Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

One of Britain's most celebrated artists, Turner showed exceptional artistic talent from an early age and entered the Royal Academy aged fourteen. His English landscapes made his name but there was a darker side to his paintings that was difficult for the critics to swallow, both in the increasingly informal use of paint and the subject matter that was critical of the romanticised vision of Britain in the late nineteenth century.

The human eye can see extraordinary detail, but the eye of a needle held at arm's length is pretty much at the limit of our vision. Anything smaller is simply invisible, at least to the naked eye. But what if we could see this hidden world all around us in greater detail and magnification than ever before? How different would our familiar surroundings then seem? Richard Hammond explores the astonishing miniature universe all around us, revealing that small is not only beautiful, it can also be very, very powerful. From seeing the microscopic changes to ice crystals that can trigger an avalanche to watching in horror the invisible aftermath of a sneeze on a commuter train and learning how the surface of an ordinary-looking plant hides an astounding secret that will make walking on the moon safer, Richard harnesses cutting-edge technologies to transport the viewer into a spectacular micro realm.

This episode covers the European refugee crisis, the largest refugee migration since World War II. Following the refugees on their journey, Vice sets out to cover not only the trials of those seeking asylum from the Syrian conflict, but the reactions from the Western world and the countries that have sought to take them in. Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, the response in many regions has been oppositional, especially in the aftermath of the Paris and Brussels ISIS attacks. In addressing this modern world crisis, Vice depicts the severe trials and tribulations faced by the desperate refugees, and the consequences, noticed or unnoticed, of turning them away.

Hours before Mehmed II launches his final assault, an ominous sight shakes both sides. Rumors of a 40-ship fleet's imminent arrival have swirled for weeks, but it's exact whereabouts remained unknown. Ottoman cannons reduced the city walls to rubble, and Venetian reinforcements arrived too late. The conquest of Constantinople ushers in a new era for the Ottoman Empire, being a dominant force in world politics for 300 years. Mehmed II, in many senses, changed the nature of world history.

Aliens almost certainly do exist. So why haven't we yet met E.T.? It turns out we're only just developing instruments powerful enough to scan for them, and science sophisticated enough to know where to look. As a result, race is on to find the first intelligent aliens. But what would they look like, and how would they interact with us if we met? The answers may come to us sooner than we imagine, for one leading astronomer believes she may already have heard a hint of their first efforts to communicate

In the last episode, Al-Khalili turns detective, hunting for clues that show how the scientific revolution that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe had its roots in the earlier world of medieval Islam. He travels across Iran, Syria and Egypt to discover the huge astronomical advances made by Islamic scholars through their obsession with accurate measurement and coherent and rigorous mathematics.He then visits Italy to see how those Islamic ideas permeated into the west and ultimately helped shape the works of the great European astronomer Copernicus, and investigates why science in the Islamic world appeared to go into decline after the 16th and 17th centuries, only for it to re-emerge in the present day. Al-Khalili ends his journey in the Royan Institute in the Iranian capital Tehran, looking at how science is now regarded in the Islamic world