.

In the final episode, Iain finds out about daredevil scientist Louis Agassiz, who first imagined the world had been gripped by an ice age. Plus, the story of humble janitor James Croll, who used the planets to work out the natural rhythms of the earth\'s climate.

Michael Wood journeys through the Indian subcontinent, tracing the incredible richness and diversity of its peoples, cultures and landscapes.

Michael Wood journeys through the subcontinent, tracing the incredible richness and diversity of its peoples, cultures and landscapes. Through ancient manuscripts and oral tales Michael charts the first human migrations out of Africa. He travels from the tropical backwaters of South India through lost ancient cities in Pakistan to the vibrant landscapes of the Ganges plain.

Michael Wood's epic series moves on to the revolutionary years after 500BC - the Age of the Buddha. Travelling by rail to the ancient cities of the Ganges plain, by army convoy through northern Iraq and on down the Khyber Pass, he shows how Alexander the Great's invasion of India inspired her first empire.

Michael Wood traces India in the days of the Roman Empire. In Kerala the spice trade opened India to the world, whilst gold and silk bazaars in the ancient city of Madurai were a delight for visiting Greek traders. From the deserts of Turkmenistan, Michael travels down the Khyber Pass to Pakistan to discover a forgotten Indian Empire that opened up the Silk Road and at Peshawar built a lost Wonder of the World.

Reaching the time of the Fall of Rome in the West, Michael Wood seeks out the amazing achievements of India's golden age. We learn how India discovered zero, calculated the circumference of the earth and wrote the world's first sex guide, the Kama Sutra.

Michael Wood charts the coming of Islam to the subcontinent and one of the greatest ages of world civilisation: the Mughals. Michael visits Sufi shrines in Old Delhi, desert fortresses in Rajasthan and the cities of Lahore and Agra, where he offers a new theory on the design of the Taj Mahal.

The final episode examines the British Raj and India's freedom struggle. In South India, Michael sees how a global corporation, the East India Company, came to control much of the subcontinent. He visits the magical culture of Lucknow and discovers the enigmatic Briton, 'the rebel in the Raj' who helped found the freedom movement.

Michael Wood tells the story of one place, the Leicestershire village of Kibworth, throughout the whole of English history

With the help of the residents, he charts events in the village leading to the people\'s involvement in the Civil War of Simon de Montfort. Intertwining the local and national narratives, this is a moving and informative picture of one local community through time.

The tale reaches the dramatic events of Henry VIII\'s Reformation and the battles of the English Civil War. We track Kibworth\'s 17th century dissenters, travel on the Grand Union Canal and meet an 18th century feminist writer from Kibworth who was a pioneer of children\'s books.

Wood\'s gripping tale moves on to dramatic battles of conscience in the time of the Hundred Years\' War. Amazing finds in the school archive help trace peasant education back to the 14th century and we see how the people themselves set up the first school for their children.

Groundbreaking series in which Michael Wood tells the story of one place throughout the whole of English history. Michael uncovers the lost history of the first thousand years of the village, featuring a Roman villa, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and graphic evidence of life on the eve of the Norman Conquest.

Wood\'s fascinating tale reaches the catastrophic 14th century. Kibworth goes through the worst famine in European history, and then, as revealed in the astonishing village archive in Merton College Oxford, two thirds of the people die in the Black Death.