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Every night in Falkirk in the central lowlands of Scotland, smoke from the nearby Grangemouth oil refinery engulfs the town, and the lights from the industrial complex make the fog glow bright orange. As a child, the writer and playwright Alan Bissett would look out at the factory and occasionally he’d see the unstable chemicals igniting, turning the smoke to flames. When the explosion eventually came, killing two workers and badly injuring his own father, it was a tragedy, but it wasn’t a surprise.
Director: Adam Stafford
Producer: Peter Gerard
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Demography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes
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Architecture
A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture
14 minutes
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Home
Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons
13 minutes
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Environmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
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Gender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
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Architecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
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Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes