Seals, lies and videotapes. Violent confrontation boils over on the ice floes of Canada as activists, fishermen and politicians battle over the fate of baby seals.

Featuring two-time world champion magician Shawn Farquhar, this documentary explores the unique relationship between the art of magic and playing cards.

Based on Robert Sullivan’s bestselling book, Morgan Spurlock and his team travel around the world to bring viewers face to face with rats while delving into humans’ complicated relationship with the creepy creatures.

A probe into what modern neuroscience can tell us about consciousness and analyzes the implications of the cultural lens through which we tend to perceive it, revealing logical answers to some of humanity’s oldest existential questions.

The writer and comedian looks at antisemitism and the progressive left. From theatre to football, Baddiel explores a political blindspot with Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes and Neil Gaiman.

Själö means ‘the island of souls’, and no name could be more fitting for the island in the Baltic Sea, which for centuries was a last stop for women who were considered social outcasts – and who are today forgotten. They were forcibly placed in a closed institution to be studied, measured and weighed – exactly in the way that nature itself was starting to be examined around the same time. Today, the place is a research centre. A young female scientist collects samples on the island, while the whispering voices of the past and never-sent letters echo in the empty hallways.

Set in the cloak-and-dagger world of the IDF’s undercover special forces – the Mista’arvim – Fauda is an Israeli-produced TV drama which has garnered praise for its realistic depiction of military tactics alongside its empathetic portrayal of Palestinians, militant or otherwise. BBC Arabic joins the production of the hotly anticipated second season, and tries to understand how it might one day pave the way for a dialogue between the two sides built on mutual understanding and compassion.

Cult film director Robert Downey Sr. on the making of his film andquot;Greasers Palaceandquot;.

Lars von Trier challenges his mentor, filmmaker Jørgen Leth, to remake Leth’s 1967 short film The Perfect Human five times, each with a different set of bizarre and challenging rules.

Rocco Siffredi is to pornography what Mike Tyson is to boxing or Mick Jagger is to rock’n’roll: a living legend. His mother wanted him to be a priest; with her blessing he became a hardcore performer, devoting his life to one God only: Desire. Rocco Siffredi reveals all, even if it sometimes means busting his own myth: his true story, beginnings, career, wife and children… and the ultimate revelation that will change his life forever.

If you’ve seen Top Gun or Transformers, you may have wondered: Does all of that military machinery on screen come with strings attached? Does the military actually get a crack at the script? With the release of a vast new trove of internal government documents, the answers have come into sharp focus: the US military has exercised editorial control over thousands of films and television programs. As these activities gain new public scrutiny, new questions arise: How have they managed to fly under the radar for so long? And where do we go from here?

Shanghai is one of the biggest cities in the world and is rapidly expanding, but has it hung on to its culinary roots? Rick Stein wants to find out.