Best movies & TV Shows like Guided Tour

The Medieval and Renaissance blade, a profound and beautiful object handcrafted by master artisans of old. An object of great complexity, yet one with a singular use in mind- it is designed to kill. The truth of the sword has been shrouded in antiquity, and the Renaissance martial arts that brought it to being are long forgotten. The ancient practitioners lent us all they knew through their manuscripts. As gunslingers of the Renaissance they were western heroes with swords, and they lived and died by them. Yet today their history remains cloaked under a shadow of legend.

A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.

Documentary about the life of Portuguese Fado singer Amalia Rodrigues (1920-1999) with an interview and collection of footage from performances throughout her long career.

Egypt is home to many of the most famous archaeological treasures on Earth, but over the last five years, Egypt has suffered a tumultuous revolution and tourist numbers have plummeted. This program follows a select cast of individuals, determined to bring Egypt back from the brink of disaster: to discover more of Egypt’s history, to keep its heritage safe and to get tourists to visit the country again.

In this hour-long documentary, Oxford academic Janina Ramirez tours the country in search of Anglo-Saxon art treasures. Her basic thesis - and it is a plausible one - is that we should not look upon their era as a "dark age" as compared, for example, to Roman times, but rather celebrate it as an age in which creativity flowered, especially in terms of artistic design as well as symbolism. She shows plenty of good examples, ranging from the Franks Casket to the Staffordshire Hoard, and the Lindisfarne Gospels. - l_rawjalaurence

The exquisite Rosslyn Chapel is a masterpiece in stone. It used to be one of Scotland's best-kept secrets, but it became world-famous when it was featured in Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code.

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the ancient Christian practice of preserving holy relics and the largely forgotten art form that went with it, the reliquary. Fragments of bone or fabric placed inside a bejewelled shrine, a sculpted golden head or even a life-sized silver hand were, and still are, objects of religious devotion believed to have the power to work miracles. The documentary features interviews with art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum.

Sam Roddick explores the enduring appeal of Botticelli's masterpiece The Birth of Venus, one of the most celebrated paintings in western art. A joyous celebration of female sexuality, its journey to worldwide fame was far from straightforward and it lay in obscurity for centuries. Artist and entrepreneur Sam explains why Botticelli's nude was so revolutionary, and explores its impact on contemporary culture with artists such as Terry Gilliam, who memorably reinvented Venus for his Monty Python's Flying Circus animations.

In a Temple filled with lost treasures and protected by mysterious Mayan temple guards, six teams of two children compete to retrieve one of the historical artifacts in the Temple by performing physical stunts and answering questions based on history, mythology, and geography. After three elimination rounds, only one team remains, who then earns the right to go through the Temple to retrieve the artifact within three minutes and win a grand prize.

The story of the Medici family of Florence, their ascent from simple merchants to power brokers sparking an economic and cultural revolution. Along the way, they also accrue a long list of powerful enemies.

Wanted: Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as the bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons from 1958–61. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–59 western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Four Star Television in association with CBS Television. The series launched McQueen into becoming the first television star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.

Engineering an Empire is a program on The History Channel that explores the engineering and/or architectural feats that were characteristic of some of the greatest societies on this planet. It is hosted by Peter Weller, famous for his acting role as RoboCop but also a lecturer at Syracuse University, where he completed his Master's in Roman and Renaissance Art. The executive producer is Delores Gavin. The show started as a documentary about the engineering feats of Ancient Rome and later evolved into a series. It originally ran for one full season of weekly episodes.

Death Valley Days is an American radio and television anthology series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945 and continued from 1952 to 1970 as a syndicated television series, with reruns continuing through August 1, 1975. The series was sponsored by the Pacific Coast Borax Company and hosted by Stanley Andrews, Ronald Reagan, Robert Taylor, and Dale Robertson. With the passing of Dale Robertson in 2013, all the former Death Valley Days hosts are now deceased.

The Legends Of Treasure Island is an animated cartoon from the UK that ran from 1993-1995. It had two series of 13 episodes each and each episode runs for 22–25 minutes. The series was loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson's original story "Treasure Island". Featuring a mysterious and dark storyline, it incorporates magic and many new characters. Unlike the book and most adaptations Long John Silver is not an anti-hero with dubious morality but rather a straight villain. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom and in other countries throughout Europe and Latin America and was also aired in Australia. The programme was a FilmFair production for Central Independent Television, The Legends of Treasure Island, is owned by ITV PLC.

The Restless Gun is an American western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict wherever possible. He is gregarious, intelligent, and public-spirited. The half-hour black-and-white program aired seventy-eight episodes. Jeanne Bates appeared in varying roles with Payne in five episodes of The Restless Gun. The Restless Gun theme song begins: "I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, and my hand on my restless gun..." The song composer is probably Paul Dunlap, credited as the primary series composer, but could have been contributed to by either of the two other series composers, Dave Kahn and Stanley Wilson, also. Two versions are currently posted on YouTube, but neither posting lists any composer or performance credits.

Contemporary artists describe their work and discuss why and how they do it. The programs are grouped according to themes of place, spirituality, identity and consumption. A PBS series, educational resource, archive, and history of contemporary art, Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century premiered in 2001 and is now broadcast in over 50 countries worldwide. Premiering a new season every two years, Art21 is the only series on United States television to focus exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists.

Sliced was an American television series that premiered on April 22, 2010 on The History Channel. The program was hosted by John McCalmont and Budd Kelley, who "slice" everyday objects in half to uncover how they work. The show aired on Thursdays at 10:00 pm Eastern Time, with three episodes airing on a Saturday afternoon, and the last airing on a Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Time.

Evolve is a 2008 documentary television series on History. The series premiere, "Eyes", was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Science, Technology and Nature Programming. Each episode attempts to explain the evolutionary origins of a particular trait of living creatures: for example, Tyrannosaurus Rex's 13-inch teeth, the gecko's "Velcro-like" toe pads, and the bald eagle's "telescopic" vision capable of spotting a hare a mile away.

Sir Kenneth Clarke guides us through the ages exploring the glorious rise of civilisation in western man. Beginning with the bleakness of the dark ages to the present day, we consider civilisation's articulations and expressions in some of man's finest works of art.

From a small Italian community in 15th Century Florence, the Medici family would rise to become one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe. Using charm, patronage, skill, duplicity and ruthlessness, they would amass unparalleled wealth and unprecedented power. They would use this power to help ignite the most important cultural and artistic revolution in Western history – the Renaissance. DaVinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Galileo – all received Medici patronage. But the forces of change the Medici helped unleash would one day topple their ordered world.

Sister Wendy Beckett, a cloistered nun and Oxford-educated art scholar, takes an art appreciation tour across America, visiting six major art museums in this 6-hours documentary series from PBS.

First broadcast on October 2, 1989, these 18 original 30-minute episodes provide a panorama of 2000 years of architecture, painting and sculpture, and studies the art masterpieces as reflections of the Western culture that produced them.

Alastair Sooke tells the story of Ancient Egyptian art through 30 extraordinary masterpieces.

Hosted by comedian Christopher Titus, the half-hour game show Pawnography features contestants competing against each other and the Pawn Stars—Rick Harrison, Corey Harrison and Austin “Chumlee” Russell—in three fast-paced rounds of trivia style questions to win money and coveted items from the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawnshop. Rick, Corey and Chumlee are featured in each episode vigorously defending their treasured items from confident and brainy contestants. The cherished items up for grabs are from Rick’s personal collection and he doesn’t want to give them up–this is the only game show that doesn’t want the contestants to win! Will a lucky contestant be able to stump the man who knows everything or will Rick prevail and walk away with his money in his pocket and his prized possessions intact?

Host Jill Wagner travels the country to seek out talented artisans who continue to make products the traditional way...with their own two hands. In every half-hour episode, Jill meets three gifted craftsmen and gets a behind-the-scenes look at how their products are created. Along the way, viewers learn about the history and cultural heritage that inspire and influence the design of their handcrafted items.

Adventurous home seekers scour the country for a specific type of home to buy, vintage. From century-old Victorians, to timeless Brownstones and historic Four Squares, each episode will feature couples touring three properties in neighborhoods across the U.S. to find a house with the perfect heritage they seek. Find out which classic home they'll make their own on Hunting Vintage.

Northern Mysteries is a docudrama-style television program that retells some of the stranger events in Canadian history, dealing with ghosts, paranormal events, lost treasures and bizarre murders. Hosted by Kenneth Welsh each episode usually tackles two events or subjects, by discussing with Journalists, the police and eye witnesses a complete account of what happened, as well as re-enacting the events for entertainment purposes. Original versions of each episode were released in both English and French.

A fresh look at the life and legacy of the iconic artist Leonardo da Vinci, positing that he was a gay outsider who used his work as a way of hiding his true self. Each episode will examine one of da Vinci’s artworks for hidden clues about a tortured artist struggling for perfection.

Human beings may have roamed the Earth for over 315,000 years — a mere blip in geological terms, but one with far-reaching consequences: wherever people have ventured, they’ve left behind permanent traces of their presence. In fact, we’ve changed the Earth itself. The distinguished Cambridge historian Sir Christopher Clark takes us on the ultimate world tour of man-made masterpieces, cultural achievements, and miracles of nature from the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to over a thousand sites of incredible treasures listed by the UNESCO world heritage organisation today. A whistle-stop tour across space and through time to some of the most astonishing testaments of human ingenuity and nature’s gems. This is a glossy and gripping series tracing the rise of human civilisation and its astonishing impact on our planet.

Saber y ganar, the cultural quiz show of "La 2" hosted by Jordi Hurtado, has celebrated sixteen years on the air, thus becoming the daily program with a longer running time in the history of Spanish television. During the show's thirty-minute duration three contestants compete in different tests where they have to answer trivia-like questions, putting their mental, reasoning and memory abilities to the test. Most of the questions have a moderate level of difficulty and are spread over six different games: "Cada sabio con su tema", where each contestant answer questions about a given topic of their choice; "La pregunta caliente", where contestants must answer random questions; "El duelo", where two contestants answer questions about a topic that changes daily; "La parte por el todo", where the contestants must figure out what an image, piece of text or piece of music belong to; "La calculadora humana", where the contestant with the second highest score must answer fifteen basic arithmetic operations in 50 seconds in order to keep his/her earnings for the day; and finally "El reto", where the contestant with the least score has to figure out seven words from their root and definition in order to remain in the game. If the contestant loses the "El Reto", a new individual will be chosen to replace him/her the next episode.

Formerly the palace of Czars, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg is now one of the world's largest museums, drawing three and a half million visitors per year. This superbly mastered DVD series is a guided tour of the works in the galleries as well as a compelling lesson in art history. The 540 minute series examines some of the sculptures, paintings, tapestries, and glassware pieces found within the four pavillions, as well as the impressive European-style architecture of the museum itself. Researched and authenticated by the Hermitage Museum and lavishly photographed, the series covers such styles as Classical, Neo-Classical, Baroque, Gothic, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Cubism. As well, it showcases works by such masters as Rodin, Goya, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso. Be captivated by the history and culture of this breath taking collection of visual art masterpieces.

Through a combination of interviews and studio reconstructions, recount the gripping stories behind those who have excavated and stolen masterpieces.

Historical buildings in need of restoration. Each episode features a different project, and Nick Knowles follows the restoration work, showing the results, and diving into the history of the building.

THE WONDERS OF EUROPE is a four-part docuseries that tells the story of the people who built some of the biggest and most unique landmarks in Europe monuments: the Louvre, the Palace of Versailles, the temples of the Acropolis, and the Alhambra complex. Intended for a young and international audience, it aims to promote European cultural heritage and architecture. With voice-over narration, each episode will feature spectacular shots of the monuments, interviews with historians and specialists, fictional recreations and innovative 3D modelling to illustrate the successive architectural changes. In order to ensure scientific and historical accuracy, the writer/director of each episode has been advised by historical experts.

Butternut Square was a Canadian children's television series which aired on CBC Television between October 19, 1964 and February 10, 1967. The cast featured Ernie Coombs as Mr. Dressup and Fred Rogers as Mister Rogers, both of whom would follow with their own landmark television series. "Butternut Square" was a show designed for young viewers and featured a variety of segments aimed at entertaining and educating children. The program included storytelling, music, puppetry, and educational segments, often focusing on imaginative play and interactive elements to engage its audience. The show aimed to stimulate creativity, encourage learning, and entertain children through a mix of fun activities and storytelling. Although specific details about individual episodes might vary, the overall emphasis was on fostering a sense of wonder, creativity, and learning in its young viewers.