Britain's Greatest Invention (2017)

The Creative Brain

Neuroscientist David Eagleman taps into the creative process of various inventors, while exploring brain-bending, risk-taking ways to spark creativity

Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape

A documentary analyzing the furore which so-called "video nasties" caused in Britain during the 1980s.

101 Gadgets That Changed the World

The alarm clock. The personal computer. The smartphone. The radio. You know the greatest gadgets of all time (and you’ve probably owned most of them), but which has changed the world more than any other? To make our list of 101, a gadget had to be something you could hold in your hands, mechanical or electronic, and a mass-produced personal item. The rest was up to the judges. Check out our selections.

The Spy Who Went Into the Cold

A documentary about Kim Philby, a British member of MI6 who was in reality a spy and defected to the U.S.S.R.

The Canal Map of Britain

A look at Britain's beloved canal network via a fact-filled cruise along the first superhighways of the Industrial Revolution. In the age before mechanisation, a frenzy of canal-building saw a new army of workers carve out the British landscape, digging out hundreds of miles of waterways using picks, shovels and muscle.

Dark Water: The Murder of Shani Warren

Twenty-six-year-old Shani Warren was found drowned in Taplow Lake, Buckinghamshire, with her hands tied and feet bound together in 1987. Revealing how it took a forensic breakthrough to solve the 35-year mystery of the death of The Lady in the Lake.

The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire

At the demise of empire, City of London financial interests created a web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it behind obscure financial structures in a web of offshore islands. Today, up to half of global offshore wealth may be hidden in British offshore jurisdictions and Britain and its offshore jurisdictions are the largest global players in the world of international finance. How did this come about, and what impact does it have on the world today? This is what the Spider's Web sets out to investigate.

Attack: The Battle for New Britain

War - Documentary film depicting the attack by Allied forces on the Japanese strong-holds of Arawe Beach and Cape Gloucester, New Britain, in the South Pacific theatre of the Second World War in 1943. - Leo Genn, Burgess Meredith, Anthony Veiller

The Animograph, or I Was Born in a Shoebox

The amazing story of the animograph, a machine created in France in the sixties by the cartoonist and self-taught inventor Jean Dejoux (1922-2015), whose creation was intended to revolutionize the animation industry.

Britain's Favourite Foods - Are They Good for You?

Professor Alice Roberts discovers which are Britain's most popular fresh foods and uses the latest science to uncover the surprising health benefits of our favourite foods.

Listen to Britain

This spiritual successor to the 1942 original explores the vibrant yet tumultuous growth of Britishness over the past century. The film gives voices to a new reality of Britain, one that has been formed through the flourishing multiculturalism the country has seen since the original film was made. Academics and artists are interviewed to explore both past and present, and consider what a future Britain may look like.

From Bedrooms to Billions

From Bedrooms to Billions is a 2014 documentary film by British filmmakers Anthony Caulfield and Nicola Caulfield that tells the story of the British video games industry from 1979 to the present day. The film focuses on how the creativity and vision of a relatively small number of individuals allowed the UK to play a key, pioneering role in the shaping of the billion dollar video games industry which today dominates the modern world's entertainment landscape. The film features interviews with major British game designers, journalists and musicians from across the last 30 years.

North Korea; Off-Piste

Having been granted special permission to film inside one of the most secretive countries in the world, Britain's fastest snowboarder sets off to experience first hand this country we know so little about.

Poor Kids

3.5 million children are growing up in poverty in the UK. It’s one of the worst rates in the industrialised world and successive governments continue to struggle to bring it into line. Struggling & without a voice, 'Poor Kids' shines a light on this pressing issue.

Britain on Film: Black Britain

Featuring footage spanning from 1901 to 1985, this little-seen footage has been found from all across the UK. This programme allows an exploration into stories of migration, community and also the struggle against inequality, while also providing the opportunity to celebrate black British culture and life on screen. Films in the programme include: Miners Leaving Pendlebury Colliery (1901), Hull Fair (1902), For the Wounded (1915), From Trinidad to Serve the Empire (1916), Hello! West Indies (1943), Mining Review 2nd Year No. 11 (1949), To the Four Corners (1957), Black Special Constable (1964), Black Police Officers (1966), Cold Railway Workers (1964), Nigerian Wedding in Cornwall (1964), Coloured School Leavers (1965), London Line No. 373 (1971), African Student Families (1975), Liverpool 8 (1972), Blood Ah Go Run (1982), The Jah People (1981) and Grove Carnival (1981)

The Fighting Devil Dogs

Two marine lieutenants battle a masked would-be world conqueror who uses electricity as a weapon.

A Bug's Life

On behalf of "oppressed bugs everywhere," an inventive ant named Flik hires a troupe of warrior bugs to defend his bustling colony from a horde of freeloading grasshoppers led by the evil-minded Hopper.

The Four Feathers

A young British officer resigns his post when he learns of his regiment's plan to ship out to the Sudan for the conflict with the Mahdi. His friends and fiancée send him four white feathers as symbols of what they view as his cowardice. To redeem his honor, he disguises himself as an Arab and secretly saves their lives.

The Remains of the Day

A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

Twister

An unprecedented series of violent tornadoes is sweeping across Oklahoma. Tornado chasers, headed by Dr. Jo Harding, attempt to release a groundbreaking device that will allow them to track them and create a more advanced warning system. They are joined by Jo's soon to be ex-husband Bill, a former tornado chaser himself, and his girlfriend Melissa.

Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder

By helping Doctor Proctor getting recognition for his amazing invention in a world quite different from ours, two lonely children gets help to stand on their own two feet.

BASEketball

Two losers from Milwaukee, Coop and Remer, invent a new game playing basketball, using baseball rules. When the game becomes a huge success, they, along with a billionaire's help, form the Professional Baseketball League where everyone gets the same pay and no team can change cities. Theirs is the only team standing in the way of major rule changes that the owner of a rival team wants to institute.

Rugrats in Paris: The Movie

A group of rambunctious toddlers travel a trip to Paris. As they journey from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame, they learn new lessons about trust, loyalty and love.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

In the midst of World War II, Sherlock Holmes rescues the Swiss inventor of a new bomb-sight from the Gestapo and brings him to England, where he quickly falls into the clutches of the evil Professor Moriarty.

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne

As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.

Minghags

A guy who invented this thing called the garbage juicer. You can take garbage and mash it into the trash can, and it has three spouts. You can choose delicious root beer, grapefruit juice or kerosene. This businessman steals the invention from him so the guy spends the whole time trying to dick the businessman over.

Manhunt of Mystery Island

Claire Forrest seeks her kidnapped scientist father, hidden somewhere on Mystery Island. He is held and forced to work on diabolical inventions by Captain Mephisto, a costumed villain.

The Lost Planet

Dr. Ernst Grood , having already dominated the planet Ergro, now intends to take over the control of the Earth. Unfortunately for him, reporters oppose his sinister designs.

Three Crazy Jerks II

In 2043, Frank and Xaver have only one big problem with their jobs at a patent office, their boss Dr. Kneitz who's mission it is to make their life miserable. But then an unique opportunity presents itself when an inventor shows up to patent a time machine and they come up with a plan to travel back in time to stop the conceiving of their boss. Accidently Ronny, a night watchman, happens to be in the room with them when they use the time machine and so, in part unwillingly, the 3 of them travel to the year 1988 in Gran Canaria and they only have a couple of days to stop every interaction with potential fathers for the mother to be.

Carry On Cleo

Two Britons—inventor Hengist Pod, and Horse, a brave and cunning fighter—are captured and enslaved by invading Romans and taken to Rome. One of their first encounters in Rome leaves Hengist being mistaken for a fighter, and gets drafted into the Royal Guard to protect Cleopatra.

So Darling, So Deadly

A scientist invents a filter that can increase the power of a laser beam, turning it into a death ray! A dangerous crime organization wants the device and will stop at nothing to get it, while murder and violence follow Joe and Tom to Singapore as they try to foil the evil plans.

Modern Times

A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..

Underdog

A lab accident gives a beagle named Shoeshine some serious superpowers -- a secret that the dog eventually shares with the young boy who becomes his owner and friend.

Tornado

Set in the rugged landscape of 1790s Britain, Tornado, a young and determined Japanese woman, finds herself caught in a perilous situation when she and her father’s traveling puppet samurai show crosses paths with a gang of ruthless criminals led by Sugarman and his ambitious son Little Sugar. In an attempt to create a new life for herself, Tornado seizes the opportunity to take matters into her own hands and steal the gold from their most recent heist.

Drums of Fu Manchu

The nefarious Dr. Fu Manchu searches for the keys to the tomb of Genghis Khan, in order to fulfill a prophecy that will enable him to conquer the world. His nemesi, Dr. Nayland Smith and his associates fight to keep the evil doctor from getting his hands on the keys. In 1943 the serial was edited together into a feature movie also called Drums of Fu Manchu.

Hampstead

Emily Walters is an American widow living a peaceful, uneventful existence in the idyllic Hampstead Village of London, when she meets local recluse, Donald Horner. For 17 years, Donald has lived—wildly yet peacefully—in a ramshackle hut near the edge of the forest. When Emily learns his home is the target of developers who will stop at nothing to remove him, saving Donald and his property becomes her personal mission. Despite his gruff exterior and polite refusals for help, Emily is drawn to him—as he is to her—and what begins as a charitable cause evolves into a relationship that will grow even as the bulldozers close in.

Centurion

Britain, A.D. 117. Quintus Dias, the sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus' legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the Earth and destroy their leader, Gorlacon.

Now You See Him, Now You Don't

Dexter Riley is a science student at Medfield College who inadvertently invents a liquid capable of rendering objects and people invisible. Before Dexter and his friends, Debbie and Richard Schuyler, can even enjoy their spectacular discovery, corrupt businessman A.J. Arno plots to get his greedy hands on it. Slapstick hijinks ensue as Dexter and his pals try to thwart the evil Arno before he can use the invisibility spray to rob a bank.

Get Real

Sensitive rural town model student Steven Carter hides his gay feelings, except with his neighbor and best friend Linda. Suddenly his desperate search for partners leads to a blind date with golden boy John Dixon, bound for an Oxbridge career.

The Spanish Prisoner

An inventor of a secret process suddenly finds himself alone as both his friends and the corporation he works for turn against him.

Carry On Spying

Carry On favourite Barbara Windsor makes her debut in this outrageous send-up of the James Bond movies. Fearless agent Desmond Simpkins and Charlie Bind, aided and abetted by the comely Agent Honeybutt and Agent Crump, battle against the evil powers of international bad guys STENCH and their three cronies.

Knight and Day

A fugitive couple goes on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.

Mutiny on the Buses

Bus driver Stan Butler agrees to marry Suzy, much to the anguish of Mum, her son-in-law, Arthur, and daughter Olive. How, they wonder, will they ever manage without Stan's money coming in? Then Arthur is sacked, and Stan agrees to delay the wedding. Meanwhile, he hits on an idea: Arthur should learn to drive a bus. Somehow he does just that, and even gets a job. Stan then blackmails the Depot Manager into giving him the job of driver on the new money-making Special Tours Bus. A great idea ...if only the inspector hadn't taken Stan on his trial run to the Windsor Safari Park

The Beginner

Movie fan Mike has invented a machine with which he is able to take part in every movie which is currently running on his video tape recorder. But he and his friend Tommy are watched while trying out this new device and soon two electronic companies are on their trail to discover the secret of this invention.

Splashback

In the midst of one of the most significant moments in human history - the Moon landing - a guy working at a NASA warehouse has his own little passion project: the invention of the first urinal net.

Driving Me Crazy

An eccentric East German inventor and defector travels to Los Angeles, California to sell a prototype revolutionary new car that runs on vegetables and produces no pollution, but he runs into one madcap situation after another to find a buyer and financier for mass production.

Cronos

Faced with his own mortality, an ingenious alchemist tried to perfect an invention that would provide him with the key to eternal life. It was called the Cronos device. When he died more than 400 years later, he took the secrets of this remarkable device to the grave with him. Now, an elderly antiques dealer has found the hellish machine hidden in a statue and learns about its incredible powers. The more he uses the device, the younger he becomes...but nothing comes without a price. Life after death is just the beginning as this nerve-shattering thriller unfolds and the fountain of youth turns bloody.

The Colossus of Rhodes

While on holiday in Rhodes, Athenian war hero Darios becomes involved in two different plots to overthrow the tyrannical king, one from Rhodian patriots and the other from sinister Phoenician agents.

Lady Chatterley's Lover

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.