All Episodes 2004 - 2024

TV-14

As the planet heats up, the number of days where the temperature reaches 50C has doubled since the 1980s, global BBC analysis has found. The BBC's Life at 50C season, produced by BBC News Arabic documentaries, set out to find out the impact of this on people living on the front line of climate change. Now, BBC teams in Mexico, Iraq, India and elsewhere tell the story of how they overcame the challenge of filming in such heat.

A 12 year old boy is sold by his mother for £25 to a fisherman in Ghana. The boy will spend his childhood diving to disentangle nets in the murky waters of Lake Volta. In Saudi Arabia, a six year old boy who has been trafficked into the country from Yemen, in order to beg on the streets for a gang master, is picked up by the Saudi authorities and deported. Meanwhile in Cambodia, a 17 year old girl recalls her horrific life as a sex slave, sold to a brothel aged 12. These are just three of the lives encountered in this special documentary looking at the extraordinary, global story of child slavery today, in which eight and a half million children are estimated to be involved.

With 2021 set to be one of the hottest years on record, this film reveals how extreme temperatures around the world are wreaking havoc on nature, forcing climate migration, causing water shortages and triggering dangerous health conditions. By following people in seven countries, it also shows the resourcefulness and resilience of many communities as they struggle to adapt and survive.

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is growing at a fantastic rate, with more than 200 chapters - or affiliated gangs - around the globe. They have a reputation for extreme violence and many police officers believe they have become nothing but a sophisticated criminal network involved in drug trafficking. To most people in Britain, the Hells Angels are just a throwback to the 1970s and widely regarded as a group of eccentric, ageing bikers who like to fight each other and drink real ale. So strong is this perception, a veteran London Hells Angel even led a parade of bikers at the Queen's Golden Jubilee procession. But UK police officers who have investigated biker gangs fear that they represent a significant and growing part of our criminal landscape. They have been alarmed by events in North America. Mass trials And it is Canada that has felt the full brunt of biker violence. Following a rein of terror that shook Montreal for seven years, a huge mafia style mass trial has already convicted scores of Hell's Angels for murder and running a multi-billion dollar cocaine ring. Montreal's biker war involved 160 murders and more than 200 attempted murders, including the shooting of a well known journalist who had investigated the biker violence. Despite the convictions, the Hells Angels are still considered the number one drug distribution organisation in Canada. US police officers and federal agents arrested more than 50 Hells Angels in December 2003, on charges involving gun crime, drug-dealing, violence and extortion. The arrests, in San Jose, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and other cities across the West followed a two-year undercover investigation by US police officers. The programme, made with access to US and Canadian gang investigators, follows the rise and rise of the Hell's Angels and their fearsome culture of violence. It investigates how law enforcement officers struggle against the Hell's Angels sophisticated public relation

In this film, Michael travels back to Ethiopia and talks to many people whose lives have been permanently scarred by the horrific famine. They speak of how the suffering has continued while they continue to wait for the rains, a tragic irony in a country known as the "water tower of Africa" because it has the biggest natural reserves of water in the continent. Michael also follows the story of a young Red Cross nurse forced to choose which starving people would receive scarce food aid and be saved and who would be left to die. Sir Bob Geldof speaks movingly about his personal crusade to help the Ethiopian people and the build-up to the Live Aid concert in 1985. On his recent journey, Michael returns to the towns of Mekele and Korem and to the highlands, destroyed by civil war and scorched by drought. Today, the situation is worse and twice as many people are suffering with starvation. At the time we helped to save them, but have our efforts only served to make a terrible situation worse?

Seth is white. Thuso is black. Seth is from a wealthy background, while Thuso sleeps on his granny's kitchen floor. Both are gifted young footballers in post-apartheid South Africa. This World followed their attempts to break into the professional game. Seth Hutcheons leads a privileged life. His family are financially comfortable and well-connected in the world of soccer. He goes to one of the best schools in Johannesburg but yearns for a trial with an overseas soccer club. He feels there is now too much positive discrimination for blacks when it comes to team selection at home. Thuso Phala lives in Soweto. Only months before filming started, Thuso's dad was brutally murdered in a car-jacking incident. Thuso, his mum and two sisters, had no choice but to move into Thuso's granny's tiny house. They struggle to survive. Both Seth and Thuso have had a measure of success during the last five years. Seth was selected for the Ajax Amsterdam academy in Cape Town. Thuso was spotted by his hero, Lucas Radebe, captain of the South African national team, and Leeds United player. However, Seth broke his contract with Ajax after only a few months and Thuso's trip to England did not materialise. The film also explores the issues of housing and education. Thuso, like Seth, goes to a private school. Many feel that the state system does not have much to offer. But Thuso's mother cannot afford the fees. Will Thuso be forced to abandon his dreams of soccer stardom and start earning money to help his family? And will Seth obtain a foreign scholarship, or stay in South Africa and play for the Rainbow Nation? This World charted the boys' lives over the last five years to discover how a decade of democracy is shaping their future.

It's all about abstinence. At least, that's what the Silver Ring Thing movement is teaching teenagers in the United States. More and more young people are pledging themselves to abstinence programmes - saying no to sex before marriage. Established in 1995, the Silver Ring Thing is a faith-based organisation based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's one of hundreds of abstinence movements across America that promote self-restraint rather than sex education. This film tells the story of the kids who take the Silver Ring Thing on the road, organising rallies and events to spread the word. Teenagers attending the events pay $12 (£7). In return, they get a bible and silver ring. The ring is to be worn as a constant reminder of their pledge to remain virgins until marriage. The movement is also part-funded by the federal government. President Bush himself is a strong supporter of abstinence programmes. In the film, Miss America 2003, Erica Harold, is the star guest for the launch of a national programme seeking to purify the young. In some schools in the US, abstinence is now taught instead of sex education. But will it mean a generation of kids are learning about sex from the street and the media, rather than the classroom? This World explores the debate.

North Korea remains isolated and in fear of an Iraq-style invasion from the United States. International crisis talks continue over the regime's nuclear weapons programme. But This World has uncovered evidence of another more chilling evil: that North Korea is testing new chemical weapons on women and children. Hundreds of thousands of people are imprisoned without charge. It's not because they have committed a crime. It is because their relatives are believed to be critical of the regime and so they are punished. According to President Kim Jong Il, the bad blood and seed of any dissident must be rooted out down to three generations. Forced labour and starvation rations ensure that prisoners do not escape. Those who try to are publicly executed. But this is not the North Korea the government wants the world to see. The authorities go to great lengths to equip all foreign intruders with "minders" and monitor their every move. The This World team were scrupulously guarded. The answers could only be found outside North Korea itself. Reporter, Olenka Frenkiel, hears testimonies from victims of the secret camps who have since fled to South Korea or the United States. And most shocking of all, she tracks down one of the perpetrators. Kwon Hyok, a former North Korean army intelligence officer, was also chief guard at "Prison Camp no. 22". For the first time on camera, he describes specially-made glass gas chambers used for human experimentation. This World asks: if a deal is reached with North Korea about its nuclear weapons, should it be allowed to keep their gas chambers?

Ten years after the genocide that saw Hutus kill nearly one million Tutsis in just 100 days, Rwanda is still trying to come to terms with its bloody past. Theophile Ntaganda is one of thousands of killers now being released from prison. He killed his mother-in-law and two of his wife's sisters during the genocide. He wants her and their two children back. His wife Odette wants him dead. Theophile was one of the thousands of Hutus who took up arms a decade ago against the Tutsi, even though he was married to one. After almost nine years in prison, Theophile has been freed and sets out to find Odette and their two sons, Sharif and Kofi. Odette, however, has moved on. She tried to divorce Theophile shortly after he was imprisoned but the court rejected her request because he had not confessed to any crime. So Odette forged her documents and married again. The tables are turned. Theophile prepares to take Odette to court for bigamy. If found guilty, she could spend up to three years in prison. Whatever the outcome of the case, under Rwandan law, Theophile has the right to take his children away from their mother. Filmed over a year, this is a compelling human story, set in a country struggling to come to terms with one of the worst genocides in the twentieth century.

Since leaving prison in April 2004, former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu talks about his arrest in a world exclusive television interview. In 1986, Mr Vanunu gave The Sunday Times photographs of Israel's nuclear reactor and they were published in the UK. They led experts to conclude, at the time, that Israel had the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Mr Vanunu was subsequently held by Israeli security services in a sting operation. He served an 18-year sentence after an Israeli court found him guilty on charges of spying. Although free from jail now, Israeli authorities insist the 50-year-old still possesses state secrets and that he must not leave the country or speak to foreigners. Mr Vanunu, however, says he has nothing new to reveal. In the interview he talks about the circumstances surrounding his arrest and answers the charges made against him 18 years ago. The film also focuses on the position of the Israeli authorities and why they still consider him to be a threat to national security.

When William J Bratton was sworn in as chief of its police department, LA was the homicide capital of America. Can he curb gang violence and reduce the murder rate? Los Angeles is America's second largest city, but in 2002 it topped all other US cities in one respect. After 658 homicides in just that one year, LA became the country's murder capital. Almost half of those murders were directly related to gang turf wars involving drugs and guns, and most of those are based in just one part of the city: South East LA. There are around 10,000 gang members in South East LA alone, where unemployment is three times higher than the national average. It is the most dangerous place to be a young man; young men aged between 15 and 35-years make up almost two-thirds of all murder victims. It is also the most dangerous place to be a police officer. Yet the majority of these murders go unreported locally, as some claim the media - and the people in power - show little interest in gang violence. And so little interest in funding the fight against gang warfare too. Fear and loathing But if a lack of interest and cash are holding the police department back, its attempts to take on the gangs are also seriously hampered by extremely poor relations with the various communities in LA. The LAPD's image has been severely tarnished by repeated allegations of racism and corruption, such as the police beating of Rodney King that sparked rioting and the allegation of racism made against a police officer during the OJ Simpson trial. One gang member's comment about the LAPD aptly summarises how badly the police force are viewed: "Y'all are the biggest gang in Los Angeles County." With ordinary people afraid of both the gangs and the police, trust between citizens and police officers has reached rock bottom. In an attempt to bring the city back under control, the authorities brought in William J Bratton as chief, the man credited with helping forme

It has been estimated that Sri Satya Sai Baba, India's biggest spiritual leader, has up to 30 million devotees around the world. But increasing numbers of former followers are alleging he has sexually abused them or their families. This World investigates. Swamis, otherwise known as yogis or gurus, are the holy men of India, and part of ancient tradition. Sai Baba, 78, is based in Puttaparthi, near Bangalore in southern India. His distinctive 1960s orange robes and Afro hairstyle make him instantly recognisable. As the country's biggest "God-man" - a human being who declares himself divine - he professes to be the reincarnation of a Hindu God-man from the 19th Century. Sai Baba not only commands huge regular audiences at the local ashram (religious retreat) - where he performs countless "miracles" - he also boasts followers from more than 165 countries world-wide. But as the This World team discovers as they travel from India to California, there are a number of former devotees who have turned away from his teachings, claiming he has ruined their lives. Alaya, a former follower who claims he was sexually abused by the swami, says in the programme: "I remember him saying, if you don't do what I say, your life will be filled with pain and suffering." In an intimate and powerful portrait, Alaya's family talks openly about how they feel they were betrayed. Back in India, there are serious questions to be asked of politicians, who seem to have continuously ignored the problem. Indeed, some would say, the correct position for these politicians appears to be at the feet of Sai Baba. He certainly has friends in high places, and throughout the scandal, his popularity has remained intact. Has this "God-man" been wrongly accused or does his status mean he is immune to criticism?

More than one million children are exploited every year by the international sex trade, according to UN estimates. In Central America the problem has been growing, with sex tourists attracted to the region by ever-cheaper flights as well as easily circumvented child protection laws. One man, a British charity director, has dedicated himself to tracking down the offenders that governments have failed to prosecute. Bruce Harris, of the Catholic children's charity Casa Alianza, wants to stop the area from becoming one of the world's biggest centres for child sex tourism. Mr Harris is based in Costa Rica where, he says: "We get plane loads of sex tourists coming in". "They leave millions of dollars in the country. Sex tourism is big money." Paedophiles have been able to exploit loopholes in Costa Rica's child protection laws and, for years, the chances of being caught and punished were almost non-existent. In a country where the authorities seemed reluctant to pursue offenders, child sex tourists appeared likely to get what they were looking for: anonymity and immunity. After years of persuasion, Mr Harris finally managed to convince the government that the problem needed to be acted on. Sting operations He has recently filmed pimps undercover, set up elaborate stings to trap internet paedophile rings and harangued governments to change laws and act against offenders. But some successful convictions - helped also by tougher laws and the appointment of a special prosecutor - have led to death threats for Mr Harris. The country is now marketing itself as a modern holiday destination and trying to show that times are changing, but two of Mr Harris's biggest cases will test the country's resolve. Madame Siani Monge Munoz - accused of being Costa Rica's biggest child pimp - has finally been arrested, 10 years after first being investigated by Mr Harris. It is said she has a secret list of clients that includes major public fig

Seventeen-year-old Aboriginal Thomas James Hickey, or TJ as he was known to friends and family, died on Valentine's Day 2004. He was impaled on a metal fence after falling off his bicycle near the notorious Sydney suburb of Redfern, also called The Block. The Block is a largely Aboriginal district where TJ lived with his mother and six sisters. No-one knows exactly what happened but it is likely that TJ, who had an outstanding warrant against him and some cannabis in his pocket, panicked at the sight of a patrol car and sped off as quickly as he could. But the following day The Block erupted into violence amid rumours he had been chased to his death by police officers - an allegation strongly denied by the police. Forty officers were injured in what became a running battle with scores of Aboriginal youths. While the rest of the nation was shocked by the images of the violence, many Redfern Aboriginals said that white Australia "had it coming." They told the programme they felt like second-class citizens in their own country and claimed the police discriminated against them. With unique access to TJ's family, reporter David Akinsanya investigates the story behind the riots and asks why Aboriginals have disastrously failed to integrate into their own country. He also asks why so many white Australians have a stereotypical image of their indigenous neighbours as layabouts and drunks

Both foreign nationals and Saudi Muslims are now targets for terror attacks. Can the ruling royals fight terrorism while reconciling the conflicting demands of hardline fundamentalists and liberal reformers? After the shock of 9/11, the US-led invasion of Iraq and recent terror attacks in Saudi, This World gains unprecedented access to the desert kingdom and discovers why ordinary Saudis are now also becoming victims. Presenter Simon Reeve speaks to Saudis who previously supported Osama bin Laden, but are now disgusted at recent attacks on home ground which have killed Muslims and say they are turning against the extremists of al-Qaeda. But is there any middle ground? Royal leaders claim they can crack down on extremists while modernising the kingdom, but this is a huge challenge. The economy has taken a hammering, it is estimated 30% of the population are unemployed, and Saudi Arabia has already seen more change in the last 30 years than in the previous 13 centuries. Exclusive entry The film takes viewers from the glittering palace of Crown Prince Abdullah to the Empty Quarter desert and the tents of the nomadic Bedouin. Simon Reeve talks to bin Laden's former best friend, meets groups of women in a private house in Jeddah, and speaks to many Saudi people about their beliefs and concerns. How the ruling royal family deals with the current crisis has profound implications for the entire world. Saudi Arabia controls 25% of the planet's oil, and offers spiritual leadership to 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide as custodian of the holiest sites in Islam. As the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammed, the country is the focus of attention for the Muslim world, and a serious backlash against terrorism in the holy kingdom has huge significance for the global "war on terror". Saudi Arabia is at a crossroads, but which way will it turn?

Dubbed the “Bangkok Hilton” by the West, Thailand’s Bangkwang jail is one of the most notorious prisons in the world. Until now, the reality of life in Bangkwang has remained a secret. But after two years of negotiations between the BBC and Thai officials – and for the first time ever – television cameras were allowed inside. The film tells the human stories of prisoners struggling to stay sane in the jail’s cramped conditions, and the Thai staff struggling to cope with the ever-increasing number of inmates.

In the seaside resort of Taiji in Japan, around 3,000 dolphins are hunted and killed for food each year. Known as "drive hunting", the fishermen bang metal poles in the water, disturbing the dolphins' sonar and enabling them to drive the animals into shallow water where they can be caught. At first unwilling to speak to the media, the handful of fishermen permitted to catch dolphins in Taiji reluctantly agreed to speak to reporter Paul Kenyon. They insist their occupation is traditional and legal, and are enraged by the groups of international animal rights activists who travel to Japan to protest against the hunts. One such protester, Ric O'Barry, a marine mammal specialist with One Voice, insists: "The dolphins have a brain larger than the human brain, so when they're being slaughtered like this they're aware... just like humans." In a local bar, Paul shows the fishermen a research film on dolphin intelligence, but they dismiss the animals in the film as "highly-trained" and therefore more able to perform the tasks given to them. 'Dolphin dealers' Dolphin meat is a common sight on menus in Taiji, but food is not the only reason for drive hunting. In 2003, 78 of the dolphins trapped in the hunts were used for dolphinarium shows and swim-with-dolphin programmes. There are substantial rewards for dolphins employed by the increasingly-popular entertainment business; not for the hunters themselves, but for the industry's intermediaries - the groups who make money by buying the dolphins from the fishermen and selling them to dolphinariums for training. It is estimated that "dolphin dealers" can sell one animal for up to $30,000 (£16,000). Paul confronts the head of one such intermediary organisation and puts it to him that the dealing business is actually the driving force behind the industry. It also becomes apparent that there are international dealers. Footage of the hunts taken by Ric O'Barry show Westerners trying to buy d

President Mugabe says the people of Zimbabwe have enough to eat, but he stands accused of letting them starve for his own political gain. Classified by aid agencies as a "hunger emergency zone", Zimbabwe is turning away the charities who have been feeding millions there since 2001. The charities themselves think their food supplies continue to be crucial. But how are the new settlers actually coping? Farai Sevenzo talks to some of these farmers and discovers that many are struggling, mainly due to lack of seed, equipment and water. He also meets a young Zanu-PF candidate who concedes that the country may be experiencing a period of instability, but insists: "That is what happens when there is a revolution." Political grain Farai's journey takes him to a local hospital in the south, home to many weak children. Medical staff there are unable to talk about the food situation, but the Archbishop of Bulawayo - Zimbabwe's second city - is outspoken on the subject and says that in just one year, 161 people in the city died of malnutrition. But the lack of food aid and poor harvest are not the only reasons the people are hungry. Farai has also heard that the government are impounding maize from ordinary people as they travel from the country into the town, in order to boost dwindling stocks and hide the fact there are food shortages. He decides to put this to the test. Driving back from Harare, a hidden camera reveals he is stopped by Grain Marketing Board (GMB) officials and asked to handover the six bags of maize in his car. Renson Gasela, shadow minister of agriculture in Zimbabwe and former member of the GMB, says: "There is an election next year, so the government wants to be the only one with food." Is President Mugabe using food as his trump card? Farai Sevenzo goes undercover to reveal those caught in a political food fix.

Vulnerable children in some of New York's poorest districts are being forced to take part in HIV drug trials. During a nine month investigation, the BBC has uncovered the disturbing truth about the way authorities in New York City are conducting the fight against Aids. HIV positive children - some only a few months old - are enrolled in toxic experiments without the consent of guardians or relatives. In some cases where parents have refused to give children their medication, they have been placed in care. The city's Administration of Children's Services (ACS) does not even require a court order to place HIV kids with foster parents or in children's homes, where they can continue to give them experimental drugs. Reporter Jamie Doran talks to parents and guardians who fear for the lives of their loved ones, and to a child who spent years on a drugs programme that made him and his friends ill. In 2002, the Incarnation Children's Center - a children's home in Harlem - was at the hub of controversy over secretive drugs trials. Jamie speaks to a boy who spent most of his life at Incaranation. Medical records, obtained by the This World team, prove the boy had been enrolled in these trials. "I did not want to take my medication," said the boy, "but if you want to get out of there, you have to do what they say." He also conveys a horrifying account of what happened to the children at Incarnation who refused to obey the rules. "My friend Daniel didn't like to take his medicine and he got a tube in his stomach," he said. Powerless Dr David Rasnick from the University of Berkeley who has studied the effects of HIV drugs on patients - particularly children - says these drugs are "lethal". "The young are not completely developed yet," he says. "The immune system isn't completely mature until a person's in their teens." So why are these children targetted? Is it simply because they cannot defend themselves? At the beginning of this

Desperate US parents are sending their troublesome teenagers to tough boarding schools overseas, but many have had second thoughts when they discover just how tough these schools can be. Reporter Raphael Rowe visits Tranquility Bay in Jamaica, a correctional institution set up specifically to deal with unruly teens. Situated in a small village with spectacular views across the Caribbean Sea, it is the stuff of holiday brochures... but not for the kids who are sent there. New arrivals - some as young as 12 - cannot speak without permission and are allowed only the barest of necessities. They are cut off from their families and they must earn privileges such as phone calls home. One of the most controversial methods of punishment used in the behavioural correction programme is Observational Placement or OP. Children in OP lie silently on the floor in a guarded room until staff members decide they can leave. They eat, sleep and exercise in the same room. Even though Tranquility Bay director, Jay Kay, says the aim is to get kids out of OP within 24 hours, Raphael talks to ex-students who had been in there for much longer. Fifteen-year-old Shannon Levy, who left Tranquility Bay in 2002, spoke about her experience in OP. "They lined us up like sardines...there was no air, no ventilation... and if we had to go to the bathroom we had to leave the door open so they could sit there and watch us. I was there for eight weeks straight," she said. Cruel to be kind? Some of the parents of children who have not responded to the programme say the regime is brutal, open to abuses, and some of the staff poorly trained. Several of them are taking legal action against WWASPS - World Wide Association of Speciality Programs and Schools - the business organisation that runs Tranquility Bay. Bertrand Bainvel, Head of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Jamaica, wants OP scrapped because he says: "There is a high possibility it fal

The US is fighting battles on many fronts, but what happens when the Pentagon delegates a war to private contractors who are rewarded with money and not medals?

Documentary about the increasing problem of fake medical drugs. In Nigeria in 2003, four babies and children died after they underwent cardiac surgery in a top teaching hospital where the adrenalin drips they had been fed with contained fake drugs. But it's not just a problem for the developing world - in Britain, counterfeits have been found in high street pharmacies and a fake diazepam and Viagra factory was discovered in Wembley.

As Iran defies the world by restarting its nuclear programme, Paul Kenyon travels to the Islamic Republic with UN nuclear inspectors, and gains exclusive behind-the-scene access to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iranian negotiators talk candidly about why they deceived the world over their nuclear programme for 18 years. But it takes on a new complexion now we know that Iran later abandoned the diplomacy and chose to start enriching uranium again.

An investigation into the hidden reality of sex, power and corruption that lies behind the grand edifice of Bollywood - the world's biggest film industry. India's movie moguls were recently rocked to the core by allegations of sex being traded for film roles. Reporter Tanya Datta takes an unprecedented, candid, behind-the-scenes look at the real lives of the rich and famous and uncovers a seedy sub-culture that reduces aspirant actors and actresses to sex objects.

Within 15 years, the Chinese government believes as many as 40 million men will be permanent bachelors.

This World investigates the potential links between "death metal" and a series of gruesome crimes around the world.

During the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, 11 Israeli athletes were killed by the Palestinian terrorist organisation Black September. Within days of the massacre, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir secretly ordered Mossad (Israel's intelligence agency) to hunt down and assassinate all those responsible for the planning and execution of the Olympic massacre. During the next seven years, more than a dozen suspects and suspected terror masterminds were killed throughout Europe and the Middle East. This campaign, conducted by a specially trained hit-team - code named "kidon" (bayonet in Hebrew) - has been the subject of many accounts by writers, journalists and filmmakers, and is the basis of Steven Spielberg's new feature film "Munich". Up until now, no one in Mossad has been permitted to speak in detail about the extraordinary series of events. Global terrorism Bayonet operatives reveal their secret missions in compelling detail, including the assassination of Ali Hassan Salameh, mastermind of Black September and CIA contact, in Beirut. One former Bayonet member - referred to in the film as "T" to hide his real identity - revisits France and Norway to walk through the undercover operations carried out there 30 years ago. Some considered these operations a success, given the total eradication of Black September, but they did not always go to plan. Munich: Operation Bayonet features extensive interviews with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the former head of Mossad Shabtai Shavit and ex-CIA agents. With its unique access, this film draws a clear picture of the clandestine 1970s operations that changed the face of global terrorism.

In Brazil, football has always been sacred. But this changed last summer, when kidnappers began targetting footballers' mothers. Over a period of just five months in 2005, five footballers' mothers were abducted. The first was Marina Souza Da Silva, mother of Real Madrid superstar Robinho. She was held captive for 41 days until a ransom of $75,000 (£46,000) was paid to her kidnappers. This World spent six months following this intriguing case, filming with the player, obtaining exclusive footage of his mother in captivity, and even interviewing the kidnapper responsible. Escaping poverty But this film is not just about football and kidnapping. Set in Sao Paulo - a city where mansions and private swimming pools defiantly back onto the poor favella slums - it also exposes one of the most unequal societies in the world. Young boys dream of escaping poverty through football, but for the vast majority, crime is the only reality. The film intertwines the lives of three people who all came from the slums and who, in their own ways, escaped. As well as interviews with footballer Robinho, we talk to the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Robinho's mother, Marcelo Da Silva, and the head of the Sao Paulo anti-kidnapping squad. During the first two weeks of filming alone, four members of Sao Paulo's anti-kidnapping squad were murdered in shoot outs with criminal gangs.

Documentary about the efforts of two young political activists, Murad and Emin, to stage a peaceful revolution in Azerbaijan, a country with a dismal human rights record.

Documentary looking at how thousands of poor and illiterate patients are being recruited on to clinical trials in India to test new drugs for the West.

Two women are murdered every day in Guatemala and many are hideously mutilated. In 2005, 665 women were killed - more than 20% up on the previous year and 10 times the equivalent rate in the UK. But in Guatemala, not one killer has been caught. There is no fingerprint or DNA database, no crime or victim profiling and no real forensic science. No one investigates and witnesses do not talk. So why, after 36 years of civil war, are the guns and the knives being turned on women? And who is responsible for these murders? Some people point to the street gangs, while others blame domestic violence or serial killers. But no one really knows because the crimes are not investigated. Is this just incompetence? Or is the justice system in Guatemala designed to protect the guilty? The award-winning team of Olenka Frenkiel and Giselle Portenier follow the search of those who still believe they can find justice, and those who have lost all hope that the killers of their loved ones can be caught. Who shot law student Claudina Velasquez? Who tortured and killed 13-year-old Stephanie Lopez? And who murdered the nameless woman whose dismembered body was found in a refuse sack? Someone knows... but no one will tell.

What is life like inside the Kremlin? And what does the future hold as Putin's presidency nears its end? The Kremlin is the political heart of the largest country in the world. For centuries, strong and secretive men have dominated Russia and often terrified the outside world. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, things have been different. The Kremlin machine has tried to sell Putin to the West as a "liberal democrat", while at the same time selling him to the Russians as the "hard man" their country needs. In office for the last six years however, in less than two years from now Putin must relinquish the presidency. And as presidential candidates start to jockey for position, This World discovers what really goes on behind the scenes. Inside stories Twenty-three years ago, documentary film maker Richard Denton first went to what was then the Soviet Union, to make a series for the BBC called Comrades. Now he has returned to film what he could never film before: the people who work within the Kremlin. From Dimitri Pescov, the president's most urbane spin doctor, to Konstantin Krivorotov, a soldier in the presidential regiment who stands guard over the tomb of the unknown soldier, Denton meets the men and women who work for Putin. At the time of filming there are scandals in the Russian army and British diplomats are allegedly caught spying. And all the time, meanwhile, Russians inside and outside the Kremlin walls are beginning to ask the question: after Putin, who will be the next president of Russia?

Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, some families still searching for loved ones missing in action are turning to psychics for help. Millions died in the Vietnam War and 400,000 of them have never been found. But some families of the missing have found new hope in the form of a group of psychics. Accepted, if not approved of, by the government, these psychics believe they can talk to the dead. In 1996, they set up a centre devoted to the research of psychic phenomena. One man who works at the research centre is 37-year-old Nguyen Phac Bay and is said to have found over 500 bodies last year. The film also follows one female psychic through minefields and jungles in search of the dead. Nam Ngia, an ex-army nurse, works alone and has devoted her life to the task of finding those who went missing during the war. Apparently, when she is said to be speaking to the lost spirits, they pass on details that shock the living relatives - details they swear no one else could know. It may seem unlikely, but in Vietnam and much of South East Asia many believe that contact with dead ancestors is normal - that the dead can connect to the living. This film raises the question of what is belief and what is hope when so many are mourning the missing from the Vietnam War.

A year after Hurricane Katrina, This World finds out what happened inside Orleans Parish Prison as panicked inmates, left without food or water, rioted and broke out. Prisoners released from Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are held on a bridge in the city "What about the prisoners in the jail?" the sheriff had been asked as city leaders ordered the people of New Orleans to flee the hurricane heading their way in August 2005. "The prisoners will stay where they belong," he decided. It was a decision he would later regret. In the chaotic days that followed Hurricane Katrina, the image of thousands of orange-clad prisoners crouching on a broken bridge - held at gunpoint by a few overstretched guards - was an unforgettable image. This is the untold story of almost 7,000 inmates - some murderers and rapists, but others never even charged - who found themselves trapped in the city jail as it flooded. Olenka Frenkiel reports on a justice system already near to collapse, and on its final tipping point: Katrina.

This is a film about the newspaper revolution of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest selling daily. The Daily Sun's lurid headlines like "Boyfriend Ate My Grandson!" have made the politically correct squirm. But the paper has become a national phenomenon, attracting millions of black readers. This World follows the newspaper in the run up to its 1,000th edition. A reporter visits a woman claiming she is cursed by a demon. A girl, aged 14, tells how her rapist is still free. And the crime correspondent is the first at a shoot-out which turns into a bloodbath. It is the controversial white part-owner, Deon du Plessis, who gives the stories their tabloid spin and critics accuse the paper of sensationalism with its gory front pages. The newspaper, however, claims it merely reflects the reality of township life.

Mahmoud is a 12-year-old boy who supports his family by selling tea in Gaza's biggest hospital. He struggles to make a living on the wards and has to avoid the shoot-outs that occur inside the hospital itself. Filmed before and during the recent Israeli re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, this observational documentary uses Mahmoud's experiences, as well as remarkable access inside the Hamas prime minister's office, to show the reality of life under the new Hamas government. Gunmen, policemen and various "security forces" all patrol the hospital seeking to protect their own injured comrades. "I told them many times to leave... they refuse," says surgeon Dr Jomma Al Saqqa, who believes working among the militants is fraught with risks. Each group uses its muscle to try and get preferential treatment, and the doctors bear the brunt of their threats. Mahmoud's business is rapidly shrinking. None of the doctors and nurses have been paid since the election of Hamas in January, at which point the international community suspended $1bn (£584m) in aid to the region. The borders of the Gaza Strip have been sealed and trade suspended, meaning food and fuel are becoming scarcer and increasingly expensive. Mahmoud has to pay almost double for his tea leaves, but his profits have been cut in half. "I hate politics," he says.

Just as Israel ends one war, is it getting ready for what may be its next armed conflict? This time, the enemy is Iran, accused of arming Hezbollah's militia and planning to develop nuclear weapons. This film reveals Israel's view of the threat and gets inside the intensely secret world of the Israeli military, which speaks openly for the first time about what they see as the "existential" threat to Israel, posed by Iran's alleged atomic weapons programme. Three of Israel's former prime ministers come together on this issue, comparing the danger to a "new Holocaust". This World gains rare access to Israel's highly protected missile factories and satellite surveillance centres, where the arms needed for any potential raid are manufactured. As diplomatic efforts over Iran's nuclear programme continue, this film examines the Israeli discussion on whether they should, or could, launch a raid to knock out Iran's nuclear programme.

This World films inside one of Iran's kidney donor clinics. In Iran, the buying and selling of kidneys is legal and regulated by the state. As a result, the Iranians claim to have eliminated waiting lists for people on dialysis. The only problem is that if you do not have the money for a new kidney then there is no list to get on. There is an official price list, where the state pays donors $1,000 (£531) while the recipient and their family pay $2000 (£1,062). But once donor and recipient are introduced the haggling starts. With the average salary in Iran being around $200 (£106) a month, the stakes are high for both sides. This documentary gives a fascinating insight into ordinary life in Iran through the eyes of two young Iranians who have decided to sell a kidney. Mehrdad lost his job on the railways and now faces mounting debts. He wants to sell a kidney to fund a new job as a taxi driver. And Sohaila, who already works long shifts at night but since her father died six years ago, she has had to support two younger sisters. Her wage alone is just not enough.

In Japan it is estimated that 60% of older women have a common problem - their husbands. Having spent years "married to their jobs", retired men are having an extraordinary effect on the health of their partners.

Istanbul, the cultural capital of Turkey, which stands at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, is fast becoming a new centre for international fashion.

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Russia's President Putin, was shot dead in October 2006 following a suspected poisoning attempt and death threats. Broadcast here for the first time is one of the last interviews she gave, to the BBC, about her fears for her country, coupled with a stark warning to the West about Russia's future. Ex-spy Aleksander Litvinenko - who died on 23 November 2006 and who said he had been poisoned himself - was investigating her death. This has fuelled allegations of a deadly campaign against Putin's opponents... despite Kremlin denials of involvement. Olenka Frenkiel reveals Anna's final warning, of a Russia in the grip of the old KGB, breeding a new generation of terrorists and a return to Stalinism.

Across Russia, hundreds of people have died and thousands have been poisoned after drinking illegal alcohol that had apparently been spiked with a mystery chemical. This World sends John Sweeney to Pskov, a city badly affected by the poisonings in which a state of emergency has been declared. The hospital corridors are full of poison victims suffering from Toxic Hepatitis. The investigation puts John Sweeney's own health at risk when he accidentally tastes some suspect alcohol.

When the world fell in love with Cuban music after Buena Vista Social Club, the Cubans set about re-releasing their old songs. But American company Peer music took them to court claiming that Peer owned the songs. This documentary travels from London to Havana, where the old musicians sit and wait for their share of the royalties. An English judge will decide who owns the rights to Cuba's music, the Cubans or the Americans.

In September 2006, three nooses were found dangling from a tree at a high school in Louisiana. At a school assembly, a black student had asked the vice principal if he could sit under the same tree – in a traditionally white part of the school yard. Tom Mangold uncovers the truth behind allegations that racism still exists in the Deep South of America. As a black man announces his presidential candidacy, This World investigates how far race relations have progressed since the turbulent 1960s.

Nine CIA flights land secretly in Poland. Was Europe the site of a secret prison where top Al Qaeda suspects were held? "It is unlikely," says lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, "that the British, European and American governments will tell us the truth. So we will sue them into the next generation." Olenka Frenkiel reports on the plane spotters, civilians, judges, lawyers and journalists piecing together the jigsaw of "extraordinary rendition", the CIA’s secret programme of kidnapping citizens, out-sourcing their torture, and sending them for trial in what even the US military lawyers call "kangaroo courts" where the outcome is rigged

In his State of the Union address, George Bush said Hezbollah is one of the most dangerous terrorist organisations in the world. So in Beirut, This World seeks out the "Party of God". It’s a year since the Iranian backed militants claimed victory in a bloody 33 day conflict with Israel – This World investigates claims that Hezbollah are back, more powerful than ever and readying themselves for another war.

This World enters a world of paranoia and fear as the programme goes to South Africa to follow some of the thousands of Zimbabweans who enter the country illegally every week, fleeing from the political and economic crisis in their country.

The UN has sent a unit of Indian women, its first-ever, all-female peacekeeping force, to the West African country of Liberia, which is recovering from a 14-year civil war during sexual violence was common. It is now stable but rape is still a major problem. Will the presence of this unit empower local women, or will the culture shock the Indian women face, in their first visit outside India, stop them from interacting with the Liberians?

In April of 2006 the head of the sicilian mafia, Bernardo Provenzano was arrested., he was on the run for an unparralled 43 years. This film tells the story how the godfather was arrested in the longest manhunt

Documentary by award-winning filmmaker Ruhi Hamid. Some British Muslims want Shari'ah law implemented in the UK. Already practised informally here to resolve Islamic divorce, inheritance and family disputes, it is seen by many in the West as oppressive and brutal, with punishments like stoning and amputations. Ruhi Hamid, a British Muslim, travels to Nigeria to see Shari'ah law in action, and asks whether it could work alongside the UK's existing legal system.

Earlier this summer, a farmer in southern India discovered a two day old baby girl who'd been buried alive. Left to die, she was one of the thousands of unwanted girls in a country where daughters are often seen as an expensive burden, needing a large wedding dowry. Even among the middle classes, girls are often aborted as soon as their gender is determined. Despite the economic boom, the country is now missing so many young women that in some states, men are struggling to find brides.

Reporter Emeka Onono travels to Cleveland, Ohio, the number one city in America for house reposessions to discover the human impact of the subprime mortgage crisis. He meets the sheriff responsible for reposessions, the activists fighting for families and the people themselves who have been hit by the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

In Nepal, a nine-year-old girl is worshipped as a Virgin Goddess. It is she, the custom says, who gives the King his power to rule. At an annual festival every September she blesses the King by marking him on the forehead. But this year? With the King stripped of power and shunned by diplomats, no one knows. Democracy is coming to the last Hindu Kingdom and the future of the Goddess and the King are delicately intertwined.

In September, Burma's population rose up once again against their military rulers. Civilians joined demonstrations by Buddhist monks across the country, but the rising sense of anarchy was cut short in just days when the army were ordered to shoot. The film documents the accounts of bloggers, monks, student leaders and protest organisers who were lucky enough to escape. Their friends are dead or in jail.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela calls the United States ‘Dracula’ and George W. Bush ‘Mr Danger’, ‘a drunk’ and ‘a donkey’. He can get away with being rude to the most powerful man on Earth because his country sits on trillions of dollars worth of oil. Chavez boasts that he is spending his oil bonanza on the poor, but even London mayoral candidate Boris Johnson has called this 'Caracas'.

Who poisoned Alexander Litvinenko? Reporter Mark Franchetti gains exclusive access to Scotland Yard's prime suspect, Andrei Lugovoi. As Lugovoi prepares to stand in this week's Russian parliamentary elections, the programme places the Litvinenko murder mystery in the context of a newly resurgent Russia.

Four friends and classmates are coming of age in Baghdad. One is Kurdish, one Christian, one Shia and one from a mixed Sunni/Shia background. This programme was filmed by the students themselves during the 2006/07 academic year, offering a unique insight

Shot by an Iraqi doctor, this film reveals the terrible conditions of a civilian ER in Baghdad. Al Yarmouk Hospital is in the most dangerous area of Baghdad. As the bomb victims come flooding in, the ambulance crews go from one dangerous mission to another.

This film tells the story of beautiful Laleh Seddigh, an Angelina Jolie lookalike who has become Iran's national motor sports champion. Under the sport's rules, she can race directly against male drivers as long as she follows Muslim dress codes.

Liberian Charles Taylor stands trial in the Hague for allegedly backing rebel soldiers in neighbouring Sierra Leone with his diamond mining profits. His charges are horrific: he is accused of using child soldiers, condoning amputations and rape and puttin

Some 18 months ago in the mixed race town of Jena, Louisiana, two nooses were strung up on a schoolyard tree - a deliberate act by three white students against their fellow black colleagues. Within a year the racist sparks had started the flames of a ne

Can a beauty pageant raise spirits in a Siberian women's prison?

Is lethal injection a 'cruel and unusual' punishment, and thus unconstitutional in the US?

On the morning of 16 April 2007, on the Virginia Tech campus in America, a 23-year-old student called Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people before turning his gun on himself. The incident became the worst gun rampage in US history. Using extensive access to key witnesses, it delves into the mystery of how Cho, a young man with no criminal history, became a mass murderer.

Duncan Bannatyne journeys to Africa to explore the rise in the number of kids smoking.

Going behind the scenes of the Anglican Church's historic split.

The story of Himalayan mountaineers who filmed Tibetan refugees being shot by the Chinese.

Accused of being one of the most notorious arms dealers and sanction busters in the world, Russian businessman Viktor Bout languishes in jail in Bangkok. This World tells the story of the dramatic international sting which finally brought him to justice, and the battle to extradite him to the USA.

Is America facing a greater threat to its economy than the meltdown of its banking system?

Forced to marry. Helping British women escape unwanted marriages in Pakistan

After years of retirement from political life, the world's most admired statesman has allowed cameras into his private world. Mandela at 90 reveals a man of flesh and blood; irreverent, never cowed by authority and a formidable charmer who, perhaps surprisingly, looks back on his life behind bars with a degree of fondness. Unique behind-the-scenes footage offers a window into his world and his unexpected insights into his northern nemesis Robert Mugabe

This World tells the stories of North Koreans who risk torture and execution to escape their homeland and make the dangerous and difficult journey to South Korea.

On June 29th, Bernie Madoff will be sentenced for perpetrating an elaborate con. From his headquarters in New York, the capital of American finance, Madoff masterminded a fraud that netted billions of dollars and ensnared thousands, from Palm Beach billionaires and Hollywood movie stars to pensioners across the US. Madoff did not stop at America, however - he went global in his search for victims. Willard Foxton, whose father - a former British army officer - committed suicide after losing his life savings in Madoff's fraud, has embarked on a personal investigation into the Madoff con and the devastation it has wrought. On a 14,000-mile journey that takes him to New York, Florida and California, Willard meets fellow Madoff victims, two of Bernie's former employees and a Madoff family friend, who has known Bernie for over fifty years.

Across Europe children are being forced onto the streets to beg and steal. They come from one of the poorest communities in Europe - the Romanian Gypsies. For centuries Gypsies have lived on the margins of society and faced brutal discrimination. Many have resorted to stealing and begging to survive. But in the last 20 years, organised crime has taken over. And since 2007, when Romania joined the EU, Gypsy children have been trafficked and exploited on a much larger scale. In an attempt to understand what is happening to these children Romanian film-maker Liviu Tipurita embarks on a journey through Europe which takes him inside the closed world of the Gypsy community, and talks to the authorities and institutions meant to be dealing with this disturbing phenomenon.

On June 20th, a young Iranian woman was shot in the street in Tehran. The video of her death, filmed on a mobile phone, was seen by millions around the world. This World tells the story of Neda Agha Soltan, with exclusive accounts from those who really knew her. Many young Iranians have claimed her as a 'martyr' for Iran's protest movement; but the Iranian regime has tried to blame the West.

Justin Rowlatt reports on whether President Obama is on target to keep his climate-change promises. Travelling across the States, using public transport only, Justin encounters coal miners and car manufacturers; activists and politicians; a pig farmer and a film star. He goes ice-fishing in Michigan, finds a thriving wind industry in the oil state of Texas and, in Detroit, drives a test car of the future.

Joseph Stalin is back. Or is he? Reporter John Sweeney travels more than 5000 miles through the old Soviet Union, from Stalin's birthplace in Georgia to a former labour camp in Russia, to find out if one of the twentieth century's most notorious mass-murderers is really being rehabilitated.

On his second day in office, President Obama pledged to close the Guantanamo Detention Centre within a year. Michael Portillo reports for This World on why it has proved impossible for him to keep his promise. Over the past eight months, Portillo's visited the prison camps, and travelled to Yemen, Bermuda and Washington to investigate what could be done with the 240 remaining prisoners - some of whom are thought to be too dangerous to release, but impossible to successfully convict. As a former Defence Secretary, Portillo has first-hand experience of the political conflict between security and civil liberties. He looks at how the President has got stuck between a rock and a hard place. What way forward can Portillo see for Obama?

It has been quite a year for America's first black president. Promising change and appealing for unity, Barack Obama won his way into two wars and the worst recession since the 1930s. But his freshman year soon became a bitter battle over cash, colour and capitalism. Across the USA, This World has followed the lives of ordinary Americans, among them a reformed gangster and the wife of a US airforce captain. They voted for Obama and had high hopes for his presidency; but how have their lives been changed in Obama's first year? Can the president deliver on the huge promise of his candidacy, or will their hopes be dashed? One year on, they give their verdict.

The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 was just the beginning, for those who survived. A massive earthquake caused a tidal wave that killed a quarter of a million people, but many millions more found their lives changed forever. This documentary tells the powerful story of how the survivors have tried to rebuild their lives. In Thailand, a mother fights property developers to protect the memory of her drowned daughter. While in Indonesia, villagers now live under strict religious law in the belief that the catastrophe was a judgement from God.

Violence is running out of control in Mexico as rival drug cartels battle over the smuggling routes to America. Mexico's president has declared war on the gangsters but the only result appears to be an escalation of the killings. Katya Adler journeys deep into the heart of a shocking conflict, uncovering the human stories behind the seemingly random and disturbing violence. She asks whether the continuing freedom of the world's most powerful drug runner, Joaquin 'Chapo' Guzman, is evidence that the Government's war is toothless.

Reporter Lucy Ash travels to Chechnya to investigate the extraordinary practice of bride stealing. Young women are being kidnapped off the street and married to men they may never have met. Although officially disapproved of, this centuries-old tradition is flourishing. From the moment a young woman is snatched, to her wedding one week later, Lucy follows the twists and turns as two families struggle to negotiate a compromise. She’s also with the mullah whose job it is to arbitrate between the two families and prevent the incident spilling into bloodshed. After a week of tense negotiations, she attends the colourful wedding celebrations where it seems there are as many guns as guests. Chechnya’s President, Ramzan Kadyrov, is an ally of Moscow and governs the Republic with a firm hand. In an interview he explains he is promoting a particular Chechen interpretation of Islam. Lucy joins a state-sponsored patrol on the streets of Grozny. Its job is to persuade women to wear headscarves and dress appropriately. Lucy also meets human rights campaigners to learn how dangerous it can be to oppose the authorities. Lucy Ash also visits the new Islamic Medical Centre. Many thousand troubled and disturbed women have been sent there for treatment. Lucy witnesses a harrowing and violent exorcism performed on a woman in an effort to cure her unhappy marriage. What emerges is a picture of a country and its people struggling to balance the often contradictory forces of Russian Law, Islamic Sharia law and ancient Chechen tradition. Six weeks later Lucy makes a further trip, this time to Kazakhstan, to meet up again with the newly-weds to find out how they are adapting to married life and how the bride is getting on with a husband she barely knew on her wedding day.

The earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January caused death and destruction on a massive scale. Tens of thousands were killed instantly, thousands of others were buried under the rubble and a lucky few were dug out alive. Filmed over the six months after the disaster, This World follows four of the few who were rescued from a death beneath the rubble: a three-year-old child, a musician, a student and a family whose daughter was rescued after nine days. Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, was ill-equipped to cope with a catastrophic earthquake. But as the months pass, the film shows that life for its survivors is hard, but not without moments of hope.

Since the Iraq War began, 17 US soldiers based at Fort Carson, Colorado, have been charged or convicted in 14 murders, manslaughters and attempted murders. Many of these crimes involved men who had served in the same battalion in Iraq, and three of them came from a single platoon. The Wounded Platoon tells the dark tale of the modern-day 'Band of Brothers', and how the war followed them home. It is a story of heroism, grief, combat, drugs, alcohol and brutal murder, and a shocking portrait of what multiple tours and post-traumatic stress are doing to a generation of American soldiers.

Ingrid Betancourt was the world's most famous hostage. On February 23rd 2002, Ingrid, a presidential candidate in Colombia's elections, was kidnapped by the left-wing FARC rebel group along with her assistant and friend Clara Rojas. She was held for over six years in the jungle - with only occasional news coming out including a shocking picture which showed her clearly on the verge of collapse, if not death, in 2007. This is the first documentary account of what happened in the jungle in her words and of those who were there with her: Clara Rojas, her Campaign manager and Marc Gonsalves, one of three Americans who were also held by FARC for many years. The film tells how Ingrid and Clara fell out, ending up virtual enemies with completely different strategies of survival. The film explores the dynamics of captivity, including remarkable interviews with both the FARC soldier who kidnapped Ingrid and Clara - along with their main camp commander, who actually presided over Clara's caesarian section in the middle of the jungle. The film ends with the most daring rescue mission since Entebbe. The Colombian Military sent in twelve unarmed men and women pretending to be aid workers and lured the guerrillas into believing that they were transferring them on a humanitarian mission.

The fastest-growing political movement in the US today is the so-called Tea Party - a right-wing grassroots revolt with hundreds of thousands of supporters and local branches all over the country. Now as the US prepares to vote in crucial mid-term elections, political journalist Andrew Neil is off on a whistle-stop tour of the country to find out what is behind it and why it is spreading like wildfire. The Tea Party wants to change America - but their first target is the Republican Party. Urged on by the likes of Fox News' most prominent host, Glenn Beck, and the Tea Party darling Sarah Palin, they are trying to replace established Republican politicians with Tea Party candidates. But as Andrew Neil discovers, their real target is the man in the White House. They believe Obama is an out-and-out socialist and the Federal Government well on the way to what they see as tyranny. This extraordinary eruption of anger is certainly changing the face of America.

Documentary. Doctor Shershah Syed is a man with a mission - a famous surgeon from Karachi who has spent his life caring for vulnerable women in Pakistan. Now he's caught up in the greatest disaster to hit his country in living memory - the floods. Jane Corbin travels with Doctor Shershah through flood ravaged Sindh province as he performs life-saving operations and delivers medical aid to desperate people.

Film following the agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they track down, arrest and extradite American paedophile sex tourists. In Cambodia, ex-cop Chris Materelli works alongside former Khmer Rouge boy soldier Vansak Suos, investigating Americans who have abused children as young as four, who are sometimes sold by their own parents. Although these agents work under the radar, as in extraordinary rendition, so far eighty-five offenders have been brought back to America to face justice in American courts.

He was once refused entry to Britain. He has called for the Qur'an to be banned and has proposed a tax on wearing headscarves. And he is also the first politician ever to stand trial on charges of 'incitement to hatred'. Geert Wilders, instantly recognisable for his quiff of platinum blond hair, is one of Holland's most controversial and well-known politicians and, some argue, Europe's most dangerous man. Bafta-winning filmmakers Mags Gavan and Joost van der Valk follow Wilders on his campaign trail during the recent Dutch elections, meet members of the international anti-Islamic network who support him, and find out about a conspiracy theory promoting the belief that Europe is being taken over by Islam. With anti-Islamic, anti-immigration parties on the rise all over the European continent, why has Wilders, on the brink of real power in the Netherlands, become the poster boy for the far right?

Nicolas Sarkozy is a different kind of French President; he's populist, flamboyant, some critics even say vulgar. He came to office on a wave of popular support, and his marriage to supermodel Carla Bruni catapulted both of them to global celebrity. But four years on many of the bold reforms Sarkozy promised have ground to a halt, his poll ratings have taken a battering, and France has seen the worst riots in a generation. Emily Maitlis travels to Paris to find out why the French have fallen out of love with the man they nicknamed "President Bling-Bling".

After confronting death 800 meters under the Chilean desert, the 33 trapped miners were then thrust into the glare of the international media's spotlight. Invitations have flooded in from around the world for guest appearances on TV shows, at charity events, even from Sir Bobby Charlton. This film is a vivid and moving account of how three of the miners have coped with the whirlwind of fame, including charismatic Edison Pena who became known around the world as the underground runner and Elvis impersonator. They may now be the toast of the world, but many of the miners are suffering from the anxieties that come with recurring nightmares, and some from psychological issues and addiction - all of which have an inevitable impact on their wives and families. This is the story of how these ordinary working men and their families are struggling with the pressure of sudden fame and wealth, while still coming to terms with the trauma of those 70 days.

How a crisis on a tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean is changing the face of immigration in Europe. This spring, in the wake of the uprisings across the Arab world, the Italian island of Lampedusa, just 70 miles from the African coast, has seen the arrival of over 40,000 migrants from Tunisia and Libya. This programme charts how, within weeks, its small migrant reception centre is overflowing, and the island's tourist economy faces meltdown. The islanders openly revolt, blockading the small port and riot in the streets. Local mayor Bernadino de Rubeis makes desperate attempts to keep everyone calm, with limited results. Only the arrival of beleaguered president Silvio Berlusconi seems to solve the problem, but his solutions are short-lived - weeks later, thousands more Libyans are arriving seeking asylum, prompting panic in Brussels, the closing of European borders and the possible collapse of the EU's celebrated Schengen Agreement.

The Camorra, the Naples mafia, is Italy's bloodiest organised crime syndicate. It has killed thousands and despite suffering many setbacks is as strong as ever. It is into drug trafficking, racketeering, business, politics, toxic waste and even the garbage disposal industry. Naples's waste crisis was in part blamed on the crime syndicate. Its grip on the city is far reaching. Talking to Camorra insiders who have never spoken to the media before, Mark Franchetti investigates Italy's deadliest mafia.

In Thailand a charismatic woman leader has just won a general election promising justice for the victims of army violence. Last year more than ninety people were killed in bloody clashes between demonstrators and the army in central Bangkok. Award-winning correspondent Fergal Keane investigates the struggle of victims' families as they seek the truth about what happened to their loved ones. He explores claims of cover-up and impunity for the powerful.

Spain is reeling from an avalanche of allegations of baby theft and baby trafficking. It is thought that the trade began at the end of the Spanish civil war and continued for 50 years, with hundreds of thousands of babies traded by nuns, priests and doctors up to the 1990s. This World reveals the impact of Spain's stolen baby scandal through the eyes of the children and parents who were separated at birth, and who are now desperate to find their relatives. Exhumations of the supposed graves of babies and positive DNA tests are proof that baby theft has happened. Across Spain, people are queuing up to take a DNA test and thousands of Spaniards are asking 'Who am I?' Katya Adler has been meeting the heartbroken mothers who are searching for the children whom they were told died at birth, as well as the stolen and trafficked babies who are now grown up and searching for their biological relatives and their true identities.

When South Sudan became independent this summer, it brought the return of many who had fled the long civil war. Among them were some of the 'Lost Boys' - the name given to more than 20,000 child refugees, some as young as seven, who walked more than a thousand miles to refugee camps in Ethiopia. More than half fell victim to war, disease and starvation along the way. Many of the survivors were recruited as child soldiers in the rebel army; others were exiled abroad. Now some of the Lost Boys are coming home. For some it's a chance to trace lost relatives and come to terms with childhood trauma, for others an opportunity to help build the new nation and their own careers.

In February 2011, millions of Egyptians came together to bring down President Hosni Mubarak in what became the defining moment of the Arab Spring. For the past year Children of the Revolution has followed three young revolutionaries as their differing visions for the new Egypt have begun to collide. Ahmed Hassan hoped a new Egypt would mean finding work. Socialist activist Gigi Ibrahim's desire was for an Egypt that would respect freedom for all. Tahir Yasin, tortured in Mubarak's jails, joined a new ultra-conservative party hoping to realise his vision of Egypt as an Islamic state. Children of the Revolution goes into homes, markets and mosques, witnessing families at war and personal dreams of revolution unravel.

When a tsunami struck Japan in 2011, it swamped the Fukushima nuclear complex causing nuclear meltdown and releasing radiation that ultimately would leave hundreds of square miles uninhabitable, and cost a hundred thousand people their homes. With unique footage and powerful eyewitness testimony from key figures in the drama - the engineers in the plant, firemen, soldiers, pilots, tsunami survivors, the Japanese prime minister and even the MD of the company operating the plant - Inside the Meltdown reveals what really happened in the extraordinary days after the tsunami as a disaster unfolded that Japan's nuclear industry said would never happen. It tells the story of workers inside the plant's pitch-dark, radio-active reactor buildings desperately trying to stop reactors exploding as radiation levels rose inexorably. 'In the control room people were saying we were finished,' says one. 'They were saying it quietly but they were saying it.' It meets the helicopter pilots who desperately dropped water from above the radioactive cores, and the firemen who braved radiation to spray water onto melting nuclear fuel. 'We chose all the over 40s', their chief tells the programme. 'These were the guys who were not going to be having any more children.' Inside the Meltdown also reveals the tensions between the plant's owners and an increasingly distrustful Japanese prime minister, struggling to get at the truth of what was happening, fearful the owners planned to abandon the plant. He reveals his experts at one point warned he might need to evacuate vast areas of Japan, even the capital Tokyo. 'That first week, we walked a razor thin line,' he tells This World.

This World tells the story of White Horse Village, a tiny farming community deep in rural China. A decade ago, it became part of the biggest urbanisation project in human history, as the Chinese government decided to take half a billion farmers and turn them into city-dwelling consumers. It is a project with a speed and scale unimaginable anywhere else on Earth. In just ten years, the Chinese Government plan to build thousands of new cities, a new road network to rival that of the USA and 300 of the world's biggest dams. Carrie Gracie follows the lives of three local people during this upheaval, filmed over the past six years.

Every Saturday night in China, millions gather around their televisions to watch Interviews Before Execution, an extraordinary talk show which interviews prisoners on death row. In the weeks, days or even minutes before they are executed, presenter Ding Yu goes into prisons and talks to those condemned to die. Combining clips from the TV show, never-before-seen footage of China's death row and interviews with a local judge who openly questions the future of the death penalty in China, This World reveals a part of China that is generally hidden from from view.

John Sweeney investigates the beliefs of Mitt Romney, the man most likely to take on Barack Obama later this year, and asks whether America is ready for a Mormon president. Sweeney travels to Utah to examine the appeal of the world's fastest growing religion. He meets the stars of its expensive ad campaign 'I'm a Mormon', who tell him of their dedication to family and charity. He meets polygamists, followers of an old Mormon tradition the official Church has turned its back on, he talks to missionaries who recruit people around the world just like Mitt Romney in the sixties, finds ex-members who claim they are cut off from their families and accuse Mormonism of being a cult, and he explores the faith with a Mormon apostle.

This World tells the inside story of the 2011 massacre in Norway, offering new insights into the life and mind of the perpetrator Anders Breivik, and exposing the hidden hatreds that inspired him. Through interviews with key players, including the Norwegian prime minister, survivors, the commander of the police response and the head of the Delta Force team that arrested Breivik, and including unique footage and unseen archive, the film pieces together, minute by minute, the course of the attacks and the response of the security services.

Decades of clerical abuse and cover up have left the Catholic church in Ireland at breaking point. Now Darragh MacIntyre reveals new evidence of a scandal that goes to the very top of the Irish church.

Self-confessed Eurosceptic Michael Portillo visits debt-stricken Greece. He believes that the euro crisis must have shaken the Greeks' faith in Europe's single currency and wonders if there'll be a desire to revert to the free-floating drachma. In Athens he meets everyone from a destitute young family to the former finance minister and the outgoing Prime Minister, and is surprised by some of their answers. Meanwhile in Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, Michael encounters the taxpayers who are paying most towards Greece's mammoth financial bailout while having to watch angry Athenians burning the German flag. With tensions rising in the Eurozone, is this the moment it becomes more united, or will it be pulled apart?

Documentary which captures the moment when the Nobel Prize-winning dissident Aung San Suu Kyi took the huge, risky step into everyday politics in Burma. This tells Suu Kyi's extraordinary personal and political story, how she turned from Oxford housewife into national leader and then international icon of resistance.

Andrew Marr looks back at Barack Obama's first term in office. When Obama stood before a crowd of nearly two million people, preparing to take the oath of office, it was a moment that many never believed they would see: the inauguration of a black American president. Now, through informal and candid interviews with some of Obama's own White House staff and those who have worked closely with him, Andrew Marr assesses how far this presidency has lived up to the huge expectations. Administration insiders like Austan Goolsbee, the economics professor who advised Obama through the worst economic crisis since the great depression, and Former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley recount the stories behind the moments that have defined a tumultuous presidency, revealing how this extraordinary orator who entered the White House with a flourish of bold idealism and grand promises to change the ways of Washington has ultimately been replaced by a very different man.

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Cuba to find a communist country in the middle of a capitalist revolution. Two years ago Cuba announced the most sweeping and radical economic reforms the country has seen in decades. From ending state rationing to cutting one million public-sector jobs, one of the last communist bastions in the world has begun rolling back the state on an unprecedented scale. Simon Reeve meets ordinary Cubans whose lives are being transformed, from the owners of fledgling businesses to the newly rich estate agents selling properties worth up to 750,000 pounds. In this hour-long documentary for the BBC's award-winning This World strand, Simon gets under the skin of a colourful and vibrant country famous for its hospitality and humour and asks if this new economic openness could lead to political liberalisation in a totalitarian country with a poor human rights record. Will Cuba be able to maintain the positive aspects of its long isolation under socialism - low crime, top-notch education and one of the best health systems in the world - while embracing what certainly looks like capitalism? Is this the last chance to see Cuba before it becomes just like any other country?

Paul Mason travels to Spain to investigate how this once thriving economy has become the latest casualty of the Eurozone crisis. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have all received massive bailouts with strict conditions. But Spain is different. One of the largest economies in the world, for nearly twenty years "cool Espana" meant cutting edge architecture, the world's best restaurants and the magic of Barcelona Football Club. Spain was a European success story. For BBC Two's award-winning strand This World, Mason reveals how the transition to democracy after Franco's dictatorship created a financial and political system that left the country vulnerable to catastrophe when the world economic crisis struck in 2008. One of the keenest advocates of the European single currency, Spain is now the biggest victim of the Eurozone crash with youth unemployment running at more than 50%. Interviewing key players, including former prime minister Felipe Gonzalez and European commissioner Joaquin Almunia, Mason reveals how Spain's extraordinary credit and construction boom has collapsed, leaving millions facing poverty and the politicians still bickering about a massive potential bail out.

In the United States, child poverty has reached record levels, with over 16 million children now affected. Food banks are facing unprecedented demand, and homeless shelters now have long waiting lists, as families who have known a much better life sometimes have to leave their homes with just a few days notice. This World asks three children whose families are struggling to get by to explain what life in modern America really looks like through their eyes. Told from the point of view of the children themselves, this one-hour documentary offers a unique perspective on the nation's flagging economy and the impact of unemployment, foreclosure and financial distress as seen through the eyes of the children affected.

Dan Snow travels to Syria to see how the country's fascinating and tumultuous history is shaping the current civil war. For thousands of years, empires and despots have fought for control of the strategically vital region, leaving behind stunning temples, castles and mosques, as well as a diverse cultural heritage. Those conflicts - from the Roman conquests to the crusades, from the French colonial invasion to the military coups of the 1960s - loom large in today's conflict. For those confused by the seemingly random nature of the bloodshed and slaughter, Dan Snow unpicks the historic divisions between Sunnis and Alawites, Islamists and secularists, east and west.

Ten years after the invasion of Iraq, retired headteacher, Geoff Dunsmore, travels to Basra to follow in the footsteps of his son Chris, an RAF reservist who was killed there in 2007. Geoff has never believed for a second that Chris died in vain, saying that his son believed in what he was doing and believed in why he was going to Iraq. Now, Geoff is going to see exactly where his son was killed and find out the impact of the war and occupation on the lives of the ordinary people of Basra. Has the western involvement in Iraq improved things for ordinary Iraqi people? Accompanied by local guide, Mazin Altayar, Geoff hears firsthand what life was like for Iraqis under the dictator Saddam Hussein. He visits a rundown primary school that British troops tried to help during the occupation and hears from a man who claims 12 of his family were killed when American soldiers opened fire on his vehicles. For the most part, with the country still suffering from terrorist violence, the repercussions of the conflict have been devastating and long lasting. Yet on the streets of Basra Geoff also meets a group of young people who have grown up knowing nothing but war but believe that they can build a different future in Iraq today.

In August 2012, 34 miners were shot dead by police as they protested outside a mine in Marikana, just outside Johannesburg. Nearly 50 years after he left South Africa as a teenager, Peter Hain MP returns to ask how the country of his childhood, once such a beacon of hope, is now the scene of such tragedy. In this documentary for the BBC's award-winning This World strand, Hain speaks to the families of some of the men killed at Marikana and uncovers a day of shocking brutality with many disturbing allegations. With unprecedented access to Lonmin, the company at the centre of the tragedy, he visits the mine and talks to the CEO. But what led the South African ruling party, always the champions of black people and their rights, to turn their guns on some of the poorest of their own people with dreadful echo's of the apartheid era? Hain meets legends of the ANC struggle, talking to Ahmed Kathrada and Ronnie Kasrils about whether the moral legacy of Nelson Mandela has been betrayed. Finally Hain meets President Jacob Zuma to put to him the allegations of corruption, cronyism and brutality against their own people.

Italy's most powerful organised crime group is no longer Sicily's Cosa Nostra but the 'Ndrangheta', a shadowy Mafia from the southern region of Calabria. With unique access to the extraordinary underground bunkers the gangsters use for hiding out and to the hi-tech war being fought by the Italian authorities against this murderous criminal brotherhood, author and mafia historian John Dickie uncovers the truth about Europe's biggest cocaine traffickers. This is a world of special forces, spy planes and super grasses, as well as a culture of fear and silence where people simply do not trust the Italian state to defeat the Mafiosi.

Anita Rani travels to Mumbai to investigate the obesity epidemic engulfing India's growing middle class. She meets some of India's overweight teenagers who can't stop bingeing on western fast foods, including 13-year-old Kaleb who weighs more than 15 stone. She visits the clinics at the centre of a booming industry in weight loss surgery. Regulation of the fast food industry is much looser than in Western countries and wealthy Indians are susceptible to the lure of advertising and the promise of a western lifestyle. What is more, Indians are more genetically disposed to obesity and to the diabetes that all too often accompanies it. And now that the international fast-food chains and their Indian imitators are opening up branches beyond the big cities in India, the obesity problem is set to explode into a national pandemic

In November last year the American state of Colorado voted to legalise the recreational use of cannabis. It is the most radical experiment in drugs policy for generations and the world will be looking to see what happens, particularly to drug use amongst teenagers. In this hour long documentary for This World, clinical psychologist and addiction expert Professor John Marsden heads to Denver, the state capital, to assess the likely impact of legalisation on a country already suffering an epidemic of teenage marijuana use. At a local high school, John hears from A grade students who explain that getting stoned is now more socially acceptable than getting drunk. At an addiction clinic that treats children as young as 12, John hears how marijuana is already the number one reason for kids to enter residential programmes more than alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs combined. With rates of teenage cannabis use in the USA the highest that they have been in years, it is widely acknowledged the war on drugs has failed. However the question is, will full legalisation manage to take the selling of the drug out of the hands of the street dealers and into the hands of the legitimate business people and be the answer to stopping America's kids from getting stoned?

British survivors of January 2013's terrorist attack on a gas plant in Algeria tell their dramatic and harrowing stories. Thirty nine people died and dozens of foreign workers were taken hostage after al Qaeda terrorists stormed the sprawling facility in the Sahara desert and the Algerian army responded with overwhelming force. For the first time survivors tell the inside story of their miraculous escape playing cat and mouse with their captors, being forced to wear a necklace of explosives and coming under fire from Algerian army helicopter gunships. BBC2's award winning This World strand asks why it was seemingly so easy for the terrorists to enter the plant and why the Algerians reacted in the way they did.

Dan Snow goes on an adventure across one of the wildest countries in the world. He reveals how its history of slavery, colonialism, corruption and war has turned what should be one of the richest countries in the world into one of the poorest. He discovers how the country’s natural resources helped make Britain rich through the centuries and win two world wars and also takes us on a trip to a gold mine in eastern Congo.

In a world where people panic about the rising global population, Japan is facing a very different future which could see their population shrink by a third in just 40 years. One reason is that the Japanese are not having enough babies and the causes of that form the basis of Anita Rani's intriguing journey. Part of a season of programmes on population for This World, No Sex Please, We're Japanese explores Otaku culture - the world of nerds and geeks obsessed with computer games and Manga cartoons - which has led to a withdrawal of many Japanese men from the whole dating game. Anita meets two men in their late thirties who have in depth relationships with virtual teenage girlfriends as part of a role playing game: 'I think twice about going out with a 3D woman', says one. The Japanese have far less sex than other nations and Anita also meets the women who struggle to work and have children in a society still dominated by traditional gender roles. Added to this, Japan also has the oldest population in the world, 25% are over 65 and 50,000 over a hundred years old. Anita visits a group of pensioners cheerleaders and a prison with a wing especially designed for pensioners. Too few young people to pay tax, too many old people needing support - it has all led to a debt problem worse than that of Greece and an uncertain future for a country that still is the third largest economy in the world.

The head nurse in Manila's busiest maternity ward estimates that she has delivered 200,000 babies during her career. On a busy day, a hundred babies are born at the Jose Fabella hospital and women in labour lie four or five to a bed. Anita Rani travels to the crazy crowded capital of the Philippines, to see how the countries of the developing world are facing a future with a rapidly growing population by following the lives of three different women. Rosalyn, whose seventh child will have to survive on less than a pound a day; Rose, a middle-class mum who can afford the best care in the world; and Junalyn, on a journey out of the slums to a better life. Amid the drama of new life Anita finds a story of economic growth and hope in Manila. Across the developing world birth rates have plummeted, life expectancy has increased and young vibrant workforces are beginning to compete with the established economies of the West.