Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

Andrew Graham-Dixon begins his exploration of German art by looking at the rich and often neglected art of the German middle ages and Renaissance. He visits the towering cathedral of Cologne, a place which encapsulates the varied and often contradictory character of German art. In Munch he gets to grips with the earliest paintings of the Northern Renaissance, the woodcuts of Albrecht Durer and the cosmic visions of the painter Albrecht Altdorfer. Andrew also embarks on a tour of the Bavarian countryside, discovering some of the little-known treasures of German limewood sculpture.

Journey through the long-vanished corners of prehistoric North America, beginning when man first entered the vast, unspoiled continent some 14,000 years ago, in this appealing BBC documentary. Witness ancient beasts, mammoths, mastodons, giant bears, and sabre-toothed cats, and see the legacies each has passed to their modern successors. Computer animation and digital effects bring to life mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, short-faced bears, glyptodonts, and a plethora of smaller animals in a lush Ice Age mosaic. Discoveries from sites across America are the basis for the reconstructions.

D-Day: As It Happens D-Day: As It Happens tells 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 first programme tells the back stories of the real people that the event is following in real time and sets out their missions over the following 24 hours. The D-Day seven include a paratrooper, a midget submariner, a nurse and a military cameraman.

Above all, 'In Search of Beethoven' addresses the central myth of Beethoven's life and work -- that of the heroic, tormented figure battling to overcome the tragic fate of being struck down by deafness in his prime; a man who searched for his elusive, eternal 'immortal beloved,' yet was never to attain lasting happiness.

When man finally broke free of the Earth's gravitational pull the dream of travelling to other planets became a reality. Today scientists are proposing a bizarre array of technologies in the hope of travelling faster through space: from space craft sporting sails that catch laser beams, to propulsion engines powered by a bizarre entity known as anti-matter. Finally explore the science behind the seemingly fanciful notion of warp-drive and a theoretical particle that can travel faster than light.

Exploring the moon was humankind’s most incredible journey. Now through the magic of 3D, you can take that giant leap for yourself. Presented and narrated by Tom Hanks, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon will transport you to the lunar surface to walk alongside the 12 extraordinary astronauts who have been there to experience what they saw, heard, felt, thought and did. A romantic, inspirational depiction of the Apollo astronauts travels on the moon peppered by their quotations of their impressions.