Documentaries

BBC

An indepth look at stories and issues from around the world. This podcast offers you the chance to access landmark series from our archive.

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August 2 · 29 min
What is so-called 'Jihadi cool'?
The extremist content quietly spreading on TikTok and Instagram, targeting unsuspecting young people. Through what is disguised as innocuous lifestyle content, supporters of jihadist groups like IS and al-Qaeda reach audiences outside their echo chamber. This is a recruitment drive that signals a move from direct operational instructions to “do-it-yourself jihad", with the aim of potentially inspiring lone wolf attacks. The Global Jigsaw explores the tactics used to obscure and evade detection, the challenges this poses for platforms, and how it has become a relentless game of whack-a-mole. Find out more about BBC Monitoring on our website: monitoring.bbc.co.uk Contributors: Mariam Soussi, Mina al-Lami Producer: Kriszta Satori, Elchin Suleymanov Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg Music: Pete Cunningham
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August 1 · 26 min
A Chinese dissident's journey
When Chinese policeman Dong Guangping wrote an article commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, it kicked off a chain of events that led to him serving jail time and losing his job. But it also sparked the beginning of a deep desire to live more freely. So Dong began planning how he might escape China. Just a few weeks ago, back in late May, he finally achieved his dream, having taken the huge risk of crossing China's Yellow Sea in a dinghy to reach South Korean waters. Phoebe Kong, based in the BBC's Hong Kong bureau, explained how rare Dong's achievement really is. Yemen has faced decades of economic hardship and war, but the khat industry is thriving. Khat is a plant, and when chewed it acts as a stimulant. It is estimated to consume one-third of Yemen's groundwater and occupy much of the country's agricultural land. Dalia Haidar of BBC Arabic has been looking into Yemen's relationship to khat and the problem it can cause. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
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August 1 · 25 min
Wildfires in Europe
Wildfires continue to burn across the continent. Thousands of people have been evacuated on the Greek island of Crete, as well as in western France, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. A blaze in central Spain has burned almost 80,000 hectares over the last week and is now considered the largest recorded wildfire in Spanish history. With temperatures hitting more than 40 degrees Celsius in south-western France, firefighters, planes and helicopters have been battling fires there. Muriele in France and Julian in Spain share their experiences of escaping the flames. Robin – on holiday with his family – describes what it was like as the fire approached their French campsite. “The pool was getting filled up with ash, you could see all black pine needles, bits of bark that were burnt, it blocked out the sun,” Robin tells us. We also bring together volunteers in France, helping to provide food and shelter for people displaced from their homes.
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July 31 · 28 min
Rastafari and I
What does it mean to inherit a faith that served as a fortress for your father, but feels like a contradiction to you? Throughout his childhood in Oxford, Silas Gray was surrounded by the sights, sounds, and symbols of his father’s Rastafarian identity. He was even named after the Rastafarian spiritual figurehead, Emperor Haile Selassie I. But this legacy weighs heavily. It anchors him to a complex world leader he’s not sure he’s aligned with. And he feels like an imposter carrying a name associated with a faith he doesn’t practise. Desperate to find a version of this legacy he can comfortably own, Silas decides to do what his father spent forty years dreaming of but never actually did: he books a flight to Ethiopia and travels to the Rastafarian spiritual motherland of Shashamane, the land granted to the global black diaspora by the Emperor himself. Silas encounters a living, breathing community where three generations of Rastafarians exist under one roof. This is a deeply personal pilgrimage about a son trying to see what his father sees, heal a generational disconnect, and finally make peace with his name.
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July 30 · 34 min
A battle that changed Ireland
The 1st of July 1916 is still one of the deadliest days in the history of warfare. Nearly 20,000 men from the British Army and 6,000 German soldiers were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The World War One battle would last another four months and was one of the first examples of industrial warfare; three million men fought in it, over a-million soldiers were wounded, missing or killed. Jordan Dunbar investigates how, 110 years on, the battle still affects people and communities, and discovers new insights about its impact on his own family and on the history of Ireland.
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July 29 · 20 min
Sierra Leone: The cocaine trail
Ed Butler investigates how one of Europe’s most wanted drug smugglers, Jos Leijdekkers, ended up in Sierra Leone while evading justice. He also explores reports linking Leijdekkers to the family of Sierra Leone’s president, including claims that he has married the president’s daughter. for more programmes like this search Business Daily wherever you get your BBC Podcasts Presenter/producer: Ed Butler
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July 28 · 29 min
The Kenyans taking on multinational chemical companies
In Kenya, a young lawyer is bringing a legal case against the Kenyan government, regulator, and several multinational agrochemical companies. He’s working alongside activists and health practitioners, and they claim that hazardous pesticides and herbicides, designed to make farming for efficient, are damaging the health of farmers in Kenya. They are demanding changes to regulation, as well as increased education and compensation for people who they claim, have had their health severely affected by high exposure to these products. For Assignment, Josephine Casserly travels to Kenya to follow lawyers, health practitioners and scientists as they face the challenges of gathering evidence to support their case.
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July 27 · 28 min
James Turrell: Master Of Light
The American artist James Turrell is famous for his Skyspaces. A Skyspace is chamber with an opening to the sky. Turrell bathes the roof with light that subtly changes colour, which affects our perception of the colour of the sky itself. Julian May travels to ARoS, the Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark to meet James Turrell as he prepares his latest SkySpace, entitled As Seen Below – The Dome. It is a monumental work, which from the ground outside looks like tumulus, an ancient a grass covered burial mound. To experience the work Julian goes through an underground tunnel that brings him into the huge domed space flooded with changing coloured light. Through the opening the sky appears at once immensely deep, yet close. James Turrell tells Julian that while most artists depict light, light is his material; his work is light itself. He speaks about how flying (he gained a pilot’s licence at the age of sixteen), the changing colours of the sky and the disorientating experience of speeding between clouds and fog inspires him. How, too, his upbringing and life as a Quaker has a profound influence. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.
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July 26 · 51 min
Driving across the divide
Cars driven by Israeli volunteers wait at check points to give lifts to sick Palestinians to their hospital appointments - what the volunteers call “one hour of peace”. Since Hamas’s attacks on 7 October, it has become an increasingly rare space for Israelis and Palestinians to speak and build trust and connection amid the trauma of war. Most Palestinians from the occupied West Bank are prevented from travelling to Israel, among them patients in desperate need of specialised medical treatment. Some days there are more than 80 car rides, volunteer drivers, waiting at the checkpoint, by the separation barrier that divides Israel and the West Bank. Meanwhile in Gaza, patients who used to receive medical care in Israel are among around 20,000 patients on a long list awaiting medical evacuation. Jerusalem reporter Naomi Scherbel-Ball hears how they have survived more than two years of a devastating war, displaced from their homes and reliant on a health system all but destroyed by war. She also meets the Israeli volunteers, who had friends and family killed on 7 October. Despite the war, some have stayed in touch with the patients they used to drive from Gaza.
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July 25 · 29 min
Saving Nigeria's vultures
When it comes to conservation, adorable and majestic animals often attract the most concern for their plight. It's not so easy to get the public's attention when it comes to animals that are perceived as weird or creepy or downright unpleasant. The vulture, traditionally associated with death and carrion, falls into this unlucky group. Globally, around 70% of vultures are now under threat of extinction and Nigeria's vultures are no exception. BBC West Africa journalist Makuochi Okafor has been investigating this story. In Vietnam, The Last Empress, a new film inspired by the life of the final empress of the Nguyen Dynasty, appears to be provoking a strong reaction. Nam Phuong is a well-known historical figure in Vietnam, who along with her husband, Bao Dai, she was also seen as a puppet of the French colonial regime. Since the release of the trailer for The Last Empress, this long debate in Vietnam has bubbled back to life. Duc Ha from the BBC's Bangkok bureau has been exploring the human story behind all the politics and controversy. In a private party in a Russian town, Katya was about to blow out the candles on her 30th birthday cake when masked men burst into the nightclub that she had hired and began physically and verbally attacking her friends. The swoop was instigated by a vigilante group who want to accelerate President Vladimir Putin's promotion of what he sees as traditional Russian family values. As is sometimes the case in these raids, members of the town's police also joined them, shutting down the party and interrogating the guests. Amalia Zatari of BBC Russian has been looking into this vigilante group. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
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July 25 · 26 min
The lifelong toll of surviving disaster
It has been a month since the twin earthquakes in Venezuela, estimated to have killed more than five thousand people. But there have also been some remarkable stories of rescue with people being pulled alive from the rubble many days after the disaster. In our conversations, we bring together people who survived disasters to discuss the long-term impact the events have had on their lives. Marinel lived through Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013 and was one of the strongest typhoons in recorded history. Jeff was a pupil at the junior school in Aberfan in South Wales. In 1966, 116 children were killed when waste from coal mines crashed down the mountainside engulfing his school. “I did go to one counsellor and that counsellor said to me, when you review what you’ve been through, think of happy things like birthday parties,” Jeff tells us. “Well, the majority of people that would have come to my birthday party were now gone.” We also bring together rescue workers to hear what motivates them and how they cope with confronting death and destruction. This edition of The Documentary is from BBC Conversations where we bring people together to share their personal experiences of world events. Presenter: James Reynolds BBC producers: Ryan Keane, Lindsay Brown and Isabella Bull Boffin Media producer: Richard Hollingham Editors: Arja Haikonen and Harriet Oliver A Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC World Service Outside Source team.
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July 24 · 29 min
Searching for my samurai mother
When her mother dies, Rimi Tanaka regrets that she never truly got to know her. And so when her mother’s literary agent calls Rimi out of the blue, and asks her if she wants to write the book Akemi was writing when she died, Rimi seizes the opportunity. Akemi was researching her samurai ancestry, learning more about their philosophical code, and how it can teach us to live a fuller life today. Can completing her mother’s spiritual quest help Rimi finally come closer to someone she felt she never fully knew?
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July 23 · 35 min
The spirit of Tala: The rapid rise of Tala's netball team
In 2014, Tonga had no national netball team, coach, squad, or training facilities. Determined to change that, former television news anchor Salote Sisifa became CEO of Tonga Netball and promised the board that within five years she would build a team capable of competing internationally and reaching the world’s top 10 by 2025. If she failed, she would resign. Alongside, Head Coach Jaqua Pori-Makea-Simpson, Salote propelled Tonga from 42nd to seveth in the world rankings navigating national disaster, the Covid-19 pandemic, and restricted resources along the way. This episode of The Documentary Podcast examines Tonga’s extraordinary journey and how they have become a formidable force on the international stage. Their next milestone is their Commonwealth Games debut in 2026.
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July 22 · 45 min
Bonus: Forgiving a killer - from Lives Less Ordinary
Why I don’t hate the person who tried to kill me in Norway’s worst terror attack from a far-right extremist. Bjorn Ihler speaks to Lives Less Ordinary, the podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Fifteen years ago today, on 22 July 2011, Bjorn Ihler was a 20-year-old performing arts student and a member of the youth division of the Norwegian Labour Party. He participated in the Party's summer camp on Utøya island, about 35km from Norway's capital Oslo, when Norway suffered its worst terror attack in recent history. Anders Breivik was a far-right extremist who launched a bomb attack on government offices in Oslo. Two hours later he attacked the summer camp that Bjorn was attending. 77 people were killed that day – the majority on the island. Bjorn survived and helped save two young boys who were also on Utøya. Just days after the incident Bjorn threw himself into trying to understand how someone could behave this way. Today, Bjorn is an expert in preventing radicalisation and extremism and alongside his wife co-founded the Khalifa Ihler Institute which promotes peace, human rights, and community. Presenter: Jo Fidgen For more extraordinary personal stories, search for Lives Less Ordinary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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July 21 · 29 min
Italy’s child obesity time-bomb
Children who are so obese they’re banned from their local gyms. Two and three year olds who are so used to juice and fizzy drinks they find it difficult to drink water. This is the child obesity epidemic hitting Italy. The country is often considered the spiritual home of the fabled mediterranean diet, celebrated as the secret to a long, healthy life. But Italy’s children are now the second most overweight in the EU. The reasons for this change in a generation are complex and hotly disputed. Experts are putting it down to a daily diet heavy in pasta, pizza, potatoes, bread and meat proteins. Parents say their teenage children are eating a family dinner then going out to binge on fast food. Others accuse the parents themselves of overindulging their children from an early age. Italy is acting. It recently became one of the first countries in the world to formally recognise obesity as a chronic disease. Twenty five secondary schools in the Campania region of Southern Italy, including Naples, will take part in an ambitious clinical trial to try and get their pupils to eat more healthily in a bid to prevent a looming health crisis. Can Italy turn its child obesity crisis around? And what lessons does its experiment hold for other countries struggling with the same problem? Sofia Bettiza reports from Naples. Producer: Bob Howard Sound engineer: James Beard Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Penny Murphy (Image: Medical assistant weighing young girl at the university hospital in Naples, Italy. Credit: Sofia Bettiza/BBC).

Showing 61–75 of 75 episodes