Official Description: “A Personal View of the Human Species by Desmond Morris. This episode focuses on the planet’s most advanced animal, beginning with a look at how man communicated before the evolution of language. Some gestures and expressions are so ingrained that we have not been able to erase them from our vocabulary.”

This is one of the best documentaries out there on body language. Not only does it cover all the popular topics (flirting body language, all sorts of nonverbal communication, tips on reading and interpreting body language, and a whole array of insights on culture and nonverbal communication).

The documentary doesn’t get deep into much of the nitty gritty details of body language and how you can apply it, but it does cover the broad topics and give the very important rooting in cultural and biological evolution that has led to where our nonverbal communication skills have arrived today.

In case you don’t know, Desmond Morris is the acclaimed author of The Naked Ape, a groundbreaking look at human beings from the perspective of a zoologist - analyzing the human race as if we were just another animal, developing specialized behaviors to get things done. Of course, the Human Animal (or Naked Ape) is quite a complicated example of “just another animal,” as anyone who seriously studies just our body language certainly knows.