Here are a few that stick in my mind as being more entertaining/compelling; you should be able to find them online or at your library:

• BBC series Voyages of Discovery (2006) - hosted by enthusiastic Australian explorer Paul Rose, who tells the stories of a few explorers while retracing their routes. Rose has a flair for the dramatic and really gets into the stories and the adventure of the thing. The only expedition I can comment on regarding accuracy is Fridtjof Nansen's North Pole attempt (episode 3 "The Ice King"): IMO the program was mostly accurate, but had one claim wrong: that Nansen shocked his crew with his decision to leave the ship and ski for the pole; in fact, this had always been "Plan B" and a few crew-members had even volunteered for the mission before he had announced the decision. In any case, if you're looking for entertaining and gripping in a historical documentary, this is the series that jumps out for me.

• BBC series A History of Ancient Britain (2011) and A History of Celtic Britain (2011) - not gripping, but very engaging. Hosted by the ever-passionate Scottish archaeologist Neil Oliver. Lots of on-location shooting, meetings with specialist archaeologists, and close-up looks at artifacts keep these programs moving.

• Chilean doc Nostalgia de la Luz (Nostalgia for the Light) (2010) by Patricio Guzmán - more fascinating than entertaining, since it ties together astronomers and people still coming to grips with losses during the Pinochet regime. Probably more serious and artsy than you're looking for, but very unexpected, beautiful and profound.

• ok, this isn't entertaining, but it is very compelling and [warning] quite disturbing. But if you're into top quality history docs, this is worth seeing. German/Israeli doc A Film Unfinished (2010) by Yael Hersonski shows the unfinished footage of a Nazi propaganda film shot in the Warsaw Ghetto, and the reactions of survivors as they view the footage. website