The Secret Life Of Machines

An examination of the cultural impact of an indigenous people's worldwide exposure of their psychedelic spiritual practices.

The Scottish midge is a small beast with a big reputation. As one of the few flies in the British Isles that feed on human blood, it can cause havoc for anyone who has to live and work among them. But what makes some of us more attractive to the midge than others? On a journey around some of Scotland's midgier places, insect scientist Dr James Logan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explores the secret life of the midge to discover how best to cope with the terror of the Highlands and whether some of us might contain our own natural midge repellent.

'The Secret Life of Girls' is a free-form documentary that follows a year in the life of two little sisters growing up against the backdrop of the changing New England Seasons. Told entirely from a child's perspective, the film puts a microscope on the small obstacles of youth, allowing us to see the beauty of everyday struggle. This big film about small things, reveals children to be little warriors, fighting for growth, experience, and the discovery of life's mysteries. For the brief course of the film, we are allowed to join them and get lost in the world of the senses.

Ice is one of the strangest, most beguiling and mesmerising substances in the world. Full of contradictions, it is transparent yet it can glow with colour, it is powerful enough to shatter rock but it can melt in the blink of an eye. It takes many shapes, from the fleeting beauty of a snowflake to the multi-million tonne vastness of a glacier and the eeriness of the ice fountains of far-flung moons. Science writer Dr Gabrielle Walker has been obsessed with ice ever since she first set foot on Arctic sea ice. In this programme she searches out some of the secrets hidden deep within the ice crystal to try to discover how something so ephemeral has the power to sculpt landscapes, to preserve our past and inform our future.

This film reveals the exquisite machinery of the human cell system from within the inner world of the cell itself - from the frenetic membrane surface that acts as a security system for everything passing in and out of the cell, the dynamic highways that transport cargo across the cell and the remarkable turbines that power the whole cellular world to the amazing nucleus housing DNA and the construction of thousands of different proteins all with unique tasks. The virus intends to commandeer this system to one selfish end: to make more viruses. And they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.

This documentary features some of Europe's most stunning species, like the European adder, the nose-horned viper, the dice snake, the ringed snake and the Aesculapian snake.

From the earliest tool hewn from a single piece of stone, more than 2.5 million years ago, to advanced robotics connected to the human nervous system, the history of human civilization is a history of materials. Today more than ever we need to use materials intelligently to meet the challenges of tomorrow. The film takes us on a journey where we meet the pioneers of material science and reveal their extraordinary discoveries that are transforming the world around us.

Deep in the swampy rainforests of India, live tiny creatures as old as dinosaurs. Sadly, more than 80% of the 400 species of amphibians found in India are endangered. Some have not been seen for years and are yet still a mystery to science. A wildlife photographer & filmmaker, Vijay Bedi is on a three-year quest to capture species that have their own unique behavioral facts hitherto unknown to science, documenting for the first time ever.

A biopic about the eminent composer Sir Arnold Bax.

Documentary-maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.

An original view of the history of modern Britain from the back end where the rubbish comes out. The first programme deals with the decades immediately after the Second World War. Ernie Sharp started on the bins when he was demobbed in 1947.

Thanks to the success of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, almost everyone in the world thinks they know a little bit about Leonardo da Vinci. But the enigmatic artist still has plenty of secrets. By examining the details of his well-known masterpieces and the hidden clues left behind in his diaries, this thought-provoking program reveals the mysteries of a man known for much as his quirks as he is for his talent.

A mini series spin off from The Secret Life of Books

Berlin is a place that is indispensable to the imagination, a city where history ticks all the boxes. The longest of all the helter-skelter rides that Berliners have taken through the playground of history ended in 1989 when the Berlin Wall shattered into a million souvenirs. Hundreds of people, mainly young, were killed there trying to escape to the West. The people who built the Wall thought they were building a brave new socialist world. But their dream turned into a nightmare as over time the Wall poisoned, corrupted and brutalized the little world it encircled. In The Secret Life of the Berlin Wall, the dreams and nightmares come dramatically back to life as the spies, informers, double agents and interrogators of Cold War Berlin weave their nervy spells of double lives and double dealing.

An examination of the claims made for Uri Geller's career in espionage.