To the Ends of the Earth

Channel 4 series following explorers, archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and scientists on investigative expeditions to some of the world's remotest regions.

Episodes

Specials

2 episodes

S0 E1 · Secrets of the Incas: 1

2000-02-28

First of a two-part 'To the Ends of the Earth' special that charts the rise and fall of the Inca empire.

S0 E2 · Secrets of the Incas: 2: The War Against Time

2000-03-06

Dr William Sullivan concludes his investigation into the Inca civilization.

Season 1

6 episodes

S1 E1 · The Secret Underworld

1997-03-23

New series exploring little-known locations around the world, beginning with the journey of two deep-sea divers into the Movile caves beneath the plains of Dobrogea, Romania.

S1 E2 · The Transylvanian Job

1997-03-30

Cameras follow a former Israeli intelligence officer, eight elderly Americans and two metal detector-wielding Essex lads as they venture deep into Dracula country on the trail of legendary lost Roman booty.

S1 E3 · Volcanic Eruption

1997-04-06

Mark Davies reports on Soufriere, the seismic activity taking place inside a Montserrat volcano which is proving increasingly volatile.

S1 E4 · Bigfoot Monster Mystery

1997-04-13

Insight into wildlife cameraman John Waters' search for the bizarre beast, first photographed 30 years ago by rodeo clown Roger Patterson, whose 39-second film has caused controversy ever since. Waters' quest leads him to a group of eccentric Americans obsessed with Bigfoot, as he tries to discover why the believe the elusive creature is real and not just someone in a bad gorilla suit.

S1 E5 · Interview with a Zombie

1997-04-20

Professor of psychiatry and anthropology Roland Littlewood meets Wilfred, an Haitian man officially regarded as a zombie, probing his predictably macabre lifestyle and casting light on the widely held suppositions regarding the so-called living dead. (Granite Productions)

S1 E6 · The Wrecks of Condor Reef

1997-05-11

Wreck detective Nigel Pickford and adventurer Mike Hatcher head for Condor Reef, 40 miles off the coast of Cambodia, in search of valuable relics and treasure from the Far East.

Season 2

14 episodes

S2 E1 · Black Mamba

1998-03-02

The series about some of the world's most remote natural wonders returns with Mark O'Shea travelling to South Africa to find one of the most lethal snakes, the black mamba.

S2 E2 · Arctic Explorer

1998-03-09

The story of Steve Martin and Dave Mitchell, who in March of last year completed the first British unsupported trek to the North Pole, trekking for 92 days over shifting ice plates in temperatures of -57C.

S2 E3 · Phantom Tiger

1998-03-16

The thyacine or Tasmanian tiger, terror of the island's first white settlers, was a kind of carnivorous kangaroo with the jaws of a wolf and a taste for sheep. Ruthlessly slaughtered, the creature became officially extinct 60 years ago, when the last known tiger died in a zoo -- but since then, there have been over 300 sightings. Here zoologist Juliet Vickery ventures into the Tasmanian forests to check out the evidence.

S2 E4 · Mummies of the Takla Makan

1998-03-23

They had reddish blonde hair, finely woven tartan robes, long noses and the bone structure of ancient Celts or Saxons. So who were the unknown, extinct people whose mummified remains have turned up in a desert region of China? An international team of experts investigates these extraordinary relics of a 3,500-year-old lost civilization, so perfectly preserved that the face of a small child still bears traces of tears.

S2 E5 · The Hanover

1998-03-30

The Cornish coastal waters in which a Falmouth Packet ship foundered in 1763 are as treacherous today as they were then, so the operation to trace the wreck of the Hanover and salvage her fabled cargo is fraught with difficulty and danger. For ten years former coal miner turned commercial salvage operator Colin Martin has been obsessed with finding the treasure-laden ship. Now he has funding for a three-week salvage operation, with the weather and the archaeological establishment against him.

S2 E6 · Cave Man Space Man

1998-04-06

Under the mountains of New Mexico lies a dangerous cave system where scientists hope to find chemical life forms -- and thereby to discover more about the possibility of life on Mars. An international expedition, including Our Man from the Natural History Museum, braves sulfurous winds to enter this fragile and hazardous ecosystem -- from which it once took 250 people four days to extract a caver with a broken leg.

S2 E7 · The Storm

1998-04-20

The story of 'Halloween Horror', the 1991 storm that devastated the eastern coastline near Boston with 100mph winds and waves the height of 10-story buildings.

S2 E8 · Return to Loch Ness

1998-04-27

More than 20 years since he first went questing for Nessie, Bob Rines leads a new expedition equipped with the latest sonar and photographic technology. Will this latest attempt succeed in tracking the Scots' myth?

S2 E9 · The Fearless Vampire Hunters

1998-05-04

Adventurous British cryptozoologists John and Graham go in search of the chupacabra or goatsucker, bloodsucking killer of the Puerto Rican night.

S2 E11 · Back from the Dead

1998-05-18

The Druze religious sect of Lebanon believe that they are reincarnated. Their children claim to recall their past lives, and are often accepted as family by past-life relatives. Roy Stemman, editor of Reincarnation International, travels to Lebanon to investigate, accompanied by psychologist and skeptic Chris French. (Granite Productions)

S2 E12 · The Abyss

1998-06-01

Low's Gully, a two-mile-deep fissure in the mountains of Borneo, made world headlines in 1994 when a British army expedition there went disastrously wrong. Now a new team is filmed by Edinburgh cameraman Duncan McCallum for Cicada Films as they attempt to conquer the mighty chasm, with power struggles and personality battles making the journey a test of the human spirit as much as the body.

S2 E13 · Danger UXO

1998-06-08

During the Vietnam war, the USA dropped the equivalent of a B-52 planeload of bombs on Laos every six minutes for nine years; up to one-third failed to explode. Peter Newman and John Devine of the Mine Advisory Group attempt to clear this unexploded ordnance (UXO).

S2 E14 · Racing with the Wind

1998-06-15

American Steve Fossett has climbed Everest, swum the Channel, and completed a triathlon at 52. Now he's attempting to fly non-stop around the world by balloon -- as are four rival teams. This documentary follows the progress of all five contenders in the race, Richard Branson included.

S2 E99 · Episode 99

No summary.

Season 3

6 episodes

S3 E1 · Return to the Valley of the Kings

1999-02-22

The Carnarvon family has tended to steer clear of Egypt ever since the fifth Earl died within weeks of discovering Tutankhamun's tomb -- cursed, it was said, for disturbing the rest of the pharaohs. But now the Earl's great-grandson Lord Porchester is planning to defy the curse and supervise an excavation in Thebes by the family archaeologist Nigel Struthwick. 1/6.

S3 E2 · The Battle for Titanic

1999-03-01

Oceanographer James Ballard, whose 1985 discovery of the sunken Titanic sparked a feeding frenzy, is now a vociferous opponent of the company which presently controls the wreck and which stages exhibitions of salvaged artifacts. Chris Powell's film tells the story of obsession, exploitation, and lawsuits surrounding the tragic liner's remains.

S3 E3 · Big Snake

1999-03-08

How one Robert Twigger aims to collect the $50,000 prize, never claimed in 80 years, for bringing the Bronx Zoo a live, healthy snake of over 30 feet.

S3 E4 · Search for the Sons of Abraham

1999-03-15

Anthropologist Tudor Parfitt uses genetic research to determine whether Africa's Lemba tribe are of Jewish descent, as they claim. Can he confirm a legend that would rewrite history? 4/6.

S3 E5 · Who Killed Fletcher Christian?

1999-03-22

Archaeologists are trying to log the history of the settlement on remote Pitcairn island, where Christian and fellow mutineers from HMS Bounty fled with Polynesian comrades to found a new Eden. Their excavations, and the oral tradition of the settlers' direct descendants, tell how that early community, riven with conflicts over race and property, descended into murderous savagery before finding redemption.

S3 E6 · The Lost Worlds of Mulu

1999-03-29

Explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison revisits the tropical rainforests of Mulu in Borneo some 20 years after his first expedition, to see how the environment has changed in the intervening years. Will there be any sign of his former friend and nomadic tribesman Nyapun?

Season 4

5 episodes

S4 E1 · Death, Deceit and the Nile

2000-02-07

Michael Asher attempts to unravel the mystery behind the death of Hanning Speke, the man who, with Richard Burton, claimed to have found the source of the Nile. 1/6.

S4 E2 · The Mystery of the Missing U-Boat

2000-02-14

Divers find the wreck of a German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey, USA. The records say it shouldn't be there. Three lives are lost in solving the mystery.

S4 E3 · Revenge of the Lost Tribe

2000-02-21

London students put theories about eco-tourism into practice in the heart of the Amazonian jungle.

S4 E4 · The Meteorite That Vanished

2000-03-13

What's reputed to have been the largest meteorite to bounce against our planet is thought to have landed in the Sahara in 1916. Slivers of it have emerged from collectors but scientists are still searching for the slivers' Big Daddy which, it's thought,is out there among the dunes.

S4 E5 · Deadly Cargo

2000-03-20

The documentary adventure series ends with the work of salvage master Arjen Hoekstra and his team who have to save an abandoned container ship before its lethal cargo explodes.

Season 5

4 episodes

S5 E1 · Hell on High Water

2000-10-30

On December 26, 1998, 112 yachts set out on the annual Sydney- Hobart Yacht Race. Within 24 hours, a cyclone had left six yachtsmen dead and prompted the rescue of 57 others. This gripping film charts the events through the experiences of competitors, who quickly found that winning the race became secondary to survival. "You could see death working in that water," says skipper Tony Mowbray, of the 80ft waves which sank seven vessels.

S5 E2 · Quest for the Lost City

2000-11-13

An expedition searches the Guatemalan jungle for a lost ancient Maya city.

S5 E3 · China's Titanic

2000-11-23

Maritime historian Nigel Pickford and treasure-hunter Michael Hatcher set out to prove the existence of a legendary Chinese cargo ship laden with porcelain.

S5 E4 · Dreaming on Desolation Island

2000-12-16

Journalist and former MP Matthew Parris journeys to an island so battered by Antarctic gales and snow that no one has ever managed to make a life there. For four months he explores the island with a group of French scientists.

Season 6

6 episodes

S6 E1 · Yeti: Hunt for the Wildman

2001-04-02

Bhutan is the setting for the first in this new series in which a zoologist, a primatologist, a cameraman and a science writer attempt to find evidence of the mythical Yeti. After spending days hacking their way through inhospitable terrain, the group find some unfamiliar hairs in the hollow of a cedar tree. Is it a Yeti? Is it a rare species of bear? Or is it a grown man floundering around the undergrowth in a big woolly suit?

S6 E2 · Ride the Wild Surf

2001-04-09

Well beyond the realm of the surfer dudes of Newquay - or even California - is an elite group whose life mission is to ride the biggest wave imaginable. Off the coast of Hawaii, it's so big that surfers have to be towed by a jet-ski to get on it, as paddling would kill you. Nicknamed Jaws, it doesn't look much on its own, but a sense of perspective dawns when one of the adrenaline junkies pits himself against it. It can go up to 80 feet (the average wave is 10) and a wrong move can be lethal. One of the group tries it for the first time, and he's lucky to get away with shredded knee ligaments.

S6 E3 · The Strange Case of Peking Man

2001-04-23

In 1923 a Canadian doctor Davidson Black discovered fossilized remains in China that helped to prove the evolutionary link between apes and humans. The fossils later vanished, and now archaeology lecturer Dr Wang Tao and Black's grandson are attempting to determine what became of them.

S6 E4 · Jungle Trip

2001-04-30

When an Oxford-trained academic goes in search of South American forest magic, talking plants and a shaman who could guide him through hallucinogenic experiences, is he just mad or is there really a mystery waiting to be uncovered?

S6 E5 · In Search of Eden

2001-05-14

Dr Erika Hagelberg tries to make contact with tribes on the Andaman islands in the Bay of Bengal and solve the mystery of their origins.

S6 E6 · Alien Big Cats

2001-05-21

A Canadian fur trapper and an English ex-patriate investigate sightings of mysterious large felines roaming the British countryside.

Season 7

4 episodes

S7 E1 · The Real Bravo Two Zero

2002-05-20

At the height of the Gulf War, eight SAS soldiers were dropped behind enemy lines in an audacious mission. Three died, four were captured and one escaped. The story is familiar to millions via books written by two of the survivors, but desert explorer and former SAS trooper Michael Asher doubts the whole story has been told before now. In this programme, he retraces the mission and tries to find out what really happened.

S7 E2 · Pacific Hell

2002-05-27

In 2001, Jim Shekhdar became the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean alone in a boat. It took the arthritic "fiftysomething" businessman nine months to complete the trip from Peru to Australia in his 23ft-long boat. This compelling film, shot by Shekhdar as he braved sharks, hurricanes and supertankers, recounts the eight-and-a-half thousand mile journey.

S7 E3 · A Dangerous Obsession

2002-06-17

A year ago Tom Hart Dyke set off on a journey from Panama to Colombia in pursuit of rare orchids, but found himself kidnapped and held hostage for nine months by local guerrillas. 'To the Ends of the Earth' follows him now as decides to continue his search in Papua New Guinea.

S7 E4 · The Lost Army of King Cambyses

2002-07-01

2500 years ago an army of Persians vanished apparently without trace while crossing the remote Western Sahara. Examining new evidence found.