Health-Medical Documentary hosted by Robert Winston, published by BBC in 1998 - English narration
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The BBC's first major TV series on human biology is an incredible journey through the most complex biological mechanism on earth, from conception to the unchartered territory of death and beyond.
This astonishing series takes us on a journey breathtaking twists of the most complex biological mechanism on earth - the human body. The latest imaging techniques allow us to travel through veins, down fallopian tubes and around the brain, to understand how our bodies work.
The Human Body takes us on a journey from birth to death using time-lapse photography, computer graphics and various state-of-the-art imaging techniques to explore every aspect, every nook and crevice of the human body in its various stages of growth, maturity and eventual decay.
All the stages, pains of adolescence, complex activity of the brain and eventually death shown in steps with detailed explanation. The Human Body took around two and a half years to make and involved researchers liaising with medical institutes and scientific organisations around the world.
Presented by Dr. Robert Winston, one of the UK's leading fertility experts, it begins with a huge array of statistics about what we can hope for in the course of our lives. For example, did you know that the average person spends three and a half years eating, six months on the toilet and 12 years watching TV?
The series looks not only at the mechanics of the human body, but the emotions too because these are what make us human. It follows the lives of individuals at the key stages in the human life cycle: birth, childhood, adolescence, pregnancy, adulthood, old age and death. The Human Body allows viewers gain knowledge and understand the human body than ever before.
Director & Series Producer: Richard Dale ; A BBC / The Learning Channel Co-Production
2) An Everyday Miracle
This episode is the story of the unique relationship between mother and baby which is at the start of every new life. Over a hundred million acts of sexual intercourse take place each day in the world. These result in around 910,000 conceptions and, nine months later, 400,000 babies. Many of those babies will be first glimpsed like this, with ultrasound. But we can see them differently. Stack a hundred ultrasound pictures together and a new image emerges: a remarkable three-dimensional picture of a child yet to be born. Today, new technology is letting us see the world of the unborn in a completely new way. It also lets us retrace its past from a baby just before birth to a foetus of thirteen weeks.
The second in a 7-part series in which Robert Winston looks in detail at the life of the human body in chronological order from birth to death. This part is about the start of life. Philipa and Geoff Watson are about to go through pregnancy and childbirth. Their story is featured from difficulties in conceiving to the birth of their baby. Imaging techniques are used to visualise in 3-D Philipa's internal anatomy and the female reproductive process. Male ejaculation is shown and the journey of sperm to the fallopian tubes is visualised. Laser microscopic footage shows in detail the sperm's meeting with an egg and the process of fertilisation. Embryonic and fetal development is shown in detail as is the development of the pregnant body; finally Philipa is shown giving birth.
