The Truth About Christmas Carols

A strange and tragic tale of a young boy who is able to predict race winners at the horse track by riding his own rocking horse to aid his parents out of their endless round of debts.

Scrooge is a miserly old businessman in 1840s London. One Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of Marley, his dead business partner. Marley foretells that Scrooge will be visited by three spirits, each of whom will attempt to show Scrooge the error of his ways. Will Scrooge reform his ways in time to celebrate Christmas?

London, 1843. Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter old man, despises the Christmas holiday. Over the course of Christmas Eve night he is visited by three ghosts to show him his past, present and future.

Fred is cast as Ebenezer Scrooge in a stage adaption of the classic Christmas story, but is acting a bit stingy in real life.

Documentary-drama recounting the Martian War of 1913–1917. Europe was on tenterhooks in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, everyone was expecting a Great War between the major European powers. But then, in 1913, something crashed into the forests of SW Germany. Troops were sent to investigate but were wiped out. Martian fighting machines began making their way across Western Europe and the countries of Europe combined forces to resist them. With aspects taken from ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells and from WWI itself, this dramatisation presents a documentary style look at events as they unfolded and the effect they had of our world today. Lots of references to real events including the mass attacks and defeats as men were thrown against machines on the Western front, the Christmas truce and the Angel of Mons, America's isolationism and late entry into the conflict, the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic that killed more people than the war, and many other things.

Narrated by a partridge, this charming animated tale explains the lengthy and confusing Christmas carol of the same name. The bold and brave Sir Carolboomer loves the melancholy Princess Silverbell. In order to win her heart he steals what he thinks is her Christmas list but what turns out to be the answers to the King's crossword puzzle. He mistakingly enlists his servant Hollyberry to find every item on her bizarre list, including a partridge in a pear tree, eight maids a milking, four calling birds...you get the basic idea. After twelve days of this gift giving, the Princess falls in love not with Carolboomer, but with the one who actually did the work, the noble Hollyberry.

In 1818, when Joseph Mohr is assigned to be the new assistant priest in Oberndorf, a small Austrian town near Salzburg, the young man is full of ideas and ideals. His passion to bring the church closer to the common people sets him on a collision course with his new superior, Father Nostler. When Mohr organizes a church choir that includes outcasts from the local tavern and performs in German instead of Latin, Nostler threatens him with disciplinary action. Their relationship further deteriorates when Maria a regular tavern patron, surprisingly joins the performance of the all-male church choir. As Mohr's initial successes start to crumble and his efforts backfire on him, he loses all hope and faces a trial of faith. The night before Christmas, Mohr has to decide if he will accept defeat and leave Oberndorf or embrace the true significance of the Holy Night.

The romantic story of Franz Schubert 's fight for recognition of his music. The 1941 Reinhold Schunzel biographical musical composer melodrama.

50 years ago this week, on 1 June, 1967, an album was released that changed music history - The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In this film, composer Howard Goodall explores just why this album is still seen as so innovative, so revolutionary and so influential. With the help of outtakes and studio conversations between the band, never heard before outside of Abbey Road, Howard gets under the bonnet of Sgt Pepper. He takes the music apart and reassembles it, to show us how it works - and makes surprising connections with the music of the last 1,000 years to do so.

A group of historians and archaeologists prepare a Tudor feast as it would have been over 400 years ago, including the use of period clothes, recipes from the era, food sourced from the land and the absence of modern conveniences.

In 1960 Jane Goodall set out for Tanzania's remote Gombe Stream Game Reserve to study the behavior of man's closest living relative, the chimpanzee. With dedication and perseverance she earned the trust of a wild chimp community, and gradually they revealed their individual personalities and the rich tapestry of their daily life. This program looks at two landmark decades of Jane Goodall's work, including her dramatic discovery of chimpanzees making and using tools.

Lucy Worsley reveals the surprising stories behind our favourite Christmas carols. From pagan rituals to religious conflicts, French dances and the First World War, carols reflect our history.

Did you know that the quaint custom of Christmas caroling actually began with drunk and rowdy revelers threatening people door to door looking for food and liquor? Early versions of the heartwarming legend of Santa Claus described him as a horrible devil named Krampus who beat and kidnapped naughty children. In America during the 17th and 18th Centuries, celebrating Christmas was against the law! There's a lot to tell about the history of Christmas, and a lot you may not know. Along the way, meet Ebenezer Scrooge and George Bailey, The Grinch and Rudolph, and learn the true origins of our Christmas traditions. So grab some eggnog and a slice of fruitcake as HISTORY unwraps THE REAL STORY OF CHRISTMAS.

Two visionary talents, playwright Jack Thorne and director Matthew Warchus, offer a magical new interpretation of Charles Dickens’ classic story. This timeless—and timely—tale of redemption welcomes theatergoers of all ages into an immersive experience that’s brimming with Christmas spirit, with dazzling staging, moving storytelling, and 12 of the most cherished Christmas carols, including “Joy to the World,” “Silent Night,” and “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.”

Is this a film about Scrooge? About a composer’s life? An opera within an opera? The Passion of Scrooge blurs these lines between performance, documentary, and fiction, into a cinematic concert experience that’s seasoned with magical reality. Composer Jon Deak has adapted Charles Dickens’ timeless tale into a contemporary opera that melts the heart, but doesn’t avoid the darkness in Scrooge that’s still resonant with the material concerns of our time. Using neither period costumes, nor set pieces to reconstruct old England, the film invites you to experience A Christmas Carol with the imaginative possibilities of a radio play. And then, to meet those visions in your head, filmmaker H. Paul Moon‘s floating camera intimately captures musicians performing the score as characters themselves, in this ageless haunted redemption story about “us, every one.”

It's 1946, and peace has dealt Peggy Carter a serious blow as she finds herself marginalized when the men return home from fighting abroad. Working for the covert SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve), Peggy must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark all while trying to navigate life as a single woman in America, in the wake of losing the love of her life - Steve Rogers.

The story of Elizabeth of York, the White Queen's daughter, and her marriage to the Lancaster victor, Henry VII. Based on the Philippa Gregory book of the same name.

The Secret World of Santa Claus is a children's animated television show that originates from France. It is syndicated to several countries worldwide, including Teletoon in Canada, and is generally seen every December during the holiday season. On December 25, 1999, Christmas Day, The Secret World of Santa Claus marathon took place from 6:00am to 7:00pm. The show has been put back on air and will be showed every Christmas season on Teletoon.

Think the days of bootleggers, backwoods stills and "white lightning" are over? Not a chance! It's a multi-million dollar industry. But perhaps more importantly to the moonshiners, it's a tradition dating back hundreds of years, passed down to them from their forefathers. It's part of their history and culture. While this practice is surprisingly alive and well, it's not always legal. Moonshiners tells the story of those who brew their shine - often in the woods near their homes using camouflaged equipment - and the local authorities who try to keep them honest. Viewers will witness practices rarely, if ever, seen on television including the sacred rite of passage for a moonshiner - firing up the still for the first time. They will also meet legends, including notorious moonshiner Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton.

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

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.

Howard Silk is a lowly cog in a bureaucratic UN agency who is turning the last corner of a life filled with regret when he discovers the agency he works for is guarding a secret: a crossing to a parallel dimension.

An in-depth look at the elite fighting force, including the physical, psychological and spiritual process of becoming a SEAL, the training required to become a member of SEAL Team 6 and a history of spectacular SEAL missions.

BFFs Kate and Michael, who are both deaf and live in Los Angeles, are about to face new challenges - including a bad breakup, being tokenized at work and a troubling secret - all of which test their bond in surprising ways.

The story of a world-famous televangelist family with a history of deviance, greed and, yes, charitable work, all in the name of Jesus.

Surprising secrets, incredible moments and often emotional milestones in the history of our globetrotting royals. With archive footage as well as interviews with royal insiders.

The real-life pirates of the Caribbean violently plunder the world's riches and form a surprisingly egalitarian republic in this documentary series.

We Shall Remain is a five-part, 7.5 hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans spanning the 17th century to the 20th century. It was a collaborative effort with several different directors, writers and producers working on each episode, including directors Chris Eyre, Ric Burns and Stanley Nelson Jr. Actor Benjamin Bratt narrated the entire series. It is part of the American Experience series and premiered April 13, 2009.

Count Alexander Rostov finds himself going from riches to rags following the Russian revolution. A Soviet tribunal banishes him to the attic room of an opulent hotel, where, oblivious to the world outside, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love.

This brand new and exclusive 14-part series lifts the lid on established and renowned superstars from history to reveal their secret lives. But Secret Life Of… is a biography with a difference – with its tongue firmly in its cheek, it deliciously dishes the dirt on icons of the past, including Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon.