Videoteca

location_onLondonpublicGB

Ovid: The Poet and the Emperor 2017
Michael Wood explores the life, works and influence of one of the world's greatest storytellers who died 2,000 years ago. When an Elizabethan literary critic said that the witty soul of Ovid lived on in 'honey tongued Shakespeare', they were just stating the obvious. Ovid, everyone knew, was simply the most clever, sexy and funny poet in the western tradition. His Metamorphoses, it has often been said, is the most influential secular book in European literature.

Sappho: Love and Life on Lesbos 2015 star_border 8
Papyrology expert Margaret Mountford goes in search of the truth behind the legend of Sappho, the most controversial writer of the ancient world and the first authentic woman’s voice in Western history. The mysterious discovery of a lost papyrus containing the words to songs unheard for 1700 years sends Margaret on a journey to discover the truth about Sappho. Was she indeed the first lesbian, a priestess, sex worker, a stern schoolmistress or an aristocratic lady of leisure as readers over the centuries have variously alleged? We ask how each generation’s view of the archetypal liberated woman of letters tells us as much about us and our fears as it does about her.

Shakespeare's Mother: The Secret Life of a Tudor Woman 2015
Michael Wood tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary woman in a time of revolution. Born during the reign of Henry VIII, Mary Arden is the daughter of a Warwickshire farmer, but she marries into a new life in the rising Tudor middle class in Stratford-upon-Avon. There she has eight children, three of whom die young. Her husband becomes mayor, but is bankrupted by his shady business dealings. Faced with financial ruin, religious persecution and power politics, the family is the glue that keeps them together until they are rescued by Mary's successful eldest son - William Shakespeare!

Normandy '44: The Battle Beyond D-Day 2014 star_border 5
James Holland moves beyond the D-Day beaches to reassess the brutal 77-day Battle for Normandy that followed the invasion. Challenging some of the many myths that have grown up around this vital campaign, Holland argues that we have become too comfortable in our understanding of events, developing shorthand to tell this famous story that does great injustice to those that saw action in France across the summer of 1944.

Islam: The Untold Story 2012 star_border 7.6
Historian Tom Holland looks at the origins of Islam and questions its history and authenticity.

Battle of Britain: The Real Story 2010
James Holland presents a fresh analysis into the Battle of Britain, exploring the lesser-told German point of view, and highlighting the role of those who supported the Few during the summer of 1940. Focusing on the tactics, technologies and intelligence available to both sides, Holland examines the ways in which both Germany and Britain used their resources: from aircraft to air defence, and from intelligence to organisation. And, by gaining rare firsthand testimony from German veterans, and access to the untapped diaries and documents we reveal that this was a battle of two sides and many layers. Part of the Battle of Britain season to mark the 70th anniversary.

Gilbert White: the Nature Man 2006
Gilbert White was a "parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist, ecologist and ornithologist. He is best known for his Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. Michael Wood explores the scientific life of the remarkable man.

Stationary Music 2005
In Stationary Music Jayne Parker finds an external shape for an internal process - Katharina Wolpe playing her father's 1925 Sonata.

Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail 1999 star_border 7.3
The worldwide Nazi search for archaeological and historical support for their beliefs in the Aryan (German) master race.

A Bit Of Scarlet 1997 star_border 3.4
A Bit of Scarlet excavates clips from Britain's cinema archives to create a moving and humorous testament to the closeted gay and lesbian images from filmmaking's earliest days.

Hermaphrodite Bikini 1995
Director Clio Barnard, using Harry and Paintbox techniques, intercut with a Hi-8 video diary, presents a non-narrative collage addressing sexual difference and artifice, both imagined and real.

Caught Looking 1991 star_border 3.5
Caught Looking sees a lonely gay man attempt to explore his sexual fantasies with the help of an interactive computer game, guiding his virtual reality persona through a series of potential encounters (naval rough trade, a moustachioed 'clone', a 50s muscle man) while offering wry commentary on the shifting landscape of queer cruising. But is it love he’s really looking for?

Jean Genet Is Dead 1989 star_border 1
Young men find themselves scattered and defencelessly exposed to a merciless sun. Their gaze moves off searchingly into the distance. Deserted places appear to offer vague promises of refuge. On a prison wall, an explosive image of desire emerges, full of hope for freedom.

Ricochet 1984 star_border 10
Ricochet provides a behind-the-scenes portrait of David Bowie during his 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour. Filmed on location in Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong, this film includes live performances of “Fame,” “Look Back in Anger,” “Heroes” and “Ricochet.” Ricochet was previously released to home video in 1984 in a shorter version, separately from the Serious Moonlight video. It was later reissued as an extra with the 2006 DVD reissue of Serious Moonlight.

The Story of China 2016 star_border 8
Michael Wood embarks on a great historical adventure, exploring the stories, people and landscapes that have helped create China's distinctive character and genius over four thousand years.

King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons 2013 star_border 7
Michael Wood argues that the most important and influential British kings were a father, son and grandson who lived over a thousand years ago during the age of the Vikings.

Michael Wood's Story Of England 2010 star_border 8
Groundbreaking series in which Michael Wood tells the story of one place throughout the whole of English history. The village is Kibworth in Leicestershire in the heart of England - a place that lived through the Black Death, the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution and was even bombed in World War Two.

The Story of India 2007 star_border 8.8
For over two millennia, India has been at the centre of world history. But how did India come to be? What is India? These are the big questions behind this intrepid journey around the contemporary subcontinent. In this landmark series, historian and acclaimed writer Michael Wood embarks on a dazzling and exciting expedition through today's India, looking to the present for clues to her past, and to the past for clues to her future. The journey takes the viewer through majestic landscapes and reveals some of the greatest monuments and artistic treasures on Earth. From Buddhism to Bollywood, from mathematics to outsourcing, Michael Wood discovers India's impact on history - and on us.

In Search of Shakespeare 2003 star_border 8
Complete four part series exploring the life of the world's greatest and most famous writer. Presenter-led, mixing travel, adventure, live action interviews and specially shot documentary and live action sequences with the RSC on the road. A history series - it focuses not on the plays, but on the history and sets the life of the poet in the extraordinary times in which he lived. We are introduced to the dark world of Queen Elizabeth's police state - a time of surveillance, militarism and foreign wars. We are reminded that Shakespeare lived through the Spanish Armada, the Gunpowder Plot, the colonisation of the New World and the beginnings of British power in America. But most importantly Shakespeare also lived through England’s Cultural Revolution: an enforced split with the old medieval English spirit world which was to lead the English people into a brave new Protestant future.