JASON & THE GOLDEN FLEECE

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2 @ 4:00PM & 8:00PM

The tale of Jason, the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece is one of the oldest stories in all of Greek myth. In this episode, Michael Wood traces the route of Jason and his famous boat, the Argo, along its route from Greece to Turkey and Georgia. The story of Jason can be traced back to the town of Volos in modern day Greece. The probable site of ancient Iolkos, it was here that King Pelias feared Jason a contender to this throne and so sent him on an impossible mission to finish him off. The mission was to travel to the far away kingdom of Colchis — in the Black Sea — to retrieve the magical Golden Fleece that had been taken there. But Jason proved courageous and strong and set out on an epic route.

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Inspector Lewis, Series II

Falling Darkness

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1 @ 7:30PM & 10:30PM

It’s Halloween in Oxford, and mischief is in the air — and, as it happens, murder. A woman is found dead, a stake through her heart, a bulb of garlic in her mouth. It’s a surreal crime, and an intensely personal one for Dr. Laura Hobson. The victim is Ligeia Willard, one of Hobson’s old college housemates. It seems to be a terrible coincidence, one that has left Hobson disoriented with grief.

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SHANGRI-LA

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

The mythical land of Shangri-La is the novelist James Hilton’s fictional account of the legendary Tibetan paradise Shambala. In Hilton’s 1933 novel, Lost Horizon, he changes the name of the paradise to Shangri-La. This lost Tibetan paradise is a valley cut off from the world. The wisdom of the human race is being conserved there against the threat of imminent catastrophe. Hilton’s novel was turned into a hit Hollywood movie and the name Shangri-La came to mean a lost paradise.

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IRISH ESCAPE

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 @ 6:00PM

SECRETS OF THE DEAD: Irish Escape revisits the story of what has been called the most outrageous escape story in the history of the high seas. In 1876, after 8 years of incarceration in Western Australia, 6 Irish political prisoners escaped on board the American whaler Catalpa. Under the pretext of a whaling voyage, the Catalpa and its unassuming captain had sailed from New Bedford to liberate the prisoners. This program explores the swashbuckling details of the dramatic rescue through re-enactments.

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Cachao: Uno Mas

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

The Grammy-winning bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez died in Coral Gables, Florida in March 2008, almost 90-years old. A maestro of legendary status on the world stage and ultimately considered one of the greatest Afro-Cuban musicians of all time, he had made his home in the United States for the past four decades. Coming from a family of classical musicians, he had formal conservatory training and held a seat in the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra for 30 years, performing under the direction of all of the legendary international conductors of the time – beginning at age 10! American Masters pays tribute to the Father of Mambo in the series’ bilingual film,

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Inspector Lewis, Series II

Your Sudden Death Question

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 @ 7:30PM & 10:30PM

It’s a quiet holiday weekend and the Oxford campus has emptied out. But the competition is still fierce — and deadly — thanks to a group of quiz enthusiasts who have convened to compete for a cash prize and bragging rights. Foul play is afoot when one contestant, a charming but lecherous primary school teacher, is found dead in a fountain.

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ARTHUR: THE ONCE & FUTURE KING

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

The story of King Arthur is one that scholars believe is a case where fiction has somehow been blended with reality to become part of the history of a given place. In this case, King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, the Holy Grail, and Camelot, are ingrained as part of the British culture and held in reverence the way many historical figures are. While there is no real evidence to suggest that King Arthur actually existed, the story has been around for centuries and has become the symbol of British history.

In this episode of the series, Wood explores the greatest British myth: the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Traveling round the Celtic world from Cornwall to Wales, Brittany, Ireland and Scotland, Wood uncovers the extraordinary story of how a shadowy Welsh freedom fighter — a Dark Age Che Guevara — became a medieval superman, and finally the model of a Christian hero.

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Aztec Massacre

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

Archaeologists make a grisly find: Four hundred skeletons buried in a mass grave. The bodies have lain undisturbed for 500 years, since the time of the Spanish conquest. But this is no ordinary gravesite. The remains suggest these people met a gruesome end at the hands of the Aztecs, who ruled Mesoamerica in the 14th through 16th centuries. But who were the victims and why were they killed?

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The Lost Hero

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 @ 8:00PM & 11:00PM

No one in recorded history has suffered a fate quite like Lafayette. Once, he was the most famous man in the world; today, few people know who he was or what he accomplished. Ever since he died, there has been a conflict over the true meaning of his accomplishments. It is time to re-evaluate his crucial role in the establishment of America’s democracy.

In his day, Lafayette was hailed as the “Hero of Two Worlds.” For a century or more he was universally admired in the U.S. and became a household name.
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Inspector Lewis, Series II

Dark Matter

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 @ 7:30PM & 10:30PM

Dark matter is the secret stuff that makes up much of the universe. It’s also the shocking stuff whispered about dons and students at Oxford, which Inspector Lewis and Sergeant Hathaway hear in excess as they try to get to the bottom of the suspicious fatal fall taken by Andrew Crompton, amateur astronomer and Master of Gresham College.

Crompton was obsessed with something having to do with the planet Venus. To hear tell, he was also obsessed with sex. But was his longtime mistress Dr. Ella Ransome, as claimed by the college’s head porter, Roger Temple? Or perhaps it was Roger’s wife, Babs, as alleged by Roger’s father, Ted, who is succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease and is Dr. Ransome’s patient. Or could it have been astronomy lecturer Lady Gwen Raeburn, who is unusually tearful about Crompton’s demise?
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