Channel Four (Great Britain)

Festivals showcases three of the world's most iconic cultural festivals at close quarters, revealing the modern face of ancient traditions. In this episode we travel to Morocco for the Berber Wedding Festival, which surrounds marrying couples with music and the sounds of a massive harvest market.

Festivals of life nourish us with ancient rituals in a fast-changing world. Follow two families in Beijing, China as they prepare for and celebrate the New Year. See experiences and customs that reveal a modern face onold traditions. Learn about China's Spring Festival, which focuses on family and good fortune for the New Year ahead, and get a real-world glimpse at how festivals of life nourish us with ancient rituals in a fast-changing world.

In the second film of his series on the Great War's impact, historian David Reynolds looks at how the conflict gave birth to an age of turbulent mass democracy. In the immediate aftermath of war, monarchies toppled, the people rose up, and three iconic leaders-Vladimir Lenin, Woodrow Wilson and Benito Mussolini-emerged with competing visions of power that polarized much of continental Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. In Britain, the socialist Labor...

The Crimean War (October 1853 - February 1856) was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over the declining Ottoman Empire's territories. Considered one of the first "modern" wars, written reports and photographs kept the British public informed of the day-to-day battlefield realities for the first time. This series uses firsthand British, French, and Russian accounts to describe the military and logistical incompetence,...

Continuing his trek across the Muslim world, art scholar Waldemar Januszczak introduces viewers to masterworks in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia-from the gigantic and surreal mud mosques of Mali; to a rare, 10th-century Egyptian ewer carved out of a single piece of rock crystal; to the inspired urban planning of the ancient city of Isfahan in Iran; to the stunning architecture of Uzbekistan's Samarquand. Januszczak shares his knowledge...

The Crimean War (October 1853 - February 1856) was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over the declining Ottoman Empire's territories. Considered one of the first "modern" wars, written reports and photographs kept the British public informed of the day-to-day battlefield realities for the first time. This series uses firsthand British, French, and Russian accounts to describe the military and logistical incompetence,...

When renowned psychologist Paul Salkovskis offers three agoraphobics a base from which to battle their fears, each sufferer embraces the opportunity to utilize the professor's "safe house." There's only one problem-getting there. This program illustrates the paralyzing anxiety agoraphobics typically experience when stepping outside their cloistered comfort zones. After Simon, Su, and Archana finally arrive at the house, Professor Salkovskis forces...

Program host Griff Rhys Jones continues his quest to understand non-Western art forms by travelling to West Africa. Looking beyond the astonishing monetary worth of antique carvings from the region, Jones asks: what makes a piece "authentic" and are such objects still produced by artists today? Is there an exact definition for what constitutes African art? Has there ever been? The investigation starts on Mali's Bandiagara Escarpment, a hub of Dogon...

Over seven centuries of Islamic rule, Spain became the cultural jewel of Europe. This program illustrates that flowering of art and science, placing the rebirth of classical learning in Andalusian rather than Italian cities. Writer Bettany Hughes speaks with Antonia Almagro of the Spanish National Research Council about the intellectual and aesthetic revelations a visitor from Florence or Venice might have experienced in Muslim Granada or Toledo....

The Crimean War (October 1853 - February 1856) was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over the declining Ottoman Empire's territories. Considered one of the first "modern" wars, written reports and photographs kept the British public informed of the day-to-day battlefield realities for the first time. This series uses firsthand British, French, and Russian accounts to describe the military and logistical incompetence,...