Series exploring the origins of human life, from African beginnings to Ice Age artists.
Human
Ice Age cave paintings could provide clues to our past. Their meaning is discovered by using research into hallucination, Namibian bushmen's dance and South African rock art.
First Born
Did our ancestors the australopithecines or 'upright apes', flourish because of the abandonment of vegetarianism?
Body
The discovery of a skeleton, nicknamed Nariokotome Boy, confirmed that 'ape-man' lived about one and a half million years ago, and the 'missing link' moved from theory to fact.
Love
For years, primitive hominids roamed Africa and Asia. Archaeological discoveries have shown how Europe was colonised and uncovered the moment when human feelings of friendship, trust and love began.
Exodus
A look at the daily lives of the first Homo sapiens found at cave sites on the southern coast of Africa. Over generations these beach dwellers migrated to Australia, the Far East and finally Europe.
Contact
For 200,000 years the Neanderthals lived unchallenged in Europe. But 30,000 years ago climate change and the arrival of modern humans from the east forced them to adapt or die.
Leslie Aiello
Herself
Bob Brain
Himself
Hugh Quarshie
Narrator
Monkey Life
2007
Evolution Earth
2023
Darwin's Dangerous Idea
2009
David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities
2013
Kingdom of Plants
2012
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
1980
Fateful Planet
2024
David Attenborough's Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates
First Peoples
2015
The Great Dyings
First Life
2010
Wonders of Life
Origins, a tale of light
2025
The Voyage of Charles Darwin
Voyage of the Continents
Leaps In Evolution
Extreme Snakes
Mankind Decoded
Life on Earth
1979
Bill Bailey's Jungle Hero