Wonders of the Moon with Dara Ó Briain - Season 1

Dara begins his journey by revealing how the moon governs time. Returning to Ireland, near where he grew up, he goes to Newgrange – an ancient archaeological site near the Wicklow Mountains. It's an enormous solar calendar but it is now suggested that the mysterious markings on stones around the site could make it the world's first lunar calendar's too, created by stone-age farmers to help them plan their crops.

We discover how much the moon still influences life on earth. Farmer Julian Ellis plans his farming according to the phases of the moon. And we discover how much the moon's immense influence on the tides also governs fisherman Sam Jones' daily life.

Dara next travels to the coasts of Kent to meet astrobiologist Professor Lewis Dartnell to find out just how far the moon's influence on life on earth extends. Lewis explains how important the moon's pull on the Earth's tides has been to evolution for the animals that live in coastal areas but also on human evolution.

But does the moon still affect life on earth and directly affect people, as many believe? Dara meets Dr Rohin Francis to dig deeper into the myths surrounding the moon's influence on human behavior, and to discuss some of the latest evidence.

But regardless of the myths and legends – the one way the moon undoubtably shaped our history was the race to put a human on the moon. Dara meets Professor Katie Joy who studies moon rocks brought back from the Apollo missions to find out what they discovered from them and are still discovering. Katie explains there is a new race to the moon because, incredibly, locked up in rocks across the lunar surface is believed to be vast amounts of water.

Dara loves telescopes and is also a keen astrophotographer. In his back garden, Dara shows some of the pictures he has taken of the moon, but they all show the same side. Why is this? And what secrets does far side of the moon hold?

Dara visits Jodrell Bank – home of the UK's largest radio telescope - to tell the story of how the first photograph of the far side of the moon was taken in the 1950s and why the picture left scientists baffled, because it showed that the far side looks completely different to the side we see every evening.

But there are other secrets that we are only just now starting to unlock. Scientists have been testing the rocks that the last astronauts who walked on the moon brought back, and have recently discovered that locked within them is water. Lots of it. Dara finds out how this discovery is changing lunar exploration.

But everyone knows that to discover further secrets that moon might hold; we need to go back there. Dara travels to Cologne in Germany to meet Samantha Cristoforetti, a European astronaut who hopes to one day walk there. And Dara tries a virtual reality headset used to train astronauts as he takes his very own ‘giant leap', walking on the moon's surface.

Back in the UK Dara visits British scientists building technology they hope will solve the moon's final secrets. Dr Simeon Barber shows Dara some of the miniaturised technology being sent to the moon over the next decade to study it and Professor Mahesh Anand shows Dara how we could one day use its resources to 3D print a moonbase.