Best movies & TV Shows like James May's 20th Century

The story of Steve Jobs' ascension from college dropout into one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of the 20th century.

Ned Hanlan was Canada's most successful sculling champion at the turn of the 20th century. This dramatization of his life begins in his youth, when the wild young man is informally adopted by a gambler who promotes Ned on the sculling circuit, betting on the boy's rowing skills solely to make money off him. Later, a ruthless businessman named Knox takes over Ned's career, but when Ned realizes how dishonest Knox is, he finds another manager. Walter is an inventor and the first honest man Ned has dealt with in his career and, under Walter's guidance, Ned rises to great success in the sculling world.

A look at the greatest inventions of the 20th century and could they be the products of reverse engineered alien technology.

Welsh poet Ifor Ap Glyn has a passionate interest in the toilet: its history and how it has evolved over the centuries, right up to the development of the current design. Here, he explains the reasons behind his fascination.

The first half century of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation from its beginnings under Hungarian immigrant William Fox to it emergence as a major studio.

The story behind the creation of the transistor, one of the 20th century's most important inventions.

The underseaa world is an unseen battleground. Join Dr. Robert Ballard, former naval intelligence officer and discoverer of the RMS Titanic, as he reveals how the race for global domination as eon from the deapest reaches of the ocean. Using rare archival footage and fully animated recreations, this fascinating documentary examines the technology behind Cold War nuclear subs along with other recently declassified defense systems, such as SOSUS, the U.S. Navy's top-secret sound survelliance network. Sea Spies also looks at the key historical developments that influenced twentieth century warfare and features interviews with marine experts as well as high-ranking military officials.

Ted, a successful but morally conscious man, runs a research and development department at a morally questionable corporation, Veridian Technologies. No achievement is too far fetched and no invention too unorthodox for Veridian. Ted loves his seemingly perfect job; he loves his superhuman boss, Veronica, and colleagues Lem, Phil and Linda, but he's starting to take a closer look at the company's extremely questionable practices... especially when they try to cryogenically freeze one of Ted's scientists for testing purposes.

Real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world are solved by experts using scientific laboratory analysis which helps them find previously undetectable evidence. Brilliant scientific work helps convict the guilty and free the innocent.

Thirty-something Hazel Green tries to escape a suffocating marriage — until she realizes her tech billionaire husband has implanted a revolutionary tracking device, the Made for Love, in her brain.

HISTORY’s longest-running series moves to H2. Modern Marvels celebrates the ingenuity, invention and imagination found in the world around us. From commonplace items like ink and coffee to architectural masterpieces and engineering disasters, the hit series goes beyond the basics to provide insight and history into things we wonder about and that impact our lives. This series tells fascinating stories of the doers, the dreamers and sometime-schemers that create everyday items, technological breakthroughs and manmade wonders. The hit series goes deep to explore the leading edge of human inspiration and ambition.

The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series, written around a theme of time travel adventure. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science fiction television series, released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran for one season of 30 episodes. Reruns are viewable on cable and by internet streaming. A pilot for a new series was produced in 2002, although it was not picked up.

In his basement in San Francisco, boy-genius Quinn Mallory unlocks the doorway to an infinite number of Earths. During a test run, Quinn invites co-worker Wade Welles and his teacher Professor Maximillian Arturo to see his new invention. But an increase in power and an early departure leave all three, plus a washed-up soul singer named Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown, lost in a parallel world. Now they must "slide" from world to world, not only adapting to their changing surroundings, but also trying to get back to their world. Will they ever make it home?

2057 is a Discovery Channel television program hosted by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. It premiered on January 28, 2007 and attempts to predict what the world will be like in 50 years based on current trends. The show takes the form of a docu-drama with three separate episodes, each having informative stories ingrained into the plot. All three episodes aired on January 28, 2007.

People's Century is a television documentary series examining the 20th century. It was a joint production of the BBC in the United Kingdom and PBS member station WGBH Boston in the United States. First shown on BBC in 1995, the 26 parts of one hour deal with the socio-economic, political, and cultural movements that shaped the 20th century. The documentary won an International Emmy Award, among others. A departure from other documentaries that observe history as the actions of great men, People's Century considers the Century from the view of common people. Most persons interviewed were ordinary men and women who closely witnessed various events and they give personal accounts how developments in the Twentieth Century affected their lives. The opening credits depict various images from the century, accompanied with a theme music score by Zbigniew Preisner. A very short introduction of the episode would then follow, often illustrated by a dramatic event that illustrates the episode's particular theme coming to the fore. The British version was narrated by Sean Barrett and Veronika Hyks, the American by actors John Forsythe and Alfre Woodard. People's Century was coproduced by the BBC and WGBH with executive producers Peter Pagnamenta and Zvi Dor-Ner, respectively; along with producer David Espar.

That's Impossible was a television series on the History Channel that examined seemingly impossible technologies based upon stories and inventions in history, and detailed exactly what was needed to turn them into reality. The show premiered on July 7, 2009 and was narrated by Jonathan Frakes.

The lives and loves of a 1930s Yorkshire town explored in a passionate tale of politics in small places. South Riding charts the story of Sarah Burton's homecoming to Yorkshire in 1934 after twenty years teaching in London and the Empire. After a fiery interview with a conservative interview panel, outspoken Sarah takes up her first headmistress-ship at Kiplington High School for Girls, determined to demonstrate to her new pupils that the future is theirs for the taking.

We have been colonised by the machines we have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers.

Howard Goodall examines the work of The Beatles, Cole Porter, Bernard Herrmann and Leonard Bernstein.

Britain's Greatest Machines with Chris Barrie is a documentary television series from National Geographic Channel. It is showing the technological progress of the 19th and 20th centuries from a British point of view. Chris Barrie is the host and is testing various means of transportation.

Engineer and showman Professor Brendan Walker sets out to discover the ingenuity and life-changing technology behind the inventions that took drab, black and white post-war Britain and launched it, under its new young Queen Elizabeth 2nd, into a Technicolor-drenched world of the future.

How We Invented the World is the ultimate action-packed, hi-energy, landmark series that examines the four inventions that define the modern world - mobiles, cars, planes and skyscrapers -celebrating the people and connections that made them possible. Each playing a crucial role in where we are now in the 21st Century - able to travel the globe, to talk to one another at any time at the push of a button, to live in huge cities, to commute, to capture the world we live in, making the fantasies we create come to life. This four part series lifts the lid on how these iconic inventions came to be. Showcasing the people who have shaped our lives in ways that they could have never imagined or anticipated, this series reveals stories of human ingenuity, extraordinary connections, unprecedented experimentation and jaw dropping accidents that created the world as we know it.

Dan Snow examines the development of the railways from their beginnings as track-ways for coal carts in the early 18th century to the pivotal technology for modern Britain.

Every time we switch on a light or boil a kettle we rely on power - but most people don't stop to think about the inventions and discoveries that allow us to live the way we do. In an exciting new four-part series for BBC Two, The Genius of Invention reveals the fascinating chain of events behind inventions that make everyday life possible.

The story of the underwater war between US, UK and Soviet submarines in the second half of the 20th century.

Len Goodman and Lucy Worsley uncover the British love affair with dancing, exploring the nation's favourite dances from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Inspired by the original novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, Jekyll and Hyde is set in 1930s London and follows Robert Jekyll, the grandson of Henry Jekyll, on his quest to discover his real identity, his true family history and the nature of his ‘curse’ – which his foster father, Dr Vishal Najaran, is controlling with medication. His journey takes him into a dark and unforgiving place, as his alter ego seems capable of anything. At the same time there are shadowy forces trying to find Jekyll and the source of his powers.

Set in a 1950s Britain rising from the ashes of the Blitz into the grip of a new Cold War, our beekeeping duo stumble into a world of murder, undercover agents and cold war conspiracy. Tuppence is a woman who sees adventure round every corner, throwing herself head first into every mystery with passion and fervour, determined to get to the truth no matter what it takes, much to the dismay of her more cautious husband Tommy.

Takes a look back at the times and inventions for those who were born between 1961-81 who got to experience them and even inspire them to change the world as a result

Based on a true story, "Harley and the Davidsons" charts the birth of this iconic bike during a time of great social and technological change beginning at the turn of the 20th century.

A comedy that takes place in the 1960s during turbulent times in the United States when a middle class suburban family is visited by a guest who turns their household completely upside down.

Paul Pennyfeather is an inoffensive divinity student at Oxford University in the 1920s who is wrongly dismissed for indecent exposure having been made the victim of a prank by The Bollinger Club.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. takes a look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century. A breathtaking and personal journey through two hundred thousand years of history, from the origins, on the African continent, of art, writing and civilization itself, through the millennia in which Africa and Africans shaped not only their own rich civilizations, but also the wider world.

This series takes viewers inside the world of true crime investigation through high-profile criminal cases of the past century that were ultimately solved by advances in forensic science or technology.

From the 1920s through the 1960s, America transformed from a young country on the rise into a global superpower. Using digital colorization technology, we present these formative decades as few have seen them, revisiting 50 vibrant years of good times and great despair, technological triumphs and natural disasters, and global villains and national heroes.

Jean Béliveau was gentleman, a businessman, a captain, a star, a husband, a father, and one of the greatest hockey players of his time.

1933. Hercule Poirot, older and greyer, receives letters threatening murder. The sender signs themselves only as “A.B.C.” When he takes the letters to the police looking for help, Hercule finds all his old friends have moved on. But soon there is a murder and the once-great detective must take matters into his own hands.

Take a mind-blowing journey through human history, told through six iconic objects that modern people take for granted, and see how science, invention and technology built on one another to change everything.

The definitive story of Susan's devastating final years are revealed—unveiling alarming new developments, scandalous never-before-seen videos and rare interviews with family members offering a closer than ever look at one of the most shocking cases in recent memory.

When social upheaval sweeps Russia in the early 20th century, Czar Nicholas II resists change, sparking a revolution and ending a dynasty.

Longing for love, obsessed with sex, Linda is on the hunt for the perfect lover. But finding Mr. Right is much harder than she thought.

A diverse, dedicated, rough-and-tumble squad of soldiers spearheads the Allied invasion of Italy during World War II.

Mike Rowe shows how many things in the world are connected. By using historical facts, Mike takes two seemingly unrelated things and shows an indirect connection.

Xbox almost didn't happen. Find out why in this behind-the-scenes, six-part series that takes you back to the scrappy beginnings of Microsoft's video game console. It's the untold story of the people behind the box, glitches and all.

Scientology is the only major religion to emerge in the 20th century. This series takes an unprecedented look behind the scenes into the many fascinating operations of the global Scientology movement. From its stunning 21st-century cathedral in Florida, state-of-the-art publishing houses, one-of-a-kind film and media facilities, see what happens on a typical day at a Church of Scientology, to a race against time to find the technology that will preserve Scientology’s scripture for thousands of years.

A young aspiring writer discovers secrets about her family's past when she finds herself mysteriously being pulled back and forth in time to a 19th century plantation.

Cristóbal Balenciaga makes his debut as a designer in Paris, but the designs that set a trend in Spain don't work well in the sophisticated empire of fashion where Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy set the trends. Guided by his obsession with control in all aspects of his life, Balenciaga will define his style and end up becoming the greatest of all.

On the 22nd of November 1963, the President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. For the 60th anniversary, this series takes us into the day almost in real-time. Across three episodes, what unfolds is a presidential assassination, a full-scale manhunt, a murder of a policeman, and the killing of the assassin. Giving insight into the multiple perspectives of a day in a brand-new way that will cut through the clutter and appeal to audiences around the world.