Showing results by narrator "John Hawks" in All Categories

Imagine a world without bees, butterflies, and flowering plants. That was Earth 125 million years ago. Turn back the clock 400 million years, and there were no trees. At 450 million years in the past, even the earliest insects had not yet developed. And looking back 500 million years, the land was devoid of life, which at that time flourished in a profusion of strange forms in the oceans. These and other major turning points are the amazing story of evolution.

Trying to understand our human origins has always been a fundamental part of who we are. Today, with the help of dramatic archaeological discoveries and groundbreaking advancements in technology and scientific understanding, we are closer than we've ever been to learning the true story. In recent decades, it has been the science of paleoanthropology that has led the investigation, helping us make sense of this controversial subject and providing us with a richer understanding of our origins.

Since Adam and Eve left Eden, humanity has endured through long millennia of hardships and sufferings, especially death. But the hearts of their children and great grandchildren have never given up the hope that someday they could return to the place of happiness, which once had been their inheritance. It is a legitimate and dignified dream. In fact, since the day Adam and Eve left, paradise has remained on earth waiting for every single human child to return. 

Samiyah, a young peasant on a quest to find love and honor, wins a chance to attend the royal ball. Beyond her wildest dreams, she finds herself dancing in the arms of Prince Chad, heir to the throne. As there brews a violent struggle between the brutal ruling-class and the oppressed peasantry, Chad and Samiyah's growing, talk-of-the-town love spawns whispers of bloody uprisings and plots of swift usurpation.

First broadcast (with the aid of a crystal ball) in summer 1994, the Sony Award-winning show returns for a second series starring the ‘Godfather of Radio 4’, Brian Perkins, and Spitting Image impressionist Kate Robbins. This time, they turn their comic gaze on six roller-coaster years from the 21st Century: 2001, 2005, 2010, 2021, 2025 and 2099.