DVDs recommended by the
Geography Department
Title
Recommended
for year group
Why should I watch it?
Price on
Amazon
Wild South America:
Andes to Amazon
Y7,8,10,11
This DVD will transport you to the amazing continent
that is South America! From mountains of almost
7000m high to the world’s largest rainforest. Useful
for year 7 geographers looking to learn more about
South America and provides a great experience of the
rainforest for year 8 and GCSE geographers.
£5.25
Amazon
Y8, 10, 11
Bruce Parry spent almost a year travelling 2800km
along the world’s largest river. One fifth of all
freshwater on planet Earth is contained in the
Amazon River at any one time! This fascinating series
follows the river from its tiny trickling source in the
mountains to the huge mouth which flows into the
Atlantic Ocean.
£7.17
Top Gear: The Great
Adventures 3
Y8, 10, 11
Everyone knows how entertaining the Top Gear
adventures are as Clarkson, Hammond and May take
on seemingly impossible and everything goes wrong!
What you probably didn’t realise is that the Top Gear
adventures cover some incredible geography! If you
want to understand just how difficult it is to survive in
the environment of the Bolivian rainforest, check out
disc one.
£7.97
Top Gear - The Great
Adventures 1 & 2 Box
Set
Y10, 11
Everyone knows how entertaining the Top Gear
adventures are as Clarkson, Hammond and May take
on seemingly impossible and everything goes wrong!
What you probably didn’t realise is that the Top Gear
adventures cover some incredible geography!
£10.97
Watch as the Top Gear boys become the first humans
on the planet to drive to the North Pole and
understand just how extreme an environment this is!
Wild Weather
Bear Grylls - Born
Survivor: Season 2
Y9
This DVD was released when Miss Stafford was at
school (yes, DVDs did exist when Miss Stafford was at
school, and not even in black and white) and is still
the best series for explaining weather. Not just
everyday clouds, wind and rain, but EXTREME
weather events, as Donal Macintyre explores the
coldest, hottest, wettest and windiest places on Earth.
£4.97
Y10, 11, 9
Bear Grylls - unrivalled survival expert! Watch as he
takes on the Sahara desert, Patagonian ice fields, the
Panama jungle, the Siberian cold, Southern Africa and
Sumatra's deadly ring of fire and gain an
£14.99
understanding of some of the challenges Earth’s
environments can throw at man!
Supervolcano
Y8, 10, 11
The year is 2020 and the world faces the ultimate
threat. Not nuclear war or a terrorist attack, but the
eruption of a gigantic 'supervolcano' simmering
beneath Yellowstone Park. The last eruption of this
kind plunged the world into darkness for six years,
triggered the last Ice Age and reduced the human
population to just 2,000 people. Scientists know that
the molten lava bulging against the Earth's crust in
Yellowstone will explode; it's just a question of when!
This powerful, reality-based thriller explores the
environmental, political, economic and social impact
of such a cataclysmic event.
An old classic of a weather movie from 1996! With
the addition of a bit of Hollywood effect, this movie
tells the story of how a series of twisters could affect
small town America.
£4.97
Twister
Y9
Ice Age 2: The
Meltdown
Y8
Everyone loves the crazy characters from Ice Age! Ice
Age 2: The Meltdown sees these critters face the
challenges of global warming as their habitat begins to
melt, leading to major flooding…
£3.48
Y7, 8
Rio is a parrot from the rainforest who has grown up
in captivity, as he’s been kept as a pet in North
America. As man is cutting down the rainforest the
animals living there are dying out. Rio is the last
remaining male of his species. When he finds this out
he sets off on a mission to return to his rainforest
home and save his species.
This animated adventure will show you South
America from the city of Rio to the rainforest of the
Amazon.
Over the Hedge – great characters and great fun! It
covers some great geography too!
Watching this animated tale will help you understand
some of the land use we look at in geography, as the
story is all about migration and the difference
between the city, suburbs and countryside.
£5.00
A GCSE level documentary hosted by Andrew Marr.
This series explores some of the world largest cities or
metropolises and looks behind the scenes at how
these cities are run.
£.9.49
Rio
Over the Hedge
Andrew Marr's
Megacities
Y7
Y10, 11
£8.61
£4.04
Richard Hammond's
Journey to the Centre
of the Planet
Y8, 10, 11
When he’s not busy hosting Top Gear, Richard
Hammond is journeying to the centre of the planet! If
you want to understand tectonic processes and why
we get earthquakes and volcanoes, this is the series for
you – clear explanations and animations help make
sense of some tricky geography.
£5.88
The Truth About
Climate Change
Y8, 10, 11
Global warming….we hear about it all the time in the
media. Now uncover the science behind the headlines
with truth about climate change.
£7.99
An inconvenient truth
Y8, 10, 11
A documentary which was shown in cinemas around
the world and won lots of awards. The documentary
is hosted by the man who could have been president
of the USA, Al Gore, who believes climate change is
the greatest ever risk to planet Earth. Although a bit
one-sided, this thought-provocking film gives a really
good overview of the causes and potential effects of
climate change.
£4.27
Tribe
Y8, 10, 11
Bruce Parry thought making documentaries about
different tribes around the world wasn’t quite good
enough, so he went one step further and went to live
with these tribes! Many of these indigenous groups of
people have never had any contact with the outside
world, so this series provides a really unique insight
into how they live, the environments they live in and
how they survive without electricity or a local
supermarket to get their dinner from!
Adventurous presenter Bruce Parry spent time living
in the Arctic, from staying in modern day towns to
living with Inuit hunters. A real insight into the white
icy environment of the Arctic and how people survive
in it.
£10.89
Now in its amazing seventh year, coast is an
incredibly successful series which explores the edge of
our island home – the coastline of the UK where the
land meets the sea. Covering a great mixture of
£8.17
Arctic with Bruce
Parry
Coast – Series 1 (Plus
any others too!)
Y10, 11
Y10
£8.99
physical and human geography, this series looks at
everything from the processes which shape the
coastline to the behind the scenes stories of the
people living and working at the coast throughout its
history.
Planet Earth
Sahara with Michael
Palin
All years
Our amazing planet home! This famous BBC series
looks at it all, from the highest mountains to the
deepest oceans…the driest deserts to the lushest
rainforests. If you want to fall in love with Earth and
geography, watch this series!
£10.89
Y10, 11
Michael Palin…geography hero! From around the
world in 80 days, to Pole to Pole, he’s travelled every
corner of the Earth and made documentaries about it
all!
£7.17
In this series Michael Palin explores the world’s largest
desert, the Sahara. A great watch to understand this
extreme environment and how people live, work and
survive there.
Blue Planet
Y9
Another epic series from the BBC nature unit! The
blue planet tells the stories of the world’s oceans and
all the life they contain, from the frozen seas of the
arctic to the pitch-black and freezing deep oceans
trenches of the Pacific.
£8.03
Frozen Planet
Y10, 11
£14.95
Michael Palin:
Himalaya
Y10, 11
The latest epic from the BBC, this 2011 series is hosted
by the national treasure that is David Attenborough!
Filmed over four years, the BBC spent more than £16
million pounds on this incredible series.
Frozen Planet takes you on the ultimate polar
expedition. This landmark series brings to the screen
the frozen wildernesses of the Arctic and Antarctic as
you have never seen them before, and may never see
them again…
Michael Palin…geography hero! From around the
world in 80 days, to Pole to Pole, he’s travelled every
corner of the Earth and made documentaries about it
all!
£10.57
In this series, Michael Palin explores the highest
mountain range on Earth, looking at how this unique
landscape was formed and how people live, work
and survive in such a challenging place. Also includes
a look at the mystery and excitement revolving
around the highest mountain on the planet, Everest.
Michael Palin’s New
Europe
Y10, 11
Michael Palin…geography hero! From around the
world in 80 days, to Pole to Pole, he’s travelled every
corner of the Earth and made documentaries about it
all!
Eastern Europe is very different from the Europe we
know and live in. Many Eastern European countries
were under communist rule and have fairly recently
opened up to the outside world. Michael Palin
explores the culture of these countries and looks at
£9.69
what the future may hold for them as European
nations.
Earth Story
Earth
Y8, 10, 11
Y8, 10, 11
Trying to understand the history of Earth, but can’t
get your head around geological time and what 4.54
billion years actually means? You need to watch Earth
story!
This documentary tells the story of planet Earth –
from day one, the big bang to the earthquakes and
volcanoes of today. Includes some really good
explanations of the structure of Earth and plate
tectonics.
The complete story of planet Earth…4.54 billion years
in one documentary!
£6.97
£16.97
This documentary tells the story of planet Earth –
from day one, the big bang to the earthquakes and
volcanoes of today. Includes some really good
explanations of the structure of Earth and plate
tectonics.
Ross Kemp in search
of Pirates
Y9
Arrgh, there be pirates!! Not the swash-buckling,
parrot on their shoulder, Johnny Depp type pirates of
the Caribbean though!!
Today’s pirates are armed with heavy weapons and
pose a real threat to cargo ships from around the
world. The Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden are
the modern day heartlands of piracy and Ross Kemp
takes to the seas to chase them in this documentary.
£5.29