Summary Saturn is a gas giant adorned by majestic rings. No other object in the solar system is so instantly recognisable. But when Galileo first peered at Saturn through his newly built telescope in 1610, he had no idea what the rings he had just discovered actually were. He described these strange objects as handles, or moons that were stuck on either side of the planet.

Understanding what the rings are and where they came from, has puzzled humankind ever since.

It was only once we had the ability to actually send spacecraft to Saturn, that we could really begin to investigate the origins of these wondrous celestial objects. And this is the heart of this story.

With intimate contributions from people with among the world's greatest knowledge of Saturn, the film takes us on a journey of exploration to unravel the mystery of how the planet got its rings. This is an emotional story, sometimes of rejoice and occasionally of poignant sadness. The extreme difficulty of getting to the ringed planet and trying to understand it, has required intense effort and dedication by hundreds of people.

Stories from the robotic envoys, Pioneer, Voyager and Cassini reveal startling results. A tale 100 million years in the making. A ring system made of thousands of bands of snowy clumps, each with varying shades colours. And an enormous cast of amazing moons, all interacting in a system of bewildering complexity. The film argues that some of the moons that lurk within the Saturnian system might arguably be the most intriguing and exciting places in the whole solar system. Worlds of bizarre chemistry and unknown biology. The scientists explain that these are places where there could be life as we know it, or there could be life that we have almost no comprehension of. And should life have started in such a cold, icy place, far from the sun, the rings of Saturn could change our ideas of how common life might be throughout the universe. Stirring stuff indeed!

A magical, space-based whodunnit.

• Documentary