Countdown To Life: The Extraordinary Making Of You The way you smile, the environments you thrive in, the colour of your children’s eyes – everything about you depends on an elaborate dance of biology, timed to precision. From the moment you’re conceived to the moment you’re born, each critical event in the womb can change your life forever. From the makers of Human Universe and Inside The Human Body, this blockbuster series tells the thrilling story of how you were made, by combining emotionally charged human stories with ground-breaking computer generated imagery (CGI). Each episode features CGI imagery inside the womb that charts human development as it’s never been rendered before. From a single cell to a full term baby, the graphics team combined specialist photographic techniques, medical scans and the latest software tools to create an inner world of striking power and wonder. Presented by Michael Mosley.

The First 8 Weeks
Beginning with the first eight weeks when a single cell, no bigger than a speck of dust, transforms into a human foetus, the most sophisticated organism on the planet. This period is the most perilous time in the womb and determines the layout of body organs, when our heart makes its first beat, and when the length of our lives could be decided.

Against the Odds
Michael Mosley reveals what happens during the middle weeks in the womb, a period when faces form, skin takes on its colour, brains are being organised and personalities start to take shape. Told through a series of inspirational human stories, the path to becoming unique human beings is very complex.

The Final Push
Michael explores the final months of foetal development - a time when infants grow strong and develop the vital survival tools they need to take their first breath. He meets a girl born with a rare disorder who was saved from the brink of death by a drug trial that made medical history by creating manufactured bone for the first time, examines the results of a study by Dr Suzanne King into whether unborn children can be affected by stress, and witnessed the critical moment of the first breath and the beginning of a new life