Best movies & TV Shows like Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You Starring Michael Mosley, and more. If you liked Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You then you may also like: The Day of the Dolphin, Embryo, Lorenzo's Oil, Something the Lord Made, Alien, Baby! and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

100 trillion cells. 280 days. One human life. A BBC Science series, produced in partnership with The Open University, exploring the making of you.

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The Day of the Dolphin

Dr. Jake Terrell, who has been training a pair of dolphins for many years, has had a breakthrough. He has taught his dolphins to speak and understand English, although they do have a limited vocabulary. When the dolphins are stolen, he discovers they're to be used in an assassination attempt. Now he is in a race to discover who is the target, and where the dolphins are, before the attempt is carried out.

Embryo

A scientist doing experiments on a human fetus discovers a method to accelerate the fetus into a mature adult in just a few days.

Lorenzo's Oil

Augusto and Michaela Odone are dealt a cruel blow by fate when their five-year-old son Lorenzo is diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease. But the Odones' persistence and faith leads to an unorthodox cure which saves their boy and re-writes medical history.

Something the Lord Made

A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.

Alien, Baby!

Brian, a simple shovel salesman, thinks Alice is the girl of his dreams, but she's the stuff of nightmares: a shape-shifting alien bent on destroying the human race through sheer reproductive power. Brian soon gives birth to a half-human infant, the first of an alien master race. With the help of a psychotic private detective and an archaeologist with a mysterious past, Brian races to save the world from certain destruction. But as the bond between mother and child grows, will Brian be capable of making the ultimate sacrifice to save his species?

Micro Men

In 1979 Clive Sinclair, British inventor of the pocket calculator, frustrated by the lack of home investment in his project,the electric car, also opposes former assistant Chris Curry's belief that he can successfully market a micro-chip for a home computer. A parting of the ways sees Curry, in partnership with the Austrian Hermann Hauser and using whizz kid Cambridge students, set up his own, rival firm to Sinclair Radionics, Acorn. Acorn beat Sinclair to a lucrative contract supplying the BBC with machines for a computer series. From here on it is a battle for supremacy to gain the upper hand in the domestic market.

Earth: Making of a Planet

Take a photographic journey thorough time from the violent birth of our planet four and a half billion years ago, through ice-ages, massive volcanic eruptions and the dinosaurs' reign to the first humans. For the first time, see the incredible story of our planet unfold in one single, seamless camera move.

I Was There: The Great War Interviews

In the early 1960s, the BBC interviewed 280 eye-witnesses of the First World War for the series, 'The Great War'. This film presents never before seen footage from these interviews.

Planet Earth

David Attenborough celebrates the amazing variety of the natural world in this epic documentary series, filmed over four years across 64 different countries.

Doctor Who Confidential

Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly television episode on BBC One. The running time of the first two series was 30 minutes, being extended to 45 minutes in the third. BBC Three also broadcast a cut-down edition of the programme, lasting 15 minutes, shown after the repeats on Sundays and Fridays and after the weekday evening repeats of earlier seasons. Described as focusing on the human element of the series, Confidential features behind-the-scenes footage on the making of Doctor Who through clips and interviews with the cast, production crew and other people, including those who have participated in the television series over the years of its existence. Each episode deals with a different topic, and in most cases refers to the Doctor Who episode that preceded it. There have also been two episodes of Doctor Who Confidential broadcast apart from the showing of Doctor Who episodes: in November 2006 an edition subtitled "Music and Monsters" was produced going behind the scenes of a televised concert of soundtrack music produced as part of that year's Children in Need appeal, and on 3 January 2009, a special edition was broadcast to announce the actor chosen to play the Eleventh Doctor.

Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box is a six-part 1992 BBC documentary television series which examines the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism. The episodes deal, in order, with communism in The Soviet Union, systems analysis and game theory during the Cold War, economy in the United Kingdom during the 1970s, the insecticide DDT, Kwame Nkrumah's leadership in Ghana during the 1950s and 1960s and the history of nuclear power.

The Planets

Documentary series tracing mankind's exploration of our solar system.

Bonekickers

Bonekickers was a BBC drama about a team of archaeologists, set at the fictional Wessex University. It made its début on 8 July 2008 and ran for one series. It was written by Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah. It was produced by Michele Buck and Damien Timmer of Mammoth Screen Ltd and co-produced with Monastic Productions. Archaeologist and Bristol University academic Mark Horton acted as the series' archaeological consultant. Adrian Lester has described the programme as "CSI meets Indiana Jones [...] There's an element of the crime procedural show, there's science, conspiracy theories – and there's a big underlying mystery that goes through the whole six-episode series." Much of the series was filmed in the City of Bath, Somerset, with locations including the University of Bath campus. Additional locations included Brean Down Fort and Kings Weston House, Chavenage House for episodes 5 & 6 and Sheldon Manor. On 21 November 2008 Broadcast magazine revealed the show would not be returning for a second series.

James May's Big Ideas

James May's Big Ideas is a three-part British television miniseries in which James May, a journalist and self-acknowledged geek travels the globe in search of implementations for concepts widely considered science fiction, or his big ideas. The series is produced by the BBC and the Open University and began airing at 8pm on Sundays on 28 September 2008. The first episode documents his search for the ultimate form of personal transport, ranging from jetpacks to flying cars. In the second episode, May looks at bionics and robotics and if robots can exceed the boundaries of their programming. The third episode focuses on energy.

Wild New World

Journey through the long-vanished corners of prehistoric North America, beginning when man first entered the vast, unspoiled continent some 14,000 years ago, in this appealing BBC documentary. Witness ancient beasts, mammoths, mastodons, giant bears, and sabre-toothed cats, and see the legacies each has passed to their modern successors. Computer animation and digital effects bring to life mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, short-faced bears, glyptodonts, and a plethora of smaller animals in a lush Ice Age mosaic. Discoveries from sites across America are the basis for the reconstructions. The BBC team behind "Blue Planet" and "Walking with Dinosaurs" now takes you back to an 'early America' beyond imagination. Travel back 14,000 years as humans were first entering the continent, sharing it with ancient beasts.

Trials of Life

A study in animal behaviour, it was the third in a trilogy of major series (beginning with Life on Earth) that took a broad overview of nature, rather than the more specialised surveys of Attenborough's later productions. Each of the twelve 50-minute episodes features a different aspect of the journey through life, from birth to adulthood and continuation of the species through reproduction. The series was produced in conjunction with the Australian Broadcasting Service and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. The executive producer was Peter Jones and the music was composed by George Fenton. Part of David Attenborough's 'Life' series, it was preceded by The Living Planet (1984) and followed by Life in the Freezer (1993).

Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain

Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain is a 2009 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers the period of British history from the death of Queen Victoria to the end of the Second World War. It was a follow-up to his 2007 series Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain.

A History of Scotland

Presented by Neil Oliver, A History of Scotland is a television series first broadcast in November 2008 on BBC One Scotland and later shown UK-wide on BBC Two during January 2009. The second series began on BBC One Scotland in early November 2009, with transmission at a later point on network BBC Two. Along with the series, BBC Scotland planned a range of radio programmes, a new website, an interactive game, and concerts. The Open University, in collaboration with the BBC, also created a series of audio walks around historic locations in Scotland, with narration from Oliver. In Australia, series one aired on SBS One Sundays at 7:30pm from 6 December 2009 to 3 January 2010. Series two commenced on 24 October 2010 running until 21 November in the same Sunday night Lost Worlds strand. It has since been repeated.

Weird Nature

Weird Nature is a 2002 documentary television series produced by John Downer Productions for the BBC and Discovery Channel. The series features strange behavior in nature—specifically, the animal world. The series now airs on the Science Channel. The series took three years to make and a new filming technique was used to show animal movements in 3D. Each episode, however, tended to end with a piece about how humans are probably the oddest species of all. For example, in the end of the episode about locomotion, the narrator states how unusual it is for a mammal to be bipedal. In the episode about defences, the narrator explains that humans have no real natural defences, save for their big brains.

The Human Body

The Human Body is a seven-part documentary series that looks at the mechanics and emotions of the human body from birth to death.

The Brain: A Secret History

Michael Mosley embarks on three journeys to understand science's last great frontier - the human mind - as he traces the history of the attempts to understand and manipulate the brain.

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood is a 2011 BBC documentary series written, directed and presented by Paul Merton. The three-part series traces the rise of the American film-making industry in Hollywood through from the early years of film-making to the foundation of the major motion-picture studios and the new class of the film star.

Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

From the pioneering work of Galen on Roman gladiators to the latest advances in plastic surgery, this five-part series illustrates the evolution of surgical techniques—a story as much of mishaps and misadventures as it is of successes and amazing advances. Filmed in America and Europe and presented by the charismatic and medically trained Michael J. Mosley. Contains surgical scenes of a graphic nature. A BBC Production. 5-part series.

Our World War

Our World War is a gripping factual drama series offering viewers first-hand experience of the extraordinary bravery of young soldiers fighting 100 years ago. Drawing on real stories of World War One soldiers it uses the visual techniques and imagery familiar from modern warfare – POV helmet camera footage, surveillance images and night vision – to immerse the BBC Three audience in life on the Western Front. Each episode is closely based on first-hand testimony, interviews and memoirs that reveal often hidden and sometimes disturbing aspects of the combat experience.

Andrew Marr's History of the World

Andrew Marr's History of the World is a 2012 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers 70,000 years of world history from the beginning of human civilisation, as African nomadic peoples spread out around the world and settled down to become the first farmers, up to the twentieth century.

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines

In this "entertaining medical series" (The Sunday Times, U.K.), Dr. Michael Mosley shows how drugs have revolutionized medicine and changed the course of human history. Unfolding over a period of 200 years, it's an extraordinary tale of daring, self-experimentation, revelation, genius, and outright luck.

Human Universe

Professor Brian Cox asks the biggest questions we can ask. Are we alone? Why are we here? What is our future? Join him in a stunning celebration of human life as he explores our origins, our place and our destiny in the universe.

9 Months That Made You

Discover the thrilling story of how you were made, from the moment of conception to the moment of birth 280 days later. This breakthrough series follows the gestation process, using state-of-the-art CGI to reveal the most exquisite biological choreography found in nature. Across three episodes we chart how 100 trillion cells come together to make each of us a unique individual. The way you smile, the environments you thrive in, the color of your eyes – everything about you depends on an elaborate dance of biology that happens hidden away in the womb, all timed to precision. But by using the latest scientific research and advances in medicine, we can now reveal this hidden world in forensic detail. Zeroing in on milestones along the road to creation – where critical events in your miraculous assembly can change your life forever.

100 Day Dream Home

Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt are a husband-and-wife team from Tampa, Florida, that makes dream homes come true. She's the realtor, he's the developer and together they help clients both design and build the perfect house from the ground up in 100 days or less.

H2O: The Molecule that Made Us

A landmark, three-part series that tells the human story through our relationship to water. We find out how our success is intimately connected to our control of the molecule, but that the growth of our civilizations has also created a dangerous dependence on a precious resource. One that may be about to run out.

100 Days Wild

100 Days Wild is a documentary series following the establishment of a nomadic, hunter/gatherer community who travel along Alaska's Tanana River.

Foxes: Their Secret World

In this unique series, Steve Backshall explores every aspect of fox life; an animal that's a true natural history success. The fox is secretive, spending much of its life out of sight. In this engaging two part special, we explore the life of these often vilified and misunderstood creatures. We’ll witness a vixen give birth in an underground den, see five cubs take their first steps outside, share the magic of rural encounters and witness the harsh dangers a city fox faces in our human world - from cubs being severely entangled in football goals to an adult fox trapped in barbed wire. There’s inner city fox rivalry and a unique opportunity which allows us to follow the life of seven rescued siblings from just nine days old to taking their first steps back into the wild.

Jeopardy! National College Championship

Hosted by Mayim Bialik, “Jeopardy! National College Championship” is produced by Sony Pictures Television and is a multiconsecutive-night event that features 36 students from 36 colleges and universities from across the country, battling head-to-head for nine days of intense competition.

History of the Earth

From Pete, David and Leila - the creators of History Time, Voices of the Past and Something Incredible. From dust to dinosaurs; come with us as we explore the entire history of our planet. History of the Earth tells the entire story of the Earth, from its formation 4.5 billion years ago to today – covering eye-watering geology and bizarre biology along the way.

Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife

Dr. Paolo Macchiarini is world famous for his revolutionary stem cell-infused windpipe transplants. There's just one problem: His patients keep dying.

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