Season 2001 - Episode Guide

Dan Cruickshank investigates the circumstances and rituals surrounding death in Victorian Britain by piecing together the fate of five apparently unrelated corpses. The story he uncovers is one of bizarre extremes - of bodysnatchers and the bodies they snatched; of inner-city graveyards so overflowing that the limbs of the dead could be seen protruding from the newly dug earth; of the great new cemeteries where a tomb cost as much as a terrace of houses in east London; of the suspicious resistance which greeted the 'heathenish' practice of cremation; and of the carnage of the Western Front where Victorian ideals about death - and the afterlife - were finally shattered by the violence of the Great War.

First transmitted in 2001, this programme chronicles the construction of the Empire State Building in New York, which was the world's tallest skyscraper when opened in 1931. The programme investigates thebuilding's history through interviews with the people who contributed to the construction of this iconic building.

Following guidelines described by the ancient author Vegetius nearly 2000 years ago, and supervised by historian Kate Gilliver, nine volunteers must learn from scratch to endure the harsh regime of the Romanarmy. The Roman army's success was founded on its superlative training and its discipline on the field of battle. The importance of being able to act as a unit is discussed, as are formations, amongst them the famous 'testudo', which is demonstrated.