To the Ends of the Earth Season 2, Episode 1: Black Mamba

Arctic Explorer

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.

Phantom Tiger

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.

Mummies of the Takla Makan

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.

The Hanover

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.

Cave Man Space Man

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.

The Storm

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.

Return to Loch Ness

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?

The Fearless Vampire Hunters

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

Back from the Dead

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)

The Abyss

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.

Danger UXO

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).

Racing with the Wind

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.

Episode 99