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Private Notes
First in a new series of weekly documentary reports. this week, the black market in weapons grade ureanium operated from Khartoum.
Investigation of the alledged misuse of funds at three Labour Party Social Clubs in Dundee.
The program challenges the theory that AIDS is caused by the H.I.V. virus and discusses the social pressures on those diagnosed as H.I.V. positive.
Explains how new D.N.A. testing techniques could help to re-unite divided immigrant families and looks at claims that the government has delayed progress pending on legislation. Includes an interview with Timothy Renton, Minister of State at the Home Office, and talks to Asian immigrants wanting to bring their families to join them in the UK.
TVS's Business Unit tells the inside story of the Eurotunnel Management Team's battle to persuade the City and the public to back the issue of shares and raise capital. Includes an interview with Robert Maxwell who invested £37 million.
The undercover world of arms dealing is revealed by a defector (Frank Turner) who reveals his involvement with the CIA and British Ministry of Defence.
Rehearsed `All-Star' cast reading some of the evidence from the inquiry into the death of four-year-old Kimberley Carlile. Louis Blom-Cooper QC is interviewed by Anna Ford.
Investigation into the democratic government of South Korea which selectively ignores the tragic plight of its urban poverty by evicting them forcibly to make way for up market apartment blocks. Includes an interview with Jesuit priest Father John Daly.
While political turmoil was continuing in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, the Poles (who began it all) were working on the next step – dismantling their state-controlled economy. A team of British experts arrived to kick-start the process.
Note: This episode was never transmitted
Investigation into whether convicted child murderer Robert Black is linked to many other unsolved child murders and disappearances stretching back many years.
A revised and shortened version of the Dispatches special which aired on 19/05/1994. Investigating whether convicted child murderer Robert Black is linked to many other unsolved child murders and disappearances stretching back many years.
An intimate portrait of Hamas, the Palestinian fundamentalist movement. Filmed in the slums of the Gaza Strip, the report looks at the people who lead and support this normally secretive organisation.
A look at soccer coach Barry Bernell
Note: This episode was never transmitted
The inside story of systematic malpractice by UK police who cheat the victims of crime and allow offenders to walk free simply in order to make their official statistics look better.
In the first ot two documentaries examining the predicament of Britain's immigrant communities, the film looks at the secret world of the illegal immigrant. The report exposes the organised crime behind the trade together with the appalling living conditions with which the immigrants are faced and their exploitation in the workplace. For six months, a team of four undercover reporters lived as illegal immigrants, joining gangs of Albanians exploited in the building trade, being attacked by racists, and working long hours for low pay in London hotels and restaurants. The programme also reveals the plight of asylum seekers in the north of England, where, having been placed in cold and inadequate flats on housing estates where they are continually threatened by racist gangs, large numbers are leaving the accommodation and are vanishing from the system. Contributors include Martin Slade of the Immigration Service Union and Lord Desai.
In this programme, stand-up comedian Omid Djalili, son of Iranian immigrants who came to the UK in 1958, presents his view on living in Britain as a "bloody foreigner". He investigates what life is like for today's asylum seekers.
Exposing the big lie which sits at the heart of the global policy on heroin. How ignorant politicians are creating the very problems which they claim that their prohibition policy is solving.
Documentary reporting on the proposed forthcoming release of murderers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, and the emotions this has stirred up, with the Justice for James campaign organised by James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus, protesting against their release. Looks at questions of punishment and rehabilitation and at how inmates at secure units are treated.
Documentary looking at life in Afghanistan under the repressive Taliban rule, with much of it secretly shot film. Looks particularly at what life is like for girls and women and the effects on them of no access to education, work or proper medical treatment. Saira Shah meets groups of women who run schools for girls in secret, and others who visit households for illicit makeup and beauty treatments. Includes film shot by other Afghans of public executions within the Kabul football stadium. Saira also visits the North of the country in an area not held by the Taliban where opposition forces are still fighting them. She uncovers evidence of disturbing and systematic massacres and abuse of civilians by the Taliban in these areas of fighting.
Documentary investigating the agricultural crisis caused by the recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease and takes a critical look at the handling of the situation by government and the authorities. Examines how chaos reigned from the very staff, and looks at aspects such as resources and logistics, how the crisis spread, the effects on farmers and communities and the more long-term effects in economic recession in some areas. Includes interviews with farmers, politicians, scientists, soldiers drafted in to help dispose of carcasses and policy makers.
Investigation into Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaida terrorist network, considering its spread, recruitment, workings and capabilities.
Documentary in which Sairah Shah returns to Afghanistan and investigates the motivations and attitudes of the Taliban and al-Qaida, as well as the Northern Alliance. Also looks at the ordinary people caught between the Taliban regime and the Northern Alliance and the effects of a culture caught up in almost perpetual violence and conflict for over twenty years.
The results of a year long investigation into the system for protecting children against paedophiles. Includes contributions from : Prof Kevin Browne (University of Birmingham), Det Sgt Mick Studley (retired), Jim Reynolds (former Head Met Paedophile Unit), Det Insp and Cath Hannon.
Investigates the current state of the London Underground system, looking at aspects such as under-investment, decay, track and signal problems, the planned public-private partnership and serious safety problems. Also, at what commuters and users of the system have to put up with.
'Dispatches' reporter Deborah Davies goes undercover in Saudia Arabia, one of the world's most secretive and repressive states. Davies talks to one of the Britons accused of involvement in the illegal alcohol trade and reports on the appalling conditions endured by westerners in Saudi jails. Davies also details how non-Muslim foreign workers are routinely tortured and even executed for minor crimes.
An investigation into the Israelis' tactics in quelling the Palestinian revolt, including the recent attack on the refugee camp at Jenin.
Documentary investigating why three Irishmen with strong IRA links were arrested in the summer of 2001 in an area of Colombia controlled by the narco-terrorist group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Reporter Sandra Jordon looks into the background of the three men, interviews former FARC operatives and learns how FARC appear to have adopted IRA military tactics as evidence of the IRA's involvement in global terrorism grows.
Documentary about illegal entry into Britain, from forged papers to hiding in the back of a lorry. Includes filming at the Sangatte centre in France with members of a people smuggling network.
An investigation into whether speed cameras are making Britain's roads safer. Jonathan Miller travels on some of the country's most dangerous roads and finds evidence that motorists are using various tactics to avoid being caught speeding, and that the Government's policies are failing to cut road death figures.
Dispatches reports from the new frontlines of the war on terrorism where, far from being beaten and disbanded, the 10,000 fighters of Al Qaeda are now regrouping for the next phase of their war on the West.
In an unprecedented investigation that took almost a year and involved interviewing over 100 street prostitutes in red light districts in 18 towns and cities, a terrifying pattern of violence emerged - one that, until now, has gone hidden and unreported. Sixty per cent of the sex workers interviewed said that they had been raped or seriously beaten by clients in the previous 12 months. What's more they're being attacked because they are available and vulnerable - and worse - our prostitution laws are making them easy targets.
As the British National Party seeks to present itself as a more electable proposition, Dispatches reporter David Modell spends eight months with Mark Collett, leader of the Young BNP, to reveal the future face of the far right in Britain. From the BNP's electoral inroads in this year's local elections to their annual Red, White and Blue festival and confrontations with the Anti-Nazi League, Modell follows Collet into the murky world of right-wing politics and offers a shocking insight into the thoughts and beliefs of the far right's most charismatic youth leader.
Just over a year after going undercover in Afghanistan to make the award-winning Beneath the Veil , Dispatches returns to the former Taliban-run country to reveal the story behind one of that film's most shocking images. Pictures smuggled out by the opposition group RAWA showed the medieval barbarity of the regime - symbolised by the execution of a woman in the middle of a football pitch. But what had the 35-year-old woman and mother of seven children done to warrant her fate? The Dispatches team track down her children and reveal her harrowing story as well as uncovering shocking evidence that the plight of women in Afghanistan has changed very little since the fall of the Taliban.
Reporter Sam Kiley goes undercover in Iraq to discover the barbarity that Saddam Hussein and his government want to keep from the outside world. He discovers a people terrorised by its own government and secret police. Civilians are assassinated and subjected to military brutality and women are beheaded in busy streets.
North Korea is one of the world's most secretive states. It has been controlled in the last 60 years by The Great Leader Kim Il-sung and later his son Kim Jong-il through a tyrannical form of Stalinism. During their regime an estimated 200,000 men, women and children have been imprisoned in political concentration camps. A famine in the 1990s decimated a further two million.
This episode, broadcast in May 2003, follows five weeks in the lives of those living in the Gaza Strip. Beginning two days after the killing of an American member of the International Solidarity Movement Rachel Corrie by an IDF bulldozer, the film includes footage of the aftermath of an Israeli flechette attack in a densely populated area and documents the deaths of Tom Hurndall, a British ISM activist, and James Miller, the Channel 4 cameraman who was shot as he filmed Israeli troops bulldozing Palestinian homes.
Documentary that takes a look at the Hutton enquiry and the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq. Includes interviews with Larry Johnson (Counter terrorism Advisor to the Pentagon), Greg Thielmann (State Department Intelligence Bureau 2000-2002), Karen Kwiatowski (Defense Department Analyst 2000-2003), Porter Gross (Chairman, House of Representative Intelligence Committee), Richard Perle (Chairman, US Defense Policy Board), Sir Peter Lever (Chairman, Joint Intelligence Committee), Clare Short MP (International Development Secretary May 1997-May 2003), Robin Cook MP (Foreign Secretary May 1997-June 2001, Leader of the House of Commons June 2001-March 2003), Joe Wilson (Former US Ambassador), Jacques Baule (International Atom Energy Agency 1994-2004), Bernd Birkicht (UN Weapons Inspector November 2002-March 2003), Dr Glen Rangawala (Cambridge University) and Christopher Greenwood QC (Professor of International Law).
Documentary in which reporter Simon Barnes goes undercover as a postal worker and highlights serious problems of bad management, machinery problems, lack of training, workers operating skivving or overtime scams, and targetting by professional thieves and criminals after credit cards and passports.
Documentary on public opinion on asylum seekers, visiting Lee-on-the-Solent in southern England where the government had wanted to build a hostel to hold some four hundred asylum seekers, but met with fierce opposition from locals. Some of these from the Daedelus Action Group - a group set up to oppose any asylum seekers being moved into the area - are interviewed. People express fears of infection and crime, as well as resentment and antagonism. Others who oppose their view also talk about their fears about speaking out as some have suffered physical attack for doing so.
Documentary looking at the state of meals provided in hospitals in terms of their content and nutrition. An undercover reporter reveals unhygienic practices at a factory providing cook-chilled meals for hospital use, and serious non-adherence to regulations regarding the temperatures and quick chilling of food.
Investigation into the extent of drink spiking in Britain, whereby unsuspecting people's drinks are spiked with drugs which render them helpless to attack and rape. Includes interviews with some who have claimed to have been drugged and raped, and also with members of the public who have either suspected drink spiking incidents concerning themselves or friends. Also includes secret film of a convicted rapist spiking a woman's drink.
Investigative report on the flaws in the system which is supposed to prevent unfit or diseased meat reaching the public. Undercover reporters reveal instances of illegal and dirty meat being supplied to shops and restaurants in London and a leading meat industry figure advising clients on how to defraud Government agencies
In February 1998 Dr Andrew Wakefield claimed to have discovered a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. A global health scare ensued. This documentary investigates the scare and some of the facts that parents were not told at the time.
Undercover investigation into residential care homes for children in Britain, many of which have now been privatised, and how they are being paid vast sums of money for often inadequate standards of care. Looks at how many of the agency staff provided are poorly trained or vetted and how non-existent services or provisions are charged for.
Documentary investigating systematic abuse of personnel within the British armed forces, including bullying, sexual humiliation and abuse, and assault. Also considers the Deepcut barracks and the deaths of four soldiers there which have led to a civilian investigation.
Report on the experiences of refugees in Sudan. Documentary-maker Sorious Samura travels to the Sudan-Chad border with refugees from Dafur, experiencing their diet and walking miles across hostile terrain and their daily struggle to survive. Also reports on the lack of adequate support in spite of United Nations run camps and claims by Western governments to be assisting with the refugee problem.
Fourteen months after the original Royal Mail undercover investigation, Dispatches returns to secretly film and establish whether the service, as they claim, has dramatically improved. Has Chief Exec Adam Crozier taken control of untrained staff, outdated machinery, ineffective managers and poor industrial relations as he promised?
The school siege at Beslan on September 1st, 2004 left 334 dead and a small town in shock, having to come to terms with the loss of so many of its people.
Reporters Mariusz Pilis and Marcin Mamon travel to Chechnya, one of the most dangerous places on earth, to report on what life is like after more than a decade of Chechen terrorism and Russian repression. Filmed over the course of nine months, the film reveals that what started as a separatist movement in 1994 has now become synonymous with terrorism.
Using a combination of undercover filming and scientific analysis, Supermarket Secrets investigates whether the food on supermarket shelves is really as good as it looks, whether prices are as good as they seem and what happens behind the scenes in the production of supermarket food.
Dispatches examines the staggering scale of shoplifting which costs retailers and ultimately consumers billions of pounds every year. While the general public largely consider shoplifting a trivial and 'victimless' crime, theft from stores is increasingly lining the pockets of drug addicts and gangs of organised criminals who are stealing to order.
This heartbreaking film is like a bad dream: there's a sense of bleakness and you can't see anything clearly. Its saddest sections are filmed undercover in the closed world of North Korea where we discover, with a lurching stomach, that it's not uncommon to see people lying dead in the street. Reporter Kim Jung Eun tracks down dissidents who have fled the country and builds a picture of the makeshift underground: a big force for change is smuggled videos of foreign soap operas; one man who managed to paste up a defiant poster and film it has become a hunted hero. It becomes unbearably moving to glimpse the plight of a whole nation through snatches of secretly filmed footage, but by the end you feel the very least we can do is watch.
In the wake of the London bombings Navid Akhtar, a British Pakistani Muslim, explores the deep-rooted tensions and alienation within his community and asks how this has contributed to the terror attacks.
Peter Oborne, political editor of the Spectator, reports on the West's exit strategy for Iraq. He believes the invasion of Iraq is proving to be the greatest foreign policy failure since Munich. Oborne argues that the plan to transform Iraq into a unified liberal democracy, a beacon of hope in the Middle East, is pure fantasy. Reporting on location with US troops in Sadr City, and through interviews with leading figures in Britain and the US, Oborne argues that the coalition and its forces on the ground are increasingly irrelevant in determining the future of Iraq - a future that's unlikely to be either unified, liberal or democratic.
President Bush's decision to declare war on Iraq has now cost the lives of more than 2,000 American troops and injured another 30,000. With such substantial loss of life and appalling numbers of injured, reporter Deborah Davies investigates how the Bush administration has attempted to suppress the scale of the casualties and so minimise this public relations disaster.
As Tony Blair unveils his tough new line on deporting foreign terror subjects following the July bombings, journalist Andrew Gilligan investigates whether these new rules will mean suspects, who have never been found guilty by a jury, will be delivered into the hands of torturers. Gilligan examines the evidence that Britain's support for America's War on Terror has extended to alleged complicity in the practice of 'extraordinary rendition' - the abduction of terror suspects and their removal to regimes with poor human rights records.
Following her investigation into supermarket foods in Dispatches: Supermarket Secrets, journalist Jane Moore turns her attention to the once-a-year belt-busting extravaganza that is our Christmas dinner.
Peter Oborne, political editor of The Spectator, hits the campaign trail to find out what the politicians are talking about. Are the subjects they address really relevant to the electorate? And how do they keep the debate on issues they think will win them votes?
A behind-the-scenes look at low budget airline Ryanair. Uncovering security and health and safety breaches, uncleaned aircraft and long staff working hours.
With the growth of Evangelical Christianity offering the Church of England a chance of resurrection, journalist Rod Liddle examines the extreme beliefs held by some members of this branch of Christianity that clash with Britain's liberal values.
Investigation into what has happened to the twenty-three billion dollars entrusted to the British and American coalition for the rebuilding of Iraq. Looks at whether promises of reconstruction, restoration of basic services, and building of schools and medical centres have been kept. Considers the problems of a children's and maternity hospital and also looks into a trail of fraud, corruption and incompetence leading back to the USA, which has meant the disappearance of vasts sums of much-needed money.
Mark Thomas puts the arms trade under the spotlight in this special edition of Dispatches, asking how easy it is to broker arms. Working his way through a spider’s web of vast and, in some cases, archaic legislation, Thomas unearths a series of dangerous loopholes, inconsistencies and, even more shocking, simple omissions that would have the most avaricious arms broker salivating with glee.
Using secret cameras, an experienced policewoman spent four months undercover while serving as a police officer to conduct this revelatory investigation. Gaining unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to officers, her secretly-filmed footage unmasks a disturbing lack of respect and care for members of the public and incidences of dereliction of duty.
What do Muslims in Britain really want? Are they a homogenous group sharing similar values? Is religion more important to them than nationality?
Liam Halligan reveals how the private funding of state schools and hospitals is draining hundreds of millions of pounds from frontline services, while creating a £4 billion-a-year industry and a new elite of PFI professionals.
Award-winning journalist Brian Deer investigates the circumstances surrounding the infamous drug trial conducted at a private unit in London's Northwick Park Hospital in March 2006.
Dispatches exposes the surge in violence inflicted on the Burmese people by their own regime. Enslaved by a brutal military dictatorship which wields absolute power, Burma is a secretive state where suppression reigns and dissent is not tolerated.
In a 12-month undercover investigation, Sue Turton infiltrates criminal networks which trade British consumers' bank and other confidential information for huge profits in India, the world's new call centre capital. Uncovering the methods used to thieve confidential data ranging from credit card numbers to passport details, Turton exposes the alarming security failures in a number of commercial call centres which allow detailed financial data on individuals to be gathered and sold on with ease. She discovers shocking data protection breaches and a new phenomenon known as 'data farming' – the unauthorised 'harvesting' of personal data to be sold on or exchanged for profit. This investigation also reveals the scale of some of the call centre scams as Turton is offered hundreds of thousands of 'hot leads', full banking and financial profiles, to purchase. In the UK, she meets a former data thief and people who have fallen victim to this international trade. She also shows her undercover footage and findings to a UK data protection lawyer who is appalled, saying: "You couldn't scare me more. This is as bad as it gets. This is evidence of serious criminal offences."
Sean Langan reports from Helmand Province where he risked death by firing squad to talk to Taliban commanders and a would-be suicide bomber aged just 14. (Also shown as 'Sean Langan: Welcome to Hell Part 1)
Having witnessed the battle for the town of Garmser in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, Sean Langan goes to meet the fighters British troops are facing - The Taliban. He recounts the experience. (Also shown as 'Sean Langan: Welcome to Hell Part 2)
Documentary investigating the extreme views being preached in a number of British mosques run by organisations that claim to advocate moderation.
Dispatches explores relations between ministers and gambling industry bosses in which secret meetings and backroom dealings are uncovered in a bid to understand just why New Labour are keen to massively expand gambling operations in the UK.
Iraq's Death Squads follows on from a previous Dispatches investigation that revealed the close links between high-ranking Shia politicians and the death squads that rampage through Iraq's main cities.
Introduced as an emergency security measure in 2005, 18 control orders are currently enforced on individuals described as dangerous international terrorists. Dispatches has gained exclusive access to some of these detainees.
Tesco is Britain’s favorite supermarket. With 2,000 stores and 15 million customers a week, it’s almost twice as big as its nearest rival. Dispatches shows how Tesco could soon become even bigger, and asks if this retail giant is abusing its power. Dispatches’ information shows how that dominance could become even greater. The programme examines the ways in which Tesco avoids paying tens of millions of pounds in tax by exploiting legal loopholes and using complex networks of companies and partnerships here and overseas.
Why are increasing numbers of NHS-trained doctors and nurses unable to get jobs? Over the last five years, the amount of taxpayers' money being spent on the NHS has almost tripled. In this edition of Dispatches, award-winning journalist and economist Liam Halligan asks: "Where has all the money gone?"
The government is set to achieve only a third to a half of its overall policy target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Prince Charles will one day be crowned King of England - a position which by constitutional convention is politically neutral. But in this six-month investigation, Dispatches reveals a number of serious concerns: the extent of his political ambition and interference, the measures his office have employed to silence critics and questionable financial arrangements, which raise questions about his suitability for the throne and the future of the monarchy.
Dispatches examines why women frequently refuse to press charges against their abuser. It follows one young victim from the point at which she walks into the police station to make a complaint.
Political columnist Peter Hitchens gives a personal assessment of Conservative Party Leader David Cameron, looking at his background, career, image changes and copying New Labour spin and image tactics with regard to image and policy making.
For the first time, a covert camera investigates prison life. A prisoner has secretly filmed for 15 days inside one of Britain's most controversial open prisons as part of a major investigation into the effectiveness of such prisons in protecting the general public and the successful rehabilitation of offenders.
When world-famous investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, one of President Putin's fiercest and most effective critics, was assassinated last October in Moscow, there was international outrage. At home, her colleagues at her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, were determined that an investigation into her murder was not going to run into the sand, like so many before. So they set up their own private investigation. Dispatches has been granted exclusive access to that investigation. And as the body count of journalists, businessmen and politicians mounts, the programme asks whether the hope of a new, democratic Russia is falling apart. The programme meets the former Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya, now in hiding, who claims he is the last person alive on a Chechen hit list that included Anna.
A Muslim nuclear state, ruled by a military dictatorship for two-thirds of its existence, modern-day Pakistan has become a key player in America's 'war on terror.'
Underneath the glittering surface of India's economic boom lie the ugly realties of modern day India: mass suicide by debt-ridden farmers, a rise in Hindu nationalism, discrimination against Muslims and a caste system which condemns millions to a life of servitude.
Over the last nine months Dispatches has carried out the most in-depth study ever done for television on the Chancellor, interviewing cabinet ministers, MPs, top civil servants, economists, journalists and friends. The programme, presented by Peter Oborne, forensically examines why these claims have been made by some of Gordon Brown's colleagues.
Journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy returns to Afghanistan to find out how life has changed for women in the five years since the invasion by America and its allies and to investigate whether women have been "liberated" as President Bush has claimed.
Dispatches investigates whether the nation's anger over fortnightly collections is justified, examining why the changes have been brought about and why they have resulted in a level of protest reminiscent of the petrol crisis of 2001.
Dispatches exposes a new phase in America's dirty war on al Qaeda: the rendition and detention of women and children. Last year, President Bush confirmed the existence of a CIA secret detention programme but he refused to give details and said it was over.
Based on medical research and personal findings Dispatches investigates the effects binge drinking can have on a consumer's health and whether low-priced (supermarket bought) alcohol is one of the causes for an increase in alcohol consumption.
Richard Littlejohn investigates trends of antisemitism across Britain in the wake of the September 2006 Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism.
Channel 4 News Science Correspondent Tom Clarke dissects the many 'solutions' to global warming being marketed to consumers, from tree planting and carbon offsetting to green energy tariffs.
Dispatches investigates the overstretched maternity services which are resulting in new mothers having traumatic births and at worst, putting lives at risk.
With Britain facing a 'severe' level of terror threat, Dispatches investigates the roots of Islamic extremism in the UK and examines the government's attempts to win the battle for British Muslims' hearts and minds
For the past six months, Dispatches has been investigating the London 2012 Olympics. Undertaking a forensic examination of who the real winners and losers are likely to be as a result of hosting the Games, reporter Antony Barnett reveals that, for a lucky few, the personal, financial benefits could be huge.
Looks at the beneficial social and economical contributions made by different immigrant groups, drawing on research done by the Institute for Public Policy Research. Contrasts this with the perception of immigrants and political and media issues.
More than a decade after producing The Dying Rooms - a powerful film about the neglect of abandoned babies in Chinese orphanages - the same award-winning team returns to a very different China, where the infamous One Child Policy has created the horrific side-effect of a boom in stolen children.
Featuring the findings of a survey into doctors' opinions on abortion, Dispatches reveals why many doctors would like to see the law changed, and lifts the lid on the private debates that are happening within the medical profession.
What has really happened in the 168 days since Madeleine was last seen? Dispatches sent a team of five of the UK's best-qualified criminal investigators to Praia da Luz.
New research shows that positive intervention during primary school can make children better readers and significantly improve their life chances.
Dispatches asks whether Britain's house-price boom will create a new generation unable ever to afford a home of their own. The programme follows three sets of first-time buyers as they begin looking for ideal homes in summer. How will the would-be purchasers cope with pricing hot-spots, competition from buy-to-let investors and the meltdown in consumer lending caused by the international credit crunch?
Britain stands on the brink of gridlock. But when the Government proposed pay-as-you-drive motoring, the driving public revolted against it, dubbing it the Toll Tax. This week, Dispatches will conduct its own experiment to find out if road pricing is indeed the answer to congestion.
Investigative report by Mark Thomas into the accusations of exploitation of workers, human rights violations, environmental damage, and questionable business practices by Coca-Cola. Looks at its suppliers and operations in India, South America and the US.
Dispatches investigates what the authorities are doing to protect the public from an increased risk of flooding and questions whether adequate resources are being spent on flood defences.
With higher interest rates and the UK banks burnt by the global credit crunch, reporter Tazeen Ahmad investigates the unsettling implications for those who've borrowed too much.
Dispatches reveals that many top-selling toys incorporate a type of tiny but powerful magnet, a component that the toy companies now know can kill and seriously injure children who swallow them.
Coca-Cola is one of the most iconic brands of both the 20th and 21st centuries. Promoting itself as the drink of freedom, choice and US patriotism, the company's feel-good factor is recognised worldwide and reflected in its enormous profits. But behind this carefully crafted image exists a company accused of environmental damage, human rights violations and questionable business practices. Political activist and journalist Mark Thomas travels to South America, India and the US to investigate the way in which Coca-Cola and its suppliers operate and the extent to which they upholds moral and ethical obligations. Thomas, a long-term critic of Coca-Cola's more controversial practices, finds disturbing evidence which undermines its effervescent image as a force for good and which has prompted a global consumer backlash.
In this 2007 Channel 4 (UK) documentary "BAFTA Award-winning journalist Sorious Samura shows how in Africa corruption has become normal and accepted, even though it's tearing the continent to pieces. Despite the billions in western aid poured in, Samura claims Africa is heading into oblivion: but it's not war, famine and disease strangling development; it's corruption.
Journalist Jane Moore investigates whether the prices of premium ranges reflect their nutritional value, what's in 'healthier' options, and reveals how we're not always being told the truth about the food we eat.
Journalist Jane Moore examines how much food we're really eating and puts the spotlight on the food industry to reveal what effect our increased dining-out habit is having on our health.
An investigation of the Office of London’s former Mayor.
A report on the increase of gang culture and murder that teenagers participate in the UK.
A global credit crunch has put Britain's banks in a crisis that threatens the future of jobs and businesses and may even trigger a wholesale recession.
Award-winning journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy travels to Syria and Jordan to investigate the plight of Iraqi refugees. These are the very people on whom the new, democratic Iraq was to be built - the professional middle classes - nearly half of whom now live as desperate refugees, driven out by the violence and civil breakdown.
Political journalist Peter Oborne accompanies the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, as he travels across Iraq meeting the main players who will determine the future of the country.
Five years after the invasion, Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow examines the brutal reality of life inside post-invasion Iraq, meeting a variety of its citizens - from victims of bomb blasts and war widows, to human rights activists and politicians.
Tibetan exile Tash Despa returns to the homeland he risked his life escaping from to carry out secret filming with the award-winning, Bafta-nominated director Jezza Neumann.
Andrew Rawnsley, the award-winning broadcaster, who presented last year's widely acclaimed The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair, assesses Gordon Brown's first year as Prime Minister.
As the credit crunch continues to leave Britain cash-strapped and high street banks report huge losses, Dispatches investigates who is responsible for the current crisis.
A year-and-a-half after the critically acclaimed film Undercover Mosque was first screened, Dispatches goes undercover again to see whether extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British Muslim institutions. The film also investigates the role of the Saudi Arabian religious establishment in spreading a hard-line, fundamentalist Islamic ideology in the UK - the very ideology the Government claims to be tackling.
With wine consumption in the UK hitting record levels, Jane Moore investigates the many different substances - including fish and dairy products - that can be used to produce wine but which rarely appear on the label of the average bottle.
Dispatches travels across Britain to meet the families who feel let down after more than a decade of struggling to better themselves. Having thought there lives were getting better, these families now see themselves sliding back down the social ladder.
Originally broadcast in 2008, Antony Barnett investigates the funding of the Tories under Cameron and examines how the party is using its newfound resources to ensure its leader becomes the next Prime Minister.
In high streets and seaside towns all over the country, a growing number of clubs are offering one-on-one lap dances where for a few pounds men can buy extensive bodily contact with a near-naked woman. From any viewpoint, these are undoubtedly personal, sexual encounters. Yet current UK licensing law says they are not.
Has the multi-billion-pound bank bailout saved our economy? City speculator Hugh Hendry doesn't think so. This film follows Hugh as he travels from the Square Mile in London to Wall Street in America, talking to some of the world's leading economists and investors along the way. Hugh argues that, as a nation, we have to prepare for the worst - and let's not bank on the bailout.
In this Dispatches film, award-winning filmmakers Brian Woods and Kate Blewett reveal the devastating impact that illegal drugs have on neglected children, whose childhoods are blighted by chaos.
In some of the poorest parts of Nigeria, where evangelical religious fervour is combined with a belief in sorcery and black magic, many thousands of children are being blamed for catastrophes, death and famine: and branded witches. Denounced as Satan made flesh by powerful pastors and prophetesses, these children are abandoned, tortured, starved and murdered: all in the name of Jesus Christ. This Dispatches special follows the work of one Englishman, Gary Foxcroft, who has devoted his life to helping these desperate and vulnerable children. Gary's charity, Stepping Stones Nigeria, raises funds to help Sam Itauma who, five years ago, rescued four children accused of witchcraft. He now struggles to care for over 150 in a makeshift shelter and school called CRARN (Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network).
Peter Oborne returns to Iraq in a follow-up to his Dispatches film, Iraq: The Betrayal. His aim is to find out whether - as Barack Obama hoped in the build-up to his presidency - that it is 'safe' for Western forces to leave.
With primary schools across the country being stretched by the violent and disruptive behaviour of a small minority, Dispatches reveals the results of an extensive, in-depth survey of teachers to identify the impact on their ability to teach, and documents the efforts of five schools which are tackling the problem head on. The survey, the largest if its kind ever undertaken and supported by the teaching union NASUWT, reveals the extent of deteriorating standards of behaviour in classrooms across the UK. With millions of teaching hours being lost; it's the majority of well-behaved kids that are paying the price. But while the crises in classrooms appear to be escalating for many schools, Britain's Challenging Children follows the efforts of five primaries trying innovative methods to regain a calm teaching environment. Filmed as observational documentary, in Glasgow, Wigan and Luton, Dispatches explore what works by focussing on their most challenging pupils.
Fiona Phillips investigates the struggle of Alzheimer's sufferers and their families to get adequate care and support. Monday 11 January 2010In this update, Fiona returns to the issue, examining whether there has been any improvement in the provision of financial support and respite care available for them and their carers. Fiona's father has Alzheimer's and her mother died after developing an aggressive, early-onset form of the disease. Fiona continues to face her own dilemma about how best to care for her father as his condition deteriorates. Mum, Dad, Alzheimer's and MeThe number of people suffering from dementia, the majority with Alzheimer's, is projected to rise from 700,000 to over 1 million by 2025 and 1.7 million by 2051. Fiona investigates whether the level of financial support for sufferers, and respite care for those looking after them, is adequate. And with numbers set to increase, is the Government prepared to cope? Fiona's father has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and her mother died after developing an aggressive, early-onset form of the disease. As Fiona faces her own dilemma about the care of her father, she talks to families around the country about the difficulties they have faced in obtaining help, from both the NHS and local authorities.
As the credit crunch bites, thousands of families are cutting back by swapping expensive premium-range food for cheaper budget lines - but at what cost? Food critic and author Jay Rayner examines what goes into these budget products and asks why, too often, low cost means low quality.
With reporters unable to enter Gaza, attempted media manipulation from both sides and strict regulations governing what images that can be shown on British TV, Jon Snow asks a range of journalists from at home and abroad about the challenges of getting the full story.
Former Minister of Trade Digby Jones examines how the Government is tackling the unemployment crisis. He analyses each of Gordon Brown's pledges to help people retrain for work, to see whether the system for handling the newly unemployed will be a success, and unpicks statements and statistics to reveal the true scale of the problem.
Award-winning Pakistani journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy investigates how the war on terror is creating a generation of child terrorists in her homeland - children prepared to kill both inside and outside Pakistan. Sharmeen investigates how the Taliban are recruiting increasingly younger fighters to their campaign. She meets a 14-year-old boy in her home city of Karachi who is desperate to become a suicide bomber. She then follows the elite unit of the anti-terror police squad - who warn that the Taliban are hiding out in the city's sprawling slums and recruiting children from small madrassas in deprived neighbourhoods. Sharmeen also interviews a Taliban commander responsible for child recruitment, who reveals that children as young as five are now being used by the Taliban.
In May 2008, freedom-of-information campaigner Heather Brooke won a court battle that should have prompted the release of all politicians' expense claims. A year later, with those expenses still to be published and the flow of leaked information ever increasing, Heather studies the information that is available to piece together a forensic insight into how public money is being spent.
Just before he became Prime Minister in 2007, chancellor Gordon Brown congratulated the city on their ingenuity and creativity during his tenure: 'An era that history will record as the beginning of a new golden age for the city of London'. He couldn't have been more wrong. Now, thanks to the financial crash, Britain is facing economic catastrophe. The debts the UK is incurring will take generations to pay off. But how did the economy get from boom to bust? In this two-part special, economist and author Will Hutton gives the definitive insider's account of what went wrong. Talking to the key players in government, Wall Street and the City, Hutton unveils the true extent of the greed, ambition and reckless risk-taking that is now carrying the economy into the worst recession for a century. Is it really true that no one saw it coming? Or could the recession have been prevented?
In the second half of this special two-part Dispatches, economist and author Will Hutton continues the definitive insider's account of how Britain's economy went from boom to bust. Hutton reveals how those who tried to warn of the impending financial disaster were shouted down, ignored or fired. As a result, the repercussions of the collapse of Lehman Brothers hit an unprepared and vulnerable UK, and left the government frantically trying to prevent a banking collapse from turning the UK into an economic wasteland. Despite the collapse of Northern Rock a year before, the government, the regulators and the banks had largely ignored the warning signals that more collapses would follow. Hutton looks at the weeks that followed Lehman's collapse: weeks that will go down as some of the most crucial in Britain's economic history.
Part of the Britain's Forgotten Children season, this programme reveals the scandals of the British care system and asks, is it working or failing our children?
Britain's top bankers helped bring the economy to the brink of ruin; their gambling triggered thousands of job losses and exposed taxpayers to over a trillion pounds of possible risk. In this edition of Dispatches, journalist Jane Moore investigates exactly how much these former bosses have been rewarded for these failings - and how much they are still raking in.
As Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, faces trial by the country's military government, this timely and remarkable Dispatches film follows the lives of eight Burmese orphans as they struggle to survive the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. Filmed covertly over the course of a year by two Burmese cameramen, who risked an instant 30-year jail sentence if caught, Orphans of Burma's Cyclone exposes the official intransigence of one of the world's most brutal and secretive regimes and, for the first time, reveals what day-to-day life is like for the ordinary people of Burma.
In the first account of its kind on television, award-winning journalist Andrew Rawnsley presents the inside political story of the credit crunch. The programme features exclusive interviews with senior figures close to the economic crisis, including cabinet ministers, senior politicians and former treasury insiders. As Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has presided over the biggest recession in 75 years. Rawnsley examines the key moments, showing how Brown as Prime Minister inherited the economic problems of his own 10 years as chancellor. The programme charts the roller coaster journey of Brown's fortunes from the moment the credit crunch began.
Journalist Sorious Samura examines gang rape in the wake of two recent high-profile cases, investigating why such violent attacks are now happening in the UK. He uncovers the extent of the problem by meeting four victims who describe their traumatic experiences, learns the shocking truth about a group of teenagers' attitude to sex and relationships, and hears from youth workers, police officers and academics
The untold story of 2008's terrorist attack, in the words of its victims and the gunmen. The programme contains graphic images and descriptions of the atrocity which may upset some viewers. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Dan Reed, Terror in Mumbai tells the story of what happened when 10 gunmen held one of the world's busiest cities hostage; killing and wounding hundreds of people while holding India's crack security forces at bay. Featuring footage of the attacks and interviews with senior police officers and hostages, including the testimony from Kasab - the sole surviving gunman, Dispatches reveals what happened, hour by hour, from the perspective of the security forces, the terrorists, their masterminds and the victims.
Almost 10 years after the death of Victoria Climbié, Dispatches investigates the failures still present in Britain's child protection system. With a child being killed by their parent or carer every seven days in the UK, and over 160 child killings since 2004, journalist Peter Oborne examines how such horrific murders might be prevented in the future. The death of Baby Peter in 2007 focussed attention on the failures of social services but as Dispatches demonstrates, the failures in child protection reach beyond the realms of just social work departments to include police forces, health services and - as one mother claims - even the family court system.
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate one of Britain's least loved but booming industries - the debt collection business. Presented by Jane Moore, the programme reveals some of the tactics deployed to get debtors to pay up, and talks to those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of this treatment. Reporter Tom Randall gets a job as a debt collector inside one of the UK's fastest-growing agencies. He discovers that in recession-hit Britian some of the biggest high-street businesses are cutting their losses and selling on their bad debts to agencies for as little as 16 pence in the pound. Agencies who buy up these debts are entitled to pursue debtors for the full amount. In this multi-billion pound industry the stakes are high; Dispatches reveals the lengths that collectors will go to to recover their debts.
Dispatches investigates how Robert Mugabe and politicians in his ZANU-PF party are still clinging on to power in Zimbabwe, focusing on the businessmen who are benefiting from or supporting his campaign of political violence. According to opposition politicians in Zimbabwe, those businessmen include well-known figures and companies based in the City of London. Following last year's disputed elections and political violence, a power-sharing 'National Unity Government' was established in Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe remains as President, with the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai , Prime Minister. Tsvangirai has been touring the world trying to get aid to Zimbabwe to help its hungry people and restart its decaying economy. However, working undercover in Zimbabwe, Dispatches reporter Aidan Hartley discovers that Mugabe has maintained his grip on the police, army and central bank, enabling him and his allies to continue carrying out violence and corruption on a vast scale.
As British forces fight on two fronts in military operations, award-winning filmmaker David Modell examines the devastating trauma suffered by many soldiers - which leaves no visible scars, but great psychological injury. The programme tells the moving stories of four soldiers as a result of their experiences in combat zones. To many here, the conflicts may seem remote, but this film provides an intimate portrait of its impact on the lives of individual soldiers and their families. Examining the consequences of long and repeated tours of duty, the film raises serious questions about the adequacy of existing support structures to help returning soldiers cope with any trauma they may be suffering. In addition to the film, this website details more individual cases, plus information and research into the key issues of alcohol, mental health, relationships and suicide.
Dispatches examines one of the biggest surprises of the credit crunch: middle-class unemployment. From company directors to university graduates, this film follows the experience of several people who have found themselves out of work and desperately in search of a job, with some going to extraordinary lengths to try to secure one. Dispatches highlights the practical realities of trying to find work, even when armed with a degree or a glowing CV.
They're known as 'Blunkett's Bobbies' or 'Plastic Police'. There are 16,500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) walking the 'beat', costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds per year. Critics have always attacked them for providing policing on the cheap and a political gimmick, but their supporters say they have been useful in curbing antisocial behaviour and visible reassurance to the public. Filming with PCSOs at work on the streets of Lancashire, Dispatches investigates whether PCSOs have proven to be a policing success story or an expensive mistake.
Alex Thomson investigates how MPs have spent their 82-day summer recess, and what is expected of them during this time. With publicly funded trips jetting off all around the globe, who are the frequent fliers and how accountable are these visits? Dispatches travels around the world in 82 days to look at what is on offer during the summer break and how open and transparent our elected representatives really are. Thomson examines whether taxpayers are getting value for their money from their elected representatives, with politicians desperate to regain trust after the expenses scandal in May 2009.
Dispatches lifts the lid on the pensions crisis. The programme names some of the blue-chip companies that have abandoned final salary pension schemes. It shows how widespread the problem of underperforming pensions is, and how difficult it is to get full compensation if things go wrong. Dispatches also reveals the extent to which public sector pensions are under threat, and how far private pensions have failed to deliver in the recession. The programme asks whether the government has failed to protect pensions, and examines their ideas for tackling the crisis in the future.
The death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in April 2009 and the images of police batons raining down on protestors have put the spotlight on the tactics police deploy during public demonstrations. The programme looks at how the police are taught to judge the level of force required to suppress disorder, and examines controversial crowd control tactics like 'containment', which brings protestors face-to-face with heavily-protected and armed police officers. Dispatches asks why, if the vast majority of protests pass off peacefully, police training still focuses on the worst-case scenario of riots and petrol bombs, and hears from critics of the current training who argue it is out of step with 21st century protest. The programme examines the evolution of this training and asks whether the requirements of health and safety legislation have had an adverse effect on policing public order.
In this edition of Dispatches, reporter Jane Moore reveals how nutritious the nation's breakfasts really are and the marketing techniques employed by this lucrative industry. Dispatches investigates the evidence provided to support these claims and asks if some of the healthy-sounding cereals and pro-biotic yoghurts are all they are cracked up to be. Moore finds that the unwillingness of retailers and manufacturers to adopt the traffic light systems recommended by food standards authorities is confusing things further. Even if you want to eat the right thing, it is not always easy to tell what that is. She also tests the regulators' rules on 'healthy' branding by baking a cake that could still make many of the health claims made by cereals. Moore examines the recent shifts in cereal marketing which enable manufacturers to stay ahead of the regulators. Moore discovers that their marketing has moved to prime-time TV and the internet.
Dispatches investigates one of the most powerful and influential political lobbies in Britain, which is working in support of the interests of the State of Israel. Despite wielding great influence among the highest realms of British politics and media, little is known about the individuals and groups which collectively are known as the pro-Israel lobby. Political commentator Peter Oborne sets out to establish who they are, how they are funded, how they work and what influence they have, from the key groups to the wealthy individuals who help bankroll the lobbying. He investigates how accountable, transparent and open to scrutiny the lobby is, particularly in regard to its funding and financial support of MPs. The pro-Israel lobby aims to shape the debate about Britain's relationship with Israel and future foreign policies relating to it. Oborne examines how the lobby operates from within parliament and the tactics it employs behind the scenes when engaging with print and broadcast media.
In 2008 a Bafta and Emmy Award-winning Dispatches told the story of how children in Africa's Niger Delta were being denounced by Christian pastors as witches and wizards and then killed, tortured or abandoned by their own families. The film, which prompted international outrage against a practice conducted in the name of Jesus, forced the Nigerian authorities and the UN to act. Child rights legislation came into force making it illegal to brand children as witches and some pastors were arrested. Financial support also poured in to assist a small British charity (Stepping Stones Nigeria) providing the only safe refuge for hundreds of youngsters attacked after claims that they were possessed by the Devil. In Return to Africa's Witch Children, Dispatches reveals what happened to some of the children and church leaders who originally featured, and discovers that even now children as young as two are still being stigmatised as witches and treated as outcasts. Gary Foxcroft of Lancaster-based charity Stepping Stones Nigeria also returns to Nigeria and discovers that since his last visit the rescue centre that houses many of these children was the target of an attack. He also learns that the number of children living there has in fact risen. Two-and-a-half-year-old Ellin is one such child. She was found at the side of the road, her body having been severely burnt with boiling water. Nwanakwo Udo Edet, around eight years old, wasn't so fortunate. He had acid poured over him after being labelled a wizard and later died.
As banks and building societies close their doors to all but the least 'risky' borrowers, Dispatches reporter Jane Moore investigates a highly lucrative financial industry that has stepped in to provide loans to the millions of people denied credit elsewhere. She discovers that many of the loans offered by some of these doorstep operators, payday lenders, and rent-to-buy companies come with sky-high interest rates that can financially overwhelm families already steeped in debt. And the sting in the tail is that these loans are entirely legal. The programme asks why the Government has resisted calls to impose interest rate 'caps' on the various loans on offer, allowing the market to be so under-regulated that foreign loan companies are switching their operations to Britain. In the run-up to Christmas, the impact of these high interest rate charges can be financially devastating for some families.
As patient numbers and pressures increase, Dispatches investigates the reality of work for nurses around the country and examines whether patient care is being compromised in NHS hospitals.
Jane Moore highlights the findings of a report about how the government wastes billions of pounds of taxpayers' money each year
In 2009, Fiona Phillips investigated the struggle of Alzheimer's sufferers and their families to get adequate care and support in Dispatches: Mum, Dad, Alzheimer's and Me. In this update, she returns to the issue, examining whether there has been any improvement in the provision of financial support and respite care available for them and their carers. Fiona's father has Alzheimer's and her mother died after developing an aggressive, early-onset form of the disease. Fiona continues to face her own dilemma about how best to care for her father as his condition deteriorates.
Dispatches reveals the brutal reality of life on the streets and in the slums of Mumbai, following the daily struggles of four young children to survive. A few weeks after running away from his abusive stepmother, 11-year-old Salam is living rough outside the main train station. Befriended by a gang of begging boys, run by 20-year-old Asif, Salam speaks fondly of his new 'brother'. But it soon appears that there is a much darker side to being in Asif's gang. Deepa (pictured) is lucky to be alive after rats attacked her when she was just three months old. Now aged seven, she runs barefoot through the hectic Mumbai traffic to sell flowers to help support her family, doing shifts of up to 20 hours at a time. She lives with her grandmother and brothers in a slum with no electricity or sanitation, next to an open rubbish dump. They survive on less than £1 day since her alcoholic father died two years earlier and her mother abandoned them. Twins Hussain and Hussan, aged 11, live in a shanty town, balanced precariously on a 10-foot-wide water pipe. Five days a week they collect scrap metal and plastic bottles to sell so they can earn money to eat. They also fish utensils out of the canal that runs alongside their back door to sell, despite the risk of cholera and infection. They say they like where they live; 'We are emperors of the night!' jokes Hussan. But they don't want to think about their futures. Dispatches provides a deeply moving portrait of the lives of India's real slumdogs, blighted by substance abuse, hardship and heartache, yet proof of the infinite resilience of children, and forced to reach adulthood long before they should.
While most new troops stationed in Afghanistan head to the volatile south of the country, a new frontline, operating almost under the radar of NATO, is encircling the north of the country. The insurgents are aiming to take over the countryside surrounding the towns and cities and to block the main supply route, the Kunduz-Baghlan road, which services coalition troops across much of Afghanistan since the traditional route through Pakistan became too treacherous. Dispatches goes inside the enemy camp in northern Afghanistan as award-winning Afghan reporter Najibullah Quraishi is granted access to an army of extreme Islamic combatants. Quraishi spent almost two weeks with the Central Group of fighters, known to be among the most dangerous and fanatical factions involved in the war, with Chechens, Arabs and other foreign fighters in their ranks and with close links to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. He captures their leisure time, training and planning and accompanies them on an operation targeting the Afghan army.
Two reporters go undercover as agency postmen to find out if the Royal Mail has delivered on claims that it is modernising and improving its service. In 2004 and again in 2005, Dispatches went undercover to investigate the Royal Mail. These reports exposed serious systemic and individual failures within the organisation, resulting in an enquiry by the postal regulator, followed by a fine of almost ten million pounds. Five years on, the Royal Mail claims it is modernising and improving its service. The reporters find an antiquated system with lax security, poorly trained agency workers - many of whom are clearly not up to the job - damaged and defective equipment and allegations of stealing. Out on their rounds, they are bombarded with complaints from angry members of the public who have experienced damaged mail, delays and poor service, and behind the scenes some managers and workers express contempt for the customer and their concerns. Joining just before the busy Christmas period, when an industrial truce has been publicly announced by both management and the unions, both reporters find that normal service is far from being resumed. Managers tell the reporters that disputes with unions over working times and the size of postmen's rounds are causing continued disruptions to the service. With over four million pounds a year being paid in compensation to customers for lost post and a recent dip in Royal Mail's delivery performance, Dispatches asks if the organisation is fit for purpose.
In 2009 more than one in five children left primary school having failed to grasp the basic maths skills required by the national curriculum. In a two-part special, Dispatches asks why and how are we failing Britain's children when it comes to maths. Dispatches follows a class of final-year pupils at Barton Hill Primary School in Bristol as their staff adopt a radical approach to teaching, in a bid to improve the maths ability of these children before they head off to secondary school. The problem couldn't be more urgent. Research shows that failing to grasp the fundamentals of maths at primary school leaves only a one in ten chance of catching up by the age of 16. Dispatches hears from leading lights in the worlds of business and academia - including the CEO of Sainsbury's, Justin King, and George Davies, formerly of Next and Asda - about the impact on the economy and on adult life of leaving school without basic maths skills. In a provocative nationwide exercise, Dispatches examines the standard of primary maths teaching in this country by testing the teachers. No tricks; just 27 questions that a bright 11-year-old would be able to answer. The shocking results are revealed in the programme.
In the second half of this two-part special, maths specialist Richard Dunne returns to Barton Hill Primary School, with Countdown's Rachel Riley, to help the pupils with their mental arithmetic. Kids Don't Count asks why and how we are failing Britain's children when it comes to maths. The programmes follow a class of final-year primary school pupils in Bristol as their staff adopt a radical approach to teaching, in a bid to improve the maths ability of these children before they head off to secondary school. In the first programme, the Head drafted in maths specialist Richard Dunne. Children who had previously struggled with maths thrived under his programme, which taught them how to understand abstract concepts and relate sums to the real world, and gave them lots of opportunities to repeat the basics so they could be memorised. But as their SATs approached, under pressure to improve results, the Head temporarily set aside Dunne's methods. In this second programme, the SATs are over but many of the children have lost enthusiasm for the subject and still do not have a grasp of the basic building blocks for maths. Dunne returns to Barton Hill to help the children with their mental arithmetic, joined by Countdown presenter Rachel Riley, who visits the school to help encourage the children to tackle their maths demons. Sitting in on a maths lesson, Riley is shocked that many of the children struggle to do sums in their heads and do not know their times tables. In a bid to inspire the children in a subject she feels passionate about, she organises a 'children versus adults' Countdown competition at the school.
Dispatches investigates a fundamentalist Islamic group headquartered in Britain, and its claims to have placed its 'brothers' in positions of political power here. Using undercover recordings, investigative journalist Andrew Gilligan reveals the group's ambitions to create a worldwide 'Islamic social and political order,' and the concerns of a mainstream party that they are being 'infiltrated'; and talks to the Muslims who want to stop it.
Award-winning columnist and writer Andrew Rawnsley has caused a furore while lifting the lid on Gordon Brown's premiership. Now Rawnsley presents an inside portrait of David Cameron and the government that might be... According to opinion polls, after 13 years in the political wilderness, the Conservatives under David Cameron's leadership seem likely to form the next government. He has been working hard to change his party's image from 'the nasty party' and to demonstrate economic competence. Yet many voters still don't feel they know his new Tories. How does Cameron operate? Do his closest colleagues work as a party within a party, creating disgruntled outsiders? How much harsher will their cuts in public services be than Labour's? Will they really lead the country out of recession faster than Gordon Brown? Can the so-called 'toffs' identify with the concerns of the vast majority of the population? Rawnsley interviews the man who could be Prime Minister, and his colleagues George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove, the men who hope to run our economy, foreign affairs and education system. He gets an opponent's perspective from Lord Mandelson. The programme reveals how these ministerial hopefuls plan to put their policies into action the day after the election. They've promised a budget within 50 days. What can we expect to happen to taxes, wages, public services and unemployment? Have they really done the homework that would get them off to a running start? The country seems to want change. But has David Cameron, whose only experience outside politics has been in public relations, done no more than just tinker with the presentation of old Tory attitudes and added some more diverse candidates to the old mix?
In December 2008, the Israeli Defence Force unleashed a campaign to destroy the ability of Hamas to launch rockets and mortars into Israel. Around 300 children were among the 1,300 Palestinians that were killed. After the ceasefire, BAFTA-winning filmmaker Jezza Neumann arrived in Gaza to follow the lives of three children over a year. Surrounded by the remnants of the demolished Gaza Strip and increasingly isolated by the blockade that prevents anyone from rebuilding their homes and their lives, Children of Gaza is a shocking, touching and uniquely intimate reflection on extraordinary courage in the face of great adversity.
Following the scandal surrounding MPs' expenses, Dispatches delves into the mostly unregulated world of political lobbying. The programme reveals how politicians are offering to help companies and lobby the government for salaries of up to £5,000 a day. Journalist Antony Barnett leads an undercover investigation which examines: - How senior politicians are seeking to trade on their Westminster connections to earn money from lucrative positions in the private sector. - Whether the regulations safeguarding the public interest in this regard are both adequate and effective. Dispatches set up a fictional US public affairs company and contacted several senior politicians and asked them if they were interested in a position on the advisory board of our bogus London office. The programme-makers contacted 20 politicians, 15 agreed to meet and ten were invited in for interviews. Nine of the interviews were filmed secretly and genuine issues of public interest arise from these: the public is entitled to know how retiring politicians see themselves and the services they are offering the corporate and business world in their life after Westminster. Most suggested that our US company's clients could get privileged access into the corridors of powers; some agreed to help us win government contracts and lobby the right people. Some even boasted about what they have already achieved for private corporate interests while still serving as MPs. Those politicians featured in undercover filming are Geoff Hoon, Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt, Baroness Sally Morgan, Margaret Moran and Sir John Butterfill.
Journalist Ben Laurance looks at what it costs to stage the London Marathon, how much money it generates and the extent of its charitable giving. In 2009, 36,000 participants in the London Marathon raised a phenomenal £47 million, cementing the Marathon's place as the biggest one-day fundraising event in the world. In the course of his investigation, Ben discovers who the lucky recipients are of some of the money distributed by the London Marathon race organisers. He also talks to leading charities about the amount they pay to take part, the competition for places, and asks why hundreds of desperate charities are left without a place in Britain's biggest fundraising event.
Journalist Ben Laurance analyses the political parties' campaigns in the run up to polling day. He investigates each party's campaign and gets a real taste of what's happening behind the scenes in the run up to the election. The programme looks at the debates, how the leaders have been styled and their performances fine-tuned as they compete to get their policies across to the British public and asks what impact the debates have really had on informing the voter. Ben examines how the parties are financing their campaigns, considers the voting postcode lottery and reports on the work of two teams of foreign election observers as they travel the country to assess just how democratic our elections are.
In South Africa a child is raped every three minutes and AIDS continues to spread with epidemic ferocity. Dispatches follows four girls aged 11 to 13 as they struggle to come to terms with the crimes committed against them and fight the social stigma that comes with the abuse.
In the wake of the tragic death of Baby P and other high-profile cases of child abuse and murder, Dispatches investigates allegations that child protection procedures and practices continue to be inadequate.
As the government prepares an emergency budget to help pay for the bank bailout, Will Hutton investigates the banks and what they've done with our money.
Filmed live on the eve of the emergency budget announcement, Dispatches sets out controversial cuts that could save Britain £100 billion. Krishnan Guru-Murthy presents a team of experts who believe their radical proposals could get Britain's budget back in shape; but can the nation stomach such swingeing cuts or tax increases?
Gay people in Africa are facing increased persecution in a continent where two thirds of countries retain laws against homosexuals. Award-winning filmmaker Sorious Samura investigates for Dispatches what it is like to be a gay person in Africa, discovering shocking levels of prejudice and hate, driven by governments, religious organisations and communities.
For two years, Dispatches has followed an undercover police operation as it tracked a criminal gang trying to smuggle guns into Britain
Dispatches goes undercover in some African churches in the UK, where evangelical pastors perpetuate a strong belief in witchcraft. They preach that some people are possessed by evil spirits, and that these spirits bring bad luck into the lives of others.
Dispatches reveals the tragic consequences of first cousin marriage in Britain. Every year such marriages cause hundreds of children to be born with terrible disabilities; one third of whom are so ill that they die before they are five years old.
Over 15,000 domestic workers leave their families to come to Britain every year. Charities claim that many are not only badly treated but that they are living as slaves. This report investigates the plight of overseas domestic workers brought to the UK, and enslaved behind closed doors by rich and powerful employers in the upper levels of British society. Dispatches goes undercover as some of the employers accused of modern-day slavery are confronted on camera about how they have treated their workers. Many workers make the sacrifice to leave their country for the UK in order to better provide for their families back home. But lobby groups and charities communicate that a worrying proportion of domestic workers have their passports taken away from them, are kept locked up and subjected to sexual, physical and psychological abuse. Many are paid less than £50 a week for 20 hour days and some wages are withheld completely. Even children face similar horrendous conditions; the filmmakers meet young people who were trafficked over to the UK as children and endured years of violence and forced labour. The programme also investigates claims that foreign diplomats are among the worst offenders in this flourishing form of modern slavery.
Veteran war correspondent Sam Kiley turns his sights on the critical issue of whether the British tax payer, and British soldier, are getting value for money from the Ministry of Defence. As the MoD puts the finishing touches to the first Strategic Defence and Security Review in 12 years, Kiley uncovers a ministry barely fit for purpose while men and women are fighting and dying in Afghanistan. Britain's £42 billion defence budget puts it in the top four in the world so why do we appear to be struggling to support just 10,000 frontline troops? The answers lie in the squandering of billions designed to prop up the British defence industry, resulting in the MoD going an estimated £36 billion over its equipment budget over the next ten years. Kiley argues that poor decisions to buy the Eurofighter, a new Nimrod spy plane, and the Lynx Wildcat helicopter have cost billions and have left our troops dangerously exposed on the ground.
As Britain braces itself for the severest cuts in public spending in more than 60 years, Dispatches examines the response of the trade unions and what their threats of potential mass industrial action mean for the country. Representing the interests of millions of British workers, trade unions are perceived to wield a great deal of political might - in this programme Dispatches reporter Deborah Davies investigates just how much power the unions really have to protect pay and jobs, and what the impact of industrial action might be for the public at large. By looking at the inner workings of three of Britain's most important unions, Dispatches asks do they, and their leaders, really represent their members and what tactics do they have at their disposal to fight the impending cuts? Trade Union Congress leader Brendan Barber has warned Britain will become a 'darker, brutish and more frightening place' as the government's austerity measures take effect. With the potential to cripple transport systems, close schools and government buildings and hit vital public services, Dispatches asks if the unions could combine to bring about the kind of mass protests staged in Greece and Portugal this summer or if their rhetoric is all bluster?
Dispatches examines allegations that during Andy Coulson's time as editor of News of the World, phone hacking was a routine practice at the paper and carried out with his knowledge. Political journalist Peter Oborne investigates the paper's working relationship with the police and claims of undue influence together with claims of intimidation against politicians, and explores the broader links between News International and the current government.
In February 2010, US Marines launched the biggest operation since the start of the war in Afghanistan: Operation Mushtaraq. Bravo's Deadly Mission covers hour-by-hour the entire operation to liberate the strategically vital town of Marjah in February and contains some of the most intense fighting footage ever caught on camera. Filmed under extremely dangerous circumstances and in the toughest conditions imaginable, this Dispatches special is an extraordinary human story and an unflinching portrayal of war at first hand. Operation Mushtaraq was massive news all over the world when it happened. But only one journalist was with the Marines inside Marjah. Ben Anderson spent two months with Bravo Company 1/6 Marines, eating, sleeping, running and sweating alongside them every step of the way. The access he achieved and the 50 hours of battle footage he obtained is intimate and unprecedented and forms the basis of this extraordinary film. The result is unlike any other war documentary: personal, intense, incredibly close-up and dangerous. Bravo Company was the first and only platoon dropped into the centre of Marjah. These young Marines found themselves in a maze of IEDs, bunkers, trenches and ambushes, set by very well-trained fighters. The film features strong characters such as Captain Sparks, a Special Forces veteran of Falluja, Haditha and Afghanistan who's charged with seeing the young Marines in his charge through to the bitter end of the operation. Thoughtful and insightful, Sparks knows this is the most dangerous mission of his life. He knows they will lose men. He knows he takes responsibility when that happens. Made by a BAFTA and Grierson award-winning team, the film returns to Marjah four months after the original invasion to find IEDs again being laid just 2km from the Marines' base, Taliban fighters, including snipers, still active and mobile, and a local population that is far from won over. Bravo's Deadly Mission is a breathtaking fil
How do the rich avoid paying tax and protect their fortunes? Dispatches reveals the clever devices they use. With more than 20 millionaires in the cabinet, reporter Antony Barnett examines the financial affairs of some ministers and others who have helped the coalition. George Osborne says 'we're all in this together' but are ministers and top Tories paying the same rates of tax as the rest of us? Barnett visits a number of offshore tax havens around the world still under control of Britain, including the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, to find out more about tax avoidance ploys.
Dispatches, Channel 4's flagship current affairs strand, exposes the full and unreported horror of the Iraqi conflict and its aftermath, revealing the true scale of civilian casualties; and allegations that after the scandal of Abu Ghraib, American soldiers continued to abuse prisoners; and that US forces did not systematically intervene in the torture and murder of detainees by the Iraqi security services. The programme also features previously unreported material of insurgents being killed while trying to surrender. Channel 4 is the only UK broadcaster to have been given access to nearly 400,000 secret military significant activities reports (SIGACTS) logged by the US military in Iraq between 2004 and 2009. These reports tell the story of the war and occupation which the US military did not want the world to know. Initially, the Americans claimed that they were not recording casualty figures and President Bush stated that America would do its utmost to avoid civilian casualties. In the files, Dispatches found details of over 109,000 deaths; 66,000 of these were civilians; 176,000 civilians and others were reported as wounded. Under rules of engagement, known as escalation of force, anyone approaching the US military was warned to slow down and stop. The analysis reveals more than 800 people were killed in escalation of force incidents: 681 (80%) of these were civilians; a further 2,200 were wounded. Thirteen coalition troops were killed during these incidents. Dispatches found 30 children had been killed when shots were fired near civilians by US troops at checkpoints. Over a six-year period, the data records the imprisonment of 180,000 Iraqis: one in 50 of the adult male population. Dispatches found more than 300 reports alleging abuse by US forces on Iraqi prisoners after April 2004. The Americans effectively ignored the torture and murder of many detainees by Iraqi security forces. Dispatches has found evidence of more than 1,300 individual cases
Every day hundreds of kids are forced to leave home. According to charities like Railway Children, the number of homeless children is bound to rise as a result of the recent government budget cuts. This crisis in Britain's families has created an itinerant population of young people without support or a roof over their heads. The state has to provide, at an immense cost, while voluntary organisations try to plug the gaps in the face of drastic cutbacks and closures. Dispatches follows four teenagers over six months who are struggling to fend for themselves on the streets. They're simultaneously at risk and a risk to society, and for all four of them drugs become a way of life, a means of dealing with the stresses and challenges of life away from family and home comforts. All talk candidly and eloquently about why they take flight: family breakdowns, addiction, violence, neglect and abuse. The unspoken truth behind their stories points to both inadequate parenting and severe lack of consistent and effective care once they have left home. Dispatches explores the hidden world of runaway and evicted teenagers, giving them a voice for the first time, and celebrating their extraordinary ability to fend for themselves.
Dispatches investigates the working conditions of clothing manufacturing units in the UK. With British consumers keen to buy the latest designer looks at cheap prices, this film exposes the real human cost behind high street fashion. Over three months, secret filming is carried out inside a number of textiles factories and suppliers and the footage shows the poor treatment and illegally low pay of workers as they make clothes destined for major fashion retailers. The working conditions are dangerous, poorly ventilated, dirty and cramped, and workers are paid as low as under half the minimum wage. The film also reveals the high street brands whose clothes are being made by these workers. Dispatches exposes shocking practices, more commonly associated with sweatshops in the developing world, but existing right here in modern Britain.
On the same day the British public heard details of the unprecedented cuts in government spending that will affect almost everyone in the country, taxpayers also learnt they'd have to pay extra hundreds of millions of pounds a year to Brussels, as MEPs voted in favour of an increase in their budget. Calling the proposed 5.9% increase 'completely irresponsible and unacceptable', David Cameron has just managed to get the EU to limit the budget rise to 2.9%. Dispatches reveals that, despite the worldwide credit crunch, it's still possible to get rich out of Europe. The programme details the exceptionally generous package of salary, pension and expenses that MEPs receive and how some have abused the rules to pocket as much cash as possible. While Westminster has tightened up on the expenses system, Brussels still hands out some cash allowances without the need for receipts. The programme also looks at the system of agricultural payments, which are supposed to help those British farmers struggling to earn a livelihood and continue producing food. Dispatches shows how millions of pounds in grants have ended up going to some of the best known - and richest - landowners in the country. Dispatches also examines how money meant to help deprived areas has actually been spent. In one case the programme discovers that hundreds of UK workers are being laid off and their jobs moved to Poland, funded in part by a multi-million-pound European grant. In another case the programme investigates allegations of fraud when a man with a criminal conviction for dishonesty ended up running a project given hundreds of thousands of pounds of EU money.
For one year, Dispatches follows the police and people of Islamabad as Pakistan's capital battles to overcome an unprecedented wave of terrorist attacks, providing a powerful insight into a normally closed world in which everyone battles to survive the daily threat of death with courage and resilience. Pakistan is in chaos; more than 3,500 people have been killed in suicide blasts in the past three years. Only a few years ago, attacks in the capital were rare, but disparate terrorist groups are increasingly working together and Islamabad has become their ultimate target. Featuring intimate, direct-to-camera interviews of startling candour - from a teenage girl whose best friend was blown up, to the Inspector General of Police - Dispatches follows those affected as they attempt to continue their lives on the frontline of a war on terror - and refuse to be beaten by it. With unprecedented access, including interviews filmed in the immediate aftermath of explosions and behind-the-scenes footage of police investigations, the film documents the real war on terrorism fought on the streets of the metropolis... with bloody and tragic consequences.
Every year, thousands of children come from all over the world to Britain seeking refuge from persecution, terrorism and war. But many arrive to find this country is not the place of safety that they hoped. Instead they are met by a culture of disbelief and an asylum system that in some cases causes them profound psychological and physical harm. Through the stories of a 10-year-old Iranian boy, a 16-year-old Afghan and a 22-year-old Ugandan woman, Dispatches explores the experiences of young people who have been brutalized by the British asylum system. This is the story of the kids Britain doesn't want.
For two years, Dispatches has followed an undercover police operation as it tracked a criminal gang trying to smuggle guns into Britain. The painstaking work of Lancashire's Serious and Organised Crime Unit culminated in the seizure of a vehicle in Dover containing drugs, weapons and ammunition, and led to the successful conviction of over 20 people involved in this international crime ring. Operation Greengage exposed the trade in illegal weapons in one northern town. In Gun Nation, Dispatches examines the shocking proliferation of guns on Britain's streets.
On the night of the Haiti earthquake something happened in downtown Port au Prince - the Haitian capital - which would leave the fate of all the aid efforts and the country's future hanging in the balance: 4,500 prisoners escaped from Haiti's terrifying and overcrowded prison, the National Penitentiary. They included many of the hardcore criminals, kidnappers and gang bosses who'd reduced Haiti to anarchy from 2004 to 2007, but had then been subdued after an all-out military onslaught by the police and heavily-armed UN peacekeepers. Now they were free to regain control of the slums and the tent cities where most Haitians live, using murder and rape to enforce their rule, with Haiti more vulnerable and less well-policed than ever before. Helping battle the escaped gangsters is Mario Andresol, Haiti's police chief, who put many of them in prison in the first place. At great personal risk, he played a key role in the United Nations offensive that smashed the power of the gangs. Now, four years later, he has to do it all again. His force is riddled with corruption and many of his officers are without homes and living in tent camps. BAFTA-winning director Dan Reed captures the daily battle for Haiti's future, filming with Andresol, escaped gangsters, the beleaguered special police unit that's trying to capture them, UN peacekeepers, and the despairing and philosophical inhabitants of the slums and tent cities.
Dispatches investigates the fish sold on Britain's high street to find out where it is sourced, how it is processed and what is actually in it, as Channel 4 News presenter Alex Thomson unwraps one of the nation's favourite dishes. Through DNA testing Thomson discovers the fish in fish and chips may not be quite as advertised and exposes how one major supermarket is misleading consumers about the sustainability of the cod it sells. The apparent health benefits of fish have driven demand from consumers and made it a lucrative multi-billion-pound industry in the UK. But Thomson reveals the chemical additives used in some fish products. He also uncovers that packaged fish on sale in the chilled section of the supermarket may have been frozen for nine months before it's defrosted and sold to consumers, some of whom assume this is fresh. Dispatches also goes undercover to investigate the prawn industry in Bangladesh, which supplies Britain with several thousand tonnes of prawns each year, and finds a dangerously unregulated industry. Secret filming reveals serious hygiene issues and the use of a widely banned pesticide to combat disease in prawn ponds. The report also exposes how prawns are injected with a dirty bulking liquid to increase weight and profit.
In the wake of the resignation of the Downing Street's head of communications Andy Coulson, Dispatches charts the unfolding events in the phone hacking scandal. The film examines the controversy, which stretches from Fleet Street to Scotland Yard and on to Westminster and Downing Street. It investigates the wider implications for the tabloids and asks is this a watershed
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate allegations that teachers regularly assault young children in some of the 2,000 Muslim schools in Britain run by Islamic organisations. The programme also follows up allegations that, behind closed doors, some Muslim secondary schools teach a message of hatred and intolerance
With NHS figures showing that more people than ever before are leaving hospital malnourished, Dispatches reveals the shocking truth about catering in the NHS. Not only is much of the food disgusting, but some patients are suffering as a result of cost-cutting and sloppy production. Reporter Mark Sparrow spent ten weeks in traction in hospital, forced to rely on NHS food. The quality of his meals was so bad that he set up a blog and began to record his experiences. He photographed and filmed dozens of meals. Since being released from hospital he has set out to discover whether his experience was a one-off or symptomatic of a deeper problem. Sparrow meets young people with cystic fibrosis, whose survival depends on getting the right diet. They tell him that the NHS is failing them and that their parents have to take them out of hospital to local pubs and restaurants to make sure that they eat properly and obtain the necessary calorie content. Mark also meets the relatives of elderly people who have been served revolting food and then given no help eating it. They tell him that NHS staff have falsified records to show that patients have consumed meals where, in reality, the food was untouched. Mark finds that a national network of patients groups is springing up to campaign against the mistreatment of the elderly. Mark goes in search of solutions, visiting hospitals that succeed in feeding patients on a limited budget. He explores whether introducing more competition would drive up standards.
The NHS is there to make our final days as dignified and pain-free as possible. But as a devastating health service ombudsman report has shown, the reality can be very different. For the first time, Dispatches has given three people cameras to film the last weeks of their lives, at home, in a care home, and in hospital. Their experiences provide a unique insight into the gap between what we hope for compared with the painful reality of dying.
Should Britain flog off the family silver to cut our national debt? Dispatches reveals the billions of pounds worth of assets we own as a nation, from ancient silver candlesticks to missiles, from football clubs to huge houses for judges to sleep in. Should we sell the government wine cellar, Gibraltar, Buckingham Palace? The entire armed forces? Or even Birmingham? Should we be selling these off rather than sacking council workers and cutting the NHS? And how far should we go? Join Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy and a host of experts in this live studio debate and play our 'sell or not game' to vote on which assets you want us to flog or keep.
Dispatches investigates whether the beneficiaries of the government's cuts are in fact private outsourcing companies. Financial journalist Ben Laurance looks at whether the coalition's keystone policy, the Big Society, may actually benefit big business, while the public and voluntary sectors feel the pinch of austerity Britain.
The taxpayer has been spending billions to upgrade the British rail network yet many passengers have complained of high ticket prices, overcrowded carriages and cancellations. Dispatches asked actor Richard Wilson to investigate the state of the railways a few weeks ahead of a major Government spending review on the trains. He experiences the hustle and bustle of the daily train commute, and interviews train experts and industry insiders as well as everyday commuters. As members of the public tell their stories on Dispatches' Train Journeys from Hell website, Richard finds that buying tickets and travelling on the trains is no easy task.
BP is one of the largest companies in the world and plays an important role in the British economy through UK pension funds, the billions of pounds of tax it pays and as a major employer in the UK. A year on from the start of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, journalist Greg Palast examines the role of BP in this spill as well as similar incidents in the past and examines its contracts with oil-producing nations and relationship with the British government.
With students facing massive increases in their fees, Dispatches investigates the pay, perks and privileges enjoyed by universities' top earners. Journalist Laurie Penny reveals the increasing commercialisation of higher education and asks what happens when universities scour the globe for students and funds.
Dispatches goes undercover inside one of the country's busiest NHS hospitals as it faces multi-million-pound cuts and hundreds of job losses in the next year. With the coalition government pledging to protect the NHS, Dispatches reporter Tazeen Ahmad investigates what's really happening to the Health Service.
In May 2010 David Cameron and Nick Clegg announced they were forming the first coalition since the National Government during World War II. One year on, Andrew Rawnsley interviews the key politicians and their friends and foes to chronicle the trials and tribulations of the coalition. For the first time on television, 10 cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, talk about how the coalition works, how compromises are reached and how they get on both personally and politically. It was made in the run-up to local elections and a referendum that will deliver the voters' first judgment on the Cameron/ Clegg partnership, and a pointer to each of their political fates. Rawnsley reveals how Lib-Dem and Conservative minsters reached compromises on student tuition fees and the on the pace and depth of the spending cuts. The programme explores the ongoing arguments about the NHS reforms and the direction of foreign policy in the wake of uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. Who are the peace makers and who are the political winners and losers, and where are the cracks emerging after 12 months in office? Rawnsley also examines how Cameron has reorganised his Downing Street office in the wake of the Coulson scandal to avoid any further PR headaches, navigating through a steady drip of stories about health service cuts, and announcements about privatising our forests and scrapping school sports programmes.
Dispatches - in a joint investigation with the BMJ - explores what's implanted into our bodies. Almost 40 million of us come into contact with a medical device every day. That includes everything from a basic sticking plaster to hi-tech coils implanted into the arteries leading to the heart. The medical device industry is worth over £200 billion a year. Dispatches investigates whether in the drive for innovation, patient safety can come second. The programme reveals that although these medical devices save thousands of lives every day, there are questions from patients and doctors about the amount of testing that these products go through before they go on general sale.
As the government's cuts to the NHS start to bite, Sam Lister, The Times' Health Editor, investigates dentistry, going undercover to reveal how some dentists are misleading patients about their rights to NHS treatment. The programme exposes dentists who are waiting until patients are lying back in the chair before telling them they must pay hundreds of pounds for private treatment, which should be available on the NHS. Dispatches also reveals that children's teeth are being neglected under the NHS and that cost-cutting dentists are outsourcing lab work to countries like China where there are little or no checks on safety or quality.
The strike that killed Osama bin Laden provided a glimpse of the vast and often secret campaign by US special forces and troops to kill thousands of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. They call it 'precision targeting'; their critics say it's assassination. A six-month investigation by Dispatches has gone inside the US 'kill/capture' programme to discover new evidence of the strategy's impact, and its costs. The team have talked to key figures in the US military, to US spies and to Taliban commanders and fighters. General David Petraeus, since he took command of troops in 2010, has ordered a major expansion of these 'manhunt' missions that rely on highly classified intelligence, cutting-edge technology and Special Operations forces. Correspondent Stephen Grey and producer Dan Edge explore the logic behind the kill/capture policy, and ask if this unremitting pursuit of the enemy will help end the war in Afghanistan. The military say these operations have led to the death or detention of more than 12,000 Taliban insurgents in 12 months. Petraeus and his advisers argue that a ruthless, accurate and relentless campaign against enemy leaders will paralyse the insurgency and force them to the negotiating table. On the ground in Baghlan Province in Afghanistan, US raids have put the Taliban on the run. But Dispatches makes contact with a young - and important - Taliban commander who says that, after the targeted killings of two of his seniors, he was simply promoted up the ranks to take their place: 'This war has become like delicious food for us. When a day passes without fighting we get restless.'
For generations criminal justice policy has been predicated on the belief that chasing criminals and locking them up is key to reducing crime. The truth is that for years the police have been repeatedly arresting the same relatively small group of criminals who continue to commit robbery, burglary, theft and other crimes that affect us. The majority of this group are drug addicts and for them prison is no deterrent. In fact many use their repeated spells in custody as a way of briefly stabilising their chaotic lives before re-emerging to continue offending. With exclusive access over six months to an innovative Offender Management scheme in Bristol, Dispatches follows the progress of three persistent criminals who all say they want to change. The scheme offers them all the support they could need to go straight - drug services, accommodation and access to employment - hoping to reduce the harm they cause to themselves and society and save money by no longer warehousing persistent offenders in prison at a cost of £40,000 per year, per convict.
Dispatches reporter Oliver Steeds travels the globe to investigate the conservation movement and its major organisations. Steeds finds that the movement, far from stemming the tide of extinction which is engulfing the planet, has got some of its conservation priorities wrong. The film examines the way the big conservation charities are run. It questions why some work with polluting big businesses to raise money and are alienating the very people they need in order to stem the loss of species from earth. Conservation is massively important but few dare to question the movement. Some critics argue that it is in part getting it wrong, and as a consequence, some of the flora and fauna it seeks to save are facing oblivion.
Dispatches challenges the British gold jewellery industry to come clean about where the gold in their jewellery comes from. Businesswoman Deirdre Bounds, who ran a successful ethical travel company, reveals what's wrong with the industry and goes on the road to present her unique take on how things could be done very differently. Secretly filming at Britain's biggest high street jewellery chains, Bounds exposes shop assistants giving vastly misleading information about where the gold in their jewellery is mined. Then, unable to get a straight answer from the stores, Bounds travels to the source: to the mines. In Senegal, she meets a child miner and reveals his hazardous daily existence at an illegal mine. She also looks at allegations that a large-scale industrial mine in Honduras has caused hair loss and rashes in the local population. Shocked by what she's seen and the lack of traceability in the supply-chain, Bounds sets out to find how things could be done better. In her search to find an alternative, she explores newly-launched Fairtrade and Fairmined gold and also how recycling old gold could offer an answer. Going undercover, she finds one of Britain's largest gold manufacturers not living up to their pledge to support ethical alternatives. And she asks the British public to back her campaign to clean up the British jewellery industry.
In this undercover investigation, Jon Snow reports on the return of the slum landlord in 21st-century Britain. At a time when more people than ever are having to rent privately, unable to get on the property ladder, Dispatches reveals the shocking conditions in which tenants are forced to live. Dispatches sends an undercover reporter to work for a rogue property empire in the north of England. He reveals a world of forced evictions, slum properties in dangerous condition, and routine bullying of tenants. Jon confronts the man raking in millions while his tenants suffer. Dispatches also exposes an extraordinary new phenomenon: thousands of people living in illegal sheds, transforming parts of London into slums. A second undercover reporter lives in a squalid, illegal shed in London, paying £40 a week rent to another rogue landlord. Dispatches lifts the lid on a world where unscrupulous landlords are exploiting the most vulnerable people in society and getting away with it.
What happened to Anni Dewani while on honeymoon in South Africa in November 2010? Why did the life of this young woman, married only a few weeks earlier to Bristol businessman Shrien Dewani, come to such a brutal end in one of South Africa's roughest townships? As a court in London decides whether Anni's husband, Shrien Dewani should be extradited to South Africa to stand trial for her murder. With exclusive access to Anni's family and to the prosecution case, Dispatches investigates the events surrounding her death.
With a Select Committee looking into the state of football and growing calls for reform, an undercover investigation by Dispatches finds out who wants to own the beautiful game and reveals how ex players and foreign businessmen are prepared to circumvent the rules, to cash in on a sport that's in financial freefall.
Dispatches investigates the world of the Rupert Murdoch and the influence and political power he holds in the UK.
Dispatches investigates the use of both recreational and performance-enhancing substances in our national game. Reporter Antony Barnett examines football's drug-testing regime, raises questions about how the sport deals with its drug cheats and also looks at the use of some bizarre but legal treatments players undergo.
In a film broadcast on the day that the mass eviction was due to start on Dale Farm, Britain's largest traveller site, Dispatches reporter Deborah Davies investigates the controversial relations between gypsies and travellers, their neighbours and the law. Across Britain furious residents complain about the way gypsies and travellers pitch camp illegally in local parks, the damage they cause and the mess they leave behind. They also accuse gypsies of underhand tactics to win planning permission on green belt land where housing development wouldn't normally be allowed. Travelling families complain they're constantly moved on by police and bailiffs. They say many council sites are badly maintained and in locations where no one else would want to live. The gypsies and travellers also claim they're refused permission to develop their own sites because of prejudice. The programme asks whether the government's proposed crackdown on unauthorised development will make things better or worse. Councils will be given more freedom to decide how many places to allocate in their areas but there's already a shortfall of about 6000 caravan pitches and political reluctance to spend money on the travelling community may mean even fewer places are provided. Set against that, councils already spend close to £20m a year evicting and clearing up illegal encampments because gypsies claim they have nowhere else to go.
Since resigning in June 2007, Tony Blair has financially enriched himself more than any previous ex-prime minister. Reporter Peter Oborne reveals some of the sources of his new-found wealth, much of which comes from the Middle East. On the day Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister, he was appointed the official representative Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East. By January 2009 he had set up Tony Blair Associates - his international consultancy - which handles multi-million-pound contracts in the Middle East. It is so secretive we don't know all the locations in which they do business. Dispatches shows that at the same time as Blair is visiting Middle East leaders in his Quartet role he is receiving vast sums from some of them. If Blair represented the UK government, the EU, the IMF, the UN or the World Bank, this would not be permitted. He would also have to declare his financial interests and be absolutely transparent about his financial dealings. But no such stringent rules govern the Quartet envoy. However, he could opt to abide by the rules and principles of public life. They were introduced by John Major, and Tony Blair endorsed and strengthened them for all holders of public office - but chooses not to himself.
GPs are among the most trusted and respected of all professions. They are our first port of call for most NHS treatment with 800,000 people visiting surgeries every day. But Dispatches reveals that failing doctors routinely slip through the system. We've been filming secretly in GP practices and have uncovered concerning evidence of misdiagnosis by doctors who have failed in the past, but are still practising. Reporter Jon Snow reveals that, six years after The Shipman Inquiry called for increased scrutiny of doctors, GPs who've been sanctioned by the authorities in the past are not regularly checked to make sure they are safe to practice. Even GPs who've been punished by the authorities in the past are not regularly checked to make sure they are safe to practice. Jon Snow also speaks to a whistleblowing doctor and nurse who reveal that even when the authorities have serious concerns about a doctor's fitness to practice they don't always act promptly to alert all patients. They allege they have been barred from telling patients the truth about serious malpractice at a surgery they worked at. As the government prepares to hand over more control and responsibility to Britain's GPs Dispatches asks how much we are really told about the medical competence of our own doctors.
Dispatches lifts the lid on Britain's bins and asks what the plan is to tackle the country's growing rubbish problem. Reporter Morland Sanders travels the UK in the wake of the government's Waste Policy Review to find out about bin collections, litter, excessive packaging and Britons' secret bin habits. He finds householders angry about their bins not being collected every week and fly-tipping setting resident against resident. He asks whether we can do more to help reduce the rubbish problem ourselves and sets a family the challenge of living without a bin for a fortnight. Can they really recycle everything? On the high street, he questions whether we are simply sold too much packaging with the things we buy, making us throw far too much away, and sifts through litter to see who should be doing more to keep Britain tidy. He also talks to the people who collect, sort and recycle our waste and discovers what happens to our paper and plastics once they are collected. Does profit win out over green considerations? And he investigates whether the waste companies are really solving our rubbish problem.
Research suggests that thousands of children are potentially being sexually exploited by street grooming gangs. This may only be the tip of the iceberg, as experts believe many crimes of this nature go unreported. Journalist Tazeen Ahmad investigates street grooming and hears from community leaders who say enough is enough and demand action on the issue. She meets victims of grooming and their parents, whose lives have been torn apart. She hears how girls as young as 12 have been targeted by these gangs and so terrorised and brainwashed that they keep their ordeal secret for years. In a particularly shocking encounter she talks to two young men who explain in detail how grooming by gangs is perpetrated, why virgins are more highly prized and how the commerce of this type of brutal sexual exploitation unfolds.
We've spent £9 billion paying for the London 2012 Olympics. The organisers say London 2012 will be an accessible and affordable Games, leaving a lasting sporting legacy. But 1.8 million British people applied for tickets in the public ballot - over a million applied for the 100 metres final alone - and the vast majority were disappointed. So who got the tickets and for what events? Antony Barnett investigates in this Dispatches Special.
Fans queuing for hours to buy tickets get turned away empty handed while tickets for the same 'sold out' events appear online shortly afterwards, sometimes at astronomical prices. Channel 4 News correspondent Morland Sander investigates the multi-million-pound world of online ticket reselling where fans desperate not to miss out on in-demand concerts, festivals and sporting events often buy their tickets. Leading 'fan-to-fan' ticket exchange websites say they allow 'real fans' to sell on tickets they can no longer use. Dispatches sent reporters undercover inside two major 'fan-to-fan' ticket exchange websites to investigate who is selling via their websites and why so many tickets appear at over the face value so soon after the box office sells out.
How safe are your secrets? Channel 4 Dispatches reveals how easy it is to buy our most personal and confidential information. In a year-long undercover investigation, private detectives sell us access to health and criminal records, mobile phone bills and bank accounts. The programme discovers the extent of the black market in personal data and reveals how supposedly secure databases are open to exploitation.
Personal finance expert Harry Wallop investigates whether cutting up our credit cards and paying for everything in cash could leave us with more money in our pockets.
Jonathan Miller investigates Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his British-born wife Asma, analysing potential links between the couple and violence in the country. Assad was thought by many western leaders to be a moderniser capable of transforming Syria when he replaced his father in 2000, but the widespread killings and torture that have occurred during the past year have shown a different side to the country's glamorous leaders.
As David Cameron prepares to take the stand at the Leveson Inquiry, Peter Oborne investigates just how close the Prime Minister got to the Murdoch empire. Did the Tories agree to help the mogul secure a business deal worth £8 billion? Oborne speaks to those close to Cameron, reveals new insight into his relationship with Murdoch's inner circle and explains the magnitude of the political crisis now confronting the country. Senior journalists stand accused of bribery, police officers of corruption, and now a Prime Minister and parts of his cabinet are fighting for their political lives.
In 2005 Tony Nicklinson had a catastrophic stroke, which has left him utterly paralysed. He has what is known as 'locked in syndrome' and cannot move, talk, feed himself or perform even the most basic function without help. He can only communicate via a computer controlled by his eyes. Tony Nicklinson wants to die, but he cannot kill himself without help, and anyone who helped him would be committing murder. On the eve of a historic and controversial legal bid to demand the right to be killed, he tells his story, comes face to face with his critics, and hears from the Greek doctor who saved his life seven years earlier, who says he wouldn't wish this condition on his worst enemy.
Jackie Long investigates the funeral industry, using undercover filming to discover what really happens to loved ones when they die.
Reporter Morland Sanders goes in search of retailers and businesses out to make a quick profit during London 2012. In addition to investigating hotels planning massive mark-ups, he explores illegal ticket touting, meets people losing their homes ahead of the Games, and examines whether the overall economic benefits of hosting the event have been overstated.
An undercover report partly filmed in the Channel Islands presents new revelations about tax avoidance.
Dispatches investigates what's happened to the five-a-day campaign, which was designed to get us all eating more fruit and veg. Reporter Jane Moore reveals how this vital health message has been hijacked as a marketing tactic, and how the food industry uses the campaign to promote sugary, fatty, salty products like ready meals, soups and drinks. She also looks at confusion over what actually counts as a five-a-day portion and investigates whether the government is effectively regulating what the food industry tells us about the scheme.
The Barclays interest rate scandal, unimaginable bonuses and insurance misselling have put the banking sector firmly in the public spotlight. In this special report, Jon Snow travels around the UK, meeting consumers, businesses and bankers, to ask whether we can trust our banks.
Using undercover filming, reporter Jackie Long investigates the controversial processes used to assess whether sickness and disability benefit claimants should be declared fit for work.
Michael Crick investigates the boom in High Street betting shops and their impact on communities. Have the politicians got the gambling laws all wrong?
Reporter Morland Sanders investigates Jobcentre Plus, the organisation tasked with getting Britain back to work and cracking down on dole cheats. With the help of jobseekers, undercover filming and a former insider, the programme reveals the shirkers' tricks that make it easy to cheat the system.
Morland Sanders examines how leasehold properties can expose homeowners to unfair charging, and the government's reluctance to improve regulation.
After Jamie Oliver's high-profile campaign to improve school meals, millions of pounds were pumped into improving school canteens and tough minimum standards on food and nutrition were set and enforced. Reporter Tazeen Ahmad examines evidence that strategies to improve the food served in all our schools are fast coming undone.
As other High Street retailers struggle for survival, discount leader Poundland is booming. With a new store opening on average every five days, its pre-tax profits are up an astonishing 50% in a year. In this Dispatches investigation, Harry Wallop asks how Poundland sells so cheaply, yet makes so much money.
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate the multi-million pound retirement property industry.
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate the reality of life below deck for the multi-national workforce who toil behind the scenes of glamorous ocean going holidays. Reporter Tazeen Ahmad, travelling as a passenger on a European cruise, discovers working conditions below the legal minimum in the UK.
As the pay packets of Britain's top bosses continue to escalate, Channel 4 Dispatches follows the former Greggs chief executive Sir Michael Darrington as he launches a campaign to call a halt to corporate greed.
Dispatches investigates a new controversial pilot scheme in which men and women are warned by the authorities about their partners' history of violence.
Under the new health reforms, private firms are being awarded millions of pounds-worth of NHS contracts. One of the major new players is Virgin Care, a global brand more readily associated with planes, trains and record stores. The company is already providing medical services and running entire medical centres and is developing links to GPs across England. Health reforms were meant to improve choice and competition, and put GPs in the driving seat. Morland Sanders examines whether the rapid handover of services to private contractors is really good for the public purse, and good for patient care.
In the midst of a turbulent post Arab-spring Middle East, Israel's threats of military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities have raised fears of a confrontation between the two countries. This film, which has obtained exclusive access to Israeli theoretical war exercises, provides unprecedented insight into Israel's internal tensions concerning an attack between Israel and Iran which, if escalates, could have major implications for global stability. The film features exclusive access to a theoretical exercise, a 'war game', conducted by the INSS - an Israeli think tank made up of senior Israeli experts and former political and military leaders - the results of which are fed back to the Israeli government. Dispatches explores the views of those who are both for and against military action and demonstrates how some elements in Israel believe Iran would retaliate - providing a valuable insight into the likelihood of any military attack.
An investigation in to the death of Neil Percival Heywood which sheds new light on his relationship with one of China's most powerful families.
Two years after the MPs expenses scandal, Dispatches examines whether our parliamentarians are still abusing the system. The investigation discovers a system still with problems and a lack of transparency, while unearthing evidence that some MPs are still cashing in.
As China continues to flex its financial muscle by buying into British airports, water and breakfast cereals, Dispatches investigates growing Chinese power in the UK. The programme tells the behind-the-scenes story of the Dalai Lama's visit to Britain, and reveals details of how British politicians from the Highlands of Scotland to the heart of Westminster are influenced by the Chinese government.
During the first four months of the year, the number of fraudulent attacks on credit and debit cards almost doubled on that of last year. Morland Sanders learns about a growing concern that some of the major banks are refusing to accept liability if the account holder's personal identification number has been compromised in some way.
The series reports on how on Friday December 14 a gunman walked into his local primary school in Newtown, Connecticut and killed twenty children aged between five and ten as well as seven adults
Dispatches reveals the secrets of car insurance that all drivers should know. Harry Wallop investigates claims that major insurers cash in when you have a crash, through maximising profits, lucrative referral fees and rebate deals, sometimes at the expense of doing what's best for you and your car.
Today, one in three children in the UK grow up in a home with only one parent. But are we doing what's best for the children of separated parents? Dispatches follows presenter Tim Lovejoy, a divorced father of two, as he investigates the current situation surrounding shared parenting following divorce or separation. Tim speaks hears a wide range of voices and explores the psychological effects of parental separation on children, talking to teenagers about their personal experiences. The programme investigates the roles of mums and dads in 2013, asking whether current legislation in this area is up-to-date with the way in which modern families operate, and exploring different ways of sharing parenting post-separation. Tim uses social media to generate debate, much of it incorporated into the film. And, in a first for Dispatches, Channel 4 is showing behind-the-scenes clips of the production process online, to help inform the debate.
As food prices rise, what's the best way to reduce your weekly bill at the supermarket? Channel 4 Dispatches conducts a nationwide fruit and veg experiment to find out if you could save money by heading to the market stall, the shop next door, or even just a different branch of the same supermarket down the road. Reporter Tazeen Ahmad investigates the startling rise of supermarket convenience stores, and asks: are we paying a fair price for on-your-doorstep convenience, or are we being taken for a ride? Fruit and veg is being especially hard hit by food price rises, and we're now eating less and less of the good stuff. So what's the government's solution? To get the supermarkets involved. Dispatches looks at the government's plans to encourage the supermarkets to persuade us to eat more healthily. Will its flagship policy really change our eating habits for the better?
Dispatches investigates the UK's largest diet brand: Weight Watchers. Journalist Jane Moore talks to food experts, dieters and scientists to assess just how effective the company's diet plans and food products are, and asks whether they're worth the money.
A victim of child sex abuse in one of Britain's religious communities goes undercover to expose the way his community has for decades been dealing with paedophilia. In a year-long investigation, other victims of child abuse from this closed community express their anger about the lack of justice caused by their leaders' misguided approach to dealing with the issue. In some cases those brave enough to complain to the police about their abusers have even been harassed, spat at and ostracised by other community members. This Channel 4 Dispatches special report also reveals that an alleged child abuser was allowed to continue working with children, despite complaints from his victim. And other victims, frustrated by their inability to bring child abusers to justice, tell Dispatches they've threatened and attacked those they believe to be paedophiles.
In December 2012 Channel 4 Dispatches revealed the CCTV footage of the 'plebgate' incident that cast serious doubt on the police's version of events. We exposed that an email sent by a member of the public claiming to be an eye-witness was a fake and was in fact sent by a serving police officer of the Diplomatic Protection Group who wasn't in Downing Street at the time. Since then the highest ranking police officer and the most powerful civil servant in the country have been called before Parliament to account for their failure to discover what really happened and who was responsible. Now Dispatches tells the full story of plebgate. We have the first interview with Andrew Mitchell since the revelations and reveal fresh evidence of information known by key individuals at the time.
As the government unveils plans to increase the number of children each nursery staff member is allowed to look after, Dispatches investigates whether parents can really trust their child's nursery. The programme goes undercover to expose the shortcoming that means some prospective parents are not able to see a comprehensive history of previous complaints, and hears from parents badly let down by those who are supposed to care for their children.
From burgers to ready meals, Britain's horse meat scandal has grown and grown. For Dispatches, Morland Sanders asks how Britain's meat supplies became so contaminated with unauthorised horse meat, who is to blame, and what impact will this have on your health and all of our eating habits?
The Disability Living Allowance helps more than three million people lead useful lives. It pays for transport and carers, meaning that disabled people can work and lead independent lives.
Dispatches investigates the truth behind allegations that tens of thousands of seriously ill people have been put on a pathway to death - likened to legalised euthanasia - and claims from families that doctors have callously killed off patients who could have had months or even years to live.
Designer dogs are all the rage with celebrities and many animal lovers. But Dispatches has discovered a darker side to this canine phenomenon: thousands of puppies are being imported illegally into Britain every year from Eastern Europe.
Michael Buerk investigates claims that Britain's pensioners are part of an untouchable group when it comes to government welfare cuts and that some should not be receiving any help at all.
When he was a junior doctor, Dr Christian Jessen worked dangerously long hours, which he feared might be putting patients at risk. He wasn't alone. The excessive hours junior doctors worked were front-page news.
Immigration remains at the top of the political agenda, with reports that tens of thousands of files sit uncleared in the system and there remains a large backlog of immigration cases not dealt with. Morland Sanders investigates whether Britain's immigration system is fit for purpose.
Award-winning documentary maker Olly Lambert has spent weeks living deep inside Syrian territory - with both government and opposition supporters - to explore how the two-year-old conflict is tearing communities apart.
Why are some convicted criminals still enjoying luxury lifestyles funded by their ill-gotten gains?
With shoppers increasingly relying on private parcel companies to deliver online purchases, Dispatches goes undercover to find out why couriers sometimes fail to deliver.
In 2011, Jennifer Mills-Westley, a 60-year-old British grandmother, was attacked and publicly beheaded in broad daylight in Tenerife. Her case was reported across the world. What is much less well known is that her killer had twice been admitted to an NHS psychiatric unit in Wales and twice released, the last time just months before the killing. Dispatches follows Jennifer's two daughters in their quest for answers, both in the UK and Tenerife, where the judge in the trial allowed Dispatches cameras into court.
In 2010 Telford police allowed cameras to start filming what was to become one of the biggest child sex abuse cases in the UK. The investigation, Operation Chalice, eventually encompassed over 100 victims, and around 200 suspected perpetrators. The Hunt for Britain's Sex Gangs follows - with unprecedented access - a live police investigation, showing just how difficult it is to secure justice for victims of sexual abuse, especially when some girls were just 11 when they were first abused. Gaining the trust of victims - who as a result of the grooming process, don't see themselves as victims - is key to the success of the case, but it takes months for the police to win their trust and keep them on board as they prepare for the harrowing process of going to court. As the police work with the victims, they begin to understand a vicious cycle of grooming, which starts with flattery and friendship, then moves on to a more overtly sexual relationship, and finally becomes exploitative as the groomers pass the girls around their networks of friends and family for sex.
On 15 April 2013, two bombs exploded at the finishing line of the Boston Marathon. Just over a month later a British soldier was run over and hacked to death on a London street. The images from either side of the Atlantic shocked the world. With access to exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes filming of the parents of the Boston bombers, Matt Frei investigates whether the two attacks mark a new chapter in the battle against terrorism.
Dr Deborah Cohen, investigations editor at the British Medical Journal, examines a new generation of diabetes drugs that some drug companies hope could also be a magic treatment for obesity. Millions of prescriptions of it are given out every year, but are they also associated with an increased risk of cancer? The drug companies hope to expand, but lawyers in America are bringing legal action on behalf of some people who claim that their health has suffered. Some scientists say they've found new evidence that suggests there are cases where the risks might outweigh the benefits. Dispatches explores the argument that drug companies should be made to share all their research with the public.
Councils across the UK have annual budgets in the tens of billions of pounds. But do you know what they really spend it on? About 60 per cent of council budgets come from central government, with the remainder raised by business rates and council tax payers. Much of this is spent on vital and valuable services such as social care and education. But an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches reveals some spending that local authorities across the UK wished you didn't know about, from expensive cars to foreign trips and from five-star hotels to golf lessons. The programme's findings are based on hundreds of Freedom of Information requests, which offer a glimpse into how councils spend our money. Reporter Antony Barnett interviews Lord Hanningfield about his extravagant spending during his time as the Essex council leader. The programme reveals the councillor who lives 70 miles from his constituents but whose party still claims an allowance, and also discloses the millions spent on gagging council workers so they don't spill the beans.
Dispatches exposes the shocking story of Britain's secret police and how undercover officers reportedly used sex and lies to spy on members of the public. The programme reveals the names of high-profile targets spied on by the police. Through the personal testimony of a whistleblower who operated deep undercover for four years, the film examines the ethically dubious tactics of a clandestine unit within the Metropolitan police. Tasked with infiltrating political campaigns and protest groups, it operated under the unofficial motto 'By any means necessary'. The programme speaks exclusively to the women who say their lives have been wrecked after being spied upon; and who reveal how they were duped into sexual relationships with men they didn't even know were cops. One of the women reveals the heart-wrenching story of how she was also deceived into having a child with a police spy.
In 2012 Prince Charles earned more than £18 million from the Duchy of Cornwall, but how much do we know about this secretive estate? A Channel 4 Dispatches investigation reveals the scale of its hugely profitable property empire and looks at the amount of tax Prince Charles is paying. As the heir to the throne, Prince Charles inherited the Duchy of Cornwall: a vast array of farming, residential and commercial land and properties, as well as a multi-million-pound financial investment portfolio. Each year the duchy helps fund Prince Charles' princely lifestyle. While the duchy's public image is one of rolling countryside estates, organic farms and classical architecture and environment, some of its investments tell a rather different story. Reporter Antony Barnett takes a royal tour of some surprising properties that the duchy might prefer you not to know about. With the tax arrangements of wealthy individuals and major corporations making headline news, these Dispatches findings come as Parliament's Public Accounts Committee prepares to launch its own inquiry into why, unlike other commercial businesses, the duchy does not pay corporation tax or capital gains tax.
Channel 4 Dispatches examines allegations that South Africa's police have become a brutal and corrupt force. Reporter Inigo Gilmore investigates CCTV and mobile phone footage, which, critics say, show officers beating and torturing suspects. He also interviews a 14-year-old boy who alleges he was tortured at the hands of the police. With a wave of anti-government civil protests routinely and brutally suppressed by the police, Gilmore explores the problematic relationship between those employed to serve and protect and their political masters. He speaks to the wife of Andries Tatane, an activist whose killing by police was caught on camera, and reveals compelling new evidence of the police's role during and after the Marikana massacre when 34 miners were shot and killed by police in 2012. Dispatches explores fears that under the African National Congress party - synonymous with Nelson Mandela and the struggle for freedom - the rainbow nation's police force have come to increasingly mirror the actions of its apartheid predecessor.
More than 200 children convicted of fighting for the Taliban are currently being held in special prisons across Afghanistan. Their crimes include the laying of improvised explosive devices, ambush and the preparation of suicide missions. Dispatches has had unique access to meet the captured child fighters, to document their experiences and tell their stories.
Two undercover reporters reveal worrying failings in the new NHS 111 call system. Working as trainee call handlers, the reporters filmed evidence of patients left waiting, concerns about training, and staff shortages.
In this one hour special Dispatches goes undercover to investigate what’s real and what’s fake in the brave new world of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter
Channel 4's flagship current affairs strand hears from pilots of Europe's biggest airline about their concerns around passenger safety. In interviews with reporter Seyi Rhodes, serving Ryanair pilots reveal their worries over Ryanair's fuel policy and pilot working conditions. Rhodes also examines the events of one evening last year when three diverted Ryanair planes radioed 'mayday' over an airport in Valencia in Spain.
Kim Jong Un rules the world's most secret and repressive state. But thanks to the digital revolution, Kim can no longer keep the world from seeing the reality of life in North Korea - or stop his own people from discovering that everything they have been told about the outside world is a lie.
60% of us have never switched energy provider. In this clip, we meet Elaine who's been with hers for 38 years... Harry Wallop investigates the big six: their market, their methods and your money. Dispatches looks at the impact of the rising fuel costs and what you need to know about cutting your bill.
As Britain gets fatter, Channel 4 Dispatches investigates what the real cost is to the nation. The programme follows the treatment of some of Britain's morbidly obese patients to reveal the spiralling cost to the NHS. Having to spend money on everything from bigger chairs and beds to expensive medication and dialysis means obesity is now costing the NHS over £5 billion a year. One solution could be weight loss surgery, a procedure that could transform up to 250,000 people's lives and save the taxpayer huge amounts of money. But Dispatches reveals that NHS England's reforms, intended to create uniform access to life-changing, money-saving operations, are in fact expected to lead to fewer rather than more procedures, a situation that could cause misery to some of the country's sickest patients.
Can you really buy big brand names on the cheap? Dispatches lifts the lid on the shops promising luxury labels for less. From factory malls and outlet villages to high street chains, bagging a bargain has become big business during the recession. But are the discounts sometimes too good to be true? Reporter Harry Wallop takes a closer look and asks if consumers are really getting the real deal.
Channel 4 Dispatches investigates the case of surgeon Ian Paterson, who is accused of performing inadequate operations on hundreds of NHS breast cancer victims, putting them at risk of a recurrence of their cancer. Paterson also faces allegations that he performed unnecessary procedures at private hospitals on many more women who didn’t have cancer. Reporter Tazeen Ahmed reveals the missed opportunities to stop women being put in danger by his unapproved procedure, the so-called cleavage sparing mastectomy. Paterson is currently suspended and is facing four separate investigations. In a health system which is supposed to be increasingly transparent, Tazeen asks why it took seventeen years to stop this surgeon.
To many people, new year means one thing: time to shed excess pounds. But will eating less really help? Experts say that the real problem lies in the quantity of sugar hidden in the food we eat. So is Britain addicted to sugar? Dispatches investigates how sugar affects the way our brains work; exposes how the food industry has rapidly increased the sugar in many of our favourite foods; and reveals how a powerful group of companies have tried to fight off any attempt to reduce the amount of sugar we all consume.
The children of Syria are often the forgotten victims in the ongoing civil war. More than 11,000 children have been killed and over a million are now refugees. Syria's largest city, Aleppo, has become engulfed by fighting between pro- and anti-regime groups and over 2000 children have been killed there. Schools have shut, food is in serious shortage and there is the constant threat of shelling, sniper fire and kidnap. This Dispatches documentary tells the story of five young children whose lives have been changed forever by the war in Syria: young sisters Helen, Farah and Sara and their brother Mohammed, whose father is a rebel commander in Aleppo; and Aboude, a singer and poster boy for the Syrian uprising. All five have shown amazing resilience, forsaking their innocence and adapting to life, as the world around them slips into greater chaos and anarchy.
The floods that recently hit Britain have caused misery for thousands, but do you know what's actually in the flood water that has engulfed our towns and streets? Dispatches meets homeowners unlucky enough to have found raw sewage in their gardens, basements and even kitchens. And this is not a rare event. Twenty-five years after water privatisation, reporter Antony Barnett investigates the state of our sewers and asks why prices have risen so fast while investment in our old pipes hasn't materialised. And it's not just homes; Dispatches can exclusively reveal the huge number of major sewage leaks into our nation's rivers and streams.
On the eve of the Sochi Winter Olympics, Russia is officially welcoming gay athletes and spectators. But in a country where it's thought only 1% of gay people dare to live completely openly, it appears to be a hollow gesture.
Of all the welfare changes brought in by the coalition government, the so-called Bedroom Tax is perhaps the most controversial. Thousands of people around the country have had their housing benefit reduced because of a spare room in their house or flat. The choice for many has been to find the rent money elsewhere or move to a smaller home. The government says that the reform is fair, will save taxpayers money and will encourage welfare claimants to live in appropriately sized houses, but this Dispatches investigates the reality on the ground. Reporter Seyi Rhodes travels the country to meet those affected by the change and those supposed to be implementing it. He speaks to the Conservative politicians speaking out against the reform, the councillors refusing to implement it, and the families at the frontline.
With Accident and Emergency Departments under pressure, Dispatches investigates the cost and consequence of financial penalties imposed on hospitals when government targets to treat emergency cases are missed. Reporter Morland Sanders spends 24 hours in his local A&E to see what impact withheld money has on staff and patients.
Having a bad credit rating can affect us in so many ways, it’d take hours to list all of the negative ramifications of not being deemed a good credit risk… But to name but a few, someone with a poor credit rating will find it hard – if not impossible – to borrow money from traditional lenders such as banks, and a poor credit score may even mean there are certain jobs you won’t even be considered for. Imagine then how that might all affect a person who, thanks to a computer error somewhere in the depths of cyberspace, or a case of mistaken identity – or even deliberate fraud – might suddenly finds themselves very much up the creek without a financial paddle, and it’s not their fault…
Dispatches goes undercover to reveal the extent of racism and homophobia in top flight English football. In 2013, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service, backed by the Football Association, promised to tackle 'all forms of abuse in football, be it in the stands, or on our computer screens'. Dispatches filmed undercover at clubs across the country. Reporter Morland Sanders' investigation exposes how some supporters take part in systematic and flagrant homophobic chanting. It also raises serious concerns about the police's response to racism and homophobia. One incident, captured on camera in front of the police, shows how fans shouting deeply offensive racist abuse escape unpunished. The film also examines the commitment of the authorities to dealing with football-related discrimination online. Dispatches research reveals racist remarks on the fan forums linked to the official websites of major clubs as well as other social media networks.
Food: Whats Really In Your Trolley When you're settling down to dinner can you be absolutely sure that you're eating what you think you've bought? Targeted tests by West Yorkshire Trading Standards revealed that more than a third of the foods they examined included instances of fraud, mislabelling and failure to meet published guidelines. There's the mozzarella that was only 50% cheese, the fake ham made from dyed meat emulsion, and 'minced beef' containing pork and poultry. Reports of labelling issues and alleged food fraud rose by more than 60% between 2010 and 2012, and that was before the horsemeat scandal broke. So with questions still being asked about the food we're consuming, why is the number of trading standards officers being reduced? Morland Sanders investigates the criminal gangs moving into the food business, the profits that can be made by substituting fake foods, and how the authorities are struggling to battle the rising tide of food fraud. Dispatches joins raids to close down a meat processor accused of trading illegally, and shows how, after the horse meat scandal, some people are still trying to slip horsemeat into the food chain using forged documents.
Actress and presenter Amanda Holden has suffered both a stillbirth and a miscarriage but was helped through the trauma by caring treatment from compassionate professionals, as are many parents. But, in this Channel 4 Dispatches, Holden investigates the treatment of some couples whose pregnancies end in failure. She meets a number of mothers who tell her their experiences in the aftermath of their loss left a great deal to be desired, and seeks answers from those in authority in the NHS about the problems she hears. Along the way, she revisits her own difficult memories to try to understand what these parents are going through.
Do you know how skinny your muffin is? How lean your mince is? Or what's in your low-fat yoghurt? As the public try to grapple with confusing messages about what's best to eat, Dispatches investigates how the food industry has reacted to our fear of fat. Through testing some of Britain's best-known food brands, reporter Antony Barnett reveals surprising evidence that suggests there are worrying inaccuracies in the labelling of fat content. With the help of the public, Dispatches also shows just how confused we are about the myriad of labels now used for low and reduced-fat foods. Analysing dozens of these products, Barnett reveals how some can contain huge amounts of sugar, calories and, in some cases, high amounts of fat. And one couple eat nothing but low-fat foods for seven days. What effect will this have on their intake of the ingredients we try so hard to avoid?
Dispatches investigates the Police Federation and asks about the climate of bullying and financial unaccountability. Antony Barnett reports.
Do you know when an advert is really an advert? Can you be sure that the game you're playing isn't trying to make you buy something? When it comes to protecting our children from sugary food, the world of online advertising is the new frontier. Harry Wallop investigates and finds big name brands marketing fattening food in the games children play. Dispatches goes undercover in the ad world, creating a high-sugar drink to see who's willing to promote it to young children, and revealing the tricks of the trade.
Over 300,000 children were given food aid in the UK in 2013. While politicians continue to argue about why so many kids are experiencing food poverty, Channel 4 Dispatches asked three children to reveal how it feels when the cupboards are sometimes bare. Cara is nine and lives with her gran in West London; Rosie is eight and lives in Hull with her mum and sister; and Niomi is 14 and lives in Suffolk with her brother and her dad. Through their eyes, and in their words, this programme finds out what it's like when it's a constant struggle to put enough food on the table; when choices have to be made to heat or to eat; when loan companies hear you are struggling and start bombarding you with texts; and when sudden illness means that a normal life vanishes overnight.
Ade Adepitan was repeatedly stopped by police as a young man and he now talks to other people who have made complaints about police racism.
An undercover investigation by Dispatches reveals the dark side of international football
It's no longer necessary to cross the Channel to stock up on cheap booze; the local superstore is now the place to head with multipack deals that can work out at less than 70p for a pint of lager.
Antony Barnett goes on the campaign trail with both sides of the Scottish independence debate to investigate claims of dubious tactics and misinformation. And, as passions run high on both sides, Dispatches looks at the role of social media in this landmark referendum.
As the Government prepares to publish its report on the `Trojan Horse' affair in Birmingham, Dispatches investigates the role of faith communities in schools. The programme hears from those at the heart of the recent controversy and films undercover in a primary school where clapping and whistling are banned as `satanic' practices. It also uncovers a network of illegal institutions where more than 1,000 boys are being taught suspicion of the outside world, and the only subject on the curriculum is religion
On Thursday 16 July 2014 a flight full of tourists, travellers and families took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport en route to Malaysia. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew on board, including three babies. Four hours after take-off and at a height of 33,000 feet, the Boeing 777 was flying above war-torn eastern Ukraine when it lost all contact with flight control. There was no distress call. It appears it was struck mid-air by a missile. Everyone on board was killed. The impact was felt across the globe, from the families awaiting their loved ones to the political capitals of the world. Immediately a blame game began. Who shot down the plane and why? Why did the pilot decide to fly across a well-known war zone? Were pro-Russian separatists responsible and should President Putin bear some of the responsibility? Could this catastrophe even spark a new Cold War? Only months after the disappearance of Malaysian Flight MH370 what will the impact of yet another plane crash be on the airline industry? Matt Frei visits the crash scene to tell the full story of the murder of those on board Flight MH17.
Gone are the days when the big four supermarkets dominated the food retail business. Discount stores like Aldi and Lidl are undercutting Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda, whose sales are stalling and profits are slumping. Harry Wallop asks what went wrong, and is still going wrong, for the major retailers, and reveals the tricks of the discounters' success. He also investigates how the supermarkets are fighting back with an aggressive price war, claiming to have slashed thousands of everyday items. But are these deals all they're cracked up to be?
Facing stiff competition from discount stores, Britain's big supermarkets are desperate to win customers back with special offers and price reductions. But who is paying the price? Morland Sanders investigates the supply chain and the working lives of some of those at the very bottom - the people who pick, pack and manufacture food. From field to factory, he examines hygiene, health and safety and the reality of life on minimum-wage, ultra-flexible contracts.
Fed up with receiving repeated telephone calls asking for charity donations? Ever wondered why you keep getting called despite saying no? How did they get your number? Dispatches goes undercover to find the answers and reveal the secrets of the telephone fundraising call centres. Telephone fundraising has helped charities raise huge sums of money with an estimated £2 billion amassed for good causes. However, this comes at a cost as some of Britain's biggest charities are paying private companies to raise money on their behalf. Reporter Seyi Rhodes examines the increasing number of complaints made by the public about this method of fundraising. Inside the call centres, Dispatches' undercover reporters discover a sales driven culture where some workers are pressured daily to meet targets and donors are squeezed hard for their money.
When's an emergency really an emergency? How many times have you been to the doctor for something you could have sorted out yourself? With the NHS under real strain Dispatches investigates those who are over-using our health system, from the anxious woman who calls an ambulance 20 times a year, to the young mums who head to A&E with minor ailments and illnesses. Hundreds of millions of pounds are wasted every year on missed appointments, unnecessary call-outs and the misuse of A&E. Tazeen Ahmad asks whether it's now time to consider charging for these services. Would fees deter the worried well or aggravate real health issues?
Channel 4 exposes the other side of the war against Islamic terror, the campaign of Nigeria's security forces against civilians across the country that could constitute war crimes.
Dispatches investigates a £13 billion revolution taking place on Britain's benefit streets. The government says it will change our welfare system forever and plans to roll it out soon to millions of us across the country. Already thousands of people in a handful of towns are being put on the brand new benefit known as Universal Credit, which brings together half a dozen working-age benefits and is meant to slash costs, reduce fraud and help claimants back to work. Liz MacKean reports from Warrington, where claimants have been trying out the new benefit for a year. It's meant to simplify claims and offer seamless support to people moving in and out of short-term and low-paid work. Dispatches meets some claimants who say the new system, far from simplifying things for them, has been making basic errors and leaving them at risk of losing their homes or having to choose between paying the rent or feeding their children. It took three months for Universal Credit staff to process one couple's claim, and they ended up with over £2000 of debt. Nicky, who is pregnant, tells Dispatches that some days she goes without so that she can make sure her four-year-old is properly fed. Liz also hears from staff working inside the benefits office who believe the flagship scheme is failing badly. Dispatches hears that the IT system is unworkable, staff training is out of date and that they are falling behind in processing new claims.
The nation is eating more rice than ever before, from ready meals to breakfast cereals, but some leading scientists and experts warn that certain types of commonly consumed rice contain a worrying level of naturally occurring arsenic. As evidence emerges about the harm this could potentially cause, particularly to children, new maximum levels of arsenic in food are being proposed by the Government and the European Union. Morland Sanders investigates these proposals and reveals the results of tests on a selection of popular rice products.
Dispatches goes deep inside camps in Calais to investigate the gangs that are making big money by smuggling illegal immigrants into Britain
Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, reports on a new inequality between the haves and have-nots in post-recession Britain, investigating an increasing gap between the nation's wealthiest and poorest people, and the impact of this divide on such issues as children's education, health and quality of life.
Dispatches investigates the consequences of rapid house price rises, for buyers and sellers, and asks how 2014's property boom will change the face of our towns and cities.
The children of Syria are often the forgotten victims in the ongoing civil war. More than 11,000 children have been killed and over a million are now refugees Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, has become engulfed by fighting between pro- and anti-regime groups and over 2000 children have been killed there. Schools have shut, food is in serious shortage and there is the constant threat of shelling, sniper fire and kidnap..
From April 2015, people over 55 will be able to take as much as they want from their private pensions. Michael Buerk examines the consequences, and the firms that are courting pension holders.
Morland Sanders investigates the reality of employment in post-recession Britain: ultra-flexible, insecure and part-time work, and self-employment.
Motorists were promised diesel would be the cheap, green fuel of the future, but it turns out that's not the case. Why did politicians encourage the 'dash for diesel'?
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate the private companies issuing more than 2.5 million parking tickets a year. It's a booming industry, thanks to new camera technology and changes in the law.
Dispatches investigates the behaviour of politicians in Westminster.
Reporter Liz MacKean investigates Britain's new benefits regime and asks what life is really like for those hit with penalties.
The government say their flagship new benefit, Universal Credit, is working well and is helping people into work. Critics say it is a shambles. Dispatches goes undercover to investigate.
Following cuts to the defence budget, can the UK defend itself against a range of new threats, from terror groups like IS to Russian bombers close to UK airspace?
A special undercover investigation into politics in the run-up to the General Election
Last week an Airbus 320 heading from Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed in the Alps with the loss of 150 lives, and after initial concerns over mechanical failure or an act of terrorism, it was eventually revealed to be an act of mass murder committed by the co-pilot. This documentary asks whether air travel is still the safest form of transport, examining the airline industry's safety record and incidents involving pilot error or emotional breakdown.
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate the hidden cost of the clothes, shoes and discount gear that have helped Sports Direct buck the high street trend, making billions for Mike Ashley.
Dispatches goes undercover in one of Britain's biggest rail operators, investigating ticket prices, overcrowding and compensation, and revealing what the rail companies don't tell their passengers.
The show takes a look at how some teachers and pupils are dealing with the pressure by bending the rules and sometimes cheating the system.
Morland Sanders finds out the impact of new state-of-the-art housing developments and asks whether exorbitant house prices are squeezing out poorer residents and transforming our communities.
Tazeen Ahmad uncovers worrying inaccuracies in salt content food labelling
Across the UK, children are being moved far from home to receive mental health treatment
Dispatches uncovers unknown deals between councils and banks that cost taxpayers millions.
As Britain's pensioner population soars, Michael Buerk investigates whether the public can continue to rely on the state to support us in our old age.
This Dispatches special exposes the brutal regime suffered by millions of women living under Isis, and the extraordinary story of a secret underground network trying to save them.
Dispatches investigates well-funded global networks that are supporting a wave of anti-gay laws around the world, including the World Congress of Families in the USA.
Tazeen Ahmed reports on a Department for Work and Pensions initiative to encourage people in work and in receipt of benefits to boost their income and reduce their dependency on the state. The project has implications for Britain's million lowest paid workers, and this documentary investigates if advice and encouragement will help them earn more, or if financial punishments, also known as sanctions, are the best way to get the working poor off benefits.
While Tesco and the other big supermarkets falter, Aldi goes from strength to strength. Named Supermarket of the Year, it has now overtaken Waitrose as Britain's sixth largest supermarket. But does the discounter always deliver on promises to provide amazing value, without compromising on quality and service? As more and more shoppers switch to Aldi, Dispatches goes undercover to investigate.
Millions of us are plagued by nuisance callers flogging things we don't want. Dispatches goes undercover to find out how the cold calling trade works, and reveals how people are fighting back.
The Government has committed to building a million new houses by 2020. Dispatches investigates what impact the rush to put up new housing will have on the quality of these homes.
The Government has promised to help create 3 million apprenticeships alongside a new national living wage. Dispatches investigates claims that some employers are wasting public money and abusing the trust placed in them.
Around 800 companies hold royal warrants and it is thought that they make an extra £4 billion a year because of it. With the stakes so high, Antony Barnett examines the system of granting royal approval.
Documentary on the concept of white privilege and how it effects white people and other cultures.
Over a year in the making, this is the remarkable and uplifting story of five extraordinary children who beat the Ebola virus and then overcome loss and stigma to rebuild their lives. Today Sierra Leone is clear of the deadly Ebola virus. But for 19 months the country experienced the largest number of Ebola cases. After an extended nationwide State of Emergency and the closure of all schools, the government decided it was finally safe to allow a return to normality in April 2015.
The way we shop has changed and we increasingly rely on parcel firms to deliver our shopping to our front door. But as the number of items delivered has risen, so have complaints. It's a low margins, high volume business, where missing items, broken gifts and late deliveries are often complained about. Dispatches goes undercover to investigate.
In this Dispatches Special, actor Greg Wise takes the extraordinary step of secretly recording his own meetings with 'tax planners'. Using his privileged status as a high net-worth individual, Greg goes into the world of high-end tax avoidance and meets 'advisors' keen to help the rich and famous minimise their tax liabilities or even avoid tax altogether. While tax avoidance is legal, he is told that the amount of tax he chooses to pay is down to his own 'moral barometer', with one advisor offering to 'zero his tax bill'. The tax dodging schemes promoted to Greg involve setting up companies in offshore tax havens and ramping up investment to maximise government tax relief. Last year, angered by reports of rich individuals not paying their 'fair share' of tax, Greg threatened to withhold his own tax payments until something was done. In this programme he uncovers a normally hidden world of tax avoidance, available only to the rich.
Morland Sanders investigates the increasing demand on the ambulance service and how response times are calculated.
Morland Sanders investigates hidden pollution hotpots in our everyday lives.
Simon Cox looks at how easy it is for terrorists to exploit stolen antiquities on the streets of the UK.
The episodes explores who are the ones who are winning and losing in one of the most controversial housing poliices in decades.
This episode explores the housing crisis and homelessness, and how it is on the rise in Britain. The episode will reveal the numbers and scale of rogue landlords, confronting those exploiting the benefit system to make millions from supplying poor accomdatation.
It's six years since Britain's beloved Cadbury was bought by American giant Kraft. As the Easter chocolate indulgence approaches, the episode will explore what's been happening to one of our favourite brands.
Missed visits, not being washed or dressed for days, waiting hours for your dinner and mistakes made with medication. Many older people in this country are facing serious problems with their home care. For Dispatches, Jackie Long investigates the fate of some of Britain's most vulnerable pensioners, who rely on council-funded home care. Working as a frontline carer, an undercover reporter discovers an overstretched service, concerns about pay not meeting the minimum wage and workers cutting short appointments and falsifying log books. Dispatches sets up hidden cameras in one pensioner's home to find out more about the standard of care she receives. The introduction of the living wage means care costs could soar, at the same time as care budgets have been slashed. The industry body, representing care companies, now warns that the market is increasingly unviable.
The row over cuts to welfare benefits has rocked the Government to its core. Iain Duncan Smith resigned, attacking his own department's plans to cut disability benefits as balancing the books on the back of the poor and vulnerable. George Osborne has backed down; the cuts have now been put on ice. But the new benefit that prompted the row - Personal Independence Payment - is still going ahead. Hundreds of thousands of disabled people are now having to apply for this new benefit and many claim it is deeply unfair. Former Paralympian Ade Adepitan investigates and, using secretly recorded material, reveals some disturbing sides to the new benefit.
As the war against Isis intensifies and Syrian troops retake Palmyra, here in the UK the battle to stop the terrorist group cashing in on looted antiquities is being waged on the streets of the capital and beyond. Dispatches investigates how easy it is for terrorists to exploit this trade. Investigative journalist Simon Cox has been tracking the antiquities business in Britain for the last eight months. Together with a group of leading archaeologists, Cox has gone undercover to investigate this lucrative business and test the rules designed to regulate it. He finds a world of dubious provenance and questionable deals in the heart of London and on the Internet. He also looks at what Isis is doing to World Heritage Sites in territory it holds. How much are the two be linked? Cox examines how much of what is looted might be being sold in the UK, and what the authorities are doing to stop it.
It's that time of year, when dreams of a summer escape will soon be just an air ticket away, if only you can find the best price. Dispatches goes undercover to learn the secrets of a major player in the travel trade. Are the lowest fares all that they seem? Are you getting the best deal? And if your plans need to change, how will you be treated? Harry Wallop uses secret camera footage to test the promises of the travel business.
A Dispatches investigation into Birmingham City Council's Children's Services, which in 2013 was described by Ofsted's Chief Inspector as a national disgrace and has faced 27 serious case reviews over the last 10 years. The programme sent an experienced social worker into the department, where she found a troubling picture of chaos, low staff morale and confused decision-making on how to handle serious cases where children could be at risk.
Dispatches investigates the reality of the impact of the new National Living Wage (NLW) on low-income employees – revealing that some of Britain’s biggest companies, including Tesco and B&Q, are cutting perks and privileges for the low-paid at the same as introducing the National Living Wage. And the programme asks how low wages and job insecurity affected the EU referendum result.
Since the recent European referendum in Britain, racist abuse seems to be on the rise. Seyi Rhodes investigates, uncovering many dramatic recordings of examples of these verbal and physical xenophobic attacks.
Reporter Shaunagh Connaire investigates what is happening to Britain’s pensions amidst all the market turmoil.
Billions of pounds of taxpayers' money go into the academy school system. Dispatches investigates the finances of academies, and discovers big salaries and generous expenses.
With new evidence indicating that some cars might not perform as well in crashes as their safety rating suggests, Dispatches investigates whether we can trust manufacturers and testers with car safety
Harry Wallop investigates the failure to build enough affordable homes in the UK, finding out what happened to a much-heralded government plan to sell off enough public land to build 100,000 new homes. He learns of deals done with big developers at a potential loss to the taxpayer and discovers large areas of sold-off land sitting empty, while millions of people can't find an affordable home to buy.
Antony Barnett investigates the Labour Party, just days before the declaration of whether Jeremy Corbyn has retained his leadership.
Dispatches investigates the anti-abortion movement in the UK.
Can't afford a house? Haven't got a pension? Don't expect a pay rise? If so, you're probably part of Britain's younger, struggling generations. The wealth gap between young and old has become a defining feature of our times; in this special Dispatches, Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson investigates just how divided our country has become. Nelson reveals new figures showing the extent of the gap and investigates its causes. He speaks to leading politicians and hears fears from the top of Government that older voters have effectively been kept sweet at the expense of the young.
The government promised to fix so-called neighbours from hell with its Troubled Families Programme, but Dispatches meets families who say it has had no real impact.
With personal debt at an all-time high, Morland Sanders asks if more could be done to help families kick the spending addiction
Britain's men are the fattest in Europe, our women are the second fattest, and our children are getting fatter younger. So why has Downing Street diluted its obesity strategy? Dispatches investigates.
Many are struggling to find a home; a reason why is too few houses are being built. Liam Halligan probes developers deliberately holding back land to maximise profits.
What will a President Trump really do? Will he really ban all Muslims? Build a wall? Pal up to Putin? Smash Isis? How scared should we be? Will he back down from his campaign pledges? In this special film, Matt Frei speaks to those who know and attempts to get to the bottom of Trump’s policies and future agenda as President of the United States.
Dispatches investigates the controversial figures surrounding Donald Trump and their links to powerful corporations that could have far-reaching consequences beyond America
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate the textile factories in the UK making clothes for some of the biggest brands, and discovers what Made in Britain really means. In 2010 reporter Tazeen Ahmad exposed poor conditions in clothes factories located in the heart of Britain. Now she returns to find out if things have improved. She discovers workers being paid less than half the national living wage and working conditions that pose a serious fire risk. Secret cameras capture one textile boss revealing that he considers he's in direct competition with Bangladesh to meet the orders. Tazeen also meets a new breed of shopper who never leave their homes to get the latest designs quickly. The booming industry labelled Fast Fashion has changed the face of the textile market, and Dispatches discovers what it means for the workers who make the clothes.
British shoppers have embraced the home delivery economy. During the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy before Christmas, the total online spend was almost £6.5 billion, driven by huge discounts and sales promotions. There are now 1500 warehouses servicing these orders in the UK, which is the equivalent of roughly 5500 football pitches or the total size of Cambridge. In this second Dispatches investigation into Britain's cheap clothing market, Morland Sanders investigates the working conditions inside some of these warehouses. Secret filming shows the realities of operatives walking miles of floorspace a day to get orders out on time at the busiest time of the year and reveals what can happen when workers are unwell, arrive at work late or don't want to work overtime. What does Black Friday mean for workers on the receiving end of your orders?
With councils across England and Wales struggling to meet the demand for emergency housing, Dispatches goes undercover to investigate the impact on homeless women attempting to get off the streets. The number of rough sleepers has risen for the sixth year in a row, of which women are a particularly exposed group. Reporter Jackie Long meets women who are escaping violence and expectant mothers searching for a home. New research in the programme reveals the dangers they face. Local authorities have a duty to offer temporary accommodation to the most vulnerable. Secret filming puts some councils to the test, examining claims that they are unable to cope and are wrongly turning women away. The government has pledged more money to councils to help the homeless but Dispatches asks whether this will be enough to solve this growing crisis.
From Toblerone to Marmite, many of our favourite brands have been caught in the fallout from the Brexit referendum. Toblerone reduced the size of its chocolate bars and faced a revolt from outraged shoppers. The chocolate manufacturer blamed the change on rising costs. A Brexit price row led to a standoff between Tesco and Marmite. And these are by no means the only well-known products to be affected by the vote. For Dispatches, Harry Wallop, who first broke 'Marmitegate', trawls our supermarket shelves to reveal what other goods have been affected by 'shrinkflation', and the marketing tactics producers use. He examines how much prices have increased since Brexit, and the clever promotions used by the supermarkets. The programme investigates how leaving the European Union and the imposition of import taxes could affect the cost of our shopping and whether some of our favourite goods could even disappear altogether.
Each year Britain's airports rake in over £4 billion, and almost half of that doesn't come from flights, but from the hundreds of shops selling to the millions of passengers as they pass through the terminals. So what are the secrets of these mammoth businesses? For Dispatches, journalist Harry Wallop investigates just how Heathrow and other airports make their money. Going undercover, Wallop reveals the tricks we should all be prepared for and asks whether we are really getting a good deal from our biggest airports.
Thousands of young people with severe learning disabilities and autism are still locked up in hospitals, despite promises made by the government in its Transforming Care Policy. NHS commissioners continue to send these vulnerable young people to big institutions, instead of providing more bespoke care packages to meet their complex needs. This Dispatches Special from Bafta Award-winning director Alison Millar tells the stories of families whose loved ones have been locked away in one of the biggest institutions in the country, subject to restraint, seclusion and frequent sedation. The programme also shows what good care looks like, and the dramatic improvements it can make to people's quality of life. With mental health services facing a rise in demand at the same time as public spending is being squeezed, the programme asks how best to provide appropriate care for those in desperate need.
On the eve of Article 50 being triggered, Dispatches investigates the impact that Brexit is having on Britain's Health Service. Following the busiest winter on record, our hospitals are under pressure like never before. To make matters worse, the NHS is facing the largest nursing shortage in recent times: more than 20,000 vacancies nationwide. Morland Sanders investigates the scale of the looming staff crisis on our wards. He discovers NHS chiefs unable to recruit new staff from Europe and uncovers evidence that the Government's attempts to boost home-grown NHS staff recruitment are failing to fill the gaps.
Seyi Rhodes investigates the impact of the government's latest benefit cap on some of the families affected by it. Ministers introduced the cap because, they said, they wanted to make sure that work paid more than benefits; they wanted it to force people to change their lifestyles, to live on less money or go back to work. Rhodes discovers that, while some people are now changing their lifestyles, the cap's unintended consequences may mean pushing the benefits bill up in other ways.
The hidden story of the tens of thousands of men, women and children who've been disappeared in Syria by the Assad regime, into a network of clandestine detention centres.
Dispatches investigates Coca-Cola, one of the world's most iconic brands.
President Trump has said that his foreign policy will be based on the principle of 'America First'. He's surrounded in the Oval Office by people who dispute the notion that the US has an obligation to maintain a stable international order. Some are hostile to the EU and attach little value to international institutions such as Nato and the United Nations. And now Donald Trump has his finger on the trigger of nearly 7000 nuclear warheads. Abi Austen travels to the US to find out what the Age of Trump means in practice for the rest of the world and asks: just how worried should we be?
As Sunni refugees flee from Isis in Iraq, they face a new threat from Shia militia fighters. Dispatches investigates allegations of torture, execution and sectarian cleansing.
Donald Trump is worried about vaccines. He thinks 'big' shots like MMR may cause autism, but there's no scientific evidence for that. So who's he been listening to? In this investigation, Cathy Newman reveals the role played by the disgraced British doctor Andrew Wakefield, struck off by the GMC seven years ago, but now astonishingly resurgent in Trump's America.
As the way we care for our ageing relatives becomes an increasingly hot topic, Dispatches goes undercover to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect at specialist dementia care homes run by Bupa, the UK's biggest name in healthcare. Bupa promises to provide person-centred, high quality care but covert footage captured in one home over three months by a Dispatches reporter raises serious questions about that commitment. Jackie Long investigates evidence of over-stretched and under-resourced care staff, questionable treatment of residents and safety worries. It's a picture that raises serious questions about how society should look after an ageing population and the quality of care provided by one of Britain's biggest brands.
A year on from the referendum the Brexit talks are just starting. Top of the agenda will be the status of three million Europeans living here. Many of them and their children were born in the UK or have lived here most of their lives. You may have thought that being born here would immediately guarantee them a British passport, but that's not the case. For Dispatches, Datshiane Navanayagam investigates just how hard it can be to get a British passport and the real impact that the lack of a passport has on many people's lives. Navanayagam reveals that there are already 120,000 children and young people born or raised in the UK who think that they are British but will not automatically gain citizenship. She reveals some of the huge costs involved in applying for citizenship, examines how the Home Office assesses claims and asks whether Brexit will make the situation worse.
Almost two million Brits took a cruise last year, fleeing our polluted cities and towns for amazing scenery and fresh sea air. But how clean is the air you breathe on these holidays of a lifetime? Dispatches goes undercover to investigate deep concerns about the impact some cruise ships could be having on the environment and public health. Travelling as a passenger on a European cruise, reporter Tazeen Ahmad discovers more about the pollution levels some customers could be exposed to and investigates the wider impact of cruising holidays, from waste flushed straight into the sea to on-shore pollution.
As the national spotlight falls on the need for Britain to build more high-quality affordable homes, a Dispatches investigation asks why so few affordable properties are being built at a time when housebuilders have been making record profits. Reporter Antony Barnett travels across the country revealing how property companies have failed to deliver new affordable homes and asks questions about the links between the government and the property industry. Airing in a week of programmes on Channel 4 and More4 exploring issues of housing and homelessness.
With new forms of finance driving Britain's thriving new car market, Morland Sanders investigates whether the bargains on offer in the showroom are all they seem. Finance schemes are making cars more affordable to more drivers than ever before. But as concern grows around household debt levels Dispatches asks whether the deals on offer are making the second biggest purchase you'll ever make a liability for your bank balance. Sanders asks if the car industry is being entirely straight with customers. Undercover filming exposes questionable sales patter and confusing advice. Sanders also talks to one driver who says she was caught out by the small print in her car finance deal. And the programme reveals one little-known way to get the car of your dreams at a lower price than the one quoted by most sales staff.
This is an era of stagnant wages: British workers are going through 15 years without any real-term pay rise. Morland Sanders investigates who's responsible and whether we can turn the tables on our bosses. Sanders reveals how much British workers have suffered from low wage growth and how we fail to properly negotiate pay rises with our employers. In this Dispatches with a difference, master negotiator Dan Hughes - the expert who's training the civil servants who are representing the UK at Brexit negotiations - reveals his top tips on how to prepare for that all-important pay discussion. Dan coaches two employees, who haven't had a rise for years, on tactics and negotiating skills to help them find the confidence to ask for more. They then approach their employers to discuss their pay; can they confidently negotiate their terms? And can Dan's masterclass teach us all how to get a pay rise?
Matt Frei investigates an epic tale of mystery and intrigue. It's the biggest political scandal of our time and could eclipse the fallout of even Watergate. Did the Trump campaign collude with the Russians? The story reads like an international thriller featuring spies, models and some of the most notorious political players. A year after one of the greatest political upsets of all time, Frei travels to Moscow and Washington to discover more about this alleged conspiracy. Speaking to some of the insiders and examining the evidence, he explores the deep links between Trump confidants and Russia. Did the Kremlin have leverage over a number of these controversial aides who were helping Trump to win the presidency? Were some of them even in the pay of the Russians? Were deals done between these influential figures, including the President's own family, and agents of the Russian state? And what do both parties stand to gain?
Dispatches investigates what life's like for front-line public sector workers following seven years of pay freezes and pay caps, and reveals how far salaries have fallen in real terms
Is the country at breaking point? For many, high levels of immigration have caused real issues and arguably led directly to the Brexit vote. But is Britain really full? For Dispatches, Michael Buerk investigates the story behind the numbers and the impact of internal migration. New research reveals the true scale of massive movement within the UK and its impact on both overpopulated and underpopulated areas. Buerk travels to a northern English city that has almost halved in size over the years, meeting young people forming the exodus of migrants heading south for opportunity and better pay. Here he finds forgotten streets full of empty homes. The North-South divide is not just about wealth but also about numbers. Buerk asks whether we ignore the issue of internal migration at our peril and whether, with Brexit on the horizon, this issue will finally be discussed.
Dispatches gains exclusive access to go undercover with the British Transport Police's crime unit to expose racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism by football fans on Britain's trains. Reporter Morland Sanders investigates as ordinary passengers are subjected to shocking abuse. One youth sings anti-Semitic songs, and another group of fans subject travellers to their racism - all caught on secret cameras. The cops try to track them down and put them away. Paul Crowther, the BTP's most senior police officer, discloses that anti-social and abusive behaviour on Britain's trains by football supporters is under-reported by the public because it is tolerated as part of 'football culture'.
In October 2016, an elite team of Iraqi Special Forces was tasked with leading the fight to defeat Isis in Mosul. It was the beginning of a brutal battle of attrition that was to last almost nine months. Filmed over the course of the whole campaign, this documentary follows the experiences of five young soldiers: Anmar, a college graduate seeking revenge after his father was the victim of a suicide attack; Hussein, a ruthless sniper and aspiring football player; Jamal, a wise-cracking sergeant; Naif, a sergeant juggling family life with the front line; and Amjad, a young recruit excited to be on the forefront in the basis against Isis. Full of hope and good intentions at the beginning of the campaign, the soldiers are forced to confront the reality of fighting an elusive and vicious enemy in a city of trapped civilians who are themselves fearful and suspicious of the army.
Harry Wallop investigates the housing shortage in Britain and in particular the Government sell-off of state-owned land to build housing on. He discovers that the land was undersold and few houses built on it.
Is demand for long-term nursing care about to push the NHS over the edge? Ahead of the Budget, the Chancellor is coming under increasing pressure to raise more money to fund long-term social care. As local authorities struggle to meet these huge costs, reporter Tazeen Ahmad reports on the so-called 'dementia tax'. Ahmad investigates why some dementia sufferers have to sell their family homes to pay for care while others gain access to NHS funds. And Dispatches goes undercover to reveal the advice financial experts give to potential sufferers. Dispatches asks whether the system providing care for thousands is really fit for purpose.
Dispatches investigates allegations of sexual harassment against billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate how former cabinet ministers might be looking to make money from Brexit. Reporter: Antony Barnett.
It's Britain's biggest and fastest growing hotel chain, but when a Dispatches reporter goes undercover as an agency housekeeper at a central London Premier Inn to make those comfy beds and clean the rooms, she finds some less-than-comfortable truths about what it can be like for some of the people working there.
Reporter Deborah Davies reveals how former youth football coach Barry Bennell spent his days coaching children and his nights abusing them, in an Al Jazeera investigation.
In the grip of a funding crisis and with the number of mental health beds plummeting, the NHS is placing thousands of patients in private hospitals. The American-owned Priory Group is the biggest beneficiary receiving hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money over the last year. Dispatches goes undercover in one of the group's hospitals to investigate the care these patients are receiving and discovers a worrying picture.
Dispatches investigates the expenses of Britain's top universities, revealing over £7 million of spending by the institutions' senior leadership teams. Amid the national debate over university vice chancellors' large pay packets, Dispatches shines a light on the opaque area of spending on luxury hotels, executive travel, fine dining around the world, and other creature comforts. Britain has some of the best universities in the world, but does what they spend always represent value for money for students, and the taxpayer? Since fees tripled in 2012, vice chancellor pay has increased by at least 7 per cent, prompting the government to bring in a new regulator to keep pay 'under control'. But will the new body be tough enough? Reporter Antony Barnett lives the life of a vice chancellor as he interrogates receipts and credit card statements obtained by Dispatches under freedom of information laws.
This exclusive documentary filmed over two years examines the problem of female genital mutilation, or FGM, which involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia. It's estimated that some 137,000 women and girls are affected by FGM in England and Wales, and in any given year it's thought that 20,000 girls in the UK are at risk of FGM. Reporter Cathy Newman investigates.
The Financial Ombudsman is meant to investigate when customers have unresolved complaints against financial institutions. But is there a bias against customers in favour of the banks? Dispatches goes undercover to investigate allegations that staff with little or no training are judging cases, and that some are reaching decisions in favour of the banks without even properly reading case files.
Across Britain, the police, local authorities and other public bodies are reaching out to Muslim groups in the fight against terrorism and extremism. But how much do they know about some of the Muslim groups they are talking to? John Ware investigates.
Dispatches investigates how companies could artificially close their gender pay gap. Reporter Tazeen Ahmad reveals how the figures companies present to the government may not always be what they seem, as the deadline for disclosing the average difference between the pay of male and female employees fast approaches. Undercover reporters meet the 'gender pay gap consultants' who offer advice that could allow firms to exploit loopholes in the law in order to protect their own reputations, instead of tackling differences in pay. Dispatches looks at whether this flagship policy will be enforced and asks if this new law aimed at promoting pay equality and adding billions of pounds to the economy is fit for purpose.
Matt Frei examines former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal's past - and the murky world of espionage, politics and crime - to find potential motives for his poisoning in Salisbury.
Dispatches reveals a new vehicle emissions scandal. Going undercover, the programme investigates how British hauliers are using high-tech 'cheat' devices and computerised hacking to disable the emissions controls on their vehicles, which worsens our air quality, all to save themselves money. A former Government chief scientist has described the hauliers involved as having 'blood on their hands' as experts say the premature deaths of 23,000 people each year in the UK are linked to the types of dangerous gases produced by HGV diesel engines - gases that should be controlled by their emissions systems. Dispatches demonstrates how HGVs that have had their emissions systems modified by hauliers produce far higher levels of dangerous pollutants, by conducting the first ever scientifically controlled test to assess the impact of the 'cheat' devices on the air we all breathe.
Dispatches investigates a subsidised renewable energy industry that turns trees into fuel to keep the lights on in Britain, and in your home. But is burning wood instead of coal really an environmentally friendly answer to climate change? Reporter Antony Barnett travels to the forestlands of the south-eastern United States to find one source of this controversial 'carbon-neutral' fuel. Britain's households spend at least £500 million a year on biomass, which by 2020 will provide up to 30% of our renewable energy. But is there a wider cost to the environment? Barnett visits the biodiverse wetlands of Virginia and North Carolina where millions of tonnes of wood are harvested and processed into pellets, which are burnt in one of Britain's largest power stations.
Universal Credit is the government's big idea for the seven million people who receive benefits. But the new welfare changes have been mired in controversy, with claims that they are forcing people to use food banks and making some people homeless. Hansard reported last November that the government had announced what they called a balanced package of improvements to put more money into claimants' hands earlier. Reporter Morland Sanders speaks to people who rely on the benefit to see what difference the changes are making to their lives. And an exclusive poll of the staff employed to administer the new system reveals widespread discontent at the Department of Work and Pensions.
For the past five years an undercover network of Rohingya activists have been risking their lives to secretly film evidence of years of repression, violence and mass murder by the Myanmar authorities. This Dispatches special has been given exclusive access to hundreds of their videos and the first-ever interview with the network to provide the most complete account of how ethnic tension degenerated into what some are calling state-sanctioned genocide, with reporter Evan Williams asking whether Myanmar's leaders be held accountable for the atrocities.
The Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017 was Britain's worst such disaster for a century, claiming 72 victims. A year on, Ed Howker investigates claims that even after the Hackitt Review of building regulations, Britain's tower blocks are still not safe. He looks at recommendations from experts that combustible cladding should be banned and sprinkler systems introduced and examines new evidence of risks in hundreds of other blocks.
As Britain faces a major housing shortage, how is it that some of those responsible for providing the social housing that we so desperately need seem to be doing so well out of the crisis? Reporter Anthony Barnett travels the country to hear from communities under threat at a time when the pay of social housing bosses has hit record levels, while the provision of housing for social rent has hit an all-time low. Among his discoveries is that an executive of a housing association in one of the poorest parts of the country received a pay-out of more than a million pounds.
Dispatches goes undercover in the secretive world of the people who decide what can and can't be posted on the world's biggest social media site. The investigation looks at how those decisions are made and explores the impact that they have on the millions of people who use Facebook.
Reporter Datshiane Navanayagam goes behind the scenes at two homeless hostels in London to reveal the increasing number of people who are in work and homeless, unable to afford high inner-city private rents. She draws on her own experience of being homeless and uncovers how a low-wage economy based on zero-hour contracts is leaving some people with no alternative other than to sleep on the streets. Datshiane talks to housing charity Shelter about new statistics that lay bare the intense personal anguish and embarrassment felt by those who are working but homeless.
New mum Kate Quilton sets out to find out why Britain has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world and whether more support is needed. She meets scientists at London's Imperial College who have measured the presence of hundreds of vital living components in breast milk that make it so much better for babies than formula, and also explores how cuts in public health funding have led to breastfeeding support services closing down. She also breastfeeds her baby in public to find out why mothers feel discouraged and shamed.
With exclusive access to the secretive world of Britain's new neo-Nazis, Dispatches tells the inside story of a far-right terrorist plot to murder an MP, and how the plan was betrayed to the police.
Liam Halligan unfolds the story of Carillion, the vast British company that was built on billions of pounds of public money and that imploded in January 2018
Have you been burgled, robbed or assaulted but feel that the police brushed you off? You're not alone. Dispatches hears from victims of crime who claim that the police have failed to investigate their cases fully, if at all. These are stories of violent attacks, homes broken into, property vandalised and family businesses left to fend for themselves against thieves. Exclusive research featured in the programme raises concerns that Britain is now sliding into a new era of policing. One of the most comprehensive analyses to date reveals the levels of crimes that many forces are choosing not to investigate. Dispatches also examines the wider impact of the policy of 'screening out' and other practices by the police. Some victims are being left to investigate and seek justice themselves, others feel that law and order is slipping away from their community.
Knife and gun crime is on the rise but prosecutions are falling as key witnesses are terrified of giving evidence - with good reason. Livvy Haydock explores the dark world of witness intimidation, and finds a sophisticated and highly effective system of menacing violence amplified and driven by social media. She meets gangsters who threaten `stitches for snitches', as well as families of witnesses who paid the price of telling the truth in court.
More than two million people smoke cannabis in the UK, some police forces don't prosecute for possession any more, and doctors can now apply for licences to prescribe the cannabis to treat patients with certain medical conditions. Canada has just legalised it, as have several American states. So is it time to look at the evidence and assess whether UK policy needs to change? Former Met Police chief Bernard Hogan-Howe, who has always supported tough laws on cannabis, investigates for Dispatches. He visits Colorado - one of the first states in the US to legalise - and sees first-hand how the cannabis business is booming, how the state is using its quarter-of-a-billion-dollar tax dividend and discovers that some strains of cannabis on sale are six times stronger than skunk. Will he change his mind about legalisation?
As Prime Minister Theresa May declares that austerity is over, the programme reveals the growing number of parents now using baby banks to provide their young children with nappies, clothes, toys and cots, with the vast majority having been set up since the austerity programme began. For the first time, Dispatches has surveyed these baby banks, to get a sense of who they're serving and the services they're providing and meeting working parents who can't afford the most basic essentials and have to rely on baby banks to provide for their children.
North Korean citizens reveal what it is like to live in the world's most secretive country. The documentary features conversations with defectors, who are still in regular phone contact with former colleagues and family who still live in North Korea, illustrating what life is like for the 24 million people living under communist rule, where every aspect of their life is controlled by the state.
Reporter Morland Sanders investigates the rising popularity of veganism. It's better for your health, the environment and animals but why do some activists resort to such extreme tactics to promote it?
As the number of children leaving school in favour of home education doubles, Dispatches asks why, and if parents' rights to remove a child are coming before the education, or safety, of children.
Channel 4 Dispatches investigates whether High Speed Two (HS2), a high-speed rail line connecting London to Birmingham by 2026 and then Manchester and Leeds by 2033, will bring the jobs and economic growth to the North of England the government is promising.
Dispatches investigates the London Fire Brigade's response to the Grenfell fire, through interviews with survivors and firefighters, and using critical new evidence released by the public inquiry.
In a television first, cameras are allowed inside a women's refuge to follow the stories of women who are fleeing from violent partners, and who have agreed to be identified
Former Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe examines why there has been a rise in knife crime and asks what Britain needs to do to get the problem under control.
Dispatches investigates those who have got rich since the Brexit referendum, capitalising on the almost unprecedented political uncertainty around Britain's exit from the EU.
Kate Quilton asks if formula milk is being priced fairly, and whether claims made for it are unbiased and scientifically proven.
A year-long investigation reveals the shocking conditions that tenants of one of Britain's biggest housing associations live in, and the effect those conditions have had on vulnerable tenants' health.
With BAE helping to keep Saudi jets flying, and British military officers working in the Saudi Air Operations Centre, Dispatches investigates the extent to which the war in Yemen is made in Britain.
In the run-up to Brexit, reporter Seyi Rhodes finds out how a lack of EU migrants could affect agriculture, social care and healthcare in Britain.
In the wake of The Jeremy Kyle Show's cancellation after the death of a man who had been a guest on the programme, Morland Sanders investigates what lies behind the headlines, what went wrong and who might be to blame. Talking to insiders and former guests, he examines the culture of the programme and others like it and asks what its abrupt end might mean for the future of reality TV.
As President Trump touches down in the UK, a post-Brexit trade deal is top of the agenda. And one of the most controversial issues is whether the nation will have to accept chemically washed American chicken as part of a deal. It's been banned in the EU for more than 20 years because of concerns that it masks poor hygiene practices in other parts of the supply chain. Dispatches goes undercover in a major US poultry processing plant to investigate, while reporter Kate Quilton meets whistle blowers and insiders who claim that the Trump administration's close relationship with the industry may mean that the worst is yet to come.
Dispatches runs a world-first experiment to reduce hundreds of primary school children's exposure to toxic air, and discovers that unidentified toxins are coming off every vehicle, even electric ones.
A major investigation for Dispatches reveals how thousands of unsafe medicines used to treat conditions like prostate cancer, schizophrenia and epilepsy were dispensed to NHS patients.
Reporter Abbie Eastwood investigates whether breast implants are making women sick - or, worse still, causing cancer.
Former police officer Dan Clark-Neal investigates what's behind rising numbers of assaults on police officers.
As Conservative Party members choose our next PM, who else is looking to shape Conservative priorities behind the scenes, and what do they stand to gain?
Reporter Liam Halligan investigates allegations of shoddy standards, poor customer care and excessive profits at Britain's second biggest - and most profitable - builder, Persimmon.
Reporter Antony Barnett investigates the 'golden visa' scheme, which offers British residency to wealthy foreign nationals.
Reporter Sanah Ahsan explores Britain's youth depression crisis, to find out what's fuelling it and to examine what treatment is available for young people.
A Dispatches investigation into the epidemic use of the drug GHB in the gay community, where users are vulnerable to overdosing and sexual abuse.
Dispatches investigates the friendship between Prince Andrew and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, as the Prince stands accused of sleeping with a 17-year-old girl supplied by the investor
How Trump's proposed trade agreement with post-Brexit Britain could cost the NHS billions.
Dispatches examines the influence of Dominic Cummings and Seumas Milne, controversial advisors to Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn. Are they driven by party politics or their own agendas?
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world - one in three online purchases are made through its site. Dispatches reporter Sophie Morgan investigates its unstoppable growth.
Homelessness is on the rise in the UK, but nobody knows how many pregnant women face the possibility of having their baby without a home to go back to. This programme explores the issue of expectant mothers who find themselves with no place to call home, and conducts a survey of midwives in collaboration with the Royal College of Midwives to try to get a sense of the scale of the problem. Ninety-five per cent of the midwives asked strongly felt that homelessness puts the health of the women and their unborn babies at risk. The report follows three women - two of whom are heavily pregnant - experiencing evictions, overcrowding and the reality of living in temporary accommodation for years on end.
In Britain, 4.1 million children are growing up in poverty. Dispatches follows three families to show what life is like if there's not enough money for life's essentials.
Children as young as seven are being groomed to sell drugs for 'county lines' drugs gangs in towns and villages all over the UK. This documentary follows four young people trapped in this world.
More than a decade has passed since major tobacco companies were found to have misled the public over the dangers of smoking. Now, one of the largest firms has said it wants a smoke-free future and offers so-called reduced-risk alternatives. Jane Moore examines Philip Morris International's campaign and investigates attempts to promote the brand in the UK, while billions of cigarettes continue to be sold across the world.
As Britain has grown into a nation of coffee lovers, Starbucks and Nespresso have become two of the world's biggest coffee brands. They have revolutionised what people drink and how they consume it. On the back of their success, both firms make bold claims about how their beans are ethically sourced and, in particular, that child labour is not used in their supply chains. But in this investigation, Dispatches travelled to Guatemala and discovered young children working long hours in gruelling conditions to pick coffee beans that supply these two coffee giants. Reporter Antony Barnett hears how a day's work can earn the children little more than the price of a Starbucks latte or a pack of Nespresso pods.
Reporter Antony Barnett sets up a fake charity and goes undercover to reveal how some of the most famous people in Britain are profiting from the fundraising work they do, such as posting on social media and appearing at events. Big-name stars from the worlds of reality TV, sport and entertainment, and one of the most famous women in the world, all agree to back the fake charity in return for cash.
Despite rising fares, millions of rail commuters suffer daily from delays and overcrowding. The Government wants to spend billions on new infrastructure, particularly in the north of England with HS2, but the new high-speed supertrain won't arrive until 2040. In the meantime, Liam Halligan asks how the rail network can be fixed.
The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, likes to think of itself as the premier global event for politicians, business leaders and celebrities to put the world to rights. It proudly boasts of a commitment to the empowerment of women. But what's the reality? Cate Brown investigates allegations of sexism, harassment and even sex workers operating during the WEF, with undercover reporters infiltrating the event, as well as testimonies from female visitors who are fed up of their treatment by men.
A&E doctor Saleyha Ahsan looks at the pressing questions many are now asking about the health service, including bed capacity, vital equipment such as ventilators, the number of nurses and protection of NHS workers. Dr Ahsan also examines the impact on the many thousands across the country who now face delays in receiving regular treatment and operations.
A look at how the coronavirus outbreak is changing Britain in the long term, for better or worse, from a reduction in pollution to economic policy.
Anja Popp goes in search of the truth about crimes linked to traveller sites. She talks to members of the public who have experienced crime waves and intimidation, goes out on patrol with police dealing with rural incidents and hears from travellers and their advocates, who say they suffer prejudice and attack.
With Britain's Covid death rate one of the world's highest, Antony Barnett examines the evidence and asks did the government get it wrong?
Morland Sanders investigates the American food that could be coming to Britain soon as part of a post-Brexit trade deal. with exclusive lab results revealing levels of dangerous bacteria on US supermarket meat. He looks at the widespread use of pesticides and hormones currently banned in the UK, and uncovers animal welfare concerns and declining hygiene standards in American food production, as well as fears the deal could harm the British farming industry.
Matt Frei investigates the president's policies, actions and decisions during the pandemic, which has cost more than 200,000 American lives. There are revelations gathered from months of conversations with White House advisers and insiders, whistle-blowers, politicians who have worked with Trump and leading US scientists, as well as loyal Trump supporters.
As Britain's service industry battles to survive Covid-19, Dispatches investigates the promises made by hotels, trains and pubs of 'deep cleans' and 'enhanced hygiene practices'.
Ahead of the US elections, this documentary follows three children and their families in the battleground state of Ohio, where the Covid-19 pandemic has intensified their struggle to stay afloat. As the US also reckons with issues of race and racism, the youngsters share their worries and hopes about their futures.
As the furlough scheme ends, cameras follow a minimum-wage paying job vacancy at a Manchester restaurant, which attracts almost 1000 applicants as unemployment rates spiral.
After a presidential campaign like no other, the programme assesses the result and asks what happens next for America and its people.
In the month when the worlds' leaders should have been gathering in Glasgow to tackle global warming, Sophie Morgan investigates the carbon footprint of the technology industry and tests some of the environmental claims of some of the biggest names in the tech world. She also recruits two families to keep a diary of their online habits and together they discover some shocking truths about the hidden cost of their online habits.
In July, the Prime Minister said he hoped life would be normal again by Christmas, but now most of the UK is under lockdown. What happened? Antony Barnett investigates the second wave of Covid-19, looking at how the government lost control and revealing new evidence about companies making millions from the pandemic.
The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the coronavirus vaccine. But how have we managed to get a vaccine so quickly and just how safe is it? What do we know about possible long-term side effects and which vaccine is the safest and most effective to take? In a Dispatches special, Matt Frei looks at the vaccines and asks whether this is the shot in the arm to get Britain moving again.
Morland Sanders shines a light on tech’s dark side, investigating the world of fake internet videos and the effect they have on the lives of celebrities, ordinary people, and even whole nations. From embarrassing famous figures and influencing elections the reporter asks how these fake videos and images have changed the world, meets people whose lives have been made a misery by such fakes, and learns not to be fooled into believing everything you see. New figures obtained by Dispatches reveal the number of deep fake videos online grew by more than double in 2020 – and Britain is a top target.
Lockdown Britain's enduring the worst economic nosedive in centuries. Liam Halligan looks at the pandemic's soaring financial cost and asks: who will pay for Covid?
Filmed over four months, this edition of the programme gives a unique perspective on life on the NHS frontline. Dr Saleyha Ahsan filmed her own journey through the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, capturing the pressure and personal tragedies she faced with the surge in patients, which included her own father. This special Dispatches film also shows the emotional and physical burden faced by friends and colleagues, and how they came close to breaking point with the psychological toll of fighting to keep people alive.
Environmental journalist Lucy Siegle investigates the rise of waste incineration in the UK, examining how millions of tonnes of waste left out for recycling ends up being burned. The rise in carbon emissions from incineration is put under the spotlight, with exclusive research revealing that it is on course to become the UK's dirtiest form of energy production. The programme also looks at how councils are locked into expensive contracts with incinerator operators forcing them to burn waste for decades to come.
Dispatches reports from Bradford, one of the UK's worst-hit communities during the pandemic. It's predicted that up to half a million people in the UK are now living with Long Covid. Dispatches asks if the NHS will be able to cope with the lasting legacy of the virus. Narrated by Fatima Manji.
Antony Barnett reports on the collapse of several of Britain's best-known brands, examining the influence of the internet and the pandemic on the decline of high street shopping. Barnett asks how much are these firms to blame for the problems on our high street, and questions whether it's fair that their owners still earned millions while tens of thousands of shopworkers lost their jobs.
Presenter and mother-of-three Rochelle Humes explores the shocking fact that Black women are four times more likely than White women to die during pregnancy and childbirth and up to six weeks after.
As Britain’s economy feels the impact of coronavirus, lockdowns and Brexit, Dispatches examines the future of work, wages and safety in the gig economy.
Antony Barnett goes undercover to see what some of the Queen's family might be prepared to do for money, including offers of privileged access to Kensington Palace and Vladimir Putin
With two thirds of all British Covid deaths coming after September 2020, Dispatches investigates why, and examines what role the Prime Minister's decisions of last Autumn played in there being a massive second surge in infections that saw tens of thousands of people die. As Boris Johnson's former chief advisor Dominic Cummings threatens to reveal all, reporter Antony Barnett hears from some at the heart of Downing Street discussions, and learns why the Prime Minister ignored government scientific advice and continued to battle against another lockdown. Dispatches also probes the Prime Minister's border plans to stop virus variants coming into the UK and hears from a whistleblower who fears they've failed to do the job.
A gripping, eye-opening investigation of Eritrea, one of the world’s most secretive regimes, with shocking allegations of torture, detention and forced conscription.
An unprecedented look at what's going on behind closed doors in family courts, including shocking personal testimony and footage.
As more than 70 Indian politicians face charges of crimes against women, a look at two recent rape cases that have sparked allegations of a cover-up.
Ellie Flynn reports on the true scale of sexual misconduct by serving British police officers, including personal accounts from those who presented themselves to the police as the victim of a crime, and long term partners of serving officers who have endured domestic violence and abuse.
Eighteen months into the worst pandemic in a century, this hard-hitting special travels the country asking some tough questions about the performance of our much-loved NHS.
As lockdown ended and kids went back to school, in Luton, Dispatches examines the devastating impact of overcrowded, unsuitable housing on young lives.
As Britain prepares to host the COP26 summit, this Dispatches special investigates the PM's claim that the UK is the global leader in the fight against the climate crisis.
Is Brexit, and the new free trade deal with the EU, the huge success the Government said it would be? Dispatches meets firms struggling with increased costs and dwindling profits.
As Britain frets over diesel and petrol shortages, and the Government advises the public to consider going green in all ways possible, electric cars have never been a more popular purchase. But is right now a good time to sink tens of thousands of pounds of hard-earned cash into buying an electric vehicle? Reporter and electric car owner Morland Sanders asks if Britain's charging network is good enough to keep drivers going flat-out, or set to leave them as flat as a pancake. He also looks at whether hybrid electric cars are as green as believed and considers the reliability and likely longevity of electric cars.
First-hand footage of the Taliban capture of Kabul and the subsequent flight of refugees, shot by a documentary crew that were filming in Afghanistan at the time. The film includes coverage of female rights activist Zoya Faizi's attempt to escape the country, and one of the senior figures of the Al Qaeda-backed Haqqani network visiting a prison where, until recently, he had been held.
Morland Sanders investigates the health and environmental impact of industrial chicken production. This undercover investigation asks serious questions about supermarket chicken, animal welfare, environmental standards, and the impact that these farming techniques may be having on the British countryside.
Pfizer's Covid vaccine has saved the lives of millions around the world and the Government has chosen the Pfizer jab over the much cheaper Oxford AstraZeneca for its autumn roll-out of boosters. However, as Pfizer hikes up the price of its vaccine and enjoys record-breaking profits, questions are mounting over the pharmaceutical company's behaviour. Reporter Antony Barnett considers whether its is unfairly profiteering from the pandemic, whether it has always played by the rules, and whether it is doing enough to stop people in poorer countries dying from Covid-19.
An investigation into a series of deaths, including suicide, by disabled benefits claimants. What impact did government failings have on those who died?
The extraordinary inside story of the biggest scientific challenge of our age – following a small band of vaccine scientists around the world who took on Covid-19 and ultimately delivered the weapon to beat it.As news of the coronavirus broke around the globe, a small group of scientists jumped into action to tackle one of the greatest medical challenges of our time: to create a vaccine against a virus no-one had ever seen before and to do so in record time, all during a deadly, global pandemic.
Is Boris Johnson, the great political survivor, finished? Britain's top political interviewer Andrew Neil has the inside track on the Tories in turmoil.
On the eve of the Winter Olympics, Dispatches investigates allegations of mass surveillance, detention and forced labour in China's north-west.
Travelling with explorer and veteran Levison Wood, former soldier Johnny Mercer meets his Ukrainian MP counterparts and heads to the focus of the conflict in Kyiv.
Undercover in Ghana, Antony Barnett investigates Britain's best-loved chocolate brand and reveals for the first time child labour in its supply chain.
Morland Sanders reports on the impact of rising gas and electricity bills on households in Britain. The programme examines the reason for the spike in prices, a string of failures among energy companies, and whether the organisation set up to protect consumers has been up to the job.
The shocking truth about the Government's de-radicalisation programme - a broken system where obvious warning signs of extremism are being missed.
Is the next frontier in cyberspace a thrilling alternative world or the new Wild West? Yinka Bokinni goes undercover in virtual reality and is shocked by what she finds.
Undercover reporters investigate the far right's current tactics to gain support in some of the most deprived parts of the country. The programme examines how one organisation has been operating through the pandemic, and whether they interfered in a hard-fought by-election. The programme examines the group's plans for home-schooling, and how they are possibly luring a new generation into their membership.
If the trainer industry was a country, it would be the world's 17th largest polluter - yet major manufacturers all make claims of sustainability. Darcy Thomas travels to the Maldives to assess the ecological impact of the industry, putting the big brands' green credentials to the test.
Newly-elected MP Kim Leadbeater investigates the threats and abuse faced by MPs, and the terrible impact it can have on them, their staff and their families. Dispatches reveals new data on the scale of the problem, including powerful testimony from those on the receiving end.
Is the Met Police force institutionally corrupt? An investigation into whether officers were linked to organised crime, and of murders left unsolved due to corruption.
The story of the battle for Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, told through the eyes of the civilians and emergency workers who bore the brunt of the Russian onslaught. For 10 weeks, a documentary crew followed fireman Roman, as he and his team tried to put out the relentless fires, and paramedics Tatjana and Irina, who attempt to save civilian casualties. Narrated by Cate Blanchett.
A look at the world's forgotten civil war, where over 20,000 people have been reported dead, and thousands are fighting against a military coup that has removed elected government.
With the summer holidays in full swing, reporter Jane Moore goes undercover in one of Britain's busiest airports, with the truth about delays, cancellations and baggage chaos.
What's the real story behind the soaring cost of new and second-hand cars? As the car industry pulls in huge profits, Dispatches has top tips on how not to get ripped off.
Jimmy Doherty investigates Britain's water companies dumping untreated sewage into our rivers and seas. Why have companies been getting away with it for so long?
As Britain suffers the worst cost of living crisis in 70 years, Citizens Advice opens its doors, offering rare access to the work of its debt advisors. The film follows three stories, including that of a Southend mother-of-two who is coping with a spiralling £20,000 debt accrued from one pay-day loan on top of another, and a single father living with the daily threat of the bailiffs calling.
How, with record-high rents and no social housing available, many parents with young children are facing an uphill battle to find a new place to call home. Bella, aged seven, and her two younger sisters, Nylah and Macie, are being evicted from their two-bed flat in Birmingham - the only home they have ever known. Soon to be homeless, mother Clarissa and partner Theo have no choice but to turn to their local council for help. Over the course of six months, Dispatches follows Bella and her family as they move and move again - spending week after week cooped up in a hotel room. Narrated by Sheridan Smith.
An undercover investigation into Essex Partnership University Trust, where a series of patient deaths over two decades has driven a group of bereaved families to fight for a statutory inquiry into patient safety. Experts who have reviewed the evidence say the behaviour witnessed is abusive and have called for urgent change. At the heart of the programme are the stories of three mothers, all of whom believe their children died needlessly as a result of failings in their care.
Sophie Morgan reports on domestic abuse against disabled people, revealing shocking lack of services for survivors and the huge challenges they face with accessing support. Sophie visits the only refuge run by and for disabled survivors, and talks to frontline professionals, including healthcare workers and police, revealing that more than half wouldn't know which specialist service to refer a disabled person to.
An investigation into the crisis facing British policing due to lack of resources, accusations of serious misconduct and toxic culture. Police forces are experiencing increasing demands with fewer resources leaving victims of crime asking: where are the police? Thousands of crimes in the UK are receiving little or no investigation and cuts to other services are exacerbating the problem leaving pressure on officers continuously rising, impacting mental health and morale within the force. Dispatches also speaks to members of the public who feel let down by the police and feel they’re no longer protected by them, asking the question: is the British policing system fit for purpose?
The extraordinary story of Russia's covert attempts to corrupt British politics, influence government policy and undermine our democracy in the years before the invasion of Ukraine. Over the past 12 years, donors with links to Russia have poured millions into the coffers of the ruling Conservative Party. Dispatches reveals how senior politicians ignored the warnings about President Putin to the detriment of our national security, how political activists were encouraged to visit a Moscow strip club, and hears allegations concerning a Russian 'diplomat' seeking information from a government minister over a pint in a pub.
Secret footage filmed over the winter reveals ambulance workers battling the odds and A&E departments overwhelmed as patients suffer needless harm and death.
A film by award-winning autistic director Richard Butchins in which, for the first time, autistic patients housed within mental health units relate their experiences in their own words. Some have been incarcerated for years in unsuitable wards and hospitals across the UK. The videos, made secretly by patients and sent to Butchins, paint a stark portrait of a healthcare system in crisis.
Dispatches follows four pensioners through winter, as they struggle to make ends meet. Their stories put a human face on the isolation, loneliness and stress that comes with living life on the brink. John, 76, lives alone in Sunderland in the home he used to share with his parents and siblings and spends his nights sat in darkness, afraid his energy bills are too high to turn the lights on. Sixty eight-year-old Doreen has had only two visitors in the 38 years she has lived in her home and goes to bed early to stay warm. In rural Leicestershire, 82-year-old Harry and his wife 77-year-old Christine skip dinner as a desperate attempt at cutting costs.
The full story of Boris Johnson's friendship with press baron Evgeny Lebedev and his former KGB spy father, Alexander Lebedev. Including exclusive interviews with intelligence officials and senior political figures who warned the former Prime Minister against the friendship, knowing it would put him 'in a direct line of being able to be influenced and compromised'. Despite being told by both Britain's security services and the House of Lords Appointments Commission that the friendship was dangerous, Johnson ignored this advice and became the first Prime Minister to over-rule intelligence advice related to national security for a parliamentary nomination.
A Dispatches special reveals shocking new evidence on Sri Lanka's deadly Easter bombings of 2019. High-placed whistle blowers allege top-level complicity by officials inside the Sri Lankan government.
Dispatches investigates Russell Brand's treatment of women.
The intimate, emotional story of the Russian women taking huge risks fighting for the truth about their sons, husbands and brothers missing in Ukraine
A team of investigators search for evidence to prosecute Russian President Putin for the deportation and brainwashing of thousands of Ukrainian children. Dispatches has exclusive access to the team as they travel the dangerous borderlands of Ukraine, speaking to newly rescued children and trying to trace others who've disappeared from orphanages and schools during the Russian occupation.
An investigation of China's relationships with the UK and its institutions, including allegations about treatment of dissidents and critics on UK soil.
In the run-up to Christmas, nine million turkeys will be sold across Britain. Dispatches investigates food safety concerns at one producer.
Harry Wallop investigates Britain's soaring food prices as Christmas quickly approaches and discovers how some products have been secretly reformulated with cheaper ingredients. Plus, how some big brands have managed to sustain and even increase profit margins despite their rising costs and how loyalty-card discounts are really funded.
