Victorian Pharmacy

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

June 2025 •English

In this "entertaining medical series" (The Sunday Times, U.K.), Dr. Michael Mosley shows how drugs have revolutionized medicine and changed the course of human history. Unfolding over a period of 200 years, it's an extraordinary tale of daring, self-experimentation, revelation, genius, and outright luck.

Wonderland: From JM Barrie to JRR Tolkien

June 2025 •English

An extraordinary variety of writers, who often suffered terrible adversity throughout their lives, created wonderful places full of happiness in which children lived far from the sorrows of adult life.

The Victorian Slum

June 2025 •English

In the heart of the modern East End of London, a Victorian slum has been recreated and a group of 21st-century people are moving in. Michael Mosley joins them to tell the extraordinary story of how the Victorian East End changed our attitude to poverty forever.

Remaking American Medicine

June 2025 •English

Examining the quality crisis in our health-care system and exploring innovative solutions, this four-part PBS documentary provides a comprehensive look at the state of medicine in America today. Topics include patient safety, medical and medication mistakes, hospital-acquired infections, family-centered care and effective management of chronic disease. Moving personal stories highlight the problems and the people who are working to solve them.

J'aurais donc dû, docteur!

June 2025 •French

Some people see their lives dramatically turned upside down because they waited for too long before seeking care. The documentary series showcases individual who should have rapidly consulted with a doctor when the first signs of illness appeared, before the situation became critical.

How the Victorians Built Britain

June 2025 •English

This series travels the length and breadth of Britain to find out how the Victorians built Britain. It uncovers the incredible and surprising stories behind iconic landmarks; discovers the hidden heroes behind the epic constructions; and finds out how the incredible advances made by the Victorians forged the world we live in today.

La macchina meravigliosa

June 2025 •Italian

A long journey in 8 episodes to discover the human body, with Piero Angela who closely observes our organism, focusing each time on a theme: the eye, the ear, taste and smell, the stomach and the intestine, liver, bones, lungs and heart. How does our "wonder machine" work? To make each explanation direct and clear, the program uses films, animations and photographs developed with the scanning electron microscope.

Fatal Experiments: The Downfall of a Supersurgeon

June 2025 •Swedish

The series investigates Paolo Macchiarini’s claims to have invented a ground-breaking method to create new organs. His method using plastic tracheas sown with stemcells has been operated on patients in the US, Russia, Sweden and the UK. So far, unfortunately, the track record of his plastic organs is not very good. Almost all patients are dead. And several of his former surgeon colleagues in Sweden claim that not only does the method not work, but that his scientific claim to fame is based on falsified and misrepresented data. Some even claim that his patients have been used as human guinea-pigs.

Body Invaders

June 2025 •English

Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston's Casebook

June 2025 •English

Surgeon Gabriel Weston introduces us to people from across the globe with the world's most unique bodies.

Victorian Farm

June 2025 •English

Historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year.

The Body in Question

June 2025 •English

The Body in Question is a landmark British medical documentary series of 13 shows made for the BBC. It was a groundbreaking show, being the first to ever televise an autopsy (in the final show on 29 Jan 1979). Dr Jonathan Miller considers the functioning of the body as a subject of private experience. He explores our attitudes towards our bodies, our ignorance of them, and our inability to read our body's signals. The first episode starts with vox populi asking where various organs in the body are located. By the final episode we are left in no doubt. Taking as his starting point the experience of pain, Dr Miller analyses the elaborate social process of "falling ill", considers the physical foundations of "disease" and looks at the types of individuals humankind has historically attributed with the power of healing. The series was nominated for two 1979 BAFTAs: Best Factual Television Series and Most Original Programme/Series.

Origins: The Journey of Humankind

June 2025 •English

Hosted by Jason Silva, Origins: The Journey of Humankind rewinds all the way back to the beginning and traces the innovations that made us modern.

The Brain: A Secret History

June 2025 •English

Michael Mosley embarks on three journeys to understand science's last great frontier - the human mind - as he traces the history of the attempts to understand and manipulate the brain.

Ian Hislop's Age Of The Do-Gooders

June 2025 •English

Ian Hislop rescues the reputation of the maverick 'Do-Gooders' who he believes fixed the 19th century's version of 'broken Britain' in this new history series. Irresistibly easy to mock, these busy bodies are highly unfashionable today. But they are heroes to Ian - extraordinary men and women who precipitated the most remarkable period of social change in British history and, Ian argues, left us with a nation worth living in. And yet unlike notable Victorian royals, inventors, politicians and generals, many of them have been all but forgotten.

From Handsaw to Scalpel

June 2025 •French

A fascinating insight into the evolution of modern medicine as we explore the medical treatments for certain issues from past to present, seeing just how much we have learned through trial and error. The series is also a chance to see how medical advancements are currently used to treat problems in the fields of oncology, ophthalmology, dentistry, neurology, obstetrics and orthopaedics, and to see what the future may hold.

Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You

June 2025 •English

100 trillion cells. 280 days. One human life. A BBC Science series, produced in partnership with The Open University, exploring the making of you.

Victorian Bakers

June 2025 •English

Four professional bakers leave their modern businesses behind to bake their way through the Victorian era. They set up shop in 1837, when their trade was vital to the survival of the nation.

Hidden Killers

June 2025 •English

Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the killers that lurked in every room of the home.

24 Hours in the Past

June 2025 •English

Living history show presented by Fi Glover. Six celebrities travel back in time to the relentless graft of Victorian Britain.