This first programme focuses on the Arctic, where many an expedition disappeared without trace in search of the North-West passage. Now, the polar sea has become an area of vital significance to military strategies - impacting negatively on native Inuit lifestyles

Australia's stark and beautiful red centre desert, which is now seen as part of the country's identity and its most famous landmark, Uluru, or Ayres Rock, which has become a national symbol. The vast area was once seen as a place of death and silence, however, and it has taken 200 years for a new perception to emerge, one that recognises it as a place of life and creation

Exploring the Congo, and finding out whether the abundance of wildlife in Central Africa has compromised the region's indigenous people