

Human
2025-07-14 · 59 min / episode · ★ 6.3
Paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi reveals humanity's incredible story across 300,000 years of human evolution – and how the story is stranger and more surprising than ever imagined.
Trailers are previews, not full movies.
No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.
Production details
- Creators
- Unavailable
- Production companies
- BBC Studios Science Unit, NOVA
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Status
- Ended
Top Cast
Ella Al-ShamahiSelf - Presenter
Melissa MassynTitle information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.
Where to watch
Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.
Streaming
BBC Select Apple Tv channel, PBS Documentaries Amazon Channel
Purchase
Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies
With ads
Tubi TV
View authorized watch options on TMDbSeasons & episodes
Recommendations

Explore the surprising things we know (and don’t know) about why people are the way they are through expert interviews, rare footage from historical experiments, and brand-new, ground-breaking demonstrations of human nature at work.

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Sir David shines the spotlight on some of nature’s evolutionary anomalies and reveals how these curious animals continue to baffle and fascinate.

Journalist and writer Graham Hancock travels the globe hunting for evidence of mysterious, lost civilizations dating back to the last Ice Age. He attempts to prove that a climatic event 12,000 years ago wiped out an entire civilization far more sophisticated than the simple hunter-gatherers some archaeologists believe lived at that time.

A cinematic experience bringing you the most amazing human stories in the world. Humans and wildlife surviving in the most extreme environments on Earth.

Don Wildman unearths relics from the world's greatest institutions to reveal secrets from the past. He examines each artifact to illuminate history's most incredible triumphs, sensational crimes and bizarre encounters.

Experience the wonders of our world like never before in this epic series from Jon Favreau and the producers of Planet Earth. Travel back 66 million years to when majestic dinosaurs and extraordinary creatures roamed the lands, seas, and skies.

Infographics and archival footage deliver bite-size history lessons on scientific breakthroughs, social movements and world-changing discoveries.

An immersive, action-packed and discovery-led series following International teams of Egyptologists as they unearth the world's richest seam of ancient archaeology - Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

Life's extraordinary journey to conquer, adapt and survive on Earth across billions of years comes alive in this groundbreaking nature docuseries.

Natural World is a nature documentary television series broadcast annually on BBC Two and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history brand. It is currently the longest-running series in its genre on British television, with more than 400 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World is produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, but individual programmes can be in-house productions, collaborative productions with other broadcasters or films made and distributed by independent production companies and purchased by the BBC. Natural World programmes are often broadcast as PBS Nature episodes in the USA. Since 2008, most Natural World programmes have been shot and broadcast in high definition.

The story of life, from the first primitive cells to the plants and animals that now live around us.

Utilizing the latest scientific innovations and leading-edge filmmaking technology, this documentary reveals the secret powers and super-senses of the world’s most extraordinary animals, and invites viewers to see and hear beyond normal human perception to experience the natural world as a specific species does — from seeing flowers in bee-vision to eavesdropping on a conversation between elephant seals to soaring the length of a football field with glow-in-the-dark squirrels.

Part detective story, part true-life drama, long-running series explores some of the most iconic moments in history to debunk myths and shed new light on past events. Using the latest investigative techniques, forensic science and historical examination, it shatters accepted wisdom, challenges prevailing ideas, overturns existing hypotheses, spotlights forgotten mysteries, and ultimately rewrites history.

The history of the sport of baseball in America, told through archival photos, film footage, and the words of those who contributed to the game in each era. Writers, historians, players, baseball personnel, and fans review key events and the significance of the game in America's history.

Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

Physicist and professor Brian Cox travels across the globe to uncover the secrets of the most extraordinary phenomenon in the universe: life.

Morgan Freeman presents his quest in order to find how most religions perceive life after death, what different civilizations thought about the act of creation and other big questions that mankind has continuously asked.

James May takes a look at the 'peoples car'. Covering every form of cars for the masses - from the Beetle to the Kei Car, May looks at the many forms of people's car, their origins and their effect on history. Each episode covers a particular theme; these being cars from dictatorships, microcars and the dream cars we aspire to.

Each episode opens up a cabinet of curiosities to reveal the strangest-but-true stories in human history, brought to life through dynamic recreation, compelling graphics, and arresting archival. From Boston’s Great Molasses Flood to a man who survived being struck by lightning not once, not twice, but SEVEN times, these seemingly tall tales all actually happened, and our cast of experts dives into the historical record to tell you how and why.
Similar titles

What would we be without mucus? Can we live on water? How much does life weigh? Finding out the answers is the aim of ARTE's new science show. In a nod to Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", where the figure 42 is the ultimate answer to all questions, 42 tries to provide the answers.

Art and culture define us - but in an age of change, who are we now? In divided times, Simon Schama asks whether art, music and words can be the threads that bind us together.

At the end of the 16th century, Dutch subjects revolted against legitimate Spanish rule. What starts with the discontent of a minority grows into a war that will last more than a lifetime. From Groningen to Brussels, from Den Briel to Groenlo, the battle erupts everywhere. And often that struggle has a strangely modern appearance. Terrorism, propaganda, executions, radicalization, shock and awe; all themes that can easily be found in the war that was fought from 1568 to 1648. In a 7-part television series, the NTR will bring the stories about the 80-year war that can be found all over the country from September 28, every Friday at 9.05 pm on NPO 2. And Hans Goedkoop oversees the battlefield with experts.

About Adolf Hitler's time in Germany. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and his tenure in power lasted for more than twelve years. It began with a standing ovation and ended after a world war in which 50 million people were killed.

A spectacular journey which uncovers how the Viking era has left its imprint on the way of life and landscape of Norway, and the parallels observed in Lorraine’s home nation of Scotland to this day when it was once sieged under Norse rule. Lorraine will meet people along her travels that are keeping the rich history of Norway alive through folk traditions and Nordic tales, and immerse herself in the crafts and culinary delicacies of the region. The TV icon will sail north along the coast to see what natural beauty it offers, spotting whales and eagles, in hopes to end her journey with a Northern Lights (aurora borealis) spectacle.

A century ago, the world experienced a revolution in mobility. Cities like Berlin grew rapidly, with the Graf Zeppelin soaring over the city in 1928, sparking excitement for airship travel. These majestic airships made ocean crossings faster and more luxurious, and even enabled polar expeditions. At the same time, automobiles and motorcycles became staples for many, although streets became congested. Women like Amelia Earhart and Elly Beinhorn broke barriers in aviation, inspiring new possibilities for both genders in the field of technology. While air travel grew in popularity, trains remained the main long-distance transport. The era also saw an explosion of new mobility options, with faster, cheaper ways to travel across the globe, making the world seem smaller and more connected. However, this golden age of mobility would be cut short by the outbreak of World War II.

How the constitution of the largest Democratic Republic in the world was created.

The naturalist visits uncharted territory in pursuit of new discoveries. Steve Backshall takes on physical challenges, encounters extraordinary wildlife and meets remarkable people.

Series using the Rank Organisation's "Look at Life" documentary shorts to examine British society during the 1960s.

Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.

The adventures of Josh Gates as he investigates unsolved iconic stories across the globe.

How To Survive the End of the World examines terrifying and scientifically plausible doomsday scenarios by exploring distinct, world-threatening events and the methods by which humanity would fight to survive against grim odds.


WILD TRAVELS goes off the beaten path to celebrate America's unusual festivals, unknown museums and unconventional characters. It's intelligent, funny, and a bit irreverent, spotlighting our country's quirkiest people and places.


This series explores the facts and investigates the truth behind the British Redcoat Army's campaign in Zululand during 1879. The war was started by a country at the height of it's imperial powers and prosecuted by an army charged with the responsibility of implementing a policy known as Confederation - a proposal to unite various black and white factions in South Africa under British authority. Interviews, on-location footage and new geological surveys all help to reconstruct the conflicts and give insight into the tactics used in these epic battles.

America from the Ground Up was filmed on location at archaeological and historical sites throughout the U.S. and Canada. Join us in the search for clues to America's hidden history: from exploring the ruins of America's lost civilizations, to the settlement of the North American continent in the 19th Century.

"Mankind : The Story of All of Us" is an epic 12-hour television event about the greatest adventure of all time—the history of the human race. It takes 10 billion years for the ideal planet to form and 3 billion more for the right conditions to emerge before it finally happens: mankind begins. From there unfolds a fast-paced story told here through key turning points—stepping stones in our journey from hunter-gatherer to global citizen. It’s a tale of connections—why some ideas take hold and spread around the globe, and how the lives of people in one part of the world are shaped by events in another.

Professor Robert Winston meets Lucy, the first upright ape, and follows her ancestors on the three-million-year journey to civilisation.