Crimes That Shook the World

State-of-the-art technology is employed to learn just how far the Vikings explored in America.

May 1945. Even though populations are celebrating Allied victory, the German defeat doesn't promise a better tomorrow. In the five years that separated the end of the Second World War from the start of the Cold War, the world had hoped for a lasting peace, but instead found itself on the brink of apocalypse. Five years of chaos and hope for the people of a shattered Europe, who became pawns in the games of the major powers. May 8th, 1945 : A terrible war finally ended in the smoking ruins of the Reich. The civilian populations celebrated the victory. It was a time for jubilation. But the celebration lasted little more than a few days. The defeat of Nazi Germany did not mean a rosy future lay around the corner. A shattered Europe had to rebuild, heal its wounds, and deal with the fall-out from an interminable and barbarous conflict, whilst sketching the outlines of its future. Throughout Europe a human tide is rising.

A hugely popular three-part study of the age of dinosaurs examines how they lived and behaved, and why they died out.

A three-part examination of damage that humans have inflicted on the planet, and its consequences. A BBC-Discovery Channel coproduction. Attenborough says that 'one species, our own, has developed the unique ability of so altering its surroundings that it can destroy whole species; indeed, whole environments.' He discusses past extinctions and the ability of nature to overcome adversity.