This World (TV series)

Narrated by: Michael Buerk

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]

Reported by: Olenka Frenkiel

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]

Reported by: Simon Reeve

Production company: Tooth Productions

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]

Narrated by: Ian Curtis

Production company: InFocus Asia

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]

Narrated by: Paul McGann

Production company: Cicada Films

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]

Production company: October Films

The story follows with the American Muslims which they share their own views on their country.[62][63][64]

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]

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]

Reported by: Paul Kenyon

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]

Production company: Films of Record

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]

Production company: InFocus Asia

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]

Narrated by: Stephen Barrett

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]

Narrated by: Ian Curtis

Production company: Nomad Films

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]

Narrated by: Michael Lumsden

Purported links between death metal, Satanism and murders in Italy.[99][100][101]

Narrated by: Ian Curtis

Production company: InFocus Asia

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]

Narrated by: Ian Curtis

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]

Narrated by: Jason Issacs

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]

Reported by: John Sweeney

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.[140][141]

Narrated by: Adrian Lester

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.[143]

Narrated by: Colin Tierney

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.[145][146]

Reported by: Olenka Frenkiel

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".[151][152]

Narrated by: Steven Mackintosh

Production company: Fury Films Production

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?[164]

Presented by: Ruhi Hamid

Production company: Films of Record

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.[166][167]

Narrated by: Gary Bakewell

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.[169][170]

Reported by: Andrew Harding

Production company: InFocus Asia

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.[177][178]

Reported by: John Sweeney

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?[180]

Reported by: Mark Franchetti

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.[182][183]

Narrated by: Ian Curtis

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.[188][189]

Reported by: Vivien White

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.[199][200]

Narrated by: Mark Strong

Production company: ORTV Production

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.[202][203]

Presented by: Duncan Bannatyne

Production company: Hardcash Productions

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.[205][206][207]

Narrated by: John Simm

Production company: 360 Degree Films

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.[211][212]

Reported by: Tom Mangold

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.[214][215]

Presented by: Saira Khan

Production company: BBC Scotland

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.[220][221]

Reported by: Olenka Frenkiel

The episode follow the stories of North Koreans who are risking everything from torture to execution to escape their homeland.[225][226][227]

Narrated by: Jack Fortune

Production company: Ronachan Films

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.[237]

Reported by: John Sweeney

Production company: BBC Northern Ireland

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.[242][243]

Reported by: Andrew Neil

Production company: Renegade Productions

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.[261]

Reported by: Jane Corbin

Following the life-saving work of Doctor Shershah Syed during the time of the devastating floods in Pakistan.[263]

Narrated by: Paul Rhys

Production company: Hardcash Productions

The episode follows the agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Cambodia as they pursue American paedophile sex tourists.[265]

Narrated by: Jack Fortune

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.

Production company: Ronachan Films, Pacha Films

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.[270]

Narrated by: Andrew Sachs

Production company: Ronachan Films

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.

Reported by: Mark Franchetti

The story travels to Naples in Italy - where Mark Franchetti investigates on one of the bloodiest organized mafia and largest criminal syndicate - The Camorra.[274][275]

Reported by: Fergal Keane

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.

Presented by: Katya Adler

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.[278][279][280]

Narrated by: Sophie Okonedo

Production company: October Films

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.[282][283][284][285]

Narrated by: Jack Fortune

Production company: Ronachan Films

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.[287]

Narrated by: Rupert Graves

Production company: Quicksilver Media

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.[289]

Presented by: Carrie Gracie

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.[291]

Narrated by: Steven Mackintosh

Production company: LIC Production

The episode takes a look at Chinese television programme: Interviews Before Execution, in which death row inmates are interviewed by a reporter shortly before they are executed.[293][294][295][296]

Reported by: John Sweeney

Production company: BBC Northern Ireland

John Sweeney travels to Utah and examine about Mitt Romney and his Mormon beliefs.[298][299]

Narrated by: Hermione Norris

Production company: BBC Northern Ireland

The story tracks back to the massacre at Oslo, Norway in 2011.[301][302]

Reported by: Darragh MacIntyre

Production company: BBC Northern Ireland

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.[304][305][306][307][308]

Presented by: Michael Portillo

Production company: OR Media Limited

Michael Portillo visits Greece to Germany to explore the implications of the Euro crisis which has affected attitudes and monetary union.[310]

Narrated by: Gina McKee

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.[312][313]

Presented by: Andrew Marr

Andrew Marr looks back at Barack Obama's first term in the office which has lived up to his expectations.[315]

Presented by: Simon Reeve

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.[318]

Reported by: Paul Mason

In Spain, Paul Mason travels to observe as the economy crisis could spreadout with another casualty by the Eurozone.[321]

Narrated by: Sophie Okonedo

Production company: True Vision

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.[324][325][326][327]

Presented by: Dan Snow

Production company: BBC Northern Ireland

Dan Snow takes a journey to Syria, which looked at the complex past of the civil war and the roots of the current crisis.[330][331][332]

Narrated by: Katy Cavanagh

Geoff Dunsmore revisits to Basra in Iraq where his son - Chris Dunsmore, a RAF reservist who was killed in 2007.[335][336]

Presented by: Peter Hain

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.[339][340][341]

Presented by: John Dickie

Production company: Lion Television

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.[343][344][345][346]

Presented by: Anita Rani

Production company: OR Media Limited

Anita Rani investigates with a growing epidemic of childhood obesity in India.[349][350][351]

Presented by: Professor John Marsden

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.[354]

Reported by: Jane Corbin

Production company: Blakeway Productions

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.[357][358][359]

Presented by: Dan Snow

Production company: BBC Northern Ireland

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.[362][363][364][365]

Presented by: Anita Rani

First part of the Population series.[lower-alpha 9]

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.[368][369][370]

Presented by: Anita Rani

Second part of the Population series.[lower-alpha 9]

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.[373][374][375]

Presented by: Professor Hans Rosling

Production company: The Open University, Wingspan Productions

The third and final part of the Population series.[lower-alpha 9]

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.[377][378][379][380]

Presented by: Simon Reeve

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.[383][384][385]

Presented by: Simon Reeve

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.[388][389][390]

Presented by: Robert Peston

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.[393][394]

Narrated by: David Morrissey

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.[396][397]

Presented by: Ade Adepitan

Production company: Firecrest Films

Ade Adepitan follows the trail of clothing that was donated to a charity shop and was subsequently sent to Ghana.[400][401]

Narrated by: Katy Cavanagh

Production company: Quicksilver Media

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.[403][404]

Presented by: Martin Sixsmith

Production company: BBC Northern Ireland

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.[407][408]

Narrated by: Steven Mackintosh

Production company: Mongoose Pictures

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.[410][411]

Narrated by: Michael Lumsden

Production company: Amos Pictures

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.[413][414]

Reported by: Jane Corbin

Jane Corbin discovers the evidence that challenges the accepted story for one of the most terrifying events after twenty years from the Rwandan genocide.[416]

Narrated by: Hugh Bonneville

Production company: True Vision

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.[418]

Narrated by: David Morrissey

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.[420]

Presented by: Robert Peston

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.[423]

Narrated by: Steven Mackintosh

First part of the ISIS series.[426][lower-alpha 10]

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.[427][428]

Reported by: Jane Corbin

The second part of the ISIS series.[426][lower-alpha 10]

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.[431][432][433]

Reported by: Peter Taylor

The third and final part of the ISIS series.[426][lower-alpha 10]

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.[436][437][438][439]

Narrated by: Shaun Dooley

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.[441][442]

Reported by: Jane Corbin

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.[445][446]

Presented by: Professor Hans Rosling

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.[448][449]

Narrated by: Dan Reed

Production company: Amos Pictures

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.[451]

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.

Presented by: Robert Peston

Robert Peston reports on the dramatic economic slowdown which affects China and the rest of the world.

Presented by: Reggie Yates

Reggie Yates investigate the reality behind the “luxury” fashion which goes into the production and sale of the most expensive animal wares.[457]

Reported by: Liviu Tipuriță

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.[459]

Narrated by: Joseph Radcliffe

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.

Presented by: Katya Adler

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.[468]

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.

Presented by: Oscar Duke

Production company: Dragonfly Film and Television

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.[473]

Presented by: Simon Reeve

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.[478]

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.

Production company: Amos Pictures

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.[482]

Reported by: Jane Corbin

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.[485][486]

Presented by: Simon Reeve

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.

Production company: Blakeway Productions

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.[491]

Reported by: Rageh Omaar

Production company: TLC

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]

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]

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]

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]