Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

Written and presented by Robert Hughes, one of the world’s most prominent art commentators, this program explores the life and work of Francisco Goya—focusing on the painter’s subversive, often gruesome outlook. The video provides in-depth visual and intellectual analysis of dark Goya masterpieces, including The Dream of Reason, Witches in the Air, and The Third of May, as well as examples of his portraiture and early work—such as The Duchess of Alba, both Majas, and a gratuitously violent tapestry painting. Links between Goya’s work, deafness, and political stance are explored in detail, while observations from painter Leon Golub highlight Goya’s continuing relevance.

The series highlights the major events which have shaped the Earth's history and allowed life to flourish. Follow Dr Stewart's personal journey to some of the most remote places on the planet. The atmosphere is Earth’s protective layer, cloaking us in a warm, oxygen-rich embrace and shielding us from the cold hostility of space. It acts as a natural greenhouse, keeping the Earth 51 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it would otherwise be. Yet the atmosphere is also full of contradictions. It’s immensely powerful but at the same time highly sensitive. It’s destructive, yet it shelters us. It was created in part by the planet’s first organisms, and it continues to be essential for life.

Volcanoes are one of nature’s most awesome and destructive forces, but they are also the life force and architect of our planet. They can raise up great mountains and create new land, or they can level cities and destroy entire civilizations. They provide a glimpse of the power of Earth’s internal heat source, without which it would have become a dead planet millions of years ago. In this episode, Iain takes us on a journey to some of the most dramatic places on Earth, starting in Ethiopia.

Earth’s oceans help make our planet different from every other planet in the solar system. As far as we know, no other place is the right temp for liquid water, the most essential ingredient for life to exist. The oceans are Earth’s primary stabilizing force, and their immense power helps to shape the appearance and behavior of the entire planet and everything living on it. And they are also the planet's great unknown - their deepest points have been visited less than the surface of the moon.

'Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia' Following Pr Rodolfo Coria, a world-reknown Argentinian paleontologist, we visit sites of major discoveries he has contributed to in Patagonia and travel back in time to see these amazing beasts come to life in 3D. Patagonia has given us the largest living animal to ever walk the Earth: the titanesque plant-eating Argentinosaur, and its nemesis, the Giganotosaur, a bipedal carnivore that could easily challenge the famous T-Rex.

Explore the extraordinary hidden world of insects, where a leaf weighs more than a car, rain drops feel like exploding hand grenades and a blade of grass soars like a skyscraper. Shot on location in the Borneo rainforest, Bugs! brings the beautiful and dangerous universe of its tiny stars up close and personal with cutting-edge technology that magnifies them up to 250,000 times their normal size. Don't miss this unforgettable, stunning film that reveals the dramatic, savage and awe-inspiring lives of these fascinating creatures. Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure is an extraordinay Imax 3-D film featuring macro photography of exceedingly high quality. Narrated by Judi Dench