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Ninety five per cent of the world's pearls are born in China, which supplies almost all the pearl growing nuclei to pearl farms around the world. This episode takes us to China and Polynesia, where Chinese pearl technicians are in great demand.

In October 2002, Fatemeh Saharkhizan, wife of one of Iran's biggest football stars, Nasser Mohammad-Khani, was found murdered in her bedroom. Mohammad-Khani's mistress Khadijeh Jahed (Shahla), became the prime suspect and was arrested a year later. She was charged and held after confessing to the murder whilst in police custody. But serious inconsistencies have arisen, including the fact that the victim was raped. This film follows Shahla's trial.

Insight into the life of Dennis Nilsen who was London's most macabre serial killer, who preyed on the lost and the vulnerable. He murdered fifteen men without the police realising a killer was at large.

On 9 October 1934, just after King Alexander of Yugoslavia had arrived in France, a man jumped onto the running board of the King's car and opened fire. In the confusion, the King accidentally bled to death in his car because his aides failed to apply a tourniquet.

A French scientific mission in the Mediterranean explores two important deep underwater sites.

What does the future hold? Obama's America is a two-part BBC series marking President Barack Obama's first year in office. On inauguration day 2009, the new president studied the "gathering clouds and raging storms" that threatened his nation and declared unequivocally, "we are in the midst of a crisis." A year on as President Obama wrestles with a daunting array of challenges on the world stage and a reeling economy at home, historian Simon Schama looks to American history to understand what is at stake and what the future might hold.

The second and final part of our in-depth look at Barak Obama's first year in office. As the President wrestles with a daunting array of challenges on the world stage and a reeling economy at home, historian Simon Schama looks to American history to understand what is at stake and what the future might hold.

Take a chilling journey to Snowtown, the South Australian town where one of the world's most heinous crimes took place. A serial killing truly unique to all others for one reason - the perpetrators believed they were doing the right thing.

On 17 July 1918, Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family were murdered and buried in a nearby wood. For more than seventy years their whereabouts was unknown, but new material released from Russia now conclusively reveals their fate.

A huge construction project is under way to widen the Panama Canal which is close to suffocating with the growth of global sea traffic.

Get ready to witness the 20th Century's most damaging and outrageous assassination attempts, first-hand.

Australia's relationship with its enormous, vastly populated northern neighbour is complex. In an engaging, heartfelt and accessible style Indonesia: A Reporter's Journey follows respected Australian journalist Mike Carlton on a journey to explore the historical relationship between Australia and Indonesia through a contemporary prism.

Delves into the lives of Filipino container ship seamen who represent a quarter of the world's maritime industry workforce. It also looks at a seafarers' school in the Philippines where teenagers learn about military-like discipline and acquire their education.

PNG's voting system has traditionally been as primitive as its villages. In the 1930s, Australia, its colonial ruler, introduced a system of government and since then, virtually nothing's changed. It couldn't cope with the emerging needs and wants of voters that were intertwined with deep rooted tribal followings and vast language differences.

Although there had been two previous attempts to kill Hitler, including poisoning a bottle of Cointreau on his aircraft, the assassination attempt which nearly worked at his Prussian forest hideaway in Rastenburg resulted in the perpetrators being tortured.

Looks at how apple-picking is a good way for backpackers to earn money when travelling in Australia. French Charles and Nino, Japanese Junko and Korean Yunen work seasonal small jobs in Victoria to help finance their trips.

One of the most charismatic leaders in the struggle for Irish independence from British rule, Michael Collins came to realise that only compromise could secure southern Ireland's independence and peace. Many of his former colleagues disagreed and, on 22 August 1922, as newly-independent Eire lapsed into civil war, Collins was gunned down in an ambush.

On 30 March 1981, as US President Ronald Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel, 25- year-old John Hinckley III fired six shots from a revolver. One of the bullets missed Reagan's heart by three inches. His famous quote to his wife was, 'Honey, I forgot to duck.' One of his top aides was not so fortunate.