A unique journey around the weird and wonderful planet that we call home.
When Yuri Gagarin was blasted into space he became the first human to get a proper look at where we live. 'The Earth is blue,' he exclaimed, 'how amazing!'. Suddenly our perspective on the world had changed forever. We thought we were going to explore the universe, yet the most extraordinary thing we discovered was our own home planet, the Earth.

Following up on his 2007 documentary, The Most Hated Family in America, Louis Theroux returns to Topeka, Kansas, for a week-long visit with the Westboro Baptist Church.
* First broadcast: BBC Two, 9:00PM Sunday, 3 April, 2011

Philosophy
8/8.
In the final episode of Harvard professor Michael Sandel's famous series of lectures on the philosophy of justice, he raises two questions. Is it necessary to reason about the good life in order to decide what rights people have and what is just? And if so, how is it possible to argue about the nature of the good life?
* First broadcast: BBC Four, 8:30PM Tuesday, 15 March, 2011

In the second stop in his exploration of the wonders of the universe, Professor Brian Cox goes in search of humanity's very essence to answer the biggest questions of all: what are we? And where do we come from? This film is the story of matter - the stuff of which we are all made.
* First broadcast: BBC One, 9:00PM Sunday, 13 March, 2011

Philosophy
7/8.
The seventh of Harvard professor Michael Sandel's famous lectures on the philosophy of justice looks at the issue of individual rights and the freedom to choose. If our place in society is determined by where we best fit, doesn't that eliminate personal choice? What if I am best suited to do one kind of work, but I want to do another?
* First broadcast: BBC Four, 8:30PM Tuesday, 8 March, 2011

Having explored the wonders of the solar system, Professor Brian Cox steps boldly on to an even bigger stage - the universe.
* First broadcast: BBC One, 9:00PM Sunday, 6 March, 2011

The sixth of Michael Sandel's famous lectures on the philosophy of justice looks at the Greek philosopher Aristotle and the rules of golf.
Aristotle believed that the purpose of politics was to promote and cultivate the virtue of a country's citizenry. He argued that those citizens who contribute most to the purpose of the community are the ones who should be most rewarded. But how do we really know the purpose of a community, or a practice?

The fifth of Harvard professor Michael Sandel's lectures on the philosophy of justice focuses on a simple but controversial question - is it just to tax the rich to help the poor?
The American philosopher John Rawls argued that in order to work out a fair social system, one must start from an imaginary position where everyone has the same opportunity to succeed in life. But is this ever possible in the real world?
Sandel polls his students to find out how many of them are first-borns, and makes an intriguing discovery.
* First broadcast: BBC Four, 8:30PM Tuesday, 22 February, 2011

In the fourth in a series of lectures drawn from Harvard professor Michael Sandel's famous undergraduate course on the philosophy of justice discusses:
Do we all have a categorical duty to tell the truth, even to a murderer? The fourth of Michael Sandel's famous lectures on the philosophy of justice looks at the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, whose stringent theory of morality allowed for no exceptions. Kant believed that telling a lie, even a white lie, was a violation of one's own dignity.
* First broadcast: BBC Four, 8:35PM Tuesday, 15 February, 2011

Philosophy

3/8.
In the third in a series of lectures drawn from Harvard professor Michael Sandel's famous undergraduate course on the philosophy of justice, he introduces the British philosopher John Stuart Mill and compares the artistic merits of Shakespeare and The Simpsons.
* First broadcast: BBC Four, 8:30PM Tuesday, 08 February, 2011

Poet Roger McGough narrates the extraordinary story of how a simple invention - the shipping container - changed the world forever and forced Britain into the modern era of globalisation.
With a blend of archive and modern-day filming, the incredible impact of the box is told through the eyes of dockers, seafarers, ship spotters, factory workers and logisticians. From quayside in huge container ports to onboard ships the size of four football pitches, the documentary explains how the shipping container has transformed our communities, economy and coastline.

Louis Theroux spends time with a small and very committed subculture of ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers. He discovers a group of people who consider it their religious and political obligation to populate some of the most sensitive and disputed areas of the West Bank, especially those with a spiritual significance dating back to the Bible.
Throughout his journey, Louis gets close to the people most involved with driving the extreme end of the Jewish settler movement - finding them warm, friendly, humorous, and deeply troubling.

*First broadcast: BBC TWO, 9:00PM Thursday 3 February 2011

Britain is a less equal society than at any time since World War One. In Who Gets the Best Jobs, Richard Bilton investigates access to the professions - and finds that the best jobs are being snapped up by an increasingly small gene pool of privileged, well-connected families.
Getting a good degree matters more than ever - and those from low income families can no longer easily work their way up from the bottom without the qualifications, contacts and social skills that their more fortunate counterparts make full use of.

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.
* First broadcast: BBC Four, 9:00PM Wednesday 2 February 2011

Comedy series in which Charlie Brooker uses a mix of sketches and jaw-dropping archive footage to explore the gulf between real life and television.
From kids shows to Countdown, TV has something to infuriate anyone of any age. Warning: this episode contains creepy dolls and the 1980s Oxo dad.
* First broadcast: BBC Two, 10:00PM Tuesday, 01 February, 2011