East Meets West - Season 1
Season 1
Episodes
The Birth of Civilization
Extraordinary new discoveries suggest that civilization as we know it began 12,000 years ago. Between the Middle Eastern rivers of Tigris and Euphrates, the world's first cities, Ur and Babylon, were built out of mudbrick and grew into vast empires. See how recent excavations are rewriting the first chapter in man's long journey to civilization. Then track how these ancient societies expanded to Africa, Europe, and ultimately became inexorably linked with the Western world, thanks, in large part, to the conquests of Alexander the Great.
The Spread of Islam
Mecca, according to Muslim tradition, is the city where the Prophet Muhammad received God's message, and Islam was born. Over 1,400 years later, the religion has more than 1.5 billion worshipers. But how did it become the fastest-growing religion on Earth? Follow Islam's amazing journey as we explore the cultural heritage of its first converts, nomadic Arab tribes who banded together under this new faith. United, they became a global power that transformed the Middle East, and the world, forever.
Islam and the Renaissance
Years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the Islamic Empire had achieved global supremacy. And while it was expanding in territory, its people were expanding their minds. Discover how medieval Muslim scholars saved Greek knowledge from oblivion and generated revolutionary scientific ideas of their own. Join us as we explore their forgotten contribution to world knowledge. Then learn how the Christian conquest of Muslim Spain spurred on a new dawn for intellectual life, kick-starting Europe's emergence from the Dark Ages.
The Story of the Ottoman Empire
Excavations in southern Turkey have recently uncovered evidence of the world's first sacred temples, providing amazing insights into the birth of organized religion. In this episode, we explore man's creation of a belief system to make sense of our bewildering world. Then we'll reveal how the pantheon of pagan gods that ruled in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome were ultimately overthrown by a revolutionary idea: monotheism. Discover the story of how the belief in one God was born in the East and how it came to dominate the Western world.
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Murder Most Puzzling
When a strange murder takes place in the sleepy market town of Bakerbury. The local police are baffled by a crossword puzzle left on the body.
With their case going nowhere, they turn reluctantly to Cora Felton, a recent arrival in Bakerbury; whose fame as the eponymous Puzzle Lady suggests she can help DCI Hooper and the Bakerbury police solve its first murder case. But the eccentric Cora isn't who she claims to be, and as she throws herself into a murder case that has the town's residents baffled, she starts to gather allies and enemies in equal measure.
In Flight
Jo Conran is a single mum working as a flight attendant. Her son is serving a fifteen-year sentence in a Bulgarian prison for a murder he swears he did not commit. Jo is approached by a gang who know all about her son and is blackmailed into using her job to smuggle drugs. She soon finds herself pulled into a murky underworld of corrupt cops and hired killers, forced to carry out their orders with no escape in sight. However, no matter how far Jo finds herself from her old life, her mission remains the same, to keep her son alive.
Irish Blood
Irish Blood focuses on Fiona, whose path in life is earmarked by her father, Declan, who seemingly abandoned her and her mother on her tenth birthday. After years of channelling anger toward him, to the benefit of her litigious clients, a message from her father sends her to Ireland. There she learns key truths about her father as well as a family that doesn't know she exists, and, moreover, that the story of abandonment that has shaped her entire life - was a lie. A lie intended to protect her and her mother from her father's shady business dealings. Fiona resolves to uncover the full truth about her father and reconnect with the parent she only thought she knew.