Three friends wanted to conquer the world with their music. With their super hit "Take on Me" they actually did. Even today the band a-ha still plays worldwide in front of sold-out arenas.
The Cayman Islands. It is a Caribbean paradise of sun, sea and cocktails, but there is something else going on. Big money, big corporations... and seemingly no one paying a penny of tax.
Now Jacques Peretti travels to Cayman in search of the truth about this controversial British tax haven, and uncovers some shocking revelations for what this sun-drenched island means for everyone back in Britain.
Jacques meets the politicians, playboys and ex-pats on the islands in a bid to unravel the truth about a place with the population of Bognor Regis... but a trillion pounds in the bank!
Professor Mary Beard, renowned classicist and TV historian, is to explore what life was like in one of the world’s most extraordinary and iconic archaeological sites, in Pompeii: Life Before Death, a new landmark programme for BBC One.
Mary Beard – a world Pompeii expert and author of Pompeii: Life Of A Roman Town – will be joining an international team as they bring the very latest technology to bear on this most extraordinary of archaeological sites.
Mary Beard says: “This is a really exciting chance to find out more about the ordinary people who lived in ancient Pompeii. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'm hoping we're going to unlock some if the secrets about who the people were.”
For the first time, a team is CT scanning and fully investigating the world-famous casts of the bodies to analyse the skeletons trapped within, to ascertain all they can about who they were, where they came from and how they lived. A team is also conducting DNA analysis of the bodies for the first time.
Elsewhere, the documentary will follow the work of recovering damaged frescoes and mosaics, the excavation and rebuilding of certain key buildings and the organisation and cataloguing of the thousands of astonishing artefacts in the storerooms – from loaves of bread to pet monkeys, paint pots to purses. It will shine a light on the work of archaeologists who are exploring the third of the town that has never been excavated, and will present a unique first look at the complete Pompeii in stunning CGI.
Using the evidence gleaned from all this research, the BBC One film will piece together a full picture of daily life in Pompeii before the town was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79.
Alive and Kicking gives the audience an intimate, insider's view into the culture of the current swing dance world while shedding light on issues facing modern society.
