This World is a current affairs programme which produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom, first airing on 4 January 2004. The programme also airs worldwide occasionally through BBC World News on digital services, satellite and cable in many countries. The series is mainly focused on social issues and current affairs stories around the world.
Format
Series of the first title card from BBC broadcast (January 2004 until May 2012).
This World was announced in December 2003 on BBC Online and launched in early January 2004, replacing the programme Correspondent.[1]
The website includes additional features and a discussion facility for public comment on the programmes. The BBC streams episodes in RealVideo format via its website for a limited period after they have been shown, and sells them on DVD and VHS by mail order.
Starting from 2009 onwards, the series was available and streaming at BBC iPlayer after the programme broadcast, with a limited period (Replacing with RealVideo and available in United Kingdom only).
Episode list
The division between seasons of This World is based on the UK version of each episode, international episodes are based on its airing on BBC World (currently BBC World News). Subsequent airings of the international version randomly follows the original UK order (Including changes from the original title on some episodes).
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club's membership is rapidly growing in number, with new sub-factions springing up across the world, everywhere from Brazil to Liechtenstein. The rock-loving bikers have for many years been associated with violence, but many police officers now believe that the Angels have also become a sophisticated international crime organisation, with links to the wholesale trafficking of drugs. In Canada and Scandinavia, the expansion of the gang has led to violent turf wars involving shootings, bombings and hundreds of deaths. The episode investigates on the seemingly unstoppable rise of some of the world's most dangerous men.[2][3][4]
In 1984, with Ethiopia in the grip of famine, Michael Buerk filed two shocking reports highlighting the plight of the sick and the dying. The harrowing images prompted aid efforts from around the world, yet 20 years on the situation remains desperate, with twice as many people now on the brink of starvation. Buerk returns to Africa to meet those whose lives were irrevocably affected by the tragedy first time around - including an aid worker who found herself in the impossible situation of deciding who should live and who should die - and asks whether the developed world has helped to create a nation wholly dependent on charity.[5][6][7][8][9]
Crisis talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons have already begun but, away from the show-city of Pyongyang, there's evidence that the communist power is testing its chemical weapons on women, children, families of dissidents, and political prisoners. Gaining unprecedented access, reporter Olenka Frenkiel uncovers fresh proof of this barbarous conduct from those who, until now, have been silenced.[16][17][18]
"Iran: A Murder Mystery"
Angeli Mehta
Diana Hill
15 February 2004 (2004-02-15)
Jim Muir investigates the death of a news photographer in a Tehran prison in June 2003.[19][20][21]
Sitting on top of the world's biggest patch of oil, the extended family that runs Saudi Arabia has managed to fend off the assaults of modernity and democracy since the state's foundation. But the triple shocks of 9/11, the US-led invasion of Iraq and the al-Qaeda bombings inside the kingdom have catapulted Saudi Arabia into the limelight.
The United States wants Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to embrace democracy and join it in the "war on terror", but many Saudis are suspicious of America's intent. Can Crown Prince Abdullah strike a balance between Saudi Arabia's liberals and reactionaries, and meet the increasingly vocal demands of the West?[38][39][40]
Thailand's Bang Kwang prison, often dubbed "The Bangkok Hilton", is arguably the most infamous jail in the world. As the Thai authorities try to crack down on drug trafficking, the team gains the first ever access to the prison in which all inmates are serving sentences of more than 30 years, usually for drugs offences. The human stories from inside include a young British man struggling to stay sane and a death row prisoner pleading for a second chance.[41][42][43]
From the forests of Siberia to the jungles of Cambodia, army veterans from Chechnya, Afghanistan and Vietnam are taking up arms to protect the tiger. Neither time nor the law is on their side. American undercover agent-turned-conservationist Steve Galster recruits army veterans and trains anti-poaching patrols in military tactics.
The episode follows Galster and his men as they mastermind a sting to catch a prominent Korean animal dealer, discover a dead tigress in a sadistic snare, and secretly film traders selling tiger bones and teeth in a Myanmar market.[59][60][61]
The story follows with the American Muslims which they share their own views on their country.[62][63][64]
"Inside Israel's Jails"
Israel Goldvicht
Nick Read
22 March 2005 (2005-03-22)
Production company: Israel Goldvicht and Raw TV Production
Israel's jails are at bursting point. Since the start of the second intifada, the number of Palestinians behind bars has increased seven-fold. The team gains unprecedented and unrestricted access inside two of the country's highest security prisons - Beersheba and Hasharon - which hold male and female prisoners regarded by those who guard them as the most dangerous terrorists in the country.[65]
"The Headmaster and the Headscarves"
Alison Rooper
Elizabeth C Jones
29 March 2005 (2005-03-29)
Production company: In Focus Productions
The banning of religious symbols in schools has become a talking point recently. In France, however, it has become law, a move that has provoked outrage among the country's 15 million Muslims.
The episode follows a group of veiled girls at a Paris school who are resisting the new law in defiance of their headmaster. The girls risk expulsion and could forfeit vital exam qualifications, but the head believes school should be a bastion against a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.[66][67]
As Iran defies the world by restarting its nuclear programme, Paul Kenyon travels to the Islamic Republic with UN nuclear inspectors, and gains exclusive behind-the-scene access to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iranian negotiators talk candidly about why they deceived the world over their nuclear programme for 18 years.
But it takes on a new complexion now we know that Iran later abandoned the diplomacy and chose to start enriching uranium again.[68][69][70]
The episode follows a story of life and death on the Moscow property market. Virtually unknown in the West and full of sinister complexities, it's a tale of multi-million dollar scams involving corrupt judges and bureaucrats, bent policemen, fake lawyers, mafia henchmen, and a cast of hapless victims who are either dead or reduced to poverty.
Investigating a series of unlawful repossessions that have been ignored by the authorities, it asks whether Russia is really living up to its claim to be an orderly democratic society, subject to the rule of law.[76][77]
Around the world, approximately 105 men are born for every 100 women. In China, it's a different story entirely - up to 118 men are born for every 100 women. The Chinese government knows this serious issue needs to be addressed, but family planning is a sensitive subject amongst the world's biggest population.
Following three stories - an independent women, a migrant worker desperate for a wife, and a local police unit fighting to stem the recent spate of kidnapped wives - the episode investigates a problem that could spell major trouble for China in the future.[80][81]
In the future stem cell transplants could offer hope to people with Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and those who have suffered strokes. But the cells are harvested from embryos and foetuses - raising ethical issues that have led to researchers having their funding cut. With the science largely unproven, the desperately ill seek help in countries with hazy legislation. The episode follows a group of patients to Ukraine to see if transplanted foetal stem cell injections can already help save or improve lives.[93][94][95]
For more than two decades, Brazil's environmental police, the IBAMA, have struggled to contain the illegal loggers, smugglers and gangs that have ravaged the Amazon Rainforest. Year after year, deforestation has continued at an alarming rate - up to 25,000 square km a year. But, with greater resources and the introduction of armed services, the IBAMA is starting to fight back.
The episode examines how this increased enforcement of Brazil's environmental laws will affect the frontier societies that exploit the forest, and the heated confrontations that are sure to arise.[96][97][98]
After the end of hostilities in the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands failed to return home. Thirty years later, Vietnamese families are still looking for their loved ones and, in desperation, have turned to a group of government-supported psychics - called Project TRK05 - who claim that they can talk to the dead. Featuring a woman made famous by her ability to locate dead bodies in the old battlefields.[114][115]
Production company: Israel Goldvicht and Raw TV Production
Meet Mahmoud, a 12-year-old boy who struggles to support his family by selling tea in the wards of Gaza's biggest hospital. Filmed before and during the Israeli re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, the story follows Mahmoud and the hospital staff as they cope with gun battles between Palestinian groups, the reality of life under the Hamas Government, and the collapse of the ceasefire with Israel that ushered in the bloodiest period the region has seen in years.[118][119][120]
In Iran the buying and selling of kidneys is regulated by the state, which claims to have eliminated waiting lists for people on dialysis. But if you don't have the money, there is no list to get on. The episode explores inside one of Iran's kidney donor clinics where the poor and desperate come to sell an organ in the hope of funding a better life.[132][133][134]
"After a Fashion: A Tale of Two Turkeys"
Dominic Ozanne
Dominic Ozanne
16 November 2006 (2006-11-16)
A look at the clash of religious and secular values in Turkey through the prism of Istanbul's fashion industry. On one side, a young, Porsche-driving, yacht-owning manufacturer of racy lingerie. On the other, the owner of an Islamic fashion house where business is on the up. Also featuring Turkey's answer to Caprice and a bevy of Brazilian lingerie models.[135][136]
A revelatory story exploring the life of a schoolgirl caught up in Bolivia's drug smuggling trade. It also features the work of the tough anti-drugs squads in the country's jungles and stories from some of the thousands of women jailed for drug smuggling.[138]
In Russia, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands poisoned after drinking alcohol spiked with a mysterious deadly chemical. John Sweeney travels to Pskov, a city that has had to declare a state of emergency due to the number of poisonings, in an attempt to track down the cause.[139][140]
The success of the film Buena Vista Social Club inspired many Cuban musicians to set about re-releasing their old songs. But American publishing company Peer Music quickly took them to court, claiming their founder bought ownership to the songs in the 1930s. The story follows with the legal battle between the company and the surviving composers, who argue that the tunes are part of Cuba's musical heritage.[142]
Since the Roman Catholic Church reduced the number of miracles required for sainthood from four to two, new saints have been canonised. Despite this, the French pilgrimage site of Lourdes has only had 67 miracles recognised in the last 150 years. The episode discovers how the Church introduced a new sub-miracle category to boost numbers, and follows three individuals on their search for a miracle.[144][145]
Reporter Olenka Frenkiel investigate with the reports that the American, British and other European governments are colluding in a system referred to as "extraordinary rendition". Judges, journalists and civilian plane-spotters provide pieces of a puzzle that suggests the CIA has a secret programme of kidnapping citizens and transporting them abroad to be tortured or put before what even US military lawyers call "kangaroo courts".[150][151]
A year after the Iranian-backed militants claimed victory in a bloody 33-day conflict with Israel, some claim Hezbollah are back - and more powerful than ever. Guided by a wisecracking former Shia militiaman named Dawoud, the story journeys to Beirut's darkly vibrant underbelly.[153]
The world's longest manhunt came to a successful conclusion in April 2006 with the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano, the 73-year-old boss of the Sicilian Mafia, in a run-down farmhouse near the Sicilian town of Corleone. Featuring unique access to the police and judicial team who painstakingly hunted down the real-life Godfather, the episode looks at Provenzano's long reign over Cosa Nostra, his decades on the run and the dedicated police investigation that finally brought him to justice. With their boss now imprisoned, what does the future hold for the infamous Italian crime syndicate?[163]
Some western countries, proud of their multiculturalism, have considered allowing Muslim communities to have their own courts - like Jews and Christians. But for many, the very mention of the word "Sharia" immediately brings to mind images of amputations and stoning to death.
The story goes to Nigeria, where the Sharia experiment is now six years old, to find out how Sharia law works in reality alongside the official British-style secular legal system - both inside and outside the courtroom.
Behind the popular cliches, it has surprising attractions for women, and the punishments are handled in an unexpected way.[165][166]
This summer, a farmer in southern India found a two-day-old baby girl who'd been buried alive. She was one of the thousands of unwanted girls in a country where daughters are seen as a burden. Girls are often aborted as soon as their gender is known. At orphanages, most of the children are abandoned or rescued girls. The episode look at the other side of India's economic boom, where there are now so few young women that men are struggling to find brides.[168][169]
With two million people expected to lose their homes in the US this year after being sold loans that they would never be able to pay, Emeka Onono travels to Cleveland, Ohio, to investigate the human cost of the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression. His story reveals how the predatory sale of "ninjas" - loans offered to those with "no income, no job and no assets" - at first brought rewards for those concerned, but eventually led to the global credit crunch that was felt in Britain during the bank run on Northern Rock.[171][172]
In September, the tipping point for political change appeared to have arrived in Burma, as civilians, students and bloggers joined demonstrations by Buddhist monks across the country. The story follows the hopeful and eventful days before their military rulers sent troops into the capital, Rangoon, to remove the monks and quell the unrest.[176][177]
John Sweeney meets Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who's been able to get away with anti-US statements, it's claimed, simply because his country owns huge resources of oil. Chavez boasts that he is spending the oil bonanza on the poor, but does his rhetoric match the reality of life in the barrios?[179]
Mark Franchetti gives a candid profile of former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi, who sparked the biggest diplomatic crisis since the Cold War when he became Scotland Yard's prime suspect in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. As he prepares to stand in this week's Russian parliamentary elections, the investigation takes places the Litvinenko murder mystery in the context of a newly resurgent Russia, where Lugovoi is regarded by many as a hero.[181][182]
Compelling story chronicling the friendship of four Iraqi classmates in Baghdad of Kurdish, Christian, Shia and mixed Sunni-Shia backgrounds. In a city torn apart by sectarian violence, the boys film their own experiences during one academic year, capturing how the dangers that exist all around them affect their studies, normal teenage distractions - such as texting girlfriends, playing computer games and reciting rap songs - and the crucial decisions on whether to stay in the city or leave, which will ultimately impact on all their futures.[184][185]
The episode follows with Laleh Seddigh from Tehran who became a national motor sports champion after racing against male drivers. She lives in a society where females can become engineers and MPs, yet face execution for "moral" crimes such as adultery.[187][188]
Death by lethal injection was devised to be a humane method of execution, but can result in a prolonged and painful end if not administered correctly. As the US Supreme Court considers whether this violates the constitution's prohibition against "cruel and unusual" punishment, reporter Vivian White meets those involved in the controversy.[198][199]
Early on the morning of 16 April 2007, 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho opened fire on the Virginia Tech campus in America, killing 32 people and wounding 25 others before turning the gun on himself. The incident became the biggest mass shooting in peacetime US history. In the lead up to the first anniversary of that tragic day, the episode interviews key witnesses in an attempt to understand what might have caused Cho, a young man with no criminal history, to plan and carry out mass murder.[201][202]
Duncan Bannatyne heads to Africa to investigate with the increasing numbers of young people are taking up the habit. There he meets children as young as ten who not just only smoke, but try to make their living from selling cigarettes. Having gathered evidence of the extraordinary marketing practices, the uncompromising Scot prepares to confront the company on his return to Britain.[204][205][206]
In September 2006, Chinese border guards opened fire on some Tibetan refugees trying to flee to Nepal over the Himalayas. A group of Western mountaineers filmed the tragedy and their footage, mixed with evidence from survivors, paints a powerful picture of death and politics at the top of the world.[210][211]
The story follows behind the international operation that brought Russian businessman Viktor Bout to justice. One of the world's most notorious arms dealers and sanctions busters, he now languishes in a Bangkok prison facing extradition to the US.[213][214]
As America's national debt breaks the ten trillion dollar mark, David Walker argues that the US economy is close to imploding, particularly if president-elect Barack Obama has, as many predict, to spend his way out of the impending recession.[216][217]
Saira Khan looks into some of the dramatic stories of British Asians who have been forced to marry against their will. She reports on some of the rescues that have been made in rural Pakistani communities and the reason in the 21st century such a practice is still occurring.[219][220]
On 20 June this year in Tehran, eight days after Iran's disputed election, a young Iranian woman was shot in the street. The video of Neda Agha Soltan's death, filmed on a mobile phone, was seen by millions around the world. Many young Iranians have claimed her as a martyr for Iran's protest movement, while the Iranian regime has tried to blame the West. The episode tells the story of Neda, with exclusive accounts from those who really knew her.[236]
John Sweeney travels more than 5,000 miles through the old Soviet Union, from Joseph Stalin's birthplace in Georgia to a former labour camp in Russia, to investigate whether the dictator's reputation is being rehabilitated despite the fact he was one of the 20th century's most notorious mass murderers.[241][242]
An examination of the so-called Tea Party, a right-wing political movement; as the US prepares to vote in mid-term elections, journalist Andrew Neil is on a whistle-stop tour to find out what is behind the movement and its causes to spread.[260]
Production company: Red Rebel Films, Pieter van Huystee Films
Geert Wilders, who was known as one of the most controversial of Dutch politician in the Netherlands - the story tracks from campaigning in the elections, meeting members of the anti-Islamic network who back him, and to expose a conspiracy theory promoting the belief that Islam is taking over Europe.
The story follows three of the Chilean miners that have coped with life in the media spotlight after being trapped underground for 69 days at Chile's San José mine.[269]
The story follows how a crisis on a tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean is changing the face of immigration in Europe. In spring 2011, in the wake of the uprisings across the Arab world, the Italian island of Lampedusa, just 70 miles from the African coast, has seen the arrival of over 40,000 migrants from Tunisia and Libya.
It also charts how, within weeks, its small migrant reception centre is overflowing, and the island's tourist economy faces meltdown. The islanders openly revolt, blockading the small port and riot in the streets.
The story travels to Naples in Italy - where Mark Franchetti investigates on one of the bloodiest organized mafia and largest criminal syndicate - The Camorra.[273][274]
Victim's families struggle and seek the truth about what happened to their loved ones who were killed in a bloody masacre in central Bangkok, Thailand.
Katya Adler explores the impact of Spain's stolen baby scandal through the eyes of the children and parents who were separated at birth, and who are now desperate to find their relatives.[277][278][279]
With the creation of South Sudan as an independent country, the story explores with the experience of three Sudanese "Lost Boys" as they return to Sudan 20 years after fleeing their homes to escape Civil War.[281][282][283][284]
The story traces an extraordinary journey for three young activists from their dreams for a new future to the reality of the Egyptian revolution after one of the Arab world's most brutal and entrenched dictatorships, Hosni Mubarak - who was stepped down as president in 2011.[286]
The story takes place at Fukushima, Japan - which unfolding the desperate hours and days after nuclear disaster as when the fate of thousands of Japanese citizens fell into the hands of a small corps of engineers, firemen and soldiers who risked their lives to prevent the Daiichi nuclear complex from complete meltdown.[288]
The episode tells the story of White Horse Village, a tiny farming community deep in rural China. A decade ago, it became part of the biggest urbanisation project in human history, as the Chinese government decided to take half a billion farmers and turn them into city-dwelling consumers.
It is a project with a speed and scale unimaginable anywhere else on Earth. In just ten years, the Chinese Government plan to build thousands of new cities, a new road network to rival that of the USA and 300 of the world's biggest dams. Carrie Gracie follows the lives of three local people during this upheaval, filmed over the past six years.[290]
"Interviews Before Execution: A Chinese Talk Show"
Darragh MacIntyre investigates with the failure of the Catholic Church over by child abuse that claims to the very top of the Irish church in Ireland.[303][304][305][306][307]
Production company: Ronachan Films, Finestripe Productions
Aung San Suu Kyi - a Burmese political hero, which tells about her own extraordinary personal and political story as she turned from Oxford housewife into national leader and was later become an international icon of resistance.[311][312]
Simon Reeve heads to Cuba - where the iconic island undergoes sweeping and radical economic changes in preparation for life after Fidel Castro and a new relationship with the United States, as the story look at how economic liberalisation is taking hold of communist country.[316]
As the child poverty has reached record levels with more than 16 million children affected in the United States, the stories looked at the lives of three children whose families are struggling to survive - by the express of view in the modern states of life.[322][323][324][325]
Peter Hain MP heads to Johannesburg in South Africa and uncover the stories on the shooting of 34 protesting miners outside Marikana platinum mine in 2012.[337][338][339]
Historian John Dickie investigates the story of Italy's elusive powerful crime network and Europe’s biggest cocaine traffickers - 'Ndrangheta', which uncovers inside the secret world of their amazing underground empire.[342][343][344][345]
Clinical Psychologist and addiction expert Professor John Marsden travels to the state capital in Denver, Colorado to investigate the impact of cannabis legalization on a country that already suffering an epidemic of teenage marijuana use.[352]
The episode follows the British survivors of the January 2013 terrorist attack at Amenas gas plant in Algeria as they told their dramatic and harrowing stories.[355][356][357]
Dan Snow travels to Congo, seeking to provide some insight into the vast central African country’s history, its colonial legacy, post-independence chaos, and endemic corruption.[360][361][362][363]
"No Sex Please, We're Japanese" "The Great Japanese Retirement"
Anita Rani travel across Japan to investigate on the population problem that cause the birth rate collapsed, and the results of Japanese men and women that have been drifted apart.[366][367][368]
Anita Rani travels to Manila - known as one of world’s most densely populated cities in the Philippines, where she encounters across the developing world in general that dealts with the fastest growing population.[371][372][373]
The third and final part of the Population series.[i]
Swedish statistician, Professor Hans Rosling presents as 'live' studio event featuring cutting-edge 3D infographics painting a vivid picture of a world that has changed in ways to the people barely understand – often for the better.[376][377][378][379]
In Kenya and Uganda, Simon Reeve follows the tea production process and their impacts, including meet some millions of people who "pick, pack and transport" the tea.[381][382][383]
Simon Reeve embarks on a journey across Vietnam, which in just over 30 years has become the second largest coffee producer in the world and the number one source in UK. He discovers the impact the rapidly expanding coffee market has had on a nation of small farms. He begins his journey in Hanoi before heading into Vietnam’s exotic highlands where, in the aftermath of the war with America, a vast coffee-growing programme was launched to help the country‘s economic recovery – but has led to widespread environmental damage.[386][387][388]
Robert Peston discusses the fact that China is now the second largest economy in the world and for the last 30 years its economy has been growing at an astonishing rate. While the west has been in the grip of the worst recession in a generation, China’s economic miracle has wowed the world, with spending and investment on a scale never seen before in human history.[391][392]
With the preparation for the upcoming month of the World Cup 2014 in Brazil, the episode takes place at one of the iconic and exclusive hotel - Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Palace, which tells the story of the workers and visitors - where it has played host to everyone from its existence.[395][396]
The story follows the events surrounding the collapse of the Rana Plaza Building in Bangladesh in 2013, which killed 1,134 garment workers.
At its heart are the stories of the workers in the building, often young women making clothes for leading western brands. They recount their shocking stories of being buried in the rubble, but also explain how their jobs, despite pitiful pay and long hours, gave them much-wanted independence.[402][403]
After the story of Philomena was shown on the film, Martin Sixsmith travels to Ireland and the United States uncovering the stories of parents and children that are involved with a transatlantic adoption trade.[405][406]
The story takes place at Maine State Prison in Warren, featuring the life of staff in order to improve the system and release some of the most dangerous prisoners back into the general population.[409][410]
Pulled from thousands of hours of security footage with more than a hundred cameras, the story takes viewers inside Kenya’s Westgate Shopping Mall as the siege unfolds.[412][413]
Jane Corbin discovers the evidence that challenges the accepted story for one of the most terrifying events after twenty years from the Rwandan genocide.[415]
The story follows at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where it reveals the perspective of the families of victims and survivors as they rebuild their lives after the shooting events in December 2012.[417]
After the events of Chapo Guzman's arrest in February 2014, the story follows up to explore the various ways on the US government enforcement agencies that have become bound up in the business of Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel, seemingly in the name of bringing down its kingpins.[419]
"Quelle Catastrophe! France" "Robert Peston: On France"
Robert Peston investigates the rise of Marine Le Pen and the Front National in France, and the economic stagnation that threatening France's way of life which could determine by the European Union themselves.[421]
The episode follows British girls and how they had been attracted and traveled across to Islamic State in Syria - where the radicals were trying to lured them with a mixture of slick marketing, social media and religious fervour.[425][426]
Jane Corbin travel across the Middle East to examine why Christianity is facing the greatest threat to its existence as hundreds of thousands of Christians are fleeing from the Islamic extremists, conflict and persecution.[429][430][431]
The third and final part of the ISIS series.[424][j]
Peter Taylor investigates at the wealth of the so called Islamic State in the Middle East, together for the first time TV interview with an imprisoned former senior leader of IS leadership.[434][435][436][437]
Production company: Quicksilver Media, Mongoose Pictures
In West Africa, the Ebola outbreak appears to be in abeyance, having killed thousands. The story traces the most recent outbreak back to the father of so-called Patient Zero – the first fatality of the recent outbreak – and meets the local officials and international aid workers who were still trying to figure out what they could and should have done better.[440][441]
Jane Corbin reports the evidence with various conspiracy theories about Bin Laden's death, where the story recounts how a special crack team of American special forces stormed into a compound at Abbottabad in Pakistan.[443][444]
Production company: The Open University, Wingspan Productions
Swedish statistical showman Professor Hans Rosling returns on-stage, featuring with more holographic-style projection for facts and figures that shows his consideration to put an end from extreme poverty across the world.[447][448]
Dan Reed uncovers the story on the unseen footage of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine and of the three days of horror that followed, leaving 20 dead and a nation traumatised. The film also include the first strike where Islamist gunmen attack at kosher grocery store in Paris.[450]
A dramatic and at times frighteningly real drama illustrating how easily global events can spiral out of control. The episode explores the nightmare imagined scenario in which the West finds itself on the brink of a nuclear confrontation with Russia.
A real war room bunker is rigged with cameras and six top military, political and diplomatic figures from around the world are sealed in it. Despite their vastly different views, they have to work together and come to decisions on each of the scenarios they are presented with in a documentary that reaches right into the heart of the most serious threat to the world.[452]
Filmmaker Liviu Tipuriță explores inside the extreme world of Romania's new traditional Gypsy music and contemporary pop, with lyrics that glorify money, fast cars, glamour and bling.[458]
The story follows at the University of Central Florida which spending a term with the group of American college fraternity boys as they embark on the pledging process, when new recruits have to prove themselves before they can become a fraternity brother. It also looks at the issues with barbaric initiation rituals, known as hazing, and some argue that the way the fraternity system is set up allows sexual assaults to be occur.
The story explores the divisive debate over whether a child should be free to make permanent changes to their gender.
Dr Kenneth Zucker once ran the largest public clinic in Toronto for treating children and adolescents with gender dysphoria: an often violent feeling that the body they were born in does not match their true gender. But then he was fired and his clinic closed down amid comparisons to a religious zealot trying to 'cure' homosexuality.
His supporters believe he is a victim of a virulent form of transgender politics that stifles freedom of speech. It features interviews with Zucker, his patients, the families, the clinicians and transgender activists.
As the UK begin its process for leaving the EU after its referendum results, Katya Adler travels across the European continent examining whether the Union can survive by facing the biggest challenge in its 60-year history.[466]
With the conflict between Russian and England supporters at Marseille during the last summer on 2016 European Championships, Russian hooligans injured over 100 England supporters with two people in a coma. It has raised major concerns before Russia hosts the 2018 World Cup.
The story then follows the filmmaker Alex Stockley Von Statzer, who travels to Russia to track down, for a rare interview, members of the Orel Butchers - uncovering a world where aggressiveness has become a sign of honour and a icon of newly resurgent Russian masculinity.[469][470]
The episode exploring the shameful plight of albino people in east Africa. Oscar Duke, a NHS doctor who also has albinism, travels to Malawi and Tanzania where albinos are not merely persecuted and shunned but frequently attacked and even killed. He meet with east Africa’s albinos and – illuminatingly, if enragingly – their tormentors, including a man imprisoned for murder.[472]
With the UK terror threat level at "severe", the drama-documentary episode based on real-life stories focuses from inside the UK’s counter terrorism unit. It tells the incident of an ISIS-inspired terrorist group planning a firearms attack, and follows with the ongoing police investigation. The story follows with Joseph, a young man who, while in prison on drugs charges, is recruited and radicalised by an Islamic extremist. Through drama and interviews, it also reveals how UK agencies are working to keep the public safe from what experts fear is the most likely scenario for a UK next major terror attack.[474]
Simon Reeve travels to Colombia - as 50 years of civil war draws to a close in the wake of a recently signed peace deal. He meets guerrilla fighters who have pledged to lay down arms, but also discovers a negative consequence of their disarming, as the paramilitary gangs that control the drugs trade grow in power. He travels through the country with coca farmers, who discuss the government support they will need in the turbulent times ahead, as poverty and land ownership becoming pressing issues.[476]
The story follows the assassination of the North Korean dictator’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam - who was attacked at Kuala Lumpur airport in February by using the lethal nerve agent VX.
The incident - caught on CCTV - uncovers the activities of North Korean secret agents who were at the airport on the day of his murder, as well as to unravel the family feud that led to it and the international business network that has allowed the Kim family to stay in power for nearly 70 years.[479]
A year since the infamous shantytown - also dubbed as the 'Jungle', where the largest migrant settlement is being dismantled and burned down into chaos. The story, shot deep inside the notorious migrant camp, follows the filmmaker Dan Reed as he follows up in the end of Calais Jungle for days, capturing the constant, miserable attempts to escape to the UK as well as talking to aid volunteers and French officials.[481]
"The Balfour Declaration: Britain's Promise to the Holy Land" "The Balfour Declaration: The Promise to the Holy Land"
Jane Corbin explores the aims of the Balfour Declaration, which, in 1917, saw the British government support the creation of 'a national home for the Jewish people' in Palestine. The legacy of the declaration is one that she has watched unfold over the last 30 years - charting the conflict on both sides. It also reveals that she has a personal link through one of her own ancestors, British politician and Cabinet minister Leo Amery, who played a key part in drafting the document and then oversaw British rule in Palestine during the 1920s.[483][484]
Part one of a two-part documentary exploring the country in the aftermath of the recent humanitarian crisis in which thousands of Rohingya Muslims were driven from their homes by the military. Simon visits Burma's Buddhist heartlands, including the ancient capital of Bagan, and meets the city's controversial nationalist monks. While the region affected by the military crackdown is off limits, he is able to visit the world's biggest refugee camp in Bangladesh, and meet people traumatised by the violence.
The episode follows a group of school girls as they adapt to life after their imprisonment at the hands of Boko Haram at Chibok in Northern Nigeria. Until recently, they were set to be released and reunited with their family members whom they have not seen since that day they went missing and the process of coming to terms with what has happened to them.
It also meets some of the 'Forgotten Girls' who have fallen prey to Boko Haram in Maidugari. They have deeply disturbing stories of their treatment and their troubles have not ended on their escape from the forest - as they are often treated with suspicion due to their connection with Boko Haram.[490]
Every 30 seconds, war, civil or international, costs two people their lives. Many of these wars receive very little attention from the world's media. Some have been fought for years, and there seems little hope of a peaceful solution.
Filmmakers follow 16 people in a single day to reveal the human stories behind the conflicts.[500][501][502]
"Coming of Age"
Kiran Soni
22 February 2005 (2005-02-22)
Narrated by: Amanda St. John
Military conscription, a first hunting trip and a circumcision - the symbolic transformation from childhood to adulthood. From the edge of the Arctic Circle and the closeted world of the Japanese geisha, to the Russian forest and the training grounds of the world's largest army, these poignant chronicles of adolescence disclose the universal themes that unite - and divide - us all.[503][504]
"Living Positive"
Sarah Waldron
1 December 2005 (2005-12-01)
Narrated by: Andrew Lincoln
From the streets of Phnom Penh to the nightclubs of Rio de Janeiro, a day in the lives of six very different people from around the world, with one thing in common - they are all HIV-positive. On World Aids Day, their inspirational stories provide an insight into life with one of the most feared viruses on Earth.[505][506]
"Child Slavery"
Barbara Arvanitidis
26 March 2007 (2007-03-26)
Reported by: Rageh Omaar
Despite the popular Western perception of slavery as a shameful historic abomination, the slave trade is still big business, with an estimated 8.5 million children being exploited as commodities globally. Rageh Omaar takes a remarkable journey across three continents to expose the truth about contemporary slavery and discover why it is still in existence.[507][508][509][510]
^ abLast Hope Clinic and The Jungle Beat were aired on 17 November 2005, with different timeslot between 19:00BST and 21:00BST.
^ abcdTitle for each original title aired in the UK given from BBC Online Archive and This World (BBC Two website)
^ abRace Hate in Louisiana and Mystery Flights were aired on 24 May 2007, with different timeslot between 19:00BST and 21:00BST.
^ abTitle for each original title aired given from BBC Two.
^ abcdefghTitle for each original title aired in the UK. Titles from BBC World News may refer either to original title or occasionally the title given on its website.
