Paul is in Hyderabad, in the centre of India where the ‘North meets the South’. It is a city of call centres and IT (information technology) and Paul has been told that there is nothing worth seeing, but while driving to the hotel he spots a sign for Snow World. He gets out to investigate and discovers an unexpected world of snowballs and sledging.
Later that day, Paul has an appointment to meet his local guide, Raj, at a local museum. He is not too keen as Raj escorts him round the car exhibition, until he catches sight of its main attraction – the world’s biggest tricycle.
Warming to his guide, Paul accompanies Raj on his ‘day job’ – rescuing snakes from the city. Raj has devoted his life to protecting his beloved snakes and Paul is swept along on a hair-raising rescue, then meets the unnerving residents of Raj’s home farm.
South of Hyderabad is Bangalore, the garden city of India. It too is renowned for its IT, but Paul has come to meet the city editor of the local newspaper, Vinita, to learn more about a prison where the food is so good, the convicts don’t want to be released. After an early morning visit to the local Hare Krishna kitchens, where 10,000 takeaway meals are prepared daily, Paul enters the central prison and meets the well-fed inmates, stumbling on a rehabilitation salsa class along the way!
Having met a number of Indian record-holders, Paul has an invitation to attend a live record attempt. Dr Ramesh Babu holds the most Limca records* in India and hopes to smash three records in just one hour – using some string, a frisbee and a skipping rope.
After so much time in cities, Paul now decides to take a leisurely train journey across to Chennai and India’s longest beach. During his five-hour journey, Paul notices a fellow passenger painting his portrait – with his tongue!

On 11 September 2001, two hi-jacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. Al Qaeda’s audacious terrorist attack changed the world, and Osama became the world’s most wanted man.

On 22 July 1946, a massive explosion ripped through the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British administration in Palestine. It killed 91 people in the latest and most shocking attack to be mounted by a deadly group of Jewish terrorists as they fought to drive the British out of Palestine and establish a homeland of their own – Israel. Although the King David Hotel was one of the worst Israeli terrorist attacks, it was still just one of many. Other targets included bridges, military bases, public buildings and railways as well as politicians and soldiers marked for assassination. Ironically, several leading Israeli terrorists would eventually emerge as internationally respected leaders of their countries. After a number of outrages, the British left Israel delicately balanced between its Arab neighbours. The terror groups were gradually transformed into the Israeli Army and Mossad, the highly respected Jewish security service, both of which are highly active to this day.

Focusing on three critical months in 1793 when 24-year-old artillery officer Napoleon Bonaparte – displaying a dazzling combination of political cunning, personal bravery and military genius – drove the English fleet from Toulon, thus establishing his reputation and saving the Revolution.

The Taliban had come to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. Determined to turn Afghanistan into the world’s purest Islamist state, the Taliban introduced one of the most intolerant regimes.

On the afternoon of 03 October 1993, a team of crack US troops abseiled down from helicopters onto the roof of a house in the centre of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in the east horn of Africa. Their mission: to snatch two notorious terrorists and bring them to justice. But it all went horribly wrong. The troops – outnumbered 20 to one – were pinned down in a 17-hour gun-battle which left 18 of them dead and 80 wounded. Then in a daring rescue mission with ground troops and helicopters, US Marines paid a terrible price. During the fire-fight, two US Blackhawk helicopters were brought down with rockets and crashed into the narrow streets.

At last, Paul arrives in Chennai and heads to the beach to relax. He swiftly discovers that relaxing is the last thing Indians do on a beach. Walking along the shore, he is confronted by somersaults and cartwheels as the local stuntmen practice their moves. Chennai is the home of the hugely profitable, but often overlooked, Tamil film industry, known as Kollywood. Leaving the acrobats to it, Paul heads inland, only to discover another group on the sand. These men and women meet daily to practice the art of laughter yoga. This is an exercise involving laughing at nothing, which proves hard for a professional comedian such as Paul to endorse. Next up is a visit to India’s largest city. Known as the ‘City of Dreams’, Mumbai attracts people from all over the country. They come to seek their fortune, but despite Mumbai’s prosperous reputation many people slip through the cracks. Paul visits the central railway station and encounters some of the hundreds of street children who live rough and scratch a living from what they can scavenge from the trains. Mumbai is also home to a more glamorous world – India’s premier film industry, Bollywood, but Paul has heard of another very ‘alternative’ film industry, eight hours’ drive North in the industrial town of Malegaon. In this small, remote town Paul becomes immersed in their latest project: James Bond, Indian style, complete with toy chopper and the villainous Mr Burpy! Just days before his departure home, Paul heads back to Mumbai. While reading the local newspaper, he is surprised to discover that the city is home to a fan club dedicated to the quintessentially English author PG Wodehouse. Intrigued, he decides to spend an evening with these eccentric obsessives and discovers that the healing power of Wodehouse’s humour helps them cope with their hectic lives. Other stressed city residents turn to an altogether different solution – past life regression therapy. Popularised in the West, this therapy strikes a particular chord in a nation where reincarnation is a cornerstone of the culture. With an open mind, Paul meets the recent converts. Before Paul finally takes his leave of India, he cannot resist one more appointment. Over the past eight weeks he has encountered so many people who have found a way to stand out in this nation of over a billion people, so it seems only right that Paul should meet just one more record holder – a man who holds the world’s least desirable title… BB Nayak holds the record for having been kicked in the testicles the most times in one minute!

Speed, strength, stealth, and power - the submarine is a mean machine. It goes where man cannot. The ocean is it's domain. How does a submarine withstand the huge forces of sea pressure? Dramatic tests show how a submarine's hull can be crushed like a cigarette packet. An intriguing insight into the Cold War game of cat and mouse when a submarine's main defence was avoiding detection. Sound, the need to be quiet, plays a key role in trying to make a submarine indestructible. We hear from the sonar operators who would go on "sneakies", creeping up on their Russian opponents and listening in to their every move.

Also known as 'The Incredible Scream Machines', these real life monsters are designed both to excite and to terrify anyone who dares set foot on them. Interviews with eminent coaster designers, historians and enthusiastic riders tell the story of these remarkable feats of engineering from their humble origins in 17th century Russia to the 400 foot monsters that dominate today's skylines. We feature such vital contributions such as John Miller's 1912 invention of upstop wheels that prevented cars flying off the track, Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon's breakthrough in materials that gave birth to all manner of looping and twisting coasters in the 1960's up to the hydraulically powered launch systems of today that propel riders up to speeds of over 100mph. Speeds that are made safe by designers understanding and mastering the physics of roller coasters, using G-Forces, Kinetic Energy and Centrifugal Forces as their Weapons of Mass Exhilaration.

The Battleplan for Blockade is directed not against an army or navy, or an individual town or city, but against a nation as a whole. It is designed to destroy or at least damage a country’s ability to wage war.

This landmark series is a comprehensive history of the living Earth. This episode tells the story of the oceans – fierce waves, global currents and the future dangers of global warming.

Life is a risky business, which is why people take out insurance. But faced with an unexpected disaster, the State has to step in. Professor Ferguson travels to post-Katrina New Orleans to ask why the free market cannot provide adequate protection against catastrophe. His quest for an answer takes him to the origins of modern insurance in the early 19th Century and to the birth of the welfare state in post-war Japan.

Volcanoes have a fearsome reputation. In reality, they are the most important force in the creation of the planet as we know it today. Abseiling into a lava lake and cave-diving in a cenote, this episode shows how the heat that fuels volcanoes also drives some of the most fundamental processes on the planet.

Although there had been two previous attempts to kill Hitler, including poisoning a bottle of Cointreau on his aircraft, the assassination attempt which nearly worked at his Prussian forest hideaway in Rastenburg resulted in the perpetrators being strangled with piano wire strung from meat hooks.

After a disastrous war with Germany, the Bolsheviks imprisoned the Romanov family as their supporters approached. Factory worker guards were replaced by Cheka executioners, and, on 17 July 1918, the family were murdered and buried in a nearby wood. For more than 70 years their whereabouts was unknown, but new material released from Russia now conclusively reveals their fate.

In the 80's he gave us some of the most hard hitting fims. Film seething with anger against the injustices of the system, films that always took up a cause and made a call for rebellion- Ardhya Satya, Akrosh, Ankur. He has continued his style of filmmaking even in the recent years with films like Droh Kaal, Dev and Thakshak. Get to know a true master of Indian cinema, Govind Nihalani in this episode of Master Class.

Although there had been two previous attempts to kill Hitler, including poisoning a bottle of Cointreau on his aircraft, the assassination attempt which nearly worked at his Prussian forest hideaway in Rastenburg resulted in the perpetrators being strangled with piano wire strung from meat hooks.

After a disastrous war with Germany, the Bolsheviks imprisoned the Romanov family as their supporters approached. Factory worker guards were replaced by Cheka executioners, and, on 17 July 1918, the family were murdered and buried in a nearby wood. For more than 70 years their whereabouts was unknown, but new material released from Russia now conclusively reveals their fate.