The 2-DVD set contains the 8 50-minute eposides of the BBC Series Earth Story, narrated and presented by Aubrey Manning. Each episode looks at one aspect of the Earth's story, starting with the age of the Earth and how our ideas about it have changed. Unlike the Discovery channel How the Earth was Made series (reviewed here), each episode is a continuous story. The stories are presented using interviews with scientists who made the discoveries, or who are currently working in the field, together with some animations where necessary. Interviews with scientists who made discoveries that contributed to the development of the theory of plate tectonics reminds us that this theory is only around 50 years old!

Well made and worth watching, even if you know most of it already.

The 8 episodes are:

1 The Time Travellers (the age of the Earth, and how we know)

2 The Deep (ocean trenches)

3 Ring of Fire (volcanoes and earth movements around the Pacific)

4 Journey to the Centre of the Earth (the Earth's interior and how it is investigated)

5 The Roof of the World (mountain building, and why the Tibetan plateau is so high)

6 The Big Freeze (ice ages, and causes of changing climates)

7 The Living Earth (life on Earth, and how changes to the Earth have affected life)

8 A World Apart (contrasting the Earth with the Moon, Mars and Venus)