Original version

BBC Four

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

BBC Four HD

BBC Two

BBC Two is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964.

BBC Two Scotland

Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World

Iain Stewart

Richard Downes

Russell Leven

Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World: Episode 1

Documentaries

Factual

How Oil Made Us

Episode 1

BBC Two - Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World, Episode 1

Iain Stewart explores the importance of oil and how the world has become so reliant on it.

Iain Stewart visits places that gave birth to the earth's oil riches, discovers the people who fought over its control and explores how the need for oil is changing the planet.

From the moment we first drilled for oil, we opened a Pandora's box that changed the world forever. It transformed the way we lived our lives, spawned foreign wars and turned a simple natural resource into the most powerful political weapon the world has ever known. But when exactly did geology turn into such a high-stakes game?

In this series, Professor Iain Stewart visits the places that gave birth to the earth's oil riches, discovers the people who fought over its control and supply, and explores how our insatiable thirst for oil is changing the very planet on which we depend.

It's a journey that will help us answer a fundamental question - how did we become so addicted to oil in little more than one human lifetime?

Documentary series exploring how the world became so reliant on oil.

Documentary series exploring how we've become so reliant on oil in little longer than a human lifetime.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World

Episode 1

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Series

BBC Four HD

About BBC Four