2018
This series looks at the iconic trains that have done the most to change history. Each train is an engineering marvel, each one a leap forward in the history of trains and railways. But more than this, these are the trains that made the modern world. These are the trains that unify nations and open up continents, that miraculously shrink distance and create a global economy, changing how we trade, what we buy and make and sell. They change how we live and even how we think, speeding up our lives and expanding our horizons. These are the machines that made us modern. Each episode features one iconic train and describes its impact on railway history and on history in general, combining archive and expert testimony with actuality and hands-on engineering demonstrations.
The invention of trains transformed everything about how humans lived. From the movement of goods and population, the design of cities, to conquest and warfare, there are few aspects of civilization that were left untouched by these machines.
2007
Series telling the story of the architects, engineers and spin doctors who entered a frantic two year race to make the Royal Opening of St Pancras on time.
2013
Documentary series revealing the inner workings of Britain's railways, introducing the track-workers, train guards, drivers, police officers and management teams determined to keep the country moving.
2019
Covering thousands of miles, Sir Tony Robinson takes a whirlwind journey around the globe by train.
2012
Michael Portillo travels on the great train routes of Europe, as he retraces the journeys featured in George Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide.
2020
A major political, historical, human and economic fact of the 20th century, the Gulag, the extremely punitive Soviet concentration camp system, remains largely unknown.
2025
In the ruggedness of the American West, death is always a shadow over the shoulder: a grizzly bear encounter, an avalanche, or a bite from a rattlesnake can change everything in an instant; and those are just the natural threats. If one wants to get away with murder, the mountain ranges of the West may be the perfect place to do it. Peering into the dusty files found in the back country sheriff's offices and highlighting the cases that were deemed unsolvable because the crime scene was too rugged, too remote, or the victim assumed too hard to find; despite the odds in this landscape, justice prevails.
