13 episodes · 10th January 2003
A shipwreck off Devon uncovered much more than a haul of Islamic coins and jewellery - it also revealed a forgotten time when coastal Europe lived in terror of the "Barbary pirates". The story behind the ship, and why over a million Europeans vanished into North Africa in the 250 years from 1570. First of six new installments.
For over 1,000 years, Maya kings ruled Central America's jungles. While Europe was just emerging from the Dark Ages, they were great architects, artists, and mathematicians. Then, at the height of their power, they abandoned their cities and vanished. Follow archaeologist Kathryn Reese-Taylor on an expedition to unravel the mystery.
Stephenson's Rocket is famous because of the contest it won in 1829. Few realise it triumphed by default when its two rivals had to withdraw because of faulty parts. Using replica engines, Timewatch gives the rivals a second opportunity to beat The Rocket in a full-scale restaging of the Rainhill Trials. Throughout the event, the story of the world's first intercity railway is relayed.
Ramesses III is remembered as Egypt's last great pharaoh, but the truth was very different. With the help of papyrus that was never intended to survive, the dark workings of a pharaoh in crisis are revealed. It's a story of conspiracy, vengeance, and murder that belies the positive image of his reign that Ramesses III wanted future generations to believe.
The first action involving the British in the First World War was a cavalry skirmish - German lances against British swords. Within eight weeks, it was transformed into a bloody trench stalemate that would last for three years. Why did the whole nature of warfare change so dramatically during this one brief period?
Due to be taken out of service on Friday, the world's only supersonic passenger plane is finally brought to ground. But our love affair with Concorde looks set to endure for years to come. Celebrity frequent fliers, engineers, pilots, and stewardesses tell the story of an icon.
The Battle of Rorke's Drift is routinely presented as a significant British victory of the Zulu wars. Yet on the same day, at the nearby Battle of Isandlwana, heavily equipped British troops were crushed by Zulu warriors bearing little more than spears. Battle re-enactments shot on location and dramatisation of Queen Victoria's journals explore one of the most effective cover-ups in British military history.
Freak weather conditions on 31 January 1953 led to a storm that cut a destructive swathe across the North Sea coastlines of Britain and the Netherlands. Over 2,000 people were killed and thousands left homeless in the worst national peacetime disaster of the 20th century. This documentary charts the course of events, uncovering poignant stories of heroism and suffering, and asks how this catastrophe came to be forgotten so quickly.
Circus strongman-turned-adventurer Giovanni Belzoni filled the British Museum with some of ancient Egypt's greatest treasures, including the seven-ton head of Rameses II. But as a result of a bitter feud he died in obscurity, never gaining the recognition he deserved. This docudrama advances the case for Belzoni as one of Egyptology's founding fathers.
Revealing the extraordinary detective story behind the disappearance in 1944 of highly decorated pilot Wing Commander Adrian Warburton, whose vanishing at the age of 26 sparked a 60-year mystery. In 2002 a diverse group of historians, archaeologists, and air-crash investigators began to piece together the puzzle through a series of seemingly unrelated investigations.
For 40 years the science world was hoodwinked by a forged "missing link" between ape and man. But who was responsible for the infamous "Piltdown Man" hoax? Timewatch lines up the suspects, including the relic's "discoverer" Charles Dawson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and even staff at the Natural History Museum.
The Second World War Normandy landings helped seal Winston Churchill's reputation as a great wartime leader, but 29 years earlier his first D-Day - the disastrous assault on Gallipoli in 1915 - almost finished his military career. Underwater footage of sunken battleships in the Dardanelles and revealing evidence left on the Turkish beaches are reminders of the bitter lessons learnt prior to the successful invasion of Normandy in 1944.
In a dramatised account, Timewatch follows a German soldier caught up in the most destructive conflict in history - Hitler's invasion of Russia. We travel the route that idealistic young Nazi Henry Metelmann took and see how the choices he made meant he emerged from the war a brutalised man. Last in series, which returns in January.
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