BBC Four Wednesday

Investigating what rising temperatures mean for residents of the polar regions, and how changes there could affect the rest of the planet

Helen Czerski explores the science of heat and how the ability to harness it has led to some of humanity's greatest innovations

A profile of English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, who is famed as a deeply reserved and secretive man that put his most private feelings into his poems

Actor Richard Pasco reads some of Thomas Hardy's poems

English actress Gemma Arterton looks back at David Nicholl's 2008 BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel, starring Gemma Arterton as Tess, a peasant girl who goes to work for the wealthy D'Urbervilles after her family falls on hard times

Tess's baby dies and she is forced to bury her own child when Parson Tringham refuses. She then leaves home and finds work at a farm, where she falls for Angel Clare

Documentary examining novels from three perspectives - the empire, class and, in this first film, women's voices, including extracts from Jane Austen and the Brontes

Investigating what rising temperatures mean for residents of the polar regions, and how changes there could affect the rest of the planet

Helen Czerski explores the science of heat and how the ability to harness it has led to some of humanity's greatest innovations