TV and Radio

This six-part series, (previously shown on BBC One Wales in March), is now receiving its first BBC TWO network transmission and traces the history of the Welsh nation from 30,000 years ago to the present day.  From the Ice Age to the Information Age, Huw brings the magical, thrilling and surprising story of the Welsh nation to life.

The Story of Wales is packed with heroes and triumphs, grand dreams and great endeavours. From a land of story-tellers, this is the story of the land itself and the people who’ve shaped it, shot on location across the country, with dramatic reconstructions and impressive CGI. 

The series was commissioned by the OU's Open Media Unit and was a close collaboration between BBC Wales and The Open University in Wales. Rob Humphreys, Director of The OU in Wales , said: “This was the first bilateral co-production between BBC Wales and the OU in Wales, an exciting new chapter but part of that long and rich tradition of BBC-OU collaboration.

"The series is not about promoting Wales - although there are always those around who might wish our history to be about that. Our duty as a university - and in particular our unique relationship with the BBC, is to offer those opportunities to learn, opening up the challenges of discovering new perspectives, debates and discoveries.”

You can catch the first episode again on iPlayer and episodes two and three will be shown today (Wednesday 3 October) and tomorrow (Thursday 4tOctober) with Episodes four, five and six on BBC Two next week. 

Find out more:

• Find out more about The Story of Wales on Open Learn
• Get your free Icons of Wales 16 page bi-lingual booklet

Using dramatic reconstructions, documentary filming around the world and cutting-edge computer graphics, this eight-part series reveals the decisive moments that shaped the world we live in today – telling stories we thought we knew and others we were never told.

Starting with our earliest beginnings in Africa, Andrew Marr traces the story of our nomadic ancestors as they spread out around the world and settled down to become the first farmers and townspeople. He uncovers extraordinary hand-prints left in European caves nearly 30,000 years ago, and shows how human ingenuity led to inventions that are still with us today.

Dr Aarón Alzola Romero, Dr Colin Chant, Dr Rachel Gibbons, Dr Annika Mombauer, Prof Phil Perkins and Dr Chris Williams were the academic consultants on the series for The Open University.

Dig deeper with OpenLearn:  Find out more about the history of humanity with a specially developed resource featuring Andrew Marr.

And, when historians and archaeologists tell us about what happened hundreds, thousands or even millions of years ago, do you ever find yourself wondering, but how do they know that? To find out more, order your free booklet that explores how the past is revealed.



 

A new two-part series of Hilary Devey’s Women at the Top starts this week looking at why the majority of top jobs are held by men.

Hilary Devey is a successful female entrepreneur who has built her own international business empire from scratch. Even though more than half of Britain’s graduates are women, and nearly half our workers are women, the vast majority of top jobs are held by men. Hilary wants to find out why.

The series, commissioned by the OU’s Open Media Unit, starts at 9pm on BBC TWO this Thursday 6 September and Jess Evans and Rosalind Searle are the OU academic consultants on the series.

OpenLearn also has extensive content in connection with the series subject areas including “Boardroom Lottery” a new interactive challenge.