ITV Productions.

Has any single person shaped English more than William Shakespeare? This program uses unparalleled access to some of the greatest English texts, including the first English dictionary and a rare first folio of Shakespeare's plays, to illustrate the great Bard's influence. John Barton, honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, discusses the sound and accessibility of Shakespeare's words. His impact is also examined in the larger...

A life-sustaining envelope of gas surrounds the earth. This atmosphere contains oxygen, CO2, water vapor, and other gases-it is what generates climate, which affects all living beings. This program analyzes the sun's gradual brightening and the relationship between sunlight and CO2, explains why the atmospheres of Mars and Venus cannot sustain life, theorizes about the disappearance of dinosaurs and a dinosaur-friendly climate, and explains the relationship...

By building roads, watering crops, and grazing cattle, we are constantly changing the climate. We may also modify the weather by cloud seeding, though there is no scientifically accepted proof that rain or snow would not have occurred naturally in cases where seeding appears to have been successful. This program shows how migration in the Sahel has altered regional climate; examines the tomorrow-be-damned policy of water usage in Arizona; and investigates...

Climate is a changing phenomenon, the first signs of alteration appearing in its day-to-day behavior-i.e., the weather. One readily observable recent climatic change is the increase in the number and ferocity of giant weather events like hurricanes. This program explains the origin of tropical storms, tropical rainforests, and polar deserts. It shows the route and the effect of the Gulf Stream and explains its role in the Little Ice Age of the 16th...

When Massasoit hailed the Plymouth settlers in their own language, they might have taken it for a sign that English would dominate the New World. Packed with surprising etymologies and intriguing stories, this program traces the dynamic relationship between English and America, exploring the linguistic influence of westward expansion, cowboy culture, slave culture, and encounters with the French and Spanish languages. Key works examined include The...

In late-medieval England, English quietly ousted French in law and government- but the move to make it God's language meant bloodshed. This program looks at the battle for a Bible in English, a struggle with huge impact on the language itself. Dramatic readings from successive English Bibles show the language's evolution. Location footage and original manuscripts illustrate key figures and events, such as John Wycliffe, the Lollards, and the first...

This program follows English through the 18th and 19th centuries, from attempts at reforming and standardizing the tongue in the Age of Reason to the soaring verse of Romanticism and the verbal prudishness of the Victorian era. Linguistic milestones are highlighted by original editions of critical texts, including Newton's Opticks, Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, Thomas Sheridan's British Education, and George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion....

After a daring diamond heist, all fingers point to crime boss Jimmy Vincent, released from prison on the very day of the robbery. When teenagers find the two-week-old corpse of Dominic Sylvester, everyone in the Willesden constabulary dismisses it as the lonely death of a reclusive old man - everyone, that is, except Davies. Bunny Hopper is half of the almost-famous comedy team Bunny & Jules, dies onstage in a bingo hall, the apparent victim of poison....

"In Jane Austen's gentle parody of gothic fiction, romance novel addict Catherine Morland is invited to a medieval country house that appeals to her most lurid fantasies. She forms a close friendship with the younger son on the estate, Henry Tilney, but their budding romance is mysteriously cut short"--Container.

Harm done: Detective Chief Inspector Wexford faces growing public unrest over the release of a pedophile, an odd series of abductions, and the disappearance of a wealthy couple's daughter from her bedroom. The fallen curtain: Abducted briefly as a boy, Richard Clayton cannot remember what happened during those few fateful hours. The mystery dogs him until he reaches the verge of manhood himself.