Napoleon's Marshals, Ranked

The remote island of St. Helena, a British possession located in the south Atlantic, is perhaps best known as where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled/imprisoned for the final six years of his life and where he died in 1821. His legacy on the island remains today, despite his body being disinterred and moved back to France in 1840. His home was at Longwood, one area of the island now ceded to the French in respect of its former resident. The island was discovered and named by the Portuguese in 1502. Until the British took over, many other European countries had or wanted possession of the island because of its location along natural trade routes. Jamestown is the island's only port, named after King James. With 4,000 inhabitants, St. Helena is self supporting, growing primarily potatoes and flax. However, its primary economic generator is the sale of the rare St. Helena postage stamp.

It was to be Napoleon Bonaparte's greatest adventure; an invasion of Russia with an army of more than 650,000 men, the largest the world had yet seen. The Emperor's irresistible progress into the vast Russian interior saw many brutal conflicts including the Battle of Borodino, one of the bloodiest day's fighting in military history. Napoleon would not be defeated in battle but by Russian guile and the savages of winter snows. To this day the infamous retreat from Moscow epitomises the suffering of ordinary soldiers. This documentary is a powerful record of one of history's greatest military disasters, and features period imagery, dramatised "eye-witness" accounts, expert analysis, and extensive footage from the Oscar-winning Russian film "War and Peace".

May 5, 1821. Napoleon Bonaparte, deposed emperor exiled on the island of St. Helena, is about to take his last breath. The son of a Corsican family, he has been close to death on many occasions since, as a young captain in the revolutionary army, he seized Toulon from the royalists in 1793.

The documentary tells how Bonaparte's passion - sometimes Bonaparte's obsession - for art and knowledge, has changed the face of modern culture: from the birth of schools, libraries and public museums (including Brera and the Louvre) to foundation of Egyptology thanks to the Egyptian campaign, from the extraordinary archaeological discoveries to the looting of works of art, up to the paintings and sculptures dedicated to him. We will enter the mind of Napoleon and his literary predilections, his psychology, his immoderate passion for self-affirmation, which so much inspired men of power, intellectuals, dictators over the following centuries.

The pride of Napoleon's victories, the Arc de Triomphe, whose first stone was laid in 1806 at the top of the Champs-Élysées, is, along with the Eiffel Tower, one of the most visited monuments in the French capital. Wanted by an emperor, inaugurated under the reign of a king (Louis-Philippe) and sanctuarized by the Republic, this patriotic temple polarizes the passions of a whole nation. A historical portrait before "packaging", which teems with anecdotes and unsuspected details.

In David Grubin's NAPOLEON watch Napoleon's rise from obscurity to victories that made him a hero to the French people and convinced him he was destined for greatness. Learn of his love for Josephine Beauharnais, and his rise to Emperor. Witness his extraordinary achievements and ultimately his fall, his final battles, his exile to Elba, and his defeat at Waterloo. For nearly two decades he strode the world stage like a colossus - loved and despised, venerated and feared. From his birth on the rugged island of Corsica to his final exile on the godforsaken island of St. Helena, NAPOLEON brings this extraordinary figure to life.

Charles Louis Schulmeister (1770-1853) was a smuggler and a revolutionary, but also a chief of police and Napoleon Bonaparte's favorite spy. A look back on his adventurous life with the purpose of unraveling the many mysteries of his unique path.

During the Napoleonic Wars the British Army realised that it needed skirmishers, as a result it raised 2 Rifle Regiments both armed with the icon Baker Rifle. This programme explains how the Riflemen of the 95th Rifles were dressed and equipped. It is an ideal accompaniment to our Series on the 95th Rifles.

This film gives an overview of Napoleons return to France in 1815 before covering in detail the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras. Filmed on the Battlefields in Belgium using re-enaction footage expert Presenters follow the Emperors brilliant initial plan which however soon begins to fall apart due to flaws in the French staff, Napoleons arrogance and the courage and fighting ability of the Allied Troops. Both these battles deserve to be better known but they have been overshadowed by Waterloo the culmination of the Campaign