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The Open University TV Buyers Catalogue
04: History

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Inside the Medieval Mind
Inside the Medieval Mind
Programme run: 4 x 60 mins
What really motivated our ancestors? Examining power, beliefs, family and knowledge, this series looks at the similarities and differences to modern life. Why did people believe in demons? How quickly did children have to grow up? Did the concept of courtly love help or hinder women? (Image: iStock.com)
Great Thinkers - series III
Great Thinkers – series III
Programme run: 6 x 30 mins
The Bafta nominated series continues with a comic and irreverent look at more key figures through history.

Focusing on Che Guevara, Marie Curie and Michael Faraday the series continues its innovative format making concepts accessible to a wide ranging audience.
Great Thinkers - series II
Great Thinkers – series II
Programme run: 6 x 30 mins
What do Einstein, Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Shelley, Sylvia Pankhurst and Thomas Paine have in common? Nothing much in truth, except that their lives and loves, victories and losses, visions and delusions have all been used for the comic purposes of Mark Steel.
A History of Scotland
A History of Scotland
Programme run: 10 x 60 mins
The dramatic story of Scotland and how it shaped the world. We chart the transformation of the Dark Age kingdom of the Picts from the chaos of the Norse, Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon invasions into the Gaelic kingdom of Alba. Scotland was aggressively expanded by ruthless kings and was revolutionized by European ideas, though a violent war of conquest reshaped the Scottish nation. We also explore Scotland's relationship with the world through the religious revolutions of the 17th century and war and economic crisis in the first half of the 20th century.
What the Industrial Revolution did for us
What the Industrial Revolution did for us
Programme run: 6 x 30 mins
Join architectural historian Dan Cruickshank as he explores the scientific, technological and political changes of the late 18th century, when the industrial leap forward shaped the world we live in today. From boiling a kettle to working in an office, travelling by train to the fax machine, this series uncovers the scientific, technological and scientific changes that transformed the world.
What the Ancients did for us
What the Ancients did for us
Programme run: 3 x 60 mins
Adam Hart-Davis discovers how the world was shaped by the ancient Chinese, the Mesopotamians, the Greeks and even the ancient Britons. Many of the things we assume are modern inventions were in fact pioneered thousands of years ago, including double glazing, robots, computers, the contraceptive pill, batteries, make-up, concrete, football and central heating.
Renaissance Secrets I
Renaissance Secrets I
Programme run: 3 x 30 mins
How was the monumental dome of Florence cathedral constructed? Who painted the two thousand exquisite watercolours discovered hidden in a Polish library? What do we really know about of the most celebrated paintings of the Renaissance such as The Arnolfini Marriage? Renaissance Secrets explores these mysteries, exposing historical distortions and unanswered questions. As each tale unfolds, new evidence emerges that is set to turn art history on its head.
The Slavery Business
The Slavery Business
Programme run: 2 x 60 mins
Slavery changed the modern world, yet most of us find it too uncomfortable to even talk about. This film uses the rise and fall of one family – the amazing, terrible Beckfords – to encourage us to think about the subject more deeply. Covering the rise and fall of the wealthiest family in Britain, and how the industry that made them rich was brought to an end by reformers such as Wilberforce, this is a redemptive historic epic in which ordinary people took on slave dynasties and won.
The Story of Maths
The Story of Maths
Programme run: 4 x 60 mins
Without mathematics, there would be no architecture, no commerce, no time and no chemistry. A Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford explores the 30,000 year history of maths and offers clear, accessible explanations of the development of the key mathematical principles that underpin the science, technology and culture of our modern world.
Music of the Primes
Music of the Primes
Programme run: 3 x 30 mins
Prime numbers are the atoms of mathematics. They’re also incredibly elusive. As long ago as 300 BC, Euclid proved that there must be an infinite number of them. The hunt for a pattern in the distribution of primes has been an obsession for some of the giants of maths. This is an epic 3,000 year story of mathematical joy and despair, blinding light and blind alleyways.
Liberty: Peter Ackroyd's Romantics
Liberty: Peter Ackroyd’s Romantics
Programme run: 3 x 60 mins
This series tells the turbulent story of the pioneers of the modern imagination: their private pleasures, personal dreams and political passions. Between 1760 and 1830, a few individuals re-ordered human perception, unleashing forces that had hitherto been buried; they shaped the way in which we now see the world, believing there was more to life than organised systems. Following Rousseau to Thomas Paine, Wordsworth to Casper, David Fresher to Byron, we look at their ideas and how they changed people and the world itself.
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