Celebrate America’s birthday with A CAPITOL FOURTH, the country’s favorite Independence Day tradition. Tom Bergeron takes the helm as the new host of the star-spangled affair, which features an inspiring Olympic tribute to Team USA and performances by Megan Hilty, Javier Colon, Kool & the Gang, Kelli O’Hara and the National Symphony Orchestra, topped off by the greatest display of fireworks anywhere in the nation.
Chart events in the village leading to the people’s involvement in the Civil War of Simon de Montfort and follow the story of Kibworth as it reaches the catastrophic 14th century. The village goes through the worst famine in European history, and then, as revealed in the astonishing village archive in Merton College Oxford, two-thirds of the people die in the Black Death.
Join historian Michael Wood to recover — with the help of the local people and the use of archaeology, landscape, language and DNA — the lost history of the first thousand years of Kibworth, featuring a Roman villa, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, and evidence of life after the Norman Conquest. Learn how the oppressive Norman occupation affected the villagers, from the gallows to the alehouse, and see the medieval open fields in action in the only place where they survive.
In 1998, Dr. Ferid Murad of the UT-Houston Medical School won the Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on the cardiovascular system, while ANTIQUES ROADSHOW made hearts palpitate with its first visit to H-Town. Fourteen years later, a 19th century Chinese jade scepter, originally appraised for $1,500 to $2,500, has spiked to a radiantly healthy $50,000 to $80,000, while a 1912 Titanic menu went from a heart-stopping $75,000 to $100,000 to a less pulse-quickening $50,000 to $75,000.
Before Inspector Morse, there was the rookie Constable Morse, fed up with police work and ready to nip his career in the bud by handing in his resignation. That is, until a murder turned up that only he could solve. Shaun Evans ("The Take," "The Virgin Queen") stars as the young Endeavour Morse, before his signature red Jaguar, but with his deductive powers already running in high gear.
London is, indisputably, the capital of Britain’s royal life. Here, the young Princess Elizabeth grew up before World War II. Here, she and her sister, Margaret, mingled, incognito, with the joyous crowds on VE Day. It is still the center of a working monarchy. Join Trevor McDonald as he reports on the tradition of Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace and visits Horseguards to meet the man who is in charge of the troops who guard the queen.
Aunt Ruth’s uncovered photos of Martin as a six-year-old schoolboy bring back poignant memories of an unhappy childhood for Martin and it prompts him to think of registering their son for boarding school. Louisa discovers Martin has set a date for their baby’s christening without even consulting her. Louisa decides she has had enough. She packs a bag, and takes the baby back home to her mum.
In a part of America that rarely makes headlines, there is a small town with a group of teenagers who will inspire, surprise and bring you to your feet with their astonishing musical virtuosity and the music they make. MARIACHI HIGH spends a year in the life of the champion mariachi ensemble of Zapata High School on the Rio Grande in south Texas.
In a stunning milestone for justice in Central America, a Guatemalan court recently charged former dictator Efraín Rios Montt with genocide for his brutal war against the country’s Mayan people in the 1980s. Pamela Yates’ 1983 documentary, When the Mountains Tremble, provided key evidence for bringing the indictment. Hear the extraordinary story of how a film, aiding a new generation of human rights activists, became a granito — a tiny grain of sand — that helped tip the scales of justice.
Mark Evans and Joy Reidenberg brave the baking desert to dissect a camel. They uncover the secret of the camel’s hump and investigate how its elastic legs, stretchy lips and pedestal (a strange bump on its chest) are among the many surprising adaptations that enable the camel to thrive in such a dry and hostile environment.
