SBS has some huge weeks coming up thanks to the FIFA World Cup 2022 from Monday. They have blanket coverage throughout the night and day, but also good to see some first run 7.30 programming as well.
Saving Venice
Sunday 20 November 7:30 PM
Venice is one of the most iconic cities on the planet, its location driving its economic prosperity whilst leaving it vulnerable to floods.
The first settlers drove wood piles into the lagoon’s soft mud, making it strong enough to bear weight, a technique which supports the entire city.
Samples from 1000-year-old piles show how the mud slows down the water’s rotting of the wood, but increasingly frequent floods pose a new threat.
Faced with losing their city to climate change, Venetians are turning to revolutionary engineering, restoration of the natural environment and knowledge from their past.
Only by using multiple approaches can they hope to save Venice.
Qatar: A Dynasty With Global Ambitions
Monday 21 November 9:30 PM
Host of the 2022 next football World Cup, Qatar is as tiny as it is immensely rich.
Torn between Western modernism and Bedouin conservatism, ruled by the iron fist of a royal family, it sits on the planet gas field and is a major geopolitical Middle East player.
This World Cup will be a symbol of the success of the ‘Qatar start-up’ created by the House of Thani, a family saga with an almost romantic dimension.
With its billions spent on everything, its princes and princesses with glamorous photos worthy of Vanity Fair covers and its palace revolutions, the Al Thani dynasty - which could be described as the ‘Kennedys of the Middle East’ - will have succeeded in three generations in transforming a corner of inhospitable desert into a global capital.
This unauthorised portrait of the rulers at the head of the richest country per capita on the planet will contrast the nation’s extremely rapid success story with its darker side: a diplomacy of corruption, worrying investments across the planet, the exploitation of quasi-slaves from Asia; but above all, the financing of the Muslim Brotherhood and multiple armed Islamist groups, some of which are terrorist, throughout the Arab Spring.
David Attenborough and the Giant Elephant
Wednesday 23 November 7:30 PM
In this one hour special, Sir David Attenborough investigates the amazing life story of the most famous elephant to have ever lived - Jumbo.
With a team of scientists from around the world, Sir David Attenborough has unique access to Jumbo’s skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History. What clues lay in Jumbo’s bones? Can they tell us more about this giant, how he lived and how he died?
And we explore the emotional lives of African elephants to help tell us more about Jumbo. We’ll discover the efforts being made to rescue baby elephants and how these orphans are being transformed into wild living Jumbos of the future.
Arctic Sinkholes
Thursday 24 November 7:30 PM
Scientists investigate colossal explosions in Siberia and other evidence that rapidly melting soil in the Arctic is releasing vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
What are the implications for our climate future?
Engineering Reborn
From Friday 25 November 7:30 PM
Bankside dominated the southern shore of the River Thames.
After closing and falling into disrepair it was it was threatened with demolition for years, until Britain’s National Gallery - The Tate - stepped in.
In the 1960s TWA decided to build a new terminal at JFK as a statement of the jet age - designed with a giant concrete swooping roof like a bid’s wing in flight.
But within just a few years it was unable to cope with the number of passengers streaming through into New York, and was closed and fell dormant.Constructed in a former Soviet airship hangar, Tropical Islands Resort is a tropical theme park housed in the world’s biggest free-standing hall.
With a maximum daily capacity of 8,200, it’s the largest indoor waterpark in the world.
But installing enough sand to create a vast indoor beach, as well as an entire indoor tropical rainforest, had its challenges.