While winds of change have been blowing through the Arab world, Iranians have been forced to wait for political reform. In 2009, in the aftermath of an election that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad controversially returned to power as president of the Islamic Republic, millions took to the streets of Tehran to protest against the result. But the demonstrations were brutally repressed and the hopes of the green revolutionaries were dashed.

Documentary presented by Anglican priest Pete Owen Jones which explores the huge number of ancient Christian texts that didn’t make it into the New Testament. Shocking and challenging, these were works in which Jesus didn’t die, took revenge on his enemies and kissed Mary Magdalene on the mouth – a Jesus unrecognizable from that found in the traditional books of the New Testament. Pete travels through Egypt and the former Roman Empire

Beneath the America we think we know lies a nation hidden from view – a nomadic nation, living on the roads, the rails and in the wild open spaces. In its deserts, forests, mountain ranges and on the plains, a huge population of modern nomads pursues its version of the American dream – to live free from the world of careers, mortgages and the white picket fence. When British writer Richard Grant moved to the USA more than 20 years ago it wasn’t just a change of country.

Dan Snow gets down and dirty in the murky histories of London, Paris and New York, exploring their filthy histories from the bottom up. Medieval London. State of the art CGI reveals London’s streets as they were 700 years ago and Dan steps into the shoes of a medieval Londoner – wooden platforms designed to help him rise above the disgusting mess underfoot. He spends the night as a medieval muck-raker shifting a staggering six tonnes of excrement,

Amber is one of David Attenborough’s great passions – he is captivated by its beauty and the animals frozen within it in perfect detail. In a personal journey he traces the history of a piece he has had since he was a boy, traveling back millions of years to the age of dinosaurs to unravel its secrets. The documentary shows Attenborough searching for the identities of preserved creatures inside a piece of Baltic amber that was given to him by his adoptive sister when he was twelve years old.

Arts documentary, first broadcast before Ai Weiwei’s arrest by the Chinese authorities in April 2011, and his subsequent release after being detained for 11 weeks. Architect, photographer, curator and blogger, Ai Weiwei is China’s most famous and politically outspoken contemporary artist. Alan Yentob explores the story of Ai Weiwei’s life and art, and reveals how this most courageous and determined of artists continues to fight for artistic freedom of expression

Documentary about the life of the great pianist and composer Chopin and the story of the women whose voices inspired his music. It is undeniable that Chopin revolutionized the nature of music composed for the piano both technically and emotionally. What is less well known is that the actual musical instrument that provided his greatest source of inspiration was the female voice. To mark the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth,

After four decades of reporting from the continent, Jonathan Dimbleby returns to Africa on a 7,000-mile journey to discover how it is changing. He starts his African journey in the capital of Mali, Bamako, the fastest-growing African city. Following the course of the Niger river, Dimbleby finds not a continent of beggars but of industrious people, some of whom go to extraordinary lengths to make a living, free-diving 20 feet to excavate building sand.

Documentary profiling the life of legendary country music star Johnny Cash, who died in 2003 shortly after completing the retrospective Unearthed, a five-CD set of the acoustic performances with which he resurrected his career in the last decade of his life, and after losing his wife, June Carter Cash. This first major retrospective of Cash’s life, times and music features contributions from his daughter Rosanne Cash and son John Carter Cash,

Series in which intrepid presenter Kate Humble follows the ancient frankincense trade route of Arabia across the amazing modern world of the Middle East. Kate’s journey along the 2,000-mile trail that first connected the Arab world with the West takes her on a quest that’s steeped in history, searing with desert heat, and full of characters and adventure. Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Kate begins her epic journey following high in the hills of southern Oman.