5/6. lain Stewart tells the story of man's 10,000-year battle with water. Because water is so crucial, ancient civilisations had to learn how to exploit it. From the flooding of Stone Age hunting grounds to the fall of the Roman Empire, water was pivotal. Today we ignore it at our peril. Filmed in Greece, Spain and Jordan.

8.00 6/6. Salt has played a role in everything from the ice ages to the preservation of food and dead bodies in ancient Egypt, lain Stewart investigates.

Britain was, briefly, the unlikely player in the field of rocket research. Time Shift tells the story of unsung pioneers of space exploration: the rocket engineers, the scientists and, ultimately, the dreamers who never gave up on a vision of bringing the future into the present. Interviewees include Professor Colin Pillinger , lead scientist of Beagle 2.

The extraordinary yet true account of a secret US government-backed attempt to build a spaceship the size of an ocean liner and send it to Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, propelled by thousands of miniature nuclear bombs.

6/10 How views of the world were challenged by astronomer Galileo's ideas and the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. (AD)