Documentaries
An indepth look at stories and issues from around the world. This podcast offers you the chance to access landmark series from our archive.
Serbia: Under The Canopy
Eighteen months ago, the renovation of the railway station in Serbia’s second biggest city, Novi Sad, led to a tragic accident. A substantial concrete canopy, which ran across the front of the station building, suddenly collapsed, killing sixteen people. The disaster sparked mass protests. Marchers demanded justice for the dead…
Artist Joan Eardley
In Scotland, from 1940 to 1963, the artist Joan Eardley produced a cache of monumental seascapes, landscapes, and poignant portraits. When she died aged 42 of breast cancer, people were still trying to categorise her work - part abstract expressionist, part Scottish colourist, part social realist, part kitchen sink (one…
For the love of dogs
Mityana is a bustling regional town in central Uganda, where motorbikes are king. Here an online con operation flourishes in plain sight. Armed with smartphones, emotional images, and carefully crafted lies, a network of young men preys on dog lovers in Europe and America - people who believe they are…
Mapping Epstein's global connections
The personal correspondence, photographs and papers of the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein have been released to the public in stages, beginning in December 2025, after an almost unanimous vote in the US Senate. The released files run to three and a half million documents — emails,…
My social life as a wheelchair user
Imagine being dressed up for a night out with friends and being thrown out of a bar because your wheelchair is considered a fire hazard. When 18-year-old Maddie Haining was ordered to leave a nightclub in the UK it prompted a wider discussion about disability and accessibility in different countries…
A church without Walls
Pastor Jane Codrington grew up in a conservative faith environment before leaving the institutional church to found We Are Church - a community for those excluded by traditional structures. Set within a quiet, gated Johannesburg neighbourhood reflecting the city’s wealth and social divides, the church brings people together to connect,…
Atomic crossroads: Poland's nuclear future
Forty years after Chernobyl, Poland aims to open its first nuclear power plant. Shortly after the disaster, only 30% of Poles supported nuclear power. In 2022, the support hit a record 75%, almost doubling just from the year before, according to public opinion polls. Poland’s nuclear revival attempts to solve…
In Our Time: The Mariana Trench
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered the Mariana Trench which turned out to be deeper than Everest is high, by two kilometres. Trenches like Mariana form when one tectonic plate slips…
Driving Against Net Zero
Is defence of the petrol car and liberated motoring becoming the new battleground for Europe’s populist parties? Chris Bowlby visits one of the homes of German car culture and a populist stronghold, Zwickau, to see how motoring is rising up the German agenda. Is Zwickau a foretaste of something affecting…
Neha Vyaso: Crafting consent in Bollywood
*** This programme contains scenes of a sexual nature and discussion of sexual assault, including child sex abuse *** Neha Vyaso is one of the most successful intimacy co-ordinators in Bollywood. She has worked with some of Bollywood's biggest names, including actors Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone and Konkona Sen Sharma,…
Introducing: The Climate Question: China's green energy revolution
China is installing solar panels and wind turbines so fast that its greenhouse gases emissions may now have peaked. If this trend is confirmed, it would be a major milestone in the fight against climate change because China is the world's largest polluter. The BBC’s Beijing Correspondent Laura Bicker has…
Inside the Mugabe dynasty
Late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe died in 2019, but in the years before and since his death, his three children with his former wife, Grace, consistenly made headlines for all the wrong reasons. In April 2026 Bellarmine Mugabe pled guilty to a firearms offence in South Africa and last year,…
Meet the preppers
“Stockpiling peace” preppers share their experiences
Faith and revolution in the Philippines
Forty years ago, a Filipino soldier serving under Ferdinand Marcos Sr, was ordered to attack civilians opposing the corrupt regime. After wrestling with his conscience, Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan found he could not do it. Along with other soldiers who resigned from their posts, he founded the Reform for Armed Forces…
Under the influence of AI
AI is an ever-growing part of our everyday life through apps like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude that are becoming part of everyday life. But what happens when your conversations with AI start to feel more real than the world around you? In Northern Ireland, Adam was drawn into an…
Introducing Searching for Soldier Dad
DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared, leaving the children and their mothers without support. In the latest season of World of Secrets, we access every stage of this cutting-edge process, we follow as a team of lawyers and a leading geneticist travel…
In Iceland's Defence
Iceland is an island of great beauty and even greater strategic importance. Its position in the Greenland Iceland UK Gap, the gateway between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, makes it crucial to Nato operations in the High North. But Iceland is one of the few nations in the world with…
The Last Dance Floor in Chernobyl
The untold story of a young couple falling in love and getting married against the backdrop of disaster. Serhiy first laid eyes on Iryna under the swirling lights of the best disco in town. She was wearing a cool jumpsuit with a bright red belt, which drew attention to her…
Patti LuPone: Taking the stage at Carnegie Hall
Patti LuPone – three-time Tony and two-time Grammy Award winner – has long reigned as one of Broadway’s most formidable leading ladies. In this edition of In The Studio, we join her in New York for a highly anticipated solo concert at Carnegie Hall. Best known for defining roles in…
Counting the soldiers dying for Russia
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year and armies on both sides have faced massive losses. Authorities in Ukraine regularly publish the numbers of their soldiers who have been killed, but Russian authorities haven’t released official numbers for their dead since 2022. Throughout the war, Olga…