Documentary

Monday, 12 January 2009 8:30pm

World War 1’s Battle of the Somme, fought from 1 July to 18 November 1916, was a turning point in history. It was a modern battle of such prehistoric brutality that its horror is hard to comprehend. Brave patriotic men eagerly volunteered to fight for what they saw as a great and honourable cause, only to find themselves used as cannon fodder by their military and political leaders. Whole villages and communities marched to their deaths.

Narrated by Tilda Swinton, The Somme is a docu-drama which follows a group of young men through the first day of battle – a day when a whistle blow sent British and French soldiers ‘over the top’ and towards an almost certain death. Through reconstruction and historical records, the fates of several genuine officers and nurses who fought or served at the Battle of the Somme are followed. This was a battle fought by civilians on unfamiliar territory.

Private Cyril Jose, at the age of only fifteen, had lied on his conscription papers to join the swelling ranks of young men sent off to fight for their country. American heiress, Mary Borden, had left Chicago at the start of the Great War to work for the Red Cross, and by 1916 she had selflessly set up her own field hospital behind the British lines on the Somme. Captain Charlie May was only too aware of the impending slaughter and wrote a letter of farewell to his wife and baby just before going over the top. The planning of the battle was left to British General Rawlinson – a plan that would send thousands of men marching straight into the German machine gun posts.

Through the friendships and the fear, this moving film is told through the diaries and letters of men in the field – many of whom would never be reunited.

Sunday, 11 January 2009 8:30pm

In 1915, the Lusitania was the fastest, biggest and most glamorous ocean liner on the Atlantic. It was the Cunard flagship, plying the Atlantic between New York and Liverpool.

Then without warning, on the morning of May 17th, nail bitingly close to its destination, it was holed by a single torpedo from a German U-boat, lurking in wait. Just 18 minutes later the Lusitania had sunk. 1200 of 1900 passengers and crew perished. It was the 9/11 of World War One, an unprovoked attack on innocent civilians, and it changed the rules of war forever.

Bitter controversy surrounded the sinking: was the ship as innocent as she seemed? Had the British government secretly used a passenger ship to carry explosives? Worse still, had Winston Churchill deliberately sacrificed the Lusitania to bring America into the war?

Starring John Hannah as Professor Ian Holbourn, Kenneth Cranham as Captain Turner, Florian Panzeras as Lt. Capt. Schweiger and Michael Feast as Captain Hobbs.

Sunday, 11 January 2009 7:30pm

The penguins of the Antarctic lead extraordinary lives, their home is the coldest, windiest and driest place on the planet. These flightless birds manage to cope with such extremes, but how will they survive the even greater challenge of climate change?

Penguins are true survivors, pioneers of some of the harshest conditions on the planet. They live in their millions, thriving in Antarctica where winter temperatures are freezing and fierce winds buffet the desolate icy plains. Their ability to cope with such extremes would already appear to defy the odds. But how are they coping with the biggest environmental issue of today – global warming?

The largest and most spectacular of its kind – the emperor penguins have the regal air their name suggests and are the hardiest of all penguins. As Antarctica slips into the darkness of winter most penguins head north to warmer waters, only the emperor remains. But not even their survival skills may save them. As more ice melts, their colonies are literally disappearing into the sea.

But while one penguin loses out, another gains. King penguins actually do much better in a warmer climate. Their numbers have increased over the last 20 years and their colonies spread further south as the ice melts. It’s a similar story for the chinstrap penguins.

The frozen home of the penguins is changing beneath their feet. Scientific investigation continues daily to try and find out exactly how. It appears that while parts of the continent are warming, other parts are actually getting colder. How exactly penguins are being affected and what the future holds for them is something biologists are desperate to try and understand.

Posing the question “What if the Australian legal system was not based on the British model, but rather on one of the oldest legal systems in the world, Indigenous Australian customary law?” Courting with Justice is a dramatic portrayal of the retrial of a bar manager charged with the manslaughter of a young Aboriginal man.

Several years ago a former Norseman pub manager was charged with the manslaughter of Kevin Rule, a member of the Ngadju Nation, but later found not guilty. The dead man’s partner, Daniella Borg, is certain the manager’s lethal punch killed Kevin and feels the Australian judicial system has not provided her with justice.

Daniella has decided to have a re-trial. This time it is to be set on her husband’s traditional land, within the framework of the oldest law in the country. The case is going before an Indigenous customary law court. Will the outcome be any different than it was when the case was tried in the British-style Australian law courts?

The playing out of the customary law hearing itself is gritty and observational. The accused is not the actual perpetrator of the crime, but is played by a white actor, The Dish’s Roy Billing. He is confronted, both in and out of character, by cultural and procedural differences in the Indigenous customary law court.

A gritty drama-documentary, Courting with Justice takes a black perspective on dominant white legal systems, turning the tables on how justice is done in Australia.

Thursday, 8 January, 9:25pm

A complete re-appraisal of the death of the notorious 20th century dictator.

Was the official account of Stalin’s death a cover-up for what really happened? Secret KGB files are examined for the first time to discover the truth.

Venerated as a god by many Russians and socialists worldwide, Stalin’s death in March 1953 sparked a public outpouring of grief that bordered on hysteria. Officially, he was reported to have suffered a brain haemorrhage but the precise details surrounding his death have provoked extensive debate over the years. Was he murdered?

Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore travels to Moscow to play detective in this compelling mystery. A former KGB investigator analyses suppressed KGB files which suggest the official version of the death was a tissue of lies. So what really happened? Can Stalin’s embalmer shed any light on events? What does a doctor make of the claim that he was poisoned? And if Stalin did suffer a brain haemorrhage, would he have survived if medical help had been sought more swiftly?

Archive footage, dramatic reconstruction and computer graphics reveal the harsh reality of Stalinist Russia and witness testimonies help reconstruct the lives and motives of the five key suspects. Was it one of Stalin’s two children, avenging their mother’s death? Or Stalin’s foreign minister, Molotov, furious with Stalin for deporting his beloved wife and denouncing him? What about Khrushchev, Stalin’s successor? Or could the culprit have been Beria, the head of the secret police, angry with Stalin for publicly humiliating him and removing most of his powers?

Thursday, 8 January, 8:35pm

Gangland Graveyard details the FBI’s dogged pursuit of one of the most notorious of all mob bosses – Joe Massino.

Massino rose through the ranks of the Bonanno family during the 80s and 90s to become ‘The Last Don’.

It took more than 20 years to finally nail Massino. He was eventually convicted of a vicious triple murder that rubbed out his competition and catapulted him to become the top Bonanno.

The story begins at the end, when in 2004 the FBI led a three-week forensic excavation of an empty lot in Queens, New York, searching for bodies and long buried secrets. What they discovered lifted the lid on the world of real-life Sopranos. Ultimately a Mafia family would be crippled and a ruthless mobster brought down.

But the true details of the 1981 murders didn’t start coming to light until the FBI finally broke the code of silence and turned capos and under-bosses on one another.

From inside the mob itself, FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone (aka Donnie Brasco), not only learned more than anyone else in law enforcement ever had about how a Mafia family works, but he also helped secure more than 200 convictions. He was in ‘the family’ for nearly five years during a time of great unrest. This was not a job for the faint hearted.

Despite agent Pistone’s efforts, the FBI failed to nail Joe Massino on the hits until two new agents specialising in forensic accounting finally hit pay dirt.

In 2004 Massino was finally convicted of murder but in a shocking twist he became an ‘effing’ rat – the first mob boss ever to turn on the Mafia itself!

Monday, 5 January, 8:30pm

Ugly animals are rarely seen on our screens…until now. Join British naturalist Nigel Marven as he seeks out the ugliest animals in the world. From wrinkled bats to naked mole rats and from ugly bugs to plump toads, we’ll find that appearances can be deceptive. In a world obsessed with beauty, being ugly in the animal world has its advantages. For some animals being ugly makes them more attractive to the opposite sex and in some cases, ugliness can make the difference between life and death.

The warthog is one of Africa’s ugliest animals. With its disproportioned shaped head, the warthog just looks odd. Its tusks, sitting high and low on its face are both formidable weapons and tools that help search for a meal. Its warts – males have four and females have two – are actually tough bits of gristly skin which if utilised in battle can actually save their lives.

The muddy swamps of Southern America are home to an ugly breed of turtle. With the most unattractive mouth, it resembles something quite alien. The States is also home to an unusual breed of mole – the star nosed mole. They are the most sensitive of the underground Earth moving creatures. Its snout, a ring of 22 tentacles, is actually super-sensitive and allows the mole to hunt 14 times faster than other moles.

With their featherless heads, craggy beaks and unattractive folds of skin, vultures would have to be one of the ugliest in the bird world. Their bald heads serve a purpose, preventing blood and gore being imbedded on them during feeding. But there is another bird in Northern India that rivals the vulture for the title of ugliest bird – the rare Asian stork. Like the vulture, they have bald heads also to help with their feeding as they are prone to not only dive for fish but also into mounds of decaying rubbish. With numbers on the decline, the battle to save this unique bird is on.

Sunday, 4 January, 7:30pm

On March 18, 2006 the small town of Dyersburg, Tennessee was put on alert after two children were apparently kidnapped by their live-in nanny.

Erika Sadowski drove the family car to the local store to pick up groceries, but hours later she had disappeared without a trace, without a mobile and with the kids.

The police found the car abandoned on the side of a steep levy, and picked up Erika and the children nearby.

They had grave concerns about what transpired during the night, but the children seemed unharmed.

During her detention, it soon became obvious that Erika was keeping another secret …Erika was actually Edward.

Talking to two families who employed Sadowski over eleven years, but who remained oblivious to her secret, this film pieces together the contentious events of that fateful night.

Did she really kidnap the children or was she sheltering them from problems at home?

Discover the truth behind the case that shocked America and divided a community. Features a world exclusive interview with the man who was living as nanny Erika Sadowski.

Monday, 22 December, 10.15pm

See vistas never before seen by Western eyes during this epic journey through the Kingdom of Bhutan, a land tucked away in the high Himalayas that separate India and China.

Large swathes of it are still unmapped. It is a place where television was permitted for the first time in 1999. Here, national happiness is prized more highly than national product. It is the last Buddhist kingdom on Earth.

The jagged mountains make travelling in this kingdom incredibly tough. The only way to unlock Bhutan’s most isolated regions is by river.

Fighting through dense jungle and white water, this band of river explorers are pushed to the limit as they come face to face with the beauty and the power of this mystical land.

Over snow covered mountains, down churning rapids and into thick sub- tropical jungle, they are on a mission to navigate the Mangde Chhu River.

The expedition features a global team of athletes and adventurers, handpicked by veteran explorer, Gerry Moffat. He’s navigated more rivers in this region than any other person on the planet, but this is the toughest challenge of his life.

Joining Gerry is Greg Mallory, a member of the US Para Olympic ski team, who swaps his wheelchair for a kayak; top kayaker Willie Kern; althlete Christine Buesser and Ugyen Dorji who will become the first Bhutanese person to travel down the river at the heart of his nation.

Monday, 22 December, 8.30pm

Monday, 22 December at 10:15pm on ABC

On March 18, 2006 the small town of Dyersburg, Tennessee was put on alert after two children were apparently kidnapped by their live-in nanny.

Erika Sadowski drove the family car to the local store to pick up groceries, but hours later she had disappeared without a trace, without a mobile and with the kids.

The police found the car abandoned on the side of a steep levy, and picked up Erika and the children nearby.

They had grave concerns about what transpired during the night, but the children seemed unharmed.

During her detention, it soon became obvious that Erika was keeping another secret …Erika was actually Edward.

Talking to two families who employed Sadowski over eleven years, but who remained oblivious to her secret, this film pieces together the contentious events of that fateful night.

Did she really kidnap the children or was she sheltering them from problems at home?

Discover the truth behind the case that shocked America and divided a community. Features a world exclusive interview with the man who was living as nanny Erika Sadowski.