Told from both sides of the law, this documentary series follows the FBI's battle to bring down infamous mob boss John Gotti, widely regarded as one of the most dangerous figures in the history of organized crime. Through the testimonies of journalists, real-life personalities who helped take down him, and even former mobsters, the showrunners tell the tale of Gotti’s rise to prominence and his subsequent downfall. The film features archival footage, audio tapes and exclusive interviews. In the first chapter, when Paul Castellano, the head of the Gambino crime family, is murdered on a busy street, there's only one suspect: his former protégé John Gotti.
The last installment of the series features a revealing first-person account that delves into the complexities of Gotti's mentorship and the stark realities of gang life. From a determined youth facing rejection from his father to his bold declaration to work for Gotti, witness the tumultuous ascent of Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano within the criminal underworld. The narrative captures a pivotal confrontation, where Gotti chillingly outlines the dark path ahead, juxtaposed against the awe-inspiring backdrop of the Justice Department in Washington D.C., a symbol of the relentless pursuit that future gangsters will inevitably face. This episode doesn’t just recount events; it places you at the heart of an ongoing battle against organized crime, providing an intimate look at Gotti’s life, from his rise to power to his ultimate indictment and the intense legal battles that followed. Dive into a gripping exploration of loyalty, power, and the consequences of a life in the mafia.
The series Warrior Graveyard uncovers some extraordinary warrior skeletons from history. Archaeologists and forensic scientists use remains to tell the story of famous warriors of the past and unleash the full force of modern forensics upon them: battle scars, bone deformations and recoverable scraps of DNA will all be tested and explored. CGI and drama will then bring them dramatically to life, revealing a revolutionary new picture of how these warriors lived - and died. An archaeological and forensic examination of six crusaders' bones brings to life the 1179 Battle of Jacob's Ford, revealing the wounds that killed the warriors in the Holy Land. With every sword slash comes an insight into an historic day. Excavations along the Israel/ Jordan border are unearthing skeletons and rewriting the history of the First Crusade. The site at Jacob's Ford is the only known Crusader battle site with complete skeletons. To secure the road between Akkon and Damascus, King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem had a mighty castle built at the Jacob's Ford of the Jordan River in October 1178. The fortress was a thorn in the side of Sultan Saladin, so he had it stormed a year later, before it was completed. Excavations have been taking place on the site of the legendary crusader castle since the early 1990s. Archaeologists and forensic experts have examined the remains of six fallen crusaders and uncovered fascinating details about the Battle of Chastellet. The programme has secured access to the excavation and remains of some of the 80 Crusader Knights and 750 foot soldiers stationed at the fort when it was attacked and its Crusaders massacred by Saladin's army in 1179, in the battle that changed the course of history in the Middle East.
Three years in the making, Francis Whately’s film is a social and musical history of (probably) the world’s greatest music festival, as told by its principal curators, Michael and Emily Eavis, and many of the key artists who’ve appeared there between 1970 and 2019 – Billie Eilish, Thom Yorke, Florence Welch, Dua Lipa, The Levellers, Aswad, Orbital, Fatboy Slim, Linda Lewis, Noel Gallagher, Ed O’Brien, Chris Martin, Stormzy and more. Balancing the driving forces of social conscience and hedonism, Glastonbury has always been both a world apart and a barometer of the state of the nation. Looking at the hippie days, CND, the contribution of the travellers, dance music, Britpop, The Wall, the impact of television and the first black British solo headliner, this film takes viewers backstage and deep into the archive to reveal the forces that have driven this alternative nation between utopia and dystopia, the greatest night of your life and a muddy field in the middle of nowhere. This is not a chronological plod through the festival’s evolution so much as a thematic and story-driven exploration of the peaks and troughs, and the agonies and ecstasies, that have shaped Glastonbury’s 50 years and counting.
Since the dawn of civilization, humans have wondered who or what created the universe. Religion offers a spiritual answer, but do the latest discoveries in physics show evidence of a transcendent intelligence, or simply that the laws of physics by themselves could have led to the universe in which we live? This episode embarks on a mind-bending scientific search for God, asking physicists and theologians if the seemingly miraculous way the universe has been calibrated to support life is evidence of a creator...whether string theory will eventually be able to rule out the existence of God...why Stephen Hawking says the universe could have been created spontaneously...and how an advanced civilization in another universe could have conceivably created our own.
In this revealing documentary, Giancarlo Granda, former pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Hotel, shares the intimate details of his 7-year relationship with a charming older woman, Becki Falwell, and her husband, the Evangelical Trump stalwart Jerry Falwell Jr. Directed by Billy Corben, the film outlines Granda's entanglement with the Falwell's seemingly perfect lives and the overarching influence this affair had on a presidential election. The life of Jerry Falwell — the late Moral Majority televangelist who for decades helped catalyze the rightward shift of American evangelicals before his death in 2007 — is a quintessentially American story. But it’s in the next generation that the Falwell narrative becomes at once soap opera and morality tale. The film covers the graceless fall of Jerry Falwell Jr., who after the death of his father was placed in the presidency of the family’s conservative organ Liberty University. There, he seemed to remain painfully in thrall to his appetites. We hear testimony about his alleged tendency to drink on the job and discomfiting, slurry interviews between him and sympathetic media — but most crucially, we receive the testimony of Giancarlo Granda. Granda was a pool attendant at a Miami hotel when he met Falwell and his wife, Becki, in 2012. Today, he alleges that he was persuaded to have sex with Becki while Falwell watched, and that the pair engaged in an ongoing campaign of communication with him that could be described as coercive. His energies were consumed with managing their tempers and occasionally threatening behavior, and he blames the swirl of scandal around them for derailing his professional future. Plainspoken and only occasionally visibly emotional, Granda is his own best advocate as he describes a couple who, he says, craved his body and were willing to discard the rest of him.
In the first chapter, when Paul Castellano, the head of the Gambino crime family, is murdered on a busy street, there's only one suspect: his former protégé John Gotti.