Earth

Today, Earth is enveloped by a thin veil of gas, a narrow band of atmosphere that protects a world covered in lush green vegetation, deep blue oceans and abundant life. But 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was a very different place; a hellscape of molten lava and barren rock, under relentless bombardment from meteors, and with no atmosphere whatsoever. So how did our familiar blue sky come to be?

700 million years ago, Earth was a giant snowball cloaked in ice from pole to pole. This global freeze threatened the survival of the earliest complex organisms. How did life manage to exist in this forbidding world? This mind-blowing documentary investigates how this catastrophe may have become a catalyst for life to evolve in creative new ways as it bounced back from the brink.

The story of how plant life turned Earth from a barren rock into a vibrant green world; a four-billion year saga of highs and lows that almost wiped out all life on the planet.

When Earth first formed from clouds of dust and gas 4.6 billion years ago, it was devoid of an atmosphere, an inhospitable rock floating in the black void of space.

How dramatic twists in Earth's story enabled humans to go from being part of nature to controlling it.