With a humorous and surprisingly revealing look at modern farming, this documentary series follows Jeremy Clarkson as he trades fast cars and city life for the unpredictable challenges of running a working farm in the English countryside. What begins as an ambitious new venture soon becomes a constant battle against weather, bureaucracy, livestock, machinery, and the harsh realities faced by farmers every day. Combining stunning rural landscapes with Clarkson's trademark humor, the series offers an entertaining and eye-opening glimpse into life on the land. In the first three episodes, Jeremy finds himself largely on his own as key members of the team are away, forcing him to take greater responsibility for the farm's daily operations. Persistent rain threatens crucial planting schedules, while new equipment, a new farmhand, and even a potential new business opportunity provide fresh challenges and unexpected lessons. As he searches for a local pub to expand his ambitions, Jeremy also faces competition, difficult decisions, and the constant pressure of keeping the farm running in an environment where success often depends on factors completely beyond his control.
Rome was once a largely democratic society, with regular elections. This Republic lasted for 500 years, but then came Tiberius Gracchus. He believed in the ideals of the Republic - fairness, decency and justice for everyone -but was appalled by Rome's aristocrats' treatment of the poor. So he unleashed the power of the mob upon the streets of Rome, with devastating consequences.
In the final part, Professor Al-Khalili uncovers tales of success and heartache in the story of chemists' battle to control and combine the elements, and build our modern world. He reveals the dramatic breakthroughs which harnessed their might to release almost unimaginable power, and he journeys to the centre of modern day alchemy, where scientists are attempting to command the extreme forces of nature and create brand new elements.
brilliant mathematicians whose genius has profoundly affected us, but which tragically drove them insane and eventually led to them all committing suicide. Kurt Gödel, the introverted confidant of Einstein, proved that there would always be problems which were outside human logic. His life ended in a sanatorium where he starved himself to death. Finally, Alan Turing, the great Bletchley Park code breaker, father of computer science and homosexual, died trying to prove that some things are fundamentally unprovable.
Mammals dominate the planet. They do it through having warm blood and by the care they lavish on their young. Weeks of filming in the bitter Antarctic winter reveal how a mother Weddell seal wears her teeth down keeping open a hole in the ice so she can catch fish for her pup.
A powered hot air balloon produces stunning images of millions of migrating bats as they converge on fruiting trees in Zambia, and slow-motion cameras reveal how a mother rufous sengi exhausts a chasing lizard. A gyroscopically stabilised camera moves alongside migrating caribou, and a diving team swim among the planet's biggest fight as male humpback whales battle for a female.
Mammals' ability to learn new tricks is the key to survival in the knife-edge world of hunters and hunted. In a TV first, a killer whale off the Falklands does something unique: it sneaks into a pool where elephant seal pups learn to swim and snatches them, saving itself the trouble of hunting in the open sea. Slow-motion cameras reveal the star-nosed mole's newly-discovered technique for smelling prey underwater: it exhales then inhales a bubble of air ten times per second. Young ibex soon learn the only way to escape a fox - run up an almost vertical cliff face - and young stoats fight mock battles, learning the skills that make them one of the world's most efficient predators.
In the first three episodes, Jeremy finds himself largely on his own as key members of the team are away, forcing him to take greater responsibility for the farm's daily operations. Persistent rain threatens crucial planting schedules, while new equipment, a new farmhand, and even a potential new business opportunity provide fresh challenges and unexpected lessons. As he searches for a local pub to expand his ambitions, Jeremy also faces competition, difficult decisions, and the constant pressure of keeping the farm running in an environment where success often depends on factors completely beyond his control.