Starting on BBC Knowledge in April, 2009:
SPECIALS
The Lost World Of Tibet
Premiere date: Friday, 3 April 2009 at 21h30
The Lost World Of Tibet reveals the story of the Dalai Lama and his secret Himalayan kingdom.
The film forensically examines the colour footage shot between the 1930's and the 1950's, stopping it, zooming in and focusing on key sequences, so that the archive gives up its secrets to reveal the story of the Dalai Lama's childhood.
Eyewitness accounts from old Tibetans, British and Chinese officers - and the Dalai Lama himself - are woven in with film of Tibetans in exile in northern India today.
The filmmakers have been granted exclusive access by the British Film Institute to four film collections - shot by intelligence officers of the Raj, a Chinese official and Communist cameramen.
Through the footage the film brings to life the forbidden land the Dalai Lama grew up in, before the Chinese Invasion.
EASTER MARATHONS
Fast Cars
On: Friday, 10 April 2009 from 11h00 to 21h00
Continues on: 11 April 2009 from 11h00
Two days of fast car shows featuring back-to-back episodes of Top Gear and Clarkson's Car Years.
Palin vrs Mears Day
On: Sunday, 12 April 2009 from 11h00
A day of back-to-back adventure shows featuring Michael Palin and Ray Mears.
Parry's Tribal Easter
On: Monday, 13 April 2009 at 11h00 to 21h00
A day of back-to-back episodes of Season 1 and 2 of Tribe - see Tribe 2 below for more info on the show.
NEW SHOWS
Extreme Pilgrim
Premiere date: Friday, 10 April 2009 at 21h30
Pete Owen-Jones is the vicar in a small Sussex parish who sets off on three extreme pilgrimages to China, India and Egypt in order to learn more about Zen Buddhism, Hinduism and ascetic Christianity.
Dissatisfied with the Church of England, and its reliance on books and matters of the head, Pete hopes to explore some of the spiritual faiths which lead to a more physical and mystical path to enlightenment.
During his travels, Pete takes a seven-hour train journey from Beijing to the Hevan Province to the famous Shaolin Temple, which is the ancestral home of all martial arts.
He is thrown straight into a gruelling routine of kung fu - the primary technique in Zen Buddhism. In India, Pete joins the Mela and meets a Guru who takes him under his wing and teaches him how to become a Sadhu; an Indian holy man.
Challenging but rewarding, Pete realises that his journey must see the rule book and doctrine of Christianity replaced with an individual relationship with God - won by hardship, privation and pain.
Tribe 2
Premiere date: Monday, 13 April 2009 at 19h00 and 20h00 (a double episode)
Please note! The series continues
on Tuesday at 21h30, as from 14 April 2009.
Former Royal Marine officer and expedition leader Bruce Parry sheds the trappings of a Western existence and lives alongside indigenous people, adopting their methods and practices.
Taking adventure into a whole new realm, Parry goes hunting, cooking and eating with the local communities and tries their local recreational and ritualistic traditions.
He also examines the way in which western influence is encroaching on these remote areas and asks whether this is a good thing.
In Season 2 he travels to the so-called 'Cradle of Mankind', the Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia, to live with different tribes such as the Bume, a proud flamboyantly dressed, cattle-herding people armed with Kalashnikovs, and the Danssenach on the shores of Lake Turkana where Bruce takes part in his biggest challenge yet - a night-time crocodile hunt, armed with just a wooden harpoon.
Russia: A Journey With Jonathan Dimbleby
Premiere date: Monday, 20 April 2009 at 21h30
Across nine time zones and through extremes of weather, Jonathan Dimbleby makes an epic journey from one end of Russia to the other, disproving clichés and revelling in the unpredictable.
The show takes a comprehensive journey through the vast and varied landscapes of Russia. It is an enormous land in which you can travel half way around the globe without crossing another frontier.
From outside, Russia is both forbidding and enticing. Inside it becomes an exhilarating adventure. Look through one window and you see an authoritarian regime trying to modernise itself into an oil-rich economy. Look through another and you see an exuberant population enjoying new opportunities while struggling with old problems.
As he travels, Dimbleby seeks out the people of this strange and extraordinary land. From the Arctic Circle where the summer sun never sets to the subzero wastes of Siberia, from white witches to hirsute masseurs, from oil wells to shamans, Dimbleby’s journey by boat, train, truck and foot is heart-warming, entertaining and compelling.
The Tropic Of Capricorn
Premiere date: Friday, 24 April 2009 at 22h30
Following his journey along the Equator, Simon Reeve embarks on an odyssey along the Tropic of Capricorn.
Through Africa, Australia and South America he unearths human stories of history, culture and politics that will fascinate and enthral.
In Botswana, Simon crosses the Kalahari Desert to visit the last remaining bushmen trying to lead a traditional life, as well as the world's largest diamond mine which has made the country into one of the world's fastest growing economies.
The exotic charms of Madagascar hide an impending environmental catastrophe, while the white farmers of South Africa are launching their own response to the Zimbabwean refugee crisis.
Across the globe to Australia, Simon investigates the government crackdown on Aboriginal communities, and in South America, he travels from Chile to Brazil, crossing the Andes on horseback and braving the anarchic tri-border region in Paraguay.