The Rise of Mankind

The oldest human ancestor recorded to date, better known as Toumai, is seven million years old and has just "crash-landed" in the world of the living. The fossil is a mostly complete cranium with a brain comparable in size to that of a chimpanzee. While some scientists suggest that it may be an early gorilla, it shares characteristics with other hominids known to be bipedal and a distant relation.

The Real Hobbit examines one of the greatest controversies in science today. Since the discovery of a tiny, human-like skeleton was made public a bitter dispute has split the world of anthropology. It forces us to ask the most difficult question of all: what does it mean to be human?

He was said to be the 'First European', our mystic brother out of the ice age. Nobody knows exactly, why he disappeared 30,000 years ago. It was in 1856 when the first bones of this prehistoric man where discovered in Germany. Since that time the Neanderthal is surrounded by mystery.

We venture into our distant past, asking; who were the Neanderthals? The answer, in part, lies entangled in the ancient hinterlands of Neanderthal territories. In those territories, numerous caves conceal Neanderthal debris, including their discarded flint tools. Rob Hope follows the trail in a quest to understanding these enigmatic nomads, and finds out how different, or alike, they were to us.

40,000 years ago, the steppes of Eurasia were home to our closest relative, the Neanderthals. Recent genetic and archaeological discoveries have proven that they were not the dim-witted cave dwellers we long thought they were. In fact, they were cultured, technologically savvy, and more like us than we ever imagined! So why did they disappear? Scientists have now come to a startling conclusion.

Are gay men born gay? It seems the evidence says they are, but if that's the case, how could same-sex attraction, a trait that prevents reproduction, evolve into the human race and survive generations of history?

Going back more than three million years, this episode dissects clues in the human genome that explain how humans evolved from being one of many tree-dwelling apes to become the primate that rules the planet.

Featuring cutting-edge advances in genetic engineering, this episode explores the fascinating possibilities for the future of the human race, by looking at both the extraordinary medical innovations that are already taking place and those that are yet to come.