Season 2007 2007

TV-PG

Dramatised documentary telling the true story of how the HMS Venturer hunted down and sank the U-Boat U864 in February 1945, the only time two submarines duelled to the death underwater. Eyewitness accounts, secret and long-forgotten archive material and a dive into the Baltic's frozen depths bring to life the full amazing story of U864's last hours.

Documentary which tells the inside story of the rise and fall of Beatlemania, using previously unseen archive footage and interviews with those who accompanied the Fabs on tour.

By 1966 the Beatles had played over 1,400 gigs, toured the world four times and sold the equivalent of 200 million records. At the height of their popularity, and without warning, they pulled the plug and never toured again.

In 1783, thousands in Britain died as a result of an environmental disaster, choking on poisonous gases from a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland. The ensuing winter was one of the harshest ever recorded and claimed even more lives. This forgotten disaster has remained a mystery for the past 200 years. 'Timewatch' reveals the evidence and reviews the likelihood of a repetition.

It is unique in the Roman World. A spectacular and complex stone barrier measuring 74 miles long, and up to 15 feet high and 10 feet thick. For 300 years Hadrian's Wall stood as the Roman Empire's most imposing frontier and one of the unsung wonders of the ancient world.

Almost 2,000 years after it was built, Hadrian's Wall is proving to be a magical time capsule - a window into the human past. Archaeologists have properly excavated less than 1per cent of it, but they have unearthed extraordinary findings. With presenter Julian Richards Timewatch journeys back through time to unlock the secrets of a lost world.

Long before World War II, in WWI in fact, Germany began the world's first strategic bombing campaign. In an attempt to demoralize the people of Britain, in early 1915 a German zeppelin airship dropped bombs on the Norfolk town of Great Yarmouth. It was the start of a campaign lasting two-and-a-half years which killed 1,500 people. Timewatch reexamines the forgotten Blitz.

After quarreling over a bank loan, two men took part in the last fatal duel staged on Scottish soil. BBC News's James Landale retraces the steps of his ancestor, who made that final challenge. On 23 August 1826, two men met at dawn in a field just outside Kirkcaldy in southern Fife. Only one walked away alive. One was David Landale, a linen merchant and pillar of the community. The other was George Morgan, a soldier-turned-banker with a fiery temper. The pair had quarreled over a bank loan, an argument that had led the banker to spread rumours about his client's creditworthiness. The merchant had in turn taken his accounts elsewhere and written a stiff letter of complaint to the Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh. And that is where it would have stayed had not Morgan's temper got the better of him one morning when he struck Landale about the head with an umbrella in Kirkcaldy High Street.

The story of the worst British disaster of the Falklands conflict of 1982 is told in Timewatch: Remember The Galahad. Two troopships were bombed by Argentine planes at Fitzroy Inlet, with the loss of 50 lives. One of them, Sir Galahad, was packed with Welsh Guards who had been waiting for six hours in broad daylight to disembark. Twenty-five years on, survivors and others affected by the tragedy tell how this act of war continues to shape so many lives.

In 1970 a flight with more than twenty children on board was hijacked by a Palestinian guerrilla group. It was the only time a British commercial aircraft has ever been hijacked. Timewatch probes the ethics of negotiating with hijackers and discusses the alternatives.

A team of archaeologists and scientists comb Crete for conclusive evidence that Europe's first great civilization, the Minoans, was destroyed by a devastating natural disaster. Is it possible that the sudden fate of the Minoans was the origin of Plato's tale of Atlantis, the fabulous city that was swallowed by the sea?

Told in their own words, these are the hair-raising stories of four young Jewish children in France secretly hidden from the Nazis. They were taken in by individuals and organisations determined that even as their parents were killed, they should live.

Thanks to the revolutionary work of forensic anthropologists Dr Fabian Kanz and Professor Karl Grossschmidt, 'Timewatch' has been able to establish a detailed picture of how gladiators may have lived, fought and died 2000 years ago in Ephesus. A tombstone identified one 50 year-old body as gladiator trainer Euxenius. His remains, and the skeletons of 68 other gladiators nearby, reveal much about the diet, lifestyle, medical care and fighting conditions of the legendary warriors.

In June 1953 Britain was still suffering from the privations imposed by World War II. Despite the hardships, the country was excited by a once-in-a-lifetime event. A young queen was beginning her reign. Thanks to television, the common Briton was able to see his monarch crowned for the first time in Britain's 1000 year history. Observers and participants shared their memories of the historic occasion.

In 1943 Noor Inayat Khan became the first woman wireless operator to be sent into war torn France. It was the most dangerous job in SOE (Churchill's secret army) and she was not expected to survive more than 6 weeks. The daughter of an Indian mystic and a writer of children's stories in pre-war Paris, she was a curious choice for a secret agent. But London was desperate. They had a traitor in their midst and that summer Noor would become their vital link with Nazi-occupied Paris. Betrayed, captured and tortured, Noor revealed nothing of SOE before she was executed. Awarded the George Cross for her bravery, Timewatch tells the story of the Princess Spy