For paleontologist Professor Jenny Clack, who solved one of the greatest mysteries in the history of life on Earth, success was far from inevitable. She recounts how she had to overcome a series of setbacks before she found and described the fossil Acanthostega, a 365 million-year-old creature that offered dramatic new evidence of how fish made the transition onto land.

Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini.

Mark Radcliffe presents a look at the highs and lows of band life - the creative tension that produces great music and the pressures that come with success and fame, and pull most bands apart. Radcliffe lifts the lid on the main reasons why bands break up and the secrets of bands that manage to stay together.

A stellar cast of White House insiders speak on camera about the operation to find and kill Osama Bin Laden, including the first - and extraordinary - documentary interview with President Barack Obama on the subject.

Henry Hitchings explores the lives and works of the radical 18th-century British novelists such as Defoe, Swift and Fielding who established the literary genres we recognise today.

Bitter Lake is a new, adventurous and epic film by Adam Curtis that explains why the big stories that politicians tell us have become so simplified that we can’t really see the world any longer.

Historian David Olusoga explores the enduring relationship between Britain and people whose origins lie in Africa.

Historian David Olusoga explores the enduring relationship between Britain and people whose origins lie in Africa.

In the second part of his four-part series, historian David Olusoga explores the business of slavery and remembers the black sailors who fought for Britain at Trafalgar.

In part three of this groundbreaking series, historian David Olusoga explores the Victorian moral crusade against slavery.

Historian David Olusoga concludes his series with the three African kings who stood up to empire, an irresistible crooner, race riots in Liverpool and the shaping of black British identity in the 20th century.

Profiles of black achievers who broke down barriers for others.

A profile of Savile Row tailor Andrew Ramroop.

A profile of Brenda Edwards, who won a place at the London School of Contemporary Dance at 17 and became artistic director of London Festival Ballet. She later returned to her contemporary roots, becoming a teacher and choreographer.

A profile of Carlton Duncan, Britain's first black secondary school headmaster.

Edric Connor came to England in 1944 and took a job with the World Service. In 1958, he became the first black actor to appear with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

A profile of Olympic sprinter Emmanuel McDonald Bailey, who set a British 100m mark that stood for over a quarter of a century.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1920, Gloria Cumper became the first black female law graduate of Girton College, Cambridge, and was instrumental in setting up the University of the West Indies.

A profile of Karlene Davis, who became the first black woman to head the Royal College of Midwives.

Clive Lloyd, former West Indies cricket captain, looks at the life of Learie Constantine, the Trinidad-born cricketer who fought against injustice and discrimination.

Documentary which tells the story of the thousands of Caribbean and African women who answered the call 70 years ago to come to the UK to save the then ailing health service. It's a tale of a struggle to overcome racism, their fight for career progression and their battle for national recognition.

An examination of the Black Power movement in the late 1960s in the UK, surveying both the individuals and the cultural forces that defined the era.

The so-called Golden Age of Piracy (1689-1718) is a storybook of rogues who robbed and murdered on the seas of the New World. One character has transcended history and sailed into legend…

The story of two powerful personalities at the heart of a political phenomenon. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and their closest allies chart the rise and difficult legacy of New Labour.

Blues is usually described as the sound of racial suffering and feeling sad, but this documentary argues that the blues began as a form of black pop music. First appearing in the Southern states of the USA around 1900, blues created by the poorest people in the richest nation on earth took America by storm.

How blues conquered the world and the music moved from black to white audiences.

Collection of performances by British and American blues artists on BBC programmes such as The Beat Room, A Whole Scene Going, The Old Grey Whistle Test and The Late Show.

Documentary telling the story of what happened to blues music on its journey from the southern states of America to the heart of British pop and rock culture, providing an in-depth look at what this music really meant to a generation of kids desperate for an antidote to their experiences of living in post-war suburban Britain.

A deeply personal portrait of a football icon who died tragically young, with rare archive footage and contributions from his family, friends and fans.

Series which tells the story of how people came to understand the natural order of the plant world, and how the quest to discover how plants grow uncovered the secret to life on the planet.