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Follow the story of Norman Borlaug, who not only solved India’s famine problem but would go on to lead a 'Green Revolution' of worldwide agriculture programmes estimated to have saved one billion lives. He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work, but spent the rest of his life watching his methods and achievements come under increasing fire from critics.
Historian Peter Barton explores the events leading up to and on the notoriously bloody first day of the offensive. Walking the battlefield, he explains the failures that led to over 20,000 British deaths, and how the Germans skilfully used the landscape of the Somme to maximise enemy casualties. Calling upon research in German archives, Barton shows just how much they knew in advance about Allied plans through captured documents and interrogations of captured British prisoners and deserters, who were persistently 'spilling the beans'. Part 1 of 3.
Historian Peter Barton concentrates on the second phase of the battle, from the middle of July to the middle of September 1916, and reveals how an Allied advance on objectives which should have lasted days and weeks took months and resulted in yet more carnage. While British tactics were unvarying, the Germans used the changing landscape of the battlefield, developing a tactic of defence in depth. Part 2 of 3.
Historian Peter Barton concludes his history of the battle in the final months of the campaign, showing how a remarkable German tactical revolution begun in the summer of 1916 continued throughout this period to frustrate the Allied advance. This would have profound implications, tragically extending the war beyond Allied expectations. Barton also presents a new narrative which argues that the Battle of the Somme ended not in the winter of 1916, but in the spring of 1917. And he reaches the conclusion that there was no British victory. Part 3 of 3.
Julian goes back to the excavation of two burials from Roman Britain - a wealthy man from Roman Winchester and the lavishly-appointed grave of a woman from the heart of London that holds a special and unexpected secret only recently unlocked. Part 1 of 4.
Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two burials from the Stone Age - the grave of an entire Neolithic family in Dorset and a tomb on Orkney that is helping to reveal some strange and unexpected burial rites from over 5,000 years ago. Part 2 of 4.
Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two very different Iron Age woman - the possible sacrifice of a teenage girl from the Cotswolds, and the extraordinary Chariot Queen, whose well-preserved possessions are leading to some astonishing new conclusions about Iron Age belief, all because of a mirror and its otter-fur bag. Part 3 of 4.
Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries to explore the mystery of the Anglo-Saxon invasions that began after the fall of the Roman Empire. In particular, the rich burial of a warrior and his horse offers up fresh clues to some of the very first pioneers. Part 4 of 4.
What if one day you looked in the mirror and saw the most powerful man in the world? When Louis Ortiz shaved off his goatee one day in 2008, his life changed forever. He looked in the mirror and he didn’t see himself – a middle-aged, unemployed Puerto Rican father from the Bronx. He saw President Barack Obama. The face of change, of hope… of money.
