In this episode, Michael meets a Monty Python superfan in Japan and faces travel obstacles in South Korea Show more

Michael Palin enters China by boat from Korea. He visits the cities of Qingdao and Shanghai and takes a local steamer down the Yangtze. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

Dr Jonathan Foyle scales Britain's most iconic structures to reveal the buildings' secrets. His journey begins in the north east of England at Durham Cathedral. Show more

Dr Jonathan Foyle scales iconic structures to reveal their secrets. The Gothic Lincoln Cathedral, built in 1183, was once the tallest building in Britain. Show more

Dr Jonathan Foyle scales Britain's most iconic structures to reveal the buildings' secrets. Next up is Caernarfon Castle, built in 1283. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

Louis Theroux Interviews is back, including cultural icons and industry trailblazers from across the worlds of sport, entertainment and global affairs. Show more

Politically passionate and one of the first working class reporters at the BBC, Jack Ashley wanted to show the suffering caused by high unemployment in Hartlepool. (1963) Show more

First transmitted in 1969, this is the story of the construction of the world’s most advanced underground system where automated trains are driven along hand-finished tunnels. Show more

First transmitted in 1964, architectural critic Reyner Banham's film brings out the unique character of London and explains how London has grown in size over the past 500 years. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

Documentary series with Dan Cruickshank. Dan goes in search of the Ark of the Covenant, a journey that takes him from Jordan to the Holy Land and finally Ethiopia. Show more

Documentary series with Dan Cruickshank. Dan's latest journey reaches new heights of discomfort in the heat and dust of the desert. Show more

Louis Theroux Interviews is back, including cultural icons and industry trailblazers from across the worlds of sport, entertainment and global affairs. Show more

Michael Portillo travels from Whitby, where he explores the port’s shipbuilding and seafaring heritage, to Robin Hood's Bay, a former smuggling haven. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

First transmitted in 1959, American reporter Ed Murrow returns to London. He recalls some of his most memorable broadcasts from war-torn London and reports on its recovery. Show more

Louis Theroux Interviews is back, including cultural icons and industry trailblazers from across the worlds of sport, entertainment and global affairs. Show more

Edward Glendinning, a Private in the Sherwood Foresters, enlisted at the age of 17. He is haunted by the memory of an injured comrade he didn't help in No Man's Land. Show more

Tank commander Horace Leslie Birks recalls his nerves when commanding a tank at Passchendaele, and the battle of Cambrai, the first battle to use tanks en masse. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

Experts from archaeologists to astrophysicists offer new insights on the Bayeux Tapestry, an artefact which, despite its fame, has remained shrouded in mystery. Show more

Louis Theroux Interviews is back, including cultural icons and industry trailblazers from across the worlds of sport, entertainment and global affairs. Show more

Emily Atack has showbiz genes – Paul McCartney is her grandma’s cousin! Delving into her family tree reveals a rich musical heritage, a famous whistling aunt and a tragic accident. Show more

Seventy-nine-year-old Jackie grew up in a Nazi concentration camp and wonders if any family escaped the Holocaust. Maureen wants to know if her father was actually an African-American GI. Show more

Mel wants to know her sperm donor father’s identity, while Fi wonders if she might have passed down a 'murder gene' to her kids. Bahaa worries he will get cancer like his brother. Show more

Clare wonders if her dad was a British soldier during the Troubles, while Leigh is searching for his sister. Jenna and Ryan are hoping DNA testing can help them grow their family. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

Documentary. David Olusoga traces the bitter propaganda war waged between the pro-slavery lobby and the abolitionists. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

Documentary. Simon Schama explores the fate of art in the machine- and profit-driven world, looking at the rise of art as a tradeable commodity. Show more

Simon Schama looks at the formative role art and the creative imagination have played in the forging of humanity itself. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

Documentary about the abolition of slavery. Huge sums of money were paid out in compensation, not to slaves, but to slave owners. Show more

Documentary. David Olusoga traces the bitter propaganda war waged between the pro-slavery lobby and the abolitionists. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

Lucy explores British history as a concoction of fibs and stories manipulated by whoever was in power. This episode debunks the foundation myth of the Tudors. Show more

Lucy explores how British history is a concoction of fibs. She debunks the 'Glorious Revolution', when William of Orange stole the throne from James II. Show more

The story of a brazen, ambitious power-grab that saw Julius Caesar consolidate the vast power of Rome in his own hands.

Richard Miles explores the roots of civilisation. Starting in Uruk, the 'mother of all cities', in southern Iraq, he travels to Syria, Egypt, Anatolia and Greece. Show more

Richard Miles explores the roots of civilisation. He looks at the winners and losers of the Bronze Age collapse, and the powers that emerged in the Iron Age. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

The story of a brazen, ambitious power-grab that saw Julius Caesar consolidate the vast power of Rome in his own hands.

Dan Cruickshank explores stories from ancient Egypt. He searches for clues to the community of craftsmen who built burial chambers for the pharaohs. Show more

Dan Cruickshank explores stories from ancient Egypt. He traces the mysteries in the life of Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb. Show more

Solve your summer with all your favourite detectives, old and new, on BBC Four and iPlayer. From nostalgic favourites such as Jonathan Creek to Bafta award-winning Happy Valley.

The story of a brazen, ambitious power-grab that saw Julius Caesar consolidate the vast power of Rome in his own hands.

Richard Miles explores the power and the paradox of the 'Greek Thing' - a blossoming in art, philosophy and science that went hand in hand with political discord. Show more