EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS

Series 1 | 2

SERIES 1

1. Buried Alive: A paralysing poison used to create zombies may have a future for space travellers.

2 . Miracles of Faith - or Creations of Chemistry?: Madonnas that weep and statues that drink. Are they religious or the work of fraudsters.

3 . Monsters from the Lake: Is Loch Ness a Jurassic park or hoaxer’s heaven?

4 . Spontaneous Human Combustion: Forensic science investigates the cause of this bizarre occurrence.

5 . The Bermuda Triangle: Does new evidence confirm the area as the most treacherous sea on earth?

6 . Atlantis Found?: The search for this mystical city goes from Europe to the high plains of South America.

7 . Between Life and Death: Those who have narrowly escaped death help shed light on the workings of the human brain.

8 . ESP: Is extra-sensory perception merely a collection of coincidences or is it a skill which could help solve crimes, or even fight wars?

9 . Physical Feats: Offering insights into the power of the human mind to overcome the limits of the body.

10. Open to Suggestion: The mysterious world of hypnosis and its extraordinary power, for good and evil.

11. Secrets of Levitation: No longer the preserve of psychics and gurus, science has shown that levitation could have a future.

12. Previous Lives: The truth behind the global belief in re-incarnation?

13. Electric Hands and Mind Detectors: Investigating those who use their hands and bodies as instruments for searching and healing.

SERIES 2

1. Extra terrestrial Life: Are we alone in the Universe? This question has obsessed humans since we first looked up into the skies. And as our understanding of the Universe has grown, so has our imagination of what could be out there. Hollywood creations have fuelled this collective imagination, lending weight to stories of UFOs and night-time visitations from bug-eyed monsters.Victims of close encounters are convinced of their stories, and scientists have only demystified a few. But as this film reveals, a new theory could finally shed light on the startling reality behind the most convincing encounters – alien abductions.
The discovery of strange Earth life flourishing in apparently inhospitable places has prompted scientists to look again at rocks from other planets. Have these rocks been hiding the tell-tale signs of ancient alien life all along? And where are these aliens now? While NASA prepares to search the icy waters of Jupiter’s moons, convinced they will find aliens right within our own solar system, other astronomers are searching the distant Universe for the tiny movements of stars that hint of the presence of other Earth-like planets.
And if we find alien life, what will it look like? Could Hollywood’s humanoid beings have evolved on another planet, or will life be unrecognisable to us? One group of astronomers believes intelligent life may exist, and that it may be trying to contact us.Will we finally find alien life by listening to the stars?

2. Monumental Mysteries: Controversial new ideas are challenging basic beliefs about biblical history and the ancient world. In Egypt, scientists are in dispute about who built the Sphinx. Is it far older than the experts believe? Did it once look very different from what we see today? In Israel, Old Testament heroes David and Solomon are at the centre of a controversy.Were they real flesh-and-blood historical figures, or merely myths? Proof for King David is being sought in tunnels beneath Jerusalem, at the site of one of the exploits recounted in the Bible. Evidence for Solomon is being sought at Armageddon, a ruined hilltop city in Northern Israel.According to the Bible this is where the final battle between good and evil will take place.Today it is a battleground for archaeologists and historians. Some say that it is the site of King Solomon’s palace; others claim there is little evidence that Solomon ever existed. This programme looks at the monuments left by the ancient kings of Israel and Egypt to try to unravel these mysteries in their history.

3. King Arthur: In the summer of 1998 a team of archaeologists digging at Tintagel in Cornwall, England, uncovered an 20 cm piece of slate. It had a few barely visible words scratched on it, yet it unleashed a wave of controversy. Could this be the final proof that the legendary King Arthur was not a myth, but a real king? Using archaeology, literary expertise and analysis of the stories of King Arthur, this film uncovers the truth behind one of England’s most heroic figures. Far from being a medieval king who ruled all England in a Golden Age, it seems that if Arthur existed at all, he was a brutal but successful general living in Dark Age Britain. Location filming includes many sites associated with the legend of Arthur: Camelot, the Roman King Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, Cadbury Castle in Somerset and Tintagel in Cornwall. Scientific investigation of King Arthur’s round table in Winchester reveals it to be a medieval fraud. But at least it seems that Arthur and Queen Guinevere were probably buried at Glastonbury Abbey, and deductions can be made from an artefact that Arthur’s last journey to the Isle of Avalon really did happen.

4. Animal Telepathy: The success of the famous horse whisperer, Monty Roberts, is well documented. But what is really going on? Monty Roberts shares his expertise in ‘talking to animals’ and reveals how he controls the conversation and is able, gently, to persuade the wildest of horses to be obedient to his body language. No one questions that we can communicate with animals, but how are we doing it? Is it some form of telepathy? Can this method be used to communicate with an animal lost over 8,000 kms away. Conversely, can an animal ‘tell’ a human what its ailments are? From Monty Roberts to Hollywood animal trainers, this progamme investigates the extra­ordinary communication link between man and animal, and along the way seeks to test the claims of two professional 'animal psychics'.