Episodes
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Brand Cuba part one
In Brand Cuba, Allan Little analyses some of the factors that have kept Cuba alive in the public imagination over such a long period.
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Too Many Santas
Throughout much of the Christian world Christmas is the time when Santa Claus dominates – a fat jolly chap who is our friend.
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Assignment In Exile
There are more than 10 million Palestinians living around the world, more than half of whom are stateless. In this year when Israel has been marking its 60th anniversary many Palestinians have been reflecting on the event that for them meant exile. The 'naqba', or catastrophe, is how they…
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Return to White Horse Village part three
While China's economy has boomed over the past 30 years, many of its 700 million farmers have been stuck in poverty. Their only hope of a wage has been far from home in the factories and building sites of the boomtowns.
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Timeline part three
Timeline is the programme where the past sheds light on recent events though use of archive material.
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Assignment A Return to Helmand
Last year our correspondent Jill McGivering reported from Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan on the constant violence and the struggle to bring development to the region. Now she's returned, one year on, to see if there's been any progress.
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Return to White Horse Village part two
While China's economy has boomed over the past 30 years, many of its 700 million farmers have been stuck in poverty.
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1968: The year that changed the world?
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John Tusa examines what made 1968 such a climactic year. Programme three looks at how race and nationalism finally came to a head in 1968.
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Assignment Bolivia on the Brink
And now Assignment asks whether Bolivia is on the brink of civil war. In the run-up to next month’s crucial vote on a new constitution, Daniel Schweimler reports from the wealthy and white-dominated city of Santa Cruz, where the dispute over the policies of the country’s indigenous President Evo...
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1968: The year that changed the world?
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John Tusa examines what made 1968 such a climactic year. Programme two captures the student unrest around the world.
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Assignment - Aids and the Caribbean
Five years after doing a series of reports on HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean, Emma Joseph retraces her steps for Assignment to find out whether the region still has one of the highest infection rates in the world, and to meet some of the people she first encountered in 2003.
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Timeline - part one
In this topical and lively series, contemporary stories and events are explored through the examination of archive material of events that have gone before.
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1968: The year that changed the world?
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John Tusa examines what made 1968 such a climactic year. Starting with the Vietnam War and the assasination of Bobby Kennedy, this series reflects on why 1968 was significant in world history.
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Tired of Terror Part Two
Rupa Jha explores what ex-militants in Kashmir and their families expect from the future.
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Street Art Part One
This series looks at street art in two very different cities: New York and Sao Paulo. Each episode profiles a rising artist, and speaks to people on the street to discover how attitudes to graffiti and street art vary from city to city. Episode 1 looks at New York through the eyes of Elbow-Toe.
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Giving up the gun in Kashmir
Rupa Jha talks to former militants in Kashmir and their families about why they took up arms and the reasons behind giving up violence. What are the challenges of returning to normal society?
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The world without...copper
You might think that copper is just another metal, but in fact it is a vital substance. Discover why, without this metal, even the evolution of life itself would be radically different.
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Toxic Trailers - Assignment
Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless when Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the southern coast of the United States in 2005. Many survivors were rehoused by the federal government in travel trailers which they claim made them sick. For
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Hard lessons from Afghanistan Part Two
Former Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston reflects on decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the intervention by the West.
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Animal Migration in a Climate of Change - Part Three
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part Three, The Elephant's Journey, Brett Westwood looks at African elephant migration.
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The world without...cows
Discover just how important cows have been civilisation, all around the world.
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Hard Lessons from Afghanistan Part One
Former Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston reflects on decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the intervention by the West.
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Animal Migration in a Climate of Change
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part One, The Mexican Wave, the focus is on sustaining the Orange Monarch butterfly.
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The PR battle for the Caucasus
The South Ossetian conflict not only sparked a military war between Russia and Georgia, but a propaganda battle. James Rodgers examines this ongoing media war between Georgia and Russia - featuring archive clips of key events and interviews.
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Rat Attack
Neil McCarthy pieces together a story of rats, famine and insurrection from the 1950's to present day, in remote hills of North East India.
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The Lost Veterans
Andrew Purcell investigates the growing homelessness crisis among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the United States. The programme looks at how these 'lost veterans' struggle to reintegrate into civilian society, and how they feel abandoned by the US military.
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America’s First Principles
Allan Little presents an appraisal of the man described as America's Apostle of Freedom: Thomas Jefferson, author of the founding document of the American Republic.
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Failure or Fraud
As the global banking crisis deepens, a flood of multi-million dollar lawsuits is beginning to shed light into some of the darkest corners of international finance. The BBC's Michael Robinson investigates these cases and what they reveal about the present disaster.
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Is al-Qaeda winning? Part Four
The Saudi Interior Ministry and the US Military in Iraq have offered al - Qaeda sympathisers and detainees therapy and job training. Owen Bennett-Jones asks if this can really prevent someone from supporting al-Qaeda.
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Out Of The Ghetto
This special documentary exploring life in Chicago's inner city is based on Ghetto Life 101, an acclaimed 1993 documentary featuring LeAlan Jones and LLoyd Newman, two teenagers who brought US radio listeners face to face with life in of one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Jones has…
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The View from Kashmir Assignment
A series of protests against Indian rule in Kashmir has left more than 30 people dead since August. Thousands of people have died in the violence there since 1989. For Assignment George Arney travels to Kashmir to speak to young people caught up in the protests and discovers that for the first…
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Is al-Qaeda Winning? Part Three
Owen Bennett-Jones tests the big promises governments have made about the financial war on terror.
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In the Shadow of the Cartel Assignment
In Mexico, the government has deployed thousands of troops in an attempt to break up the powerful drug cartels operating in the country. Emilio San Pedro travels to the border city of Tijuana and profiles a community under pressure from one of Mexico's most violent gangs.
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Children of the Revolution Part two
In Iran, the constant drugs crisis and loss of skilled workers contrast with a lively internet scene which harbours poets, political dissidents and religious leaders.
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Is al Qaeda Winning? part two
Owen Bennett-Jones looks at al Qaeda's hard power and military capabilities in its chosen key battlegrounds: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
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Africa's Guantanamo Assignment
In Assignment, Robert Walker travels to East Africa to investigate a secret detention programme - involving the transfer of suspected terrorists across three countries: Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
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Children of the revolution Part one
This series explores what life offers to Iran's burgeoning young population who are trapped by conservatism and an ailing economy. In the first programme, we hear how the war with Iraq acted as a continuation of the Revolution.
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Is al Qaeda Winning? Part one
Seven years into the global war on terror, is al-Qaeda winning? It's a deceptively simple question, one Owen Bennett-Jones asked in Riyadh, Peshawar and Baghdad, as well as London, Brussels and Washington for this series in four parts.
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Pakistan's Tribal areas
Pakistan's government is locked in an intense battle with Islamist militants for control of areas on its northern border with Afghanistan. For Assignment Owen Bennett-Jones visits the Khyber pass - the main supply route for the American and other western forces based in Afghanistan - and…
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My Senator My Vote Part Two
Robin Lustig travels to Phoenix, Arizona, the home of Senator John McCain, to ask two ordinary voters about their most pressing concerns in the forthcoming US presidential election.
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Looted Art
A tale of a tiny painting, set against a large canvas of war, politics and looted art in Charle's Wheeler quest to solve a 50-year mystery.
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The Afghan Arms Bazaar Assignment
As the insurgency in Afghanistan grows, Kate Clark travels undercover to investigate who's arming the Taleban. Meeting commanders and arms dealers, she finds the Taleban are getting their weapons from some suprising sources.
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My Senator My Vote Part One
We know the two US presidential candidates and what they would do in office, but what does the electorate itself want? Robin Lustig travels to the candidates' home states to meet four Americans to find out what issues have determined their choices.
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The Desert Capitalists Part Two
How are the Marwari traders managing as India goes global? Can a business culture based on traditional values survive as India's economy changes?
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Tales from the Commonwealth Part One
The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting the Maldives for part one of this series.
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The Desert Capitalists Part One
Mukhul Devichand finds out how the Marwari trading caste from India's western deserts has become a major global economic and political force.
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The 66 Club
Ruth Evans tells the extraordinary story of 11 women brought together on the internet by one man's sperm.
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The Presidential Contenders Part Two
John McCain: a profile of the man who talks of honour and patriotic duty and admits having a legendary short fuse.
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What Lies Beneath Part two
Win Scutt finds out how the maritime treasure hunting industry has boomed in recent years.
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Spain's Civil War Breaking the Silence
Following recent legislation in Spain the government has agreed to offer support to families wishing to find the remains of their loved ones killed during the country's brutal civil war of the 1930s. For Assignment, Mike Williams travels to Spain to visit an exhumation of bodies and asks if the...