Transplant surgery has now reached incredible heights, from achieving full face transplants to growing organs in the lab. This Horizon Guide looks back at the extraordinary odds doctors and patients have had to overcome to achieve these amazing breakthroughs.

What we now take for granted has been a hard won struggle, both for the patients who were willing to gamble their lives and the doctors who faced ethical and medical dilemmas in the name of progress. Michael Mosley looks through the Horizon archive, identifying the key turning points for transplant surgery to explore how far science can go in its bid to prolong life.

Horizon Season 52 Episodes...

• s52e01 - The Truth About Meteors: A Horizon Special
• s52e02 - The Creative Brain: How Insight Works
• s52e03 - How to Avoid Mistakes in Surgery
• s52e04 - The Truth About Taste
• s52e05 - Mend Me: A Horizon Guide to Transplants
• s52e06 - The Age of Big Data
• s52e07 - Tomorrow's World
• s52e08 - The Secret Life of the Cat
• s52e09 - Little Cat Diaries
• s52e10 - Fracking
• s52e11 - Swallowed by a Black Hole
• s52e12 - What Makes Us Human?
• s52e13 - The Truth About Personality
• s52e14 - What's Killing Our Bees
• s52e15 - Monitor Me
• s52e16 - Defeating the Hackers
• s52e17 - Dinosaurs
• s52e18 - Comet of the Century

Horizon Show Summary

Horizon is BBC Two's flagship 50-minute science documentary series.

Recognised as the world leader in its field, it regularly wins a sweep of international science, medical and environmental film accolades, and has recently won the Royal Television Society Award and the Prix Italia.

In 2002, the British Academy of Film & Television Arts presented Horizon with the BAFTA Television Award for Best Factual Series or Strand.

In 2003 it won the prestigious Images et Science award for best medical documentary and the Carl von Linne Award at the Living Europe film festival in Sweden. That year, a Horizon co-production with WGBH Boston won the Emmy for best documentary.

In September 2014 it celebrated its 50th anniversary and it continues to enjoy outstanding critical acclaim.