Passion and Fury – The Emotional Brain (4 Part Documentary)

Passion and Fury: The Emotional Brainis a rare and compelling investigation of our most basic emotions—fear, anger, happiness and love—and the internal forces that can take humans from the brink of madness and obsession to the heights of ecstasy and euphoria. Bringing together powerful human stories with frontier science, this special four-part series looks at the primal emotions that we generate in our brains, and how nature and nurture combine to make us feel the way we do.It explores the evolutionary origins of our emotions in primates and rodents, to the delicate balance of neurology and biology that drives humans. The series looks at the human body’s own drug factory and finds out what happens when the chemistry goes out of control. Extreme emotions can cripple us, yet we are now learning they hold the key to our existence. Each episode immerses the viewer in real life stories and emotional extremes that they will recognize and be able to connect to in their own lives. The scientific dimension of these human dramas unfolds through advanced computer graphic imaging (CGI) to reveal the chemical and biological basis of emotions. Along with cross-cultural comparisons, interviews with experts, including neuroscientists, senior scientists, psychiatrists and anthropologists, help unravel the mystery of our emotions.AngerThis show confronts anger, from its primordial roots in self-defence to its expression in modern violence. We ask whether the potential for impulsive anger lurks in our genes, why we still need this most frenzied of emotions, and what science can do to help us control it. Producer/director is Paul Faint; associate producer is Anna Cater.Love  This show examines the complexity of the emotion we call love, from the burning desire that can hit us at any moment of the day, to the giddy euphoria we feel when we first fall head-over-heels, to the incredible bond a mother feels for her infant, to the warmth and compassion we feel for the person who has sat across from us at breakfast for the past 30 years. Producer/director is Italo Costa; writer/associate producer is Tina Verma.Fear  This show looks at the nature of fear, our most primal and powerful emotion, from its evolutionary origins in the involuntary fight-or-flight survival instinct, to its essential function as a learning tool today. Producer/director is Wendy Trueman; associate producer is Tina Verma.HappinessThis show draws a distinction between the lasting state of happiness and the pursuit of instant pleasure. We explore the evolutionary role of happiness, and ask what happens in the brain, and possibly our genes, that make some people happy and others sad. Producer/director is Hugh Piper; associate producer is Anna Cater.