Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

Humans are so clever they’ve built their own habitat, designed to keep wild nature out. Yet as we discover the urban environment is totally dependant on the natural world. Over the three years of filming for Human Planet, the teams have spent time with over seventy different communities in countries across the planet. Despite seeing many different ways of living, there are some aspects of family life that remain the same whether you live in a tree house in West Papua, or a brick house in Bolton. These similarities became very clear when the urban team went to film on a rubbish dump in Kenya. Here on the Kibarani dump on the outskirts of Mombasa, Ali, Ashe and their family live and survive amongst the rubbish, and even here, just like anywhere on the planet, everything stops for a nice cup of tea!

This edition explores the vast grasslands of the continent, hauntingly beautiful regions inhabited by strange creatures - giant anteaters, armadillos, maned wolves, capybara and jaguars.

In the Youtube video galaxy a new star has been born: the ASMR videos. It stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, and refers to the pleasant feeling that users associate with this type of digital content. The physical reaction also changes significantly from individual to individual and people reportedly experience a pleasant feeling of tingling in the scalp, which can spread to the shoulders and back, and usually be accompanied by a feeling of relaxation and generalised well-being. The intensity of the response can also be very strong, so much so that some have used the word 'braingasm', literally 'brain orgasm' to express the feeling.
It's likely that you've already heard about it, but if not, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about it. Especially because, for the first time, it seems that the benefits of ASMR videos have been scientifically proven.

Fourth episode examines how plants either share environments harmoniously or compete for dominance within them. Attenborough highlights the 1987 hurricane and the devastation it caused. However, for some species, it was that opportunity for which they had lain dormant for many years. The space left by uprooted trees is soon filled by others who move relatively swiftly towards the light. The oak is one of the strongest and longest-lived, and other, lesser plants nearby must wait until the spring to flourish before the light above is extinguished by leaves. Tropical forests are green throughout the year, so brute force is needed for a successful climb to the top of the canopy: the rattan is an example that has the longest stem of any plant. As its name suggests, the strangler fig 'throttles' its host by growing around it and cutting off essential water and light. Some can take advantage of a fallen tree by setting down roots on the now horizontal trunk and getting nutriment from the surrounding moss and the fungi on the dead bark. The mountain ash (eucalyptus regnans) grows so tall, that regeneration becomes a considerable problem. It is easily flammable, so its solution is to shed its seeds during a forest fire and sacrifice itself. It therefore relies on the periodic near-destruction of its surroundings in order to survive. Attenborough observes that catastrophes such as fire and drought, while initially detrimental to wildlife, eventually allow for deserted habitats to be reborn.

D-Day: As It Happens is a 24-hour history event to be broadcast across TV, web, mobile devices and social media, telling the story of this pivotal event in 20th-century history in a completely new way. Using newly-analysed archive footage, viewers can track the progress of seven people who were there on the day, each of them a real participant in the 1944 invasion. And they can do so moment by moment in real time, encountering the twists and turns of the fighting at the same time as the D-Day seven did, and learning their fate as the action unfolds in parallel with the present, Narrated by Peter Snow, with Channel 4 presenter and former marine Arthur Williams, and experts including former British Army officer Colonel Tim Collins and front-line journalist Lorna Ward. The second programme reveals what happened to the seven real people the event is following in real time, and also rounds up the events of D-Day.

David the filmmaker is 40 years old, but he still doesn't feel like a man - not a real man anyway. When his wife becomes pregnant with a boy, David's manhood insecurities deepen. How can he bring his son into manhood if he feels so estranged from his own? This question sets him off on a quest for his manhood that leads him from voice lessons to a men's group to deer-hunting, and ultimately back to his own father. My Own Man is an intimate, humorous, and emotional account of one man's search for what it means to be a man and a father in the 21st century.