Documentary
What does it take to construct a Viking longboat or a stone tower like those that dotted the landscape of Medieval Europe? THE BIG BUILD looks to the past for challenges and tackles the ultimate “how to” projects. Host and contractor Nick Mystrom enlists experts from some of…

The Big Build's host, Nick Mystrom, lands in Northern Idaho to erect a 2-story medieval castle tower. Nick and CastleMagic builder Roger DeClements have two weeks to turn the earth's materials of stone, wood, and a bit of modern reinforcements such as steel to build a 24 foot tower (weather permitting). Will Nick be able to relax and gaze upon the stars from atop the tower before "reveal" day? Will Northern Idaho's weather cooperate? And will Nick finally be able to present the tower on reveal day?
Nick and the team create an exact replica of an 1,100-year-old ship using traditional materials and techniques.
Lewis and Clark, racing Oregon's winter chill, built the 50 foot square Fort Clatsop, a double structure shelter with seven rooms, a sentry box, and a parade ground, in just 15 days. THE BIG BUILD's version is scaled down, but so is the timetable. Working in a dense patch of Kansas woodlands, John McPherson, a specialist in log structures, directs the team as they dig fire pits, raise raw wood walls, and fashion doors from rawhide. The end result may not be pretty, but it would keep the winter at bay.
Nick and the team fashion a jazz-era watering hole beneath the suburban home of two Chicago police officers. The ultimate hands-on blend of history and engineering. Hosted by contractor and former pro football player Nick Mystrom. Master builder Frank Sullivan transforms a basement room into a ‘20s hideaway.
The BIG BUILD team reconstructs a historic lighthouse on the shores of Lake Erie. Explore the inner workings of a classic lighthouse as it gets a new lease on life. The ultimate hands-on blend of history and engineering. Hosted by contractor and former pro football player Nick Mystrom.
Host

The specter of drug trafficking haunts Europe. Struggling with ultra-violent criminal groups that control the vast majority of cocaine trade, European police forces are overwhelmed. The epicenter of all this trafficking: the Netherlands. A nation at the forefront of international trade and drug policy. This two-part film delves into the origins of European drug trafficking through the unique history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

This is the story of a power struggle between two men - one fictional, and one real. In one corner is the master of crime – the greatest detective who never lived, Sherlock Holmes. In the other is writer, physician and spiritualist leader Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lucy Worsley explores the extraordinary love-hate relationship between author and creation.

From dangerous explosives and deadly curses that put everyday people at risk, to treasures found in the unlikeliest of ways, each episode digs into the people, the places and historical significance of these discoveries. And sometimes just being in the right place at the right time can make history…because nothing stays hidden forever.

In four chapters, largely based on and illustrated with archaeological finds and sites, Neil Oliver explains how, as far as is known, the Iron Age Celtic tribes known as the Ancient Britains evolved and entered European civilization. Their internecine tribal phase was warlike and partitioned. Overseas contacts, especially metal trade, brought wealth and progress. Ultimately, it attracted the superior Roman empire, which would conquer and pacify Britain into a province, like Gaul shortly before, but Caesar's invasion wasn't the definitive annexation yet, that was left to emperor Claudius; even afterward some Celtic traits and even rebellions remained.