New on
BBC Knowledge in July 2009:
Hott! Stephen Fry In AmericaPremiered: Friday, 3 July 2009 at 21h30
Continues every Friday at 21h30
Stephen Fry was very nearly an American. Just before he was born, his father was offered, but turned down, a job at Princeton University. The writer and actor explores the country which he might have called home and which has always fascinated him.
Stephen hires a taxi and sets about visiting each and every one of the 50 US States, to experience for himself the variety of people and places that make up the country.
Starting in the north-east, Stephen explores the states that make up New England, before heading south to the nation's capital and ending up at the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, where Abraham Lincoln made his famous address.
He then heads to the American Deep South, joining coal miners deep underground in West Virginia and enjoys a bluegrass music-making session in Tennessee before celebrating Thanksgiving at an old plantation house in Georgia.
Journeying west to the Mississippi Delta, Stephen experiences Mardi Gras on the streets of New Orleans and visits the abandoned neighbourhoods destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. His journey also takes him on a tour through Angola Penitentiary, one of America’s most notorious prisons.
In the American mid-west, Stephen visits the Badlands of South Dakota before heading to the deluxe skiing resort of Aspen, Colorado, and then on through New Mexico and Arizona to the Pacific coastline, joining Big Foot believers in the Oregon redwood forests and visiting an edgy cabaret in Seattle.
Stephen’s epic journey culminates in the contrasting surroundings of America’s newest states as he embarks on an unsuccessful whale hunt in the Alaskan wilderness and goes swimming with sharks in the islands of Hawaii.
Did you know?Stephen Fry was the third person/twitterer to break the 100 000 followers mark on Twitter - after Barrack Obama and CNN. In February this year it was announced that his was the third Tweet to hit 100 000 .
Tribe 3Premiered: Friday, 3 July 2009 at 22h30
Continues every Friday at 22h306 episodes
In this third series of extreme tribal adventures, explorer and expedition leader Bruce Parry experiences amazing cultures around the world. Bruce believes there is only one way to understand a different culture - to immerse yourself in it completely.
In previous series, Bruce has lived with cannibals in New Guinea and taken life-threatening jungle potions in the jungles of Central Africa.
Now, he pushes the boundaries of immersive anthropology with more journeys to the ends of the Earth and the people who live there. This series finds Bruce undertaking six long expeditions to the world's most remote, untouched and flamboyant people.
Tribes featured in this series include the Matis of the Amazon, whose first contact with modern man was only 40 years ago, the Nenet reindeer herders of Siberia, the devout Buddhist Layap tribe of Himalayan kingdom Bhutan, and the inhabitants of the tiny, isolated South Pacific island Anuta.
American Future: A History By Simon SchamaPremiere date: Monday, 6 July 2009 at 22h30
Continues every Monday at 22h304 episodes
Every so often, moments arrive in the history of great states when business as usual is suspended. A choice has to be made, not just between politicians or parties, but about the American future.
Such moments are when the practice of democracy throws citizens headlong into an intense, no-holds-barred debate about the character of their nationhood: the bonds and boundaries of their allegiance, the condition of their governance and the life-expectancy of their global power. The US election of 2008 was exactly such a juncture.
After 9/11, after Katrina, Enron and Baghdad, the robustness of American optimism is struggling to reassert itself against the sobering reality of military frustration and domestic anxieties. This is an America grappling with an un-American sense of its own limits.
Turning to fascinating moments in American history to understand the present, connecting legendary presences such as Thomas Jefferson, Henry Ford, Mark Twain and General Lucius Clay with contemporary soldiers, businessmen, truckers, schoolteachers and politicians, this series offers a timely and gripping vision of the United States – past and present – facing its moment of truth.
Jeremy Clarkson's MotorworldPremiere date: Wednesday, 8 July 2009 at 20h30 and 21h00
Continues every Wednesday at 20h30 and 21h006 episodes: runs for three weeks
Britain’s favourite motoring enthusiast Jeremy Clarkson visits a different country each episode to explore motoring in other cultures, covering everything from the national car manufacturing industry to driving tests.
Jeremy’s travels begin in Asia where, despite the country’s renowned efficiency, Japan has huge traffic jam problems, and the Vietnamese car industry is still recovering from the war.
From Vietnam, Jeremy heads to Detroit – famous for its car production – and then across the Atlantic to Iceland, where traffic jams are unheard of, and snowmobiles rule the roads.
In Italy, Jeremy discovers why Italians feel it’s unnecessary to wear seatbelts, or stop at pedestrian crossings. His adventure is completed in India, which hosts rallies where the navigators are blind, and where cars are often blessed before they’re purchased.
Jeremy’s quick-witted humour coupled with his passion for all that is car-related complement this insight into world motoring, and makes this series essential viewing for both motor enthusiasts and anyone interested in cultural diversity around the world.
James May's Big IdeasPremiere date: Wednesday, 15 July 2009 at 21h30
Continues every Wednesday at 21h303 episodes
Top Gear’s James May travels the globe in search of the ultimate flying machine, the best robot and alternative ways to power the planet in this insightful new series.
He begins his journey by heading into the frozen wastes of Russia to pilot one of the best-kept secrets of the Cold War. He then visits the US to fly the world’s only surviving flying car. After watching a man struggle with his chopper in Japan, he returns to Sussex and attempts to turn himself into a human rocket - all in the pursuit of finding a better way to get from A to B.
In Japan, he is charmed by a woman wearing an electro-mechanical jumpsuit that can double her strength, before having a close encounter with a robot that’s almost human.
James then visits Guildford, where he takes a solar powered car to its limit, then travels to Holland where he meets the first Dutchman in space who swapped rockets for kites as he tries to harvest the power of the jet-stream. In the deserts of New Mexico, James seeks out some modern-day alchemists who conjure petrol out of thin air.
Brimming with idiosyncratic characters and intriguing inventions, James May’s Big Ideas is as entertaining as it is informative.
Victoria's Empire 3Premiere date: Monday, 20 July 2009 at 21h30
Continues every Monday at 21h303 episodes
Comedienne Victoria Wood travels through the old British Empire in search of the legacy of Queen Victoria.
Victoria’s irreverent pilgrimage takes her to an array of diverse places around the world that also share her namesake, from Fort Victoria in Ghana, to Victoria, Nova Scotia, and finishing at Zambia’s Victoria Falls.
Victoria’s adventure is fuelled by her fascination with Queen Victoria - both her public and private persona. She explores how Victoria felt about colonisation, and what she was like as a wife and mother as well as ruler of Great Britain.
In her inimitable fashion, Victoria Wood records her adventure tracing a nation’s colourful history, blending outrage and eccentricity with a celebration of the ordinary.
Dave Cruickshank's Adventure's In ArchitecturePremiere date: Friday, 31 July 2009 at 19h30
Continues every Friday at 19h308 episodesDan Cruickshank travels across the world to learn about the history of humanity through architecture, showing how our buildings reveal our beliefs, aspirations, and ingenuity.
Each episode is based around a theme: Beauty, Connection, Death, Disaster, Dreams, Pleasure, Paradise and Power. Dan explores famous cities and buildings that illuminate each theme, showing how different cultures and eras used architecture to answer basic human needs, and how this is still relevant in today’s society.
The buildings Dan visits are ones with gripping stories – stories that develop as Dan explores the country around the buildings as well as the buildings themselves. He takes part in the life of these places, delving into their rich culture and meeting locals and authorities on the buildings to build a fascinating and compelling picture of mankind’s relationship with architecture.
This is a history of humanity through architecture - an affirmation of the human spirit that celebrates architecture as the richest and most complex of creative activities.