List of Dispatches episodes

A list of Dispatches episodes shows the full set of editions of the Channel 4 investigative documentary series Dispatches.

There have been thirty seven seasons of Dispatches. Main reporters include Antony Barnett

1988

 * 22 January Danger: Men at Work, about sexual harassment of women at work; the film 'Business as Usual' about a clothing store in Liverpool, with Glenda Jackson, later a Labour MP; Alice Mahon, Labour MP; 25 year old Karen Wileman, an electronics assembly worker in Hampshire, was sacked when she told her employer, 44-year-old Raymond Atthill, that she was taking him to court for sexual harassment, over four years, which she won at an industrial tribunal in Southampton on 4 March 1987; her company offered her £5 in compensation; Vivian Gay and the Porcelli v Strathclyde Regional Council by Jean Porcelli, a laboratory technician from Mount Florida, at Bellahouston Academy in Glasgow, winning on 31 January 1986, on appeal, after first losing the tribunal in April 1984; Dorothy Fall received £3,000 in compensation on 21 November 1986, from taking Lothian Community Relations Council, in Edinburgh, to court; Denise Kingsmill, Baroness Kingsmill; sexual harassment was difficult to fund to take to a tribunal; the Dutch government had formed a national advice centre entitled 'Hands Off'; sexual harassment of nurses had occurred at a former hospital at Brandesburton; Clare Ruhemann of the Labour Research Department; Sarah Howard of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs. Reported by Sarah Temple-Smith, produced by Philip Clarke, directed by Dennis Jarvis, made by Diverse Productions

1989

 * 28 June A State of Decay; Belfast had the highest ownership per capita of BMW cars in the UK; Paddy McGrory; Dennis Faul of Dungannon, headteacher of St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon; British soldiers were first brought in to protect Catholic families; since 1968, 2750 people had been killed, with around 1500 killed in the years of 1969-71 alone; Ronald Funston was ambushed by the IRA at around 8am in March 1984, in Pettigo, County Fermanagh; Susan Murphy; the peace lines of Belfast; X-ray photographs at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast; the local building industry had protection rackets of extortion payments, around 15% per contract; Chief Superintendent Eric Anderson of the RUC; David McKittrick; Sylvia Deacon, whose husband in the UDF was killed; the Ballygawley bus bombing in August 1988; Joyce McCarten, whose 17 year old son was shot by a Protestant group in 1987; Ken Maginnis; Craigavon and a fan belt factory; German factory director Thomas Niedermayer was kidnapped by the IRA in 1973, and killed; his killing was arranged by his former factory employee, trade unionist Brian Keenan (Irish republican); since the Stormont government was suspended in 1972, local councils had executive functions no greater than the operation of leisure centres or bin collection, such as district councils in England; Unionist Reg Empey, the Lord Mayor of Belfast; Alasdair McDonnell; North Down was Northern Ireland's equivalent of wealthy Surrey, in England. Narrated by Jeremy Bugler, directed by Andrew Forrester, made by Fulmar Television
 * 12 October The Day of the Technopath, about computer data protection in the UK; former computer programmer Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne; Mel Croucher; computers were now running industry; Britain had more personal computers per person than any European country; Jan Hruska (computer security) and Ken Wong, and computer viruses; Mark Drew of IBM North Harbour, north of Portsmouth; Tony Cleaver, chief executive of IBM UK; the Datacrime virus; a penetration test; Trevor Nicholas, chief information officer of Barclays Bank; Peter Sommer; Stephen Gold; Judith Vincent of the CBI; Det Supt Don Randall of the City of London Police Fraud Squad; City of London foreign exchange transactions were £200bn per day; the Computer Misuse Act 1990 would soon pass through parliament, but not enough British police knew anything significant about computer security. Reported by Tony Cook, produced by John Goddard, directed by Dominic Cameron, made in association with Gamma TV

1990

 * 14 March Gerry, about infiltration of the IRA; the IRA informer came from Strabane in County Tyrone, on the border with the Republic; in his teens, he met an IRA operative in the Vaccaro restaurant in Strabane, and was asked to watch the Gough Barracks; a few months later, the IRA raided Gough Barracks, on a Saturday, dressed as soldiers, restraining the sentry, and taking hundreds of rifles; in October on a Sunday at 3.45am, there was an attack on an army depot in Omagh, where fifteen IRA terrorists climbed over the wall, with knives, and captured the sentry, who was able to sound the alarm, two of the IRA were shot and wounded; both raids were planned on the informer's information, whilst he was at school; he now realised what he had caused, so told his family (Catholic) who passed it on to the police, who interviewed him; he was watched by security services when leaving the Pallidrome club at the weekend in Strabane, where he was asked to physically point out his IRA contacts; on 1 January 1957 twelve IRA terrorists drove up through Brookeborough, driving past an army barracks, where the terrorists fired at a policeman, and threw grenades, but were ambushed when a machine gun opened up directly at them, and two terrorists were killed, and the others mostly badly injured; the raid was investigated by James Baker of The Fermanagh Herald, who presumed that the army knew when the raid would take place; the IRA ended the border campaign on army barracks, in July 1962; in August 1969 the Troubles began, and the original IRA, was superseded when the militant Provisional Army Council was formed in January 1970; the informer had joined the Army in England in 1957, but by 1970 had left, and now worked for a building firm, when he was approached by the security services, where he was paid £2000 for five days work, and worked for the security services for the next year, giving information of the structure of the terrorist groups, and the hierarchy. On 21 July 1972, 22 terrorist bombs killed nine civilians; in 1972, there were 468 deaths in the Troubles; the security services now believed that terrorist attacks were planned for England, the informer had not heard anything; he was told to go to the Goldhawk pub in London, where he met Eddie O'Neill; the informer later left working for the security services, but two terrorists, Hugh Doherty and Edward Butler, had been watched in Glasgow, and the security services needed to know their whereabouts in London, so the informer proposed looking for them in Cricklewood, the Half Moon and the Goldhawk; the informer found Butler in a London pub, who was watched, later strafing Scott's restaurant, and taking part in the Balcombe Street siege, where the two were caught with Hugh Duggan and Joe O'Connell. Produced by Peter Williams and Malcolm Brinkworth, directed by Bruce Macdonald, made by Touch Productions and TVS Television
 * 11 April Terms for Peace, about possibilities on negotiations in Northern Ireland; four soldiers were killed in County Down on Monday 9 April 1990; Margaret McCann, former wife of Dan McCann; Sinn Fein councillor Fra McCann believed that the only way of removing the British from Northern Ireland was armed force; Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness was looking for discussion; the British Army was stepping up surveillance, with frequent roadside checks; Eamonn Mallie; David Hearst of The Guardian; civilian casualties of IRA attacks were increasing, killing 35 civilians in the previous two years; Edward Daly (bishop); the IRA would break into people's houses, in the evening, and take the family car, and physically intimidate the family, being near enough taken hostage; Sinn Fein annual conference in Dublin. Reported by Mary Holland, produced by David Cox and Stewart Lansley, directed by Andy Mayer, made by Juniper
 * 3 October Listen to the Children; in October 1987 children were removed from the Broxtowe estate in Nottingham, in connection with child sexual abuse, amongst bizarre sinister practices such as ritualistic slaughter; Judith Dawson, Joan Taylor, Chris Johnston, and Lesley Hughes of Nottinghamshire County Council social services; nine people were jailed on 19 January 1989; the report was published in January 1990, which possibly underestimated what had taken place, claiming that children were brainwashed; Prof John Newson of the University of Nottingham; Mary Midgley. Reported by Bea Campbell, directed by Claire Walmsley

1991

 * 12 June The Movement, about a group in the Conservative Party in the early 1990s; the Braganza Wine Bar in Soho, and the National Association of Conservative Graduates, and their monthly meeting; two speakers are from the Bruges Group - Bill Cash and Alan Sked from the LSE; Marc Glendening believed that the Conservative party should split, and pro-European Conservative MPs could join the Lib Dems; Nick Kent, who worked for Michael Mates; Julian Critchley; the Movement had been formed at the University of St Andrews in Scotland in the early 1970s; Mark McGregor of Pulse; David Hoyle, who worked through David Carlisle; Russell Walters of the Adam Smith Institute; Douglas Smith; Le Casino restaurant in Lower Sloane Street in Chelsea, near the 151 nightclub in Kings Road, owned by Toby Baxendale; the Committee for a free Britain was funded by David Hart, a property developer; a youthful John Bercow at the Federation of Conservative Students meeting at Loughborough University in 1984, attended by The Movement, which included some known as the 'Dundee Monsters'; the meeting featured on the front pages of 'The Sun' and 'Daily Mirror'; the FCS was closed in 1986; Michael Forsyth was made chairman of the Scottish Conservatives by Mrs Thatcher; Derek Bateman; Kathy Short; Grover Norquist; Andrew Barnett of the Scottish Conservative students; Biggar, South Lanarkshire, was where the pro-European Scottish Conservatives met, and at Duddingston; John Guthrie (politician); Michael Forsyth is sacked by Mrs Thatcher; Teddy Taylor warns that 80% of laws are originated in Europe; a youthful Murdo Fraser, chairman of the Young Conservatives; Adrian Goulbourn of the Scottish Young Conservatives; Lloyd Beat, who won 31% of the vote in 1992 in Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale. Produced by David Kemp, directed by Adrian Milne, made by Hyndland Television

1992

 * 16 December Dying to Diet, could dieting lead to an early death, notably increased heart disease; Antonia Giovanazzi; Prof David Garner of Michigan State University said that the slimming industry was a 'revolving door' with 95% of customers not ultimately losing much weight; Astrid Longhurst, the Slimcea Girl in 1979, who lost 6.5 stones in six months, but she soon regained around half of that; Prof Janet Polivy of the University of Toronto; Bernice Weston founded the Weight Watchers franchise, with her husband Richard, in the UK in 1967; her brother was a cardiologist; aged 44 her husband died of a heart attack; cardiologist Prof Desmond Julian of the British Heart Foundation; psychologist Kelly D. Brownell; Malaysian Dr I-Min Lee, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who looked at 12,000 people over 12 years; dieting can encourage the dieter to eat more fat than usual; Nicola Edmans; Prof Michael Oliver (cardiologist) of the Wynn Institute for Metabolic Research, and suitable levels of cholesterol; dieting affected brain chemistry, and therefore mood; Liz Martin; Rosemary Conley and her BBC slimming series; she proposed that metabolic rate could be increased by eating six small meals a day; Prof John Durnin of the University of Glasgow said that one's metabolic rate was determined largely by one's genes; the BHF wrote to British GPs, questioning Rosemary Conley's diet advice on metabolism; Rosemary Conley was presented by the programme makers as a 'quack'; the American Nutrisystem diet; Oregon politician Ron Wyden found that many diet industry representatives, in the US, lacked any type of nutrition education, and were merely sales representatives; Weight Watchers UK had around 3,000 clubs for around 3 million people in the UK, turning over £20m, run by Linda Huett; British GPs would recommend people to Weight Watchers UK; medical psychologist Andrew Hill; the Weight Watchers food products was a quarter of Heinz turnover; Sue Dibb, of The Food Commission; the Committee of Medical Aspects of Food Policy provided most of the advice on food policy to the Department of Health; Labour MP Mo Mowlam; the Conservative government 1992 White Paper The Health of the Nation - a strategy for health in England. Reported by Aric Sigman, produced by Kimi Zabihyan, directed by Carolyn Gilbey, made by Observer Films

1993

 * 24 November No Minister, about HM Treasury; the week before the first unified budget; the forward civil service catering had fictitious employees on the payroll; Sir Michael Scholar was questioned about this at the Public Accounts Committee (United Kingdom) on 15 March 1993 by Sir Michael Shersby and Terry Davis; Sir Kit McMahon; Graham Mather of the European Policy Forum; the State of the Economy conference of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA); economist Prof Tim Congdon of Lombard Street Research; Dorneywood in Buckinghamshire, the county residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer; Bryan Gibson of Hampshire and unit fines, which were trialled from 1992-93; the cathedral city of Lincoln, and a meeting about the former Child Support Agency; thr CSA was set up to find the 70% of absent fathers who contributed nothing to a child's finances; the Children Come First white paper; Prof Jonathan Bradshaw; Sir Howard Davies (economist), Director-General of the CBI; economist Dame Diane Coyle and inherent secrecy; Sir Peter Kemp and bunker mentality; economist Prof Paul Ormerod, of the University of Manchester, and the lack of any industrial experience; the Learning to Succeed report of the National Commission on Education, of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation; Claus Moser, Baron Moser advised more investment in education; economist Nicholas Barr and Iain Crawford of the LSE, and student loans; the private finance initiative was being developed; the Panel of Independent Forecasters, known as the 'Seven Wise Men'; economist Sir Alan Walters; Sir Samuel Brittan and the Department of Economic Affairs, formed in 1964; Nigel Lawson believed that the Bank of England should become independent; the Next Steps proposed system of devolution to operational agencies. Narrated by Paul Wallace, directed by Andy Stevenson, made by Realtime Television

1994

 * 16 February Getting away with rape, a one-hour special; David Martin Maloney was convicted of multiple rapes, in July 1993, often by taking the victim in his car; Keith Matthewman; in December 1993, 33 year old Nicholas Edwards was acquitted of rape for the fifth time, being accused of raping a 26 year old nurse in July 1992; he also had multiple rape convictions going back to 1982 but would be sentenced to life in September 2000; Det Supt Bill Grahamslaw of the Metropolitan Police; forensic psychologist Prof David Canter of the University of Surrey; Prof Sue Lees of the University of North London; Anne Davies of the Metropolitan Police; Nemone Lethbridge; in 1993 over 4,500 women reported rape in England and Wales, leading to 482 convictions. Reported by Jenny Cuffe, produced by Jacqui Webster, directed by Lynn Ferguson, made by First Frame


 * 23 November Spy in the Camp, about whether MI5 significantly influenced the 1984 Miners strike; Stella Rimington gives the BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture in June 1994; Seumas Milne, Labour Correspondent of The Guardian; Harry Newton, a personal friend of Arthur Scargill, named as an MI5 agent by Cathy Massiter, herself once in MI5; Harry Newton worked for F Branch, the anti-subversion division of MI5; F Branch investigated CND, Liberty and the British Communist Party; Robin Robinson of the Joint Intelligence Committee; Stella Rimington operated F Branch, and the F2 unit, which investigated subversive trade unions, and planted agents; Michael Bettaney, the Cambridge- graduate MI5 agent who was convicted for passing sensitive information to the Soviets; Bettaney gave information that the NUM was being tracked by MI5; Operation Tinkerbell was MI5's communication surveillance of the NUM; GCHQ, in Cheltenham, conducted communication surveillance of the NUM in the strike; NUM offices had surveillance of their telephones; Arthur Scargill; Labour MP Mick Clapham, who worked for the NUM during the strike; Alain Simon, French general secretary from 1980-85 of the Trade Unions International of Miners, who informed the NUM of an agent; Peter Heathfield general secretary from 1984 to 1992 of the NUM, who thought that Roger Windsor, chief executive of the NUM from 1983 to July 1989, could have been an MI5 agent; Scottish Labour MP Jimmy Hood, who was an NUM leader during the 1984 strike; Walter Marshall, Baron Marshall of Goring, chairman from 1982-89 of the CEGB, had made calculations that the NUM would plausibly win their strike around October 1984. Reported by Callum Macrae, produced by Kimi Zabihyan, directed by Michael Davidson, made by Observer Films and Ray Fitzwalter Associates

1995

 * 11 October Making the Grades, it investigated the Schools Curriculum and Assessment Authority (SCAA). The episode received complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Commission, from two examining boards, which were upheld

1996

 * 23 January Soccer's Foul Play, an hour long episode about the United Kingdom football sexual abuse scandal; the under-14 squad of Charlton Athletic F.C.; Richard Smith; Ian Ackley of Derbyshire, and his father Frank; former Southampton F.C. trainee Dean Radford; Barry Bennell claimed to be a coach from Manchester City F.C.; Bennell had worked at Stoke City and Crewe Alexandra; Bennell invited 11 year old boys into his home, to be sexually abused over two to three years; Ken Barnes and Chris Muir of Manchester City; Bennell was at Manchester City for seven years then moved to Crewe Alexandra to work for Dario Gradi; the chairman of Crewe Norman Rowlinson had suspicions of Bennell, and phoned Manchester City to ask if Bennell had been 'mucking about with kids'; Dario Gradi claims to have not heard anything disturbing; Bennell was sacked by Crewe in 1986; Brenda Dawson of Jacksonville, Florida who was hugely suspicious of Bennell when boys from Staffordshire stayed at her home; Bennell is arrested in Florida in 1994; Terry Thomas of Florida Police; Bennell is sent to prison for four years; Libby Senterfit, who jailed Bennell; Keith Ketley abused boys in Ipswich, under a different name, but had a previous conviction for 18 months when in Southend; Alan Girot of Suffolk Football Association; Les Reed of Charlton Athletic; Bob Higgins was at Southampton F.C., where teenage boys would stay at his house; Bob Higgins went to Southampton Court, where he was found not guilty on one charge, and afterwards the other charges were dropped; Kit Carson brought Bob Higgins to Peterborough United F.C. where teenage boys are abused, when boys stayed at his house; Charles Hughes of The Football Association. Reported by Deborah Davies, produced by Bernard Clark, directed by Ed Braman


 * 27 March The Lost Children; the Bristol Royal Infirmary had 500,000 patients a year; 18 month Joshua Loveday was treated in December 1994, to be operated on 12 January 1995; Stephen Bolsin, a consultant anaesthetist had warned about too many fatalities, over five years from 1988; he had arrived from the Royal Brompton Hospital; he spoke to Prof Cedric Prys Roberts, of the University of Bristol, and President from 1994-97 of the Royal College of Anaesthetists; for two types of operation, the atrioventricular septal defect (AV canal) and Tetralogy of Fallot, the hospital unit had high mortality rate; for the arterial switch operation from 1988-89, seven children had died; Sian Collyer, born 18 January 1992 had the operation, and did not survive; Belinda Collyer; Michaela and Steve Willis from Devon; Hugh Ross, chief executive of the United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust; heart surgeon Sir Terence English, President from 1990-92 of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; medical director James Wisheart had the worst surgical results; Sir Terence English alerted the Department of Health, who did nothing for three years; after another death in June 1994, action was taken by the anaesthetist, alongside colleagues Su Underwood, Ian Davies, Steve Pryn, Sally Masey, and Peter Baskett; Bronwen Stewart and her son Ian, brain-damaged by an operation, making him blind and deaf; Prof Gianni Angelini was appointed Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Bristol in 1994, who immediately made changes; Robert Loveday and Mandy Evans. Reported by James Garrett, produced by Tom Archer, directed by Alex Sutherland, made by HTV

1997

 * 13 February Crash Landing, about the safety of the RAF, investigated by David Lomax; Flt Lt Simon Burgess, from Grimsby, ejected from his Hawk aircraft on 13 February 1996, but it was too low for the parachute to open, when aged 28; on 23 January 1991 a weapon had exploded on his aircraft, when aged 23 and a Flying Officer, in the Gulf War in Tornado ZA403, with navigator 40-year-old Loughborough University-educated Sqn Ldr Bob Ankerson of 17 Sqn;    Ann and Terry Burgess, his parents; the aircraft had had the ailerons disconnected for servicing; the night shift at the base was short of engineering technician staff - it needed 23 but had 13, with 2 electricians instead of 3, 3 weapon technicians instead of 6, and 1 airframe fitter instead of 6; Archie Liggatt, an RAF instructor from 1980 to 1996, now an airliner instructor with Air 2000; not enough documentation was being provided for servicing for aircraft; the 1993 Llyn Padarn helicopter crash on 12 August 1993 in a Westland Wessex, where three teenagers were killed, which was captured on film; the mother of one of the crash victims; the wrong type of grease had been put in the clutch of the tail rotor; Geoffrey Oakden, father of crash victim Mark Oakden; Nicholas Soames on 8 June 1996; Air Vice-Marshal Boz Robinson, station commander from 1978 until March 1980; on 23 January 1996, 28-year-old Flt Lt Greg Noble took off in an RAF Jaguar XX733 of 41 Squadron in Norfolk, after limited flight hours on the aircraft, never engaged the afterburner, collided with a barrier at the end of the runway, and crashed in a fireball;   Paul Maynard, RAF pilot from 1980 to 1996, and Ed Smith, RAF pilot from 1976 to 1995; James Archer, RAF Tornado pilot from 1987 to 1996 with 43 Squadron at RAF Leuchars in eastern Scotland, where due to a chronic lack of spare parts for their aircraft, at best there were six serviceable aircraft and at best there would be one serviceable aircraft; Dispatches visited the airfield and did not see any military aircraft flying, apart from the East of Scotland Universities Air Squadron; a current Tornado pilot at RAF Leuchars said that the squadron struggled to get four aircraft into the air, at one time; Air Chief Marshal Sir Bill Wratten wrote a memo indicating that spares holding and available staff were the biggest peacetime risks faced by the RAF; a current technician at RAF St Athan said that, due to a lack of spares, items as small as a split pin, if not in RAF stock, were replaced by an older split pin that was crudely straightened again; aircraft were cannibalised, to keep other aircraft in service, with spare parts, which has long been a widely practised procedure in maintenance; but whilst that has been commonly heavily practised for smaller components, the RAF were now doing this with whole engines; a former RAF electrical technician said that Kapton-insulated wiring was a danger, as in servicing, the insulation can be easily chafed, giving risk to a short circuit; seven miles of Kapton wiring was on the Tornado, and a Tornado crashed on 2 December 1986, east of Wortham, Suffolk next to the A143, due to an electrical fault, watched by children at a local primary school, also seeing the pilots safely eject;  the USAF removed Kapton-insulated wiring from 1988, and Canada had also removed it from new aircraft; at RAF Laarbruch, Harrier aircraft had fires, from Kapton-insulated wiring, so the wiring was totally replaced; 22 RAF Tornado aircraft had crashed since the 1991 war. Produced by Terry Kelleher, directed by Julia Stroud, made by Platinum Film & TV Production
 * 13 March Buying Time, about NHS timescales of treatment; Vyv Chatterley, a Bristol hotel owner, the Naseby House Hotel, was diagnosed with breast cancer, which had spread to her liver; she paid privately for the treatment Docetaxel, licensed by the NHS in 1995; oncologist Elisabeth Whipp of the Bristol Royal Infirmary; Pamela Charlwood of the Avon Health Authority; oncologist Prof Karol Sikora; Prof Chris Ham of the University of Birmingham; Susan Edginton of Taunton; Mac Kammerling, of Somerset Health Authority, who would pay for the same treatment; Hugh Ross, chief executive of the United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust; Gillian Casemore of Tetbury in Gloucestershire, who had the same treatment paid for by her local health authority; 36 year old Lynette Jackson of Wiltshire, who had Paclitaxel, one of many taxane treatments, for ovarian cancer, which Wiltshire would not pay for; Kevin Mochrie, editor of the Swindon Evening Advertiser, who raised money for Lynette; oncologist Marcus Galea of Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon; Alan Lear, who had MND, with his neurologist, and the treatment riluzole, made by Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, which Avon Health Authority would not pay for, but adequate outcomes were not in full agreement; Lincolnshire viewed the treatment as worthwhile 'as liposuction'; Joan Jaffray had MND; Nick Payne; Kathy Groom, whose husband John had MND; the Avonex treatment, Interferon beta-1a, made by Biogen; Brian Wainwright and the treatment Aricept, Donepezil; Prof Alistair Burns of Withington Community Hospital; Harry Cayton, later the chairman of the National Information Governance Board for Health and Social Care. Reported by Sarah Spiller (the partner of Alex Thomson, of Channel 4 News), produced by Julian Ware and Louise Osmond, directed by Mark Rubens, made by ITN
 * 8 May The Blair Project, about the possible direction of Tony Blair; a party in December 1996 hosted by the Sedgefield Labour group; on 26 February 1996 Tony Blair held a day symposium at King's College London, to discuss his project; Paul Thompson, editor of Renewal who claimed that Blair wanted a 'stakeholding economy' and a 'one nation society', and that how Margaret Thatcher had often operated had influenced Tony Blair; Will Hutton, editor of The Observer; Tony Blair's paternal (but not genetic) grandparents came from Govan in Glasgow; Tony Blair's father was fostered to James Blair, and wife Mary, who worked in the nearby shipyards; Tony Blair's real paternal grandparents were an actor and actress (with real surname of Parsons); Tony Blair's father, a university Law lecturer, moved from Communist politics to the Conservative party, and had wanted to be prime minister; the work of John Macmurray greatly influenced Tony Blair; Sir Samuel Brittan; Mary Picken, of Scottish Labour; Tony Blair's former prep school in Durham, and Canon John Grove, his former headteacher; Tony Blair's family moved from Scotland to Australia in 1954, then to High Shincliffe in Durham, where Tony Blair lived from 1958 to 1975; at age 11, his father had a stroke, and when 22, his mother died of cancer; he stood in the 1982 Beaconsfield by-election, gaining many contacts; he met French president Jacques Chirac, as opposition leader, conversing in French; his constituency surgery in Ferryhill, with his agent John Burton; Joel Barnett had also applied for the constituency in 1983, with left-wing Les Huckfield, of the TGWU, the earlier favoured candidate; in 1983, Pat Phoenix, of Coronation Street, was, technically, the step-mother of his wife; the left-wing Scottish Labour MP John McAllion, who left Labour in 2003. Reported by Callum Macrae, produced by Terry Kelleher, directed by David Carr-Brown, made by Psychology News

1998

 * 29 January Too Much Too Young, about whether children were ready to read at the age of four; in Hungary, children started school at age six; in Belgium, children started at age six; the Hungarian children did much better in the Mathematics SAT test, for ages seven; Graham Last, education inspector in Barking; Sally Ward, speech and language therapist; elementary social skills, such as collaboration, and getting to know others confidently, was taught before any primary education began; educational psychologist Ann Locke; Belgian school inspector Catherine Vrielinck; Prof József Nagy of Attila Jozsef University (University of Szeged) in Hungary, found that most children were ready to write at age six, with some at five, and 15% at age seven; did four year olds, in the UK, have the dexterity to start writing; circle time; Prof Sig Prais; the bottom 30%, and mostly boys, did less well in the UK, than in other countries; Greg Brooks of NFER; the difference was referred to as the Matthew effect. Also broadcast on Teachers TV. Reported by Callum Macrae, directed by David Mills
 * 10 December Inside the ALF, about the Animal Liberation Front; Dispatches went undercover for seven months with Graham Hall; Barry Horne (activist) goes on hunger strike in November 1998, who had been sent to prison for 18 years in 1997; Prof Paul Wilkinson of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence; protestors outside a site that bred cats for animal experiments; potty-mouthed animal rights campaigner Gayner Ford in Hampshire, who tells Graham how to pour paint stripper over cars at the Wickham Laboratories Ltd; disrupting foxhunting in Corhampton; the ALF set fire to people's homes; Will Fowler of the Institute of Explosives Engineers; Mark Matfield of the Research Defence Society; Robin Webb outside Bristol Crown Court, and later discusses how to launder money to fund the Animal Rights Militia and Justice Department splinter groups; Prof Colin Blakemore, who had been sent a letter bomb; Cliff Paterson in Gloucestershire; Robin Webb astutely deduces that Graham Hall is recording him. Reported by Deborah Davies, produced by Steve Boulton, directed by David Monaghan. It won the 1998 BAFTA TV Award for Best News Coverage

1999

 * 28 January Kicking the Habit, about excessive consumption of salt and salt and cardiovascular disease; Prof Graham McGregor of St George's Hospital; a tin of soup had 3g of salt, a slice of bread had 0.5g of salt, with Marmite this adds another 0.5g of salt; a Big Mac and Fries had 2.5g of salt; Lizzie Vann, an organic food producer; Nigel Dickie; Dr Michael Baxendine of the Food and Drink Federation; cardiologist Prof John Douglas Swales of the University of Leicester, who researched hypertension (high blood pressure) and disputed a link to salt consumption; Wendy Wrigley of the Co-op. Reported by Christopher Hird, produced by Tracey Gardiner, directed by Emma Handley, made by Fulcrum TV
 * 4 February Ireland, about the Omagh bombing; Dorothy Robinson, who believed that the British Army in Northern Ireland was a 'legitimate target', who raised money at a dinner in the US for the IRA at Rory Dolan's Restaurant Bar on Saturday 1 February 1999, giving $20,000 for the Continuity IRA; Irish Police regularly searched properties in County Louth; former terrorists Sean O'Callaghan, who served eight years, and Brendan McClenaghan, who served 18 years, and now lived in London; terrorist Paddy Fox, sentenced to 12 years, was physically beaten on Sunday 2 February 1999 in Monaghan by the IRA for renouncing the peace agreement; the Continuity IRA also renounced the agreement, setting off a bomb in Market Hill in August 1997, supported by Republican Sinn Féin in the Republic, led by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, a former head of the former IRA, who broke away from Sinn Fein in 1986; Prof Paul Rogers, who researched terrorism; Micky Donnelly, of Republican Sinn Fein, was also attacked by the IRA; the Real IRA, largely from County Louth, called a ceasefire, after being threatened by the IRA, who then kidnapped one of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement; Rory Dougan; County Monaghan had known sympathies for the Republican movement, holding meetings; unionist Ken Maginnis. Reported by Joe Layburn, produced by Steve Haywood, directed by Alison Turner, made by Just Television
 * 25 February Surveyors; a mortgage survey is mostly there to assess the financial worth of a property, not the structural integrity; Britain had 80,000 qualified chartered surveyors, governed by the RICS; it introduced the RICS HomeBuyer Report in 1981; Geoff Holden of the RICS; test surveying house inspections were covertly filmed; a typical house inspection was thought to last three to four hours, but some of the test inspections took the covertly-filmed surveyors one hour. Reported by Callum Macrae, produced by Steve Haywood, directed by Tim Pritchard, made by Just Television
 * 18 March The Crime Game, about British police vastly incorrectly reporting burglary; Peter Coles, a former detective superintendent with Nottinghamshire Police at Hucknall CID; Richard Wells, former Chief Constable from 1990-98 of South Yorkshire Police; Trish Prescott from Nottingham; crimes were downgraded by police, known as 'cuffing'; petty criminals were taken out of prison to confess to crimes that they had not known, known to police as 'to write off', again to lessen recorded crime; Nottinghamshire Police tried this strategy; Gary Mason, editor of Police Review; Bedfordshire Police investigated Nottinghamshire Police; Colin Bailey, Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police from 1995-2000, who admitted that in 1996 Bedfordshire Police had found much false reporting; Nottinghamshire claimed to have solved 98.3% of rapes, which Bedfordshire Police could not not believe; Peter Coles alleged that 50% of Nottinghamshire's burglaries were fictitious, or wrongly recorded; David McCrone, assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police; in 1999 South Yorkshire Police, Dorset Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary, Staffordshire Police and Gloucestershire Constabulary 'wrote off' two-thirds of its burglaries by fictitious confessions; Leicestershire Police, Sussex Police, Lincolnshire Police and South Wales Police followed close. Reported by Nick Davies. produced by Steve Boulton, directed by Mike Turnbull
 * 25 March CCTV, about the veracity of CCTV evidence in court; Prof Graham Davies of the University of Leicester; there were a million CCTV cameras in the UK; Bob Lack of the London Borough of Newham, which had a facial recognition that would warn the CCTV operator when a face was found on its database; the system had reduced unsolved crime by 35% and street theft by 70%; Richard Thomas of ACPO; Cambridge-educated Prof Vicki Bruce of the Psychology department of the University of Stirling, and research on facial recognition and CCTV; Alan Church, who was convicted of raiding a building society of £1,000 in central Glasgow on 28 January 1993, on CCTV evidence; he was sent to prison for eight years; the CCTV footage was shown on STV Scotland Today on 10 February 1993; his family saw the CCTV and told Alan to go to the police, where three people picked him out in an identity parade; Alf Linney of UCL; a McDonalds is raided on 10 October 1996 at 2pm in Ashton-under-Lyne, taking £9,500; it went to court on 16 June 1997; Margaret Bowden, mother of Brian Bowden, who was convicted of the offence on CCTV; sculptor Richard Neave of the University of Manchester; Geoffrey Oxlee. Reported by Joe Layburn, produced by Rob Edwards, directed by Ed Braman, made by Lomond Productions


 * 15 April, Child Contact; 150,000 children a year are part of their parents divorcing, with a third of these divorces due to the male partner being violent, with many of the women deciding not to see their former partner again, but family courts regularly allow the violent former partner to have access to the children; Lorraine Radford of the Roehampton Institute; Sir Nicholas Wall; court welfare officers visit families, to decide what happens; on Sunday 6 February 1994, 35 year old GP, formerly of North Wingfield Medical Centre, Sukhdev Sandhu, on a contact visit, strangled his four year old daughter and three year old son, with a pyjama cord, then jumped from a tower block (Kelvin Flats) to his death; the couple had met at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, and had been married for four years from October 1988 living at Tibshelf Road in Holmewood in north Derbyshire; the 30 year old (nursing sister) mother had been through the courts to stop her former partner seeing the children. Narrated by Jenny Cuffe, directed by Leon Ferguson, made by First Frame
 * 22 April Car Challenge, about choices in public transport; the Gallacher family have two cars; Jane, aged 43, drives the Metro to work at an infants school, and goes to keep fit; Mark drives a Ford Mondeo to take James, aged 11, to his grandmother; Mark, aged 46, works as headteacher of Birchills CE Primary School in Walsall; he was branch secretary of MENSA; Henry, aged 13, walks to the school bus; the car is needed for piano lessons for Henry, rugby matches, and going out for meals; the reporter travels to the family house from Euston railway station by cycle; including all costs, having the two cars costs the family £108 per week; Channel 4 gave the family £108 and physically took away the two cars; the Labour government wanted to tax work parking spaces, perhaps £20 per week; a third of British children are driven to school; Jane's drive to the infant school would take 25 mins, but now she has to catch a bus into Walsall, and another to the outskirts, taking around an hour; Mark needed one bus, and finds the journey faster than the car, and comfortable; his wife much prefers the comfort of her car; the boys visit their grandparents every week; the bus did not turn up for a game of football for Mark, so he is forced to spend £17.50 on a taxi; after 6pm, the bus service was often negligible; the two boys had to play rugby in Tamworth, Staffordshire and Kingswinford, and it was impossible to get them both there; housing estates tend to be designed for people with a car, less so for public transport; councillor Richard Worrall, of the WM Passenger Transport Authority; the Labour government wanted road tolling, so that councils could charge drivers to enter city centres, and maybe tolling on motorways; the Wallis family - Stephen and his wife Sara, a teacher's assistant, with Charlotte aged 16 and Christopher aged 13; Stephen drives his Mercedes company car, along the M42, to work, where he was head of the accounts department at Zytek Automotive in Bassetts Pole; one in ten British motorists had a company car; the Gallacher family go to the supermarket via the taxi, costing £5.50; on Saturday the family catch the bus to the city centre, then catch the train to Birmingham, then another train to the Severn Valley heritage line at Kidderminster; the journey has taken two and a half hours, which would take 40 minutes by car; in the 1950s most families kept travelling to a minimum. Reported by Christopher Hird, produced by Tracey Gardiner, directed by Donna Clark, made by Fulcrum TV
 * 13 May Car Trouble: Insurance, about deviant British car insurers; 49 year old Jim Halford, a bus driver in Gravesend, injured by a drinker driver in 1998, banned for 21 months; Zurich Insurance declined to be liable; vehicle insurance companies had a series of tactics - giving a low initial offer, an eleventh hour offer, or a series of medical examinations; Tony Baker of the Association of British Insurers; Nick Burgum, of Kent, had a shattered knee; General Accident, part of CGU, accepted liability, but disputed the injuries; General Accident meanwhile had been covertly filming his house, but paid the claim in full; Dame Hazel Genn of UCL; the A259 near Hooe, East Sussex, which had a horrific crash in June 1994; eyewitness Peter Gates; Barry Clark of Sussex Police; Alex, of East Sussex, was severely burned, needing amputations of her legs, and part of her left arm; her 64 year old husband John, a vicar, was killed; a driver, off-duty policeman 26 year old Michael Dean of Swanley, was sent to prison for four years in November 1995; his vehicle was overtaking many cars at around 90mph on a 60mph single carriageway; at court, he claimed that all the 14 witnesses were making things up; Alex won £1.5m in damages in April 1998; Walter Merricks, the UK Insurance Ombudsman. Reported by Joe Layburn, produced by Ray FitzWalter, directed by David Barrie
 * 27 May Car Trouble: Breakdown; the British insurance industry believed that car recovery companies were charging twice as much as required; eight garages in Kent are contacted for a vehicle tow-away quote; the insurance industry believed that a tow-away should cost no more than £105, but on average it was £210; Mora Campbell was hit by a vehicle on the M6 in Cheshire in April 1998, driving home from Manchester; she called the AA, who said that it could take longer than an hour, which was not sufficient for the police, who wanted her vehicle removed in twenty minutes; she had to pay £152 up front; the headquarters of Lincolnshire Police in Nettleham, who had a list of twenty seven garages, who operated on a rota; Inspector Greville Burgess; Inspector John Bennett of ACPO; Bill Tupman; Gwent Police had thirty five garages on their rota list, but changed this to just one recovery company; Liz Phillips of Wales, who had her car damaged by that same recovery company, which her insurance company would not pay for; 25 year old Tony Killor was killed on his motorbike on 4 September 1995; the destroyed bike was recovered by the company; the bike was sold by the company. Reported by Joe Layburn, produced by Steve Haywood, directed by Mark Lewis, made by Just Television (the production team of Rough Justice)
 * 11 November A matter of life or death, about train safety in the UK, notably evacuation in a fire: a Mk 2 carriage is rested on one side; survivor Chris Bartlett; professor of fire safety engineering, Australian Ed Galea of the University of Greenwich; Steve Bence of ATOC; Graham Stepan and fire safety; the Hope Valley Line near Manchester; signal Y304 on the Trans Pennine Express route; a GNER service on the East Coast Main Line; Jose Fernandez of Long Island Rail Road; Lee Williams of Amtrak; survivor David Taylor. Presented by Christopher Hird, directed by Peter Minns, made by Fulcrum Productions
 * November Runaways, a survey found that 100,000 children would run away in one year; Graeme Brown of The Children's Society; Rob Hutchinson of the Association of Directors of Social Services; 13 year old Aliyah Ismail was found dead on 18 October 1998, in a derelict house at 78 Agar Grove in Camden, after a methadone overdose, having run away sixty one times in her last year; the Children's Society had two refuges. Reported by Joe Layburn, directed by Lynn Ferguson, made by First Frame


 * 2 December Tooth Trouble about unwanted effects of possibly unneeded dentistry for teenagers; every a half million British children had orthodontic treatment, largely to straighten teeth; dentist John Mew, who lived in Sussex; Ben Creed and his twin brother; South African dentist Francois Rossouw of Essex; dentist Michael Fennel; Nigel Harradine of the British Orthodontic Society, and the University of Bristol Dental Hospital; Californian dentist William Hang. Reported by Callum Macrae. produced by David Alford, directed by Howard Bradburn, made by 3BM Television

2000

 * 17 February Drug Wars, about customs officers and drug; in 1999 24 tonnes of cocaine, 4 tonnes of heroin, and 400 tonnes of cannabis were thought to have entered the UK illegally; a drugs conference was held in February 2000; Operation Teak took place in May 1997 off the coast of Funchal, where 4 tonnes of cannabis was found, worth £14m; Brian Charrington, living in Spain, had supplied the drugs; Derek Todd, formerly of the Metropolitan Police; Operation Funded took place in 1998, culminating with cannabis being seized at a service station by customs officers on the M25 motorway; Operation Stealer took place, by Customs and Excise National Investigation Service from 1993 to 1994, where Brian Doran from Glasgow, known as 'The Professor', was watched at The Lanesborough in London, and culminating at Pevensey Bay in East Sussex on 10 January 1995, when the catamaran 'Frugal' arrived with £34m of cocaine from Colombia; convictions collapsed because the legal procedures of surveillance was not followed. Reported by David Jessel, produced by Steve Haywood and Sam Bagnall, directed by Peter Minns, made by Just Television
 * 24 February Tax Wars, about Value-added tax in the United Kingdom; Justin Urquhart Stewart of Barclays Stockbrokers; John and Kathy Oldfield were taken to a VAT tribunal; most food does not have VAT added; HM Custom and Excise was headquartered at New King's Beam House; VAT consultant Ray Chappell believed that VAT inspectors were overzealous; Marion Lonsdale; Labour MP Jim Cousins of the Treasury Select Committee, who investigated methods of how VAT was collected, and recommended that Customs and Excise was amalgamated with the Inland Revenue; Rev Gerald Pegg of St Nicholas in Icklesham in East Sussex. The programme was made in conjunction with the Federation of Small Businesses. Reported by David Jessel, produced by Steve Haywood and Sam Bagnall, made by Just Television
 * 2 March Gayhurst Crescent goes surfing; Sunderland had the lowest level of internet access in England; homes on a street are given £1,500 of computing equipment; Paul Fenech liked football; Steve Pinder found it slow; Ned Potts; Julie McQuillian had Crohn's disease, and found much information; Joyce Charlton, aged 66, found information on a former friend who was killed a week after D-Day, with the Durham Light Infantry, aged 18; Ken Clasper liked information on World War II; Tom Hawick found much information on tinnitus; Linda Fenech wanted a vacuum cleaner, and ordered one; Iceland was the only supermarket that delivered in their area; John Old; Leno Fenech said that the internet added to family life; Mick Thwaites finds an old friend; Hayley Charlton looked at the Employment Service website, which required much improvement. Reported by Christopher Hird, produced by Dominic Yeatman, directed by Don Coutts, made by Fulcrum TV
 * 16 March Still getting away with rape, a one-hour special; in 1999 around 7,000 women in England and Wales reported rape; for every hundred rapes, six men are convicted; Prof Jennifer Temkin of the University of Sussex; Dame Anne Rafferty; Helen Grindrod; forensic psychiatrist Gillian Mezey; Sandy Hebblethwaite of the CPS; Ann Mallalieu, Baroness Mallalieu and how prosecution counsel are often inexperienced, as the prosecution in these cases is not well paid; the US had greater witness preparation; for acquaintance rape in the US, conviction rates are 60-70%, in the UK it is around 30%; Detective Chief Inspector Sue Hill of the Metropolitan Police, and how few cases of rape were probably made up; the British law system was naïve - rapists are not characters widely known for any honesty, whatsoever. Reported by Deborah Davies, produced by Lynn Ferguson, directed by Howard Bradburn, made by First Frame
 * 12 October Flying under the influence, about intoxicated British airline pilots, an hour long episode; former air stewardess Caroline Woolistone, went undercover by claiming to be a Channel 4 producer to investigate, and set up, BA pilots; at Marseille airport, having flown with BA from Gatwick Airport; on the flight she was allowed to film in the cockpit, in Spain, a popular stay with BA aircrew, where BA had five scheduled flights a day on weekdays; Capt Chris Salmon, of BA, seen in Manchester in August 2000; he flew to Spain on BA 2488 on 25 July 2000 (which would also be a catastrophic day for British aviation) where he is filmed drinking; First Officer James Sharples downed a bottle of wine and three beers, as has Capt Chris Salmon, who has another beer and goes clubbing in Spain, drinking another three beers; no pilots are breathalysed, and there were no alcohol laws for pilots either; Dr Dougal Watson of Australia and aviation medicine, who saw the video evidence and thought that pilot Chris Salmon would fall asleep in the flight, which is exactly what occurred on flight BA 2485 to Gatwick on 26 July 2000; Prof Chris Cook of the University of Kent and alcohol misuse in aviation medicine; BA did not allow drinking eight hours before a flight, and no more than 5 units; flying to Germany from Gatwick, with Capt Mike Philips and First Officer Jason Owen, again filming them in the cockpit; seven hours before takeoff the First Officer has consumed twelve units, as had the Captain; they stay at the Holiday Inn, going to bed at 4am; they leave for the airport at 10am; BA 2715 leaves at 11am on 2 July 2000, where Caroline films in the cockpit as they land at Gatwick; three US airline pilots, aged around 30, conduct an experiment at the Purdue University in Indiana, on a Boeing 727 simulator; Dr Leon Wise found alcohol had effects for 14 hours; the experiment found that flying itself was not impaired, but incorrect choices were made; over Britain in daylight hours, there are approximately 250 passenger aircraft in the air; Gary Purden, former BA aircrew; First Officer Mike Edwards in Spain at 5.30pm; he leaves the restaurant having drunk 12 units; the flight leaves at 6am; he has consumed 19 units by 11pm; Malév Hungarian Airlines, the state flyer of Hungary, had 25 aircraft; Malév had the same rules as BA, but Hungary routinely breathalysed aircrew and ground staff; Dr Gabor Hardicsay of the Civil Aviation Authority (Hungary); the US randomly tested pilots; mainline and underground British train drivers were checked; London Underground had breathalysed around 4,000 drivers in one year; David Hyde, Director of Safety at BA; BA pilot 44-year-old Nigel King was sacked in February 1998 after being found drunk in his hotel two hours before his flight at 7am; on flight BA 631 from Athens to Heathrow, he was found to be smelling strongly of alcohol, and unsteady on his feet, subsequently collapsing in a hotel lobby; he had gone out for the evening at 6pm on 8 January 1998, returning to his hotel room at 5am; a Virgin Express pilot resigned on Sunday August 29, 1999 after passengers thought that he was drunk on flight TV 857 from Madrid–Barajas Airport to Brussels, with the flight being abandoned; the passengers had overheard the Virgin Express staff mentioning that they had had trouble trying to wake the pilot in his hotel, as he was so drunk; passengers had sensed that the pilot was drunk, as he walked past them, being many minutes late, at 8.30am on Saturday 28 August, with a 'strange appearance'; Paul Skellon, a representative of Virgin Express helpfully explained that the pilot had had food poisoning, and that 'medication' that he had taken had made him unwell.; two easyJet pilots were disciplined in 2000; BA would suspend the eleven aircrew featured in the documentary, including Capt Richard Agar and First Officer Guy Palling, who flew a Boeing 737 from Marseilles to Gatwick on March 25 on BA 2361, and Capt Anthony Corr and First Officers Gareth Edwards and Richard Firth; two of the featured BA pilots would be dismissed in December 2000 for gross misconduct, and another resigned. BA employed around 3,500 flight crew and around 14,000 cabin crew, and carried 33 million people a year. Narrated by Haydn Gwynne, produced by Nick Aarons, directed by Howard Bradbury, made by United Productions.
 * 13 April The Nuclear Files, about nuclear industry safety in the UK; the Sellafield Visitors Centre; a train leaving Dungeness nuclear power station; nuclear engineer John Large; the train took 350 miles to reach Sellafield; Mildred Fox and possible radioactivity reaching the coast of County Wicklow; Tom Burke (environmentalist); former Sellafield worker Duncan Ball; Welsh Labour MP Llew Smith, and whether any plutonium was exported to the US; Prof Keith Barnham of Imperial College; the melodramatic ponderous tone of the documentary was reminiscent of the 1985 Edge of Darkness. Reported by Joe Layburn, produced by Geoff Atkinson. directed by Mark Lewis, made by Vera Productions.

2001

 * 26 June Beneath the Veil, about Afghanistan; reporter Saira Shah reported undercover. Made by Hardcash Productions. Won the 2002 BAFTA TV Award for Best Current Affairs

2003

 * April Al-Qaeda UK, about Al-Qaeda connections to the UK, notably in Leicester; Algerian terrorist Kamel Daoudi left France, for the UK, on 20 September 2002 at around 8pm, being watched the whole way by security services, he travelled under a false name, on a counterfeit French passport by Eurostar; from London, he travelled to Leicester, a place he knew well, where he had two Algerian friends Baghdad Meziane and Brahim Benmerzouga of 52 Prospect Hill, who had travelled to the UK illegally with a false passport, two weeks previous to the programme, these two terorists became the first people in the UK to be convicted of having known connections to Al Qaeda; Benmerzouga was followed around Leicester by the security services, where he mostly sent money, internationally, from outlets similar to Western Union; Baghdad Meziane lived on nearby Rolleston Street; five days after Kamel Daoudi arrived in Leicester, Leicestershire Police gained entry into both houses, where a false passport operation was found in Meziane's address, selling each for £750; Nick Webber was asked by Leicestershire Police to examine computers in the Islamic terrorist address, where he found software for credit card fraud, and the data from the magnetic strips of 180 credit cards; the data of the credit cards had been skimmed from garages and restaurants across the UK; the fake credit cards were sent to a group of Algerians in Spain, spending around £250,000, who were caught in Spain, the day after the Leicester arrests; the two Algerians went to court in Leicester, but the jury were not told that the group in Spain were part of an Algerian terrorist group; terrorist propaganda videos were found by Leicestershire Police in the car of Benmerzouga; Detective Superintendent Martin Morrisey of Leicestershire Police; Alexis Debat said that MI5 had been heavily investigating Leicester from around 1998; part of the Al Qaeda group in Leicester was Djamel Beghal, who moved to Leicester in 1997, where his wife still lives; neighbour Nisha Lakha; the group vanished in July 2000, when Beghal moved to Afghanistan to plan a suicide attack; Beghal was arrested travelling back to Europe on 28 July 2001 at Dubai International Airport, where he admitted being told to attack the US embassy in France, the so-called 2001 bomb plot in Europe, with a suicide truck bomb, to be driven by Nizar Trabelsi; Baghdad Meziane was originally working in Düsseldorf, under a different name; Jordanian Abu Qatada al-Filistini conducted 'study sessions' at the Fourth Feathers youth community centre on Rossmore Road in Marylebone; it became a European conversion centre for Al Qaeda; terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui attended this centre; Abu Qatada was arrested by British police in October 2002; Algerians comprised the largest Al Qaeda group in Europe; the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC; Mohamed Sifaoui infiltrated the GSPC, who became trusted by Algerian Karim Bourti, who was convicted for three years for the 1998 World Cup terror plot; convicted terrorist Karim Bourti travels on the Eurostar with Mohamed Sifaoui, to go to Finsbury Park, and encounters no difficulty at security, meeting terrorist Omar Saiki, who was convicted for four years in France, for the 1998 bomb plot, and stripped of French citizenship. Reported by Deborah Davies, produced by Eamonn Matthews, directed by Rachel Rendall, made by Mentorn Midlands

2005

 * 7 July Undercover Teacher, about poor conduct in comprehensive schools; BBC Look East weather presenter Alex Dolan went undercover as a supply science teacher.
 * 21 July Beslan, about the Beslan school siege in September 2004. Won the 2006 BAFTA TV Award for Best Current Affairs
 * 8 August Why Bomb London?; on 3 January 1996 Lunar House writes a letter to Osama Bin Laden to inform him that he is excluded from the UK; in the mid-1990s, Osama Bin Laden had training camps in Sudan, but Britain had allowed religious radicals from countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia to enter in the 1990s; these included Khalid al-Fawwaz in Willesden Green of the Advice and Reformation Committee (ARC), Abu Doha in Dollis Hill, Omar Bakri, from Syria, in Tottenham, and Abu Qatada, from Jordan, in Acton; Alexis Debat of the French government; Sa'ad Al-Faqih of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia and how Britain was tolerant to these radical individuals, maybe too tolerant; Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-Jones, at the Foreign Office from 1994-96, and how Middle Eastern governments had made complaints about these individuals; the 1995 France bombings; Jean-Louis Bruguière, and how the radicals involved moved to Britain, as it was a pleasant country in which to live; the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya had planning in Britain; Dominique Thomas wrote the book 'Londonistan'; the jihadist Abu Doha arrives in Britain in 1999, to recruit followers, to take part in the 2000 millennium attack plots at Los Angeles Airport, where the attacker was caught with a car full of explosives, receiving 22 years in July 2005; German Dirk Laabs and the attempted Strasbourg Cathedral bombing plot in December 2000; three of the attackers had been trained at London mosques; the attackers had had their mobile phones intercepted; the radical jihadist Abu Qatada arrived in 1993, and recruited in London; British intelligence agencies knew that he was dangerous, but had lived in London for eight years (he was featured on Dispatches in 2003); the main participants of the September 2001 attack telephoned Abu Qatada weeks before, and watched his extremist videos; Abu Izzadeen (Trevor Brooks) of Al Ghurabaa; Muhammad Sulaiman, of Luton Central Mosque in Bury Park; Finsbury Park Mosque was home of the Supporters of Shariah; Sajjad H. Rizvi of the University of Exeter; Iftekhar Bokhari of the Hussainia Mosque in Burnley, and the 2001 Oldham riots; Oussama Kassir and terrorist Haroon Rashid Aswat, deported from Zambia and arrested in Britain; Neil Doyle; Andrew White (priest); Mohammed Naseem of Birmingham Central Mosque; Shaista Gohir, Baroness Gohir, of Muslim Voice UK, at the Living Islam festival; Sir Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain. Reported by Deborah Davies, produced by Ed Braman, directed by Tom Porter, made by Mentorn
 * 30 September Mad About Animals, about peculiar animal rights methods of intimidation; vegan Jonny Ablewhite (born 27 January 1970), who grew up in Aldridge studying English and History at the University of Leicester, and Kerry Whitburn, of Edgbaston; both had gone to prison; through intimidation, a research lab in Cambridge was stopped; Mel Broughton; Staffordshire Police followed the unhinged protesters' vehicles; Gail Record shouts "does your wife have Botox?" to unknown company employees; the protesters do not enjoy being answered back; construction workers call the protesters 'parasites'; Jon Ablewhite was a supply teacher in Wolverhampton; Keith Mann from Rochdale, with girlfriend Paula, was sentenced to 14 years in 1994; Devon and Cornwall Police arrest the film-maker, on suspicion of causing criminal damage, being held by police for 18 hours; two weeks later, Jon Ablewhite is arrested, where he remained in prison at the time of broadcast in September 2005; he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail; the judge, Michael Pert, described the three defendants as 'cold-blooded', and gave each a twelve-year custodial sentence at Nottingham Crown Court in September 2005, and would be inside for six years. Kerry Whitburn, of Yardley Wood, had been convicted of arson, when aged 18 in 1987. Reported by David Modell, produced by Chris Bryer

2006

 * 27 April Undercover Copper, about Leicestershire Police; police officer Nina Hobson receives an award from deputy chief constable David Lindley on 24 January 2006 at the Leicestershire headquarters in Enderby; Sir Matt Baggott, the chief constable, gives her the award, but 35 year old Nina was really an undercover reporter for Dispatches, having left the police five years before, being in the police from the age of 18, and joined the police again in April 2005, working as an undercover reporter for four months; Prof Liz Kelly of London Metropolitan University; less than 4% of reported rapes in Leicestershire were solved, and twelve other police forces had lower rates; Ian Kelcey of the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association; Prof Marian FitzGerald of the University of Kent and noble cause corruption; Nina learns how police can operate subterfuge for reporting numbers of offences; the CPS now decided which offences would go to court, to reduce time for magistrates, but this now required much written preparation by the police; Sir Matt Baggott sincerely apologises. Narrated by Joe Duttine, produced by Alexander Gardiner, directed by Agnieszka Piotrowska and Andrew Mullins, made by Granada London.

2007

 * 15 January Undercover Mosque, about mosques in the UK. Made by Hardcash Productions
 * 18 June Drinking Yourself to Death, about alcoholic liver disease in Britain; seven million people in Britain drink too much; hospital admissions for alcohol-induced liver disease had doubled in Britain from ten years, and the average age had moved from the age of 60 to 40; Jan Freeman of Derby City Hospital, who had a death from the condition of a patient aged 22; Finsbury Square in London; the former Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham; a large glass of wine contains 3.5 units; the Royal Free Hospital; modest amounts of regular wine consumption will lead to liver disease, as the liver does not get the required time to recuperate; Centenary Square; supermarkets 50% of Britain's wine, and 20% of British beer; the annual British beer trade show in April 2007, at the Olympia exhibition hall; the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers; the annual London International Wine & Spirits Fair at ExCeL London in May 2007; British wine consumption had increased by 50% in ten years; Jeremy Beadles of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association; Prof Ian Gilmore of the Royal College of Physicians; the headquarters of the Brewers of Europe trade group was situated near to the European Parliament; the British Beer and Pub Association; Alison Rogers of The British Liver Trust; Lib Dem MP Nick Harvey and Conservative MP Julie Kirkbride both drank regularly. Reported by Deborah Davies, produced by Eamonn Matthews, directed by Charlie Hawes
 * 8 October China's Stolen Children. Won the 2008 BAFTA TV Award for Best Current Affairs, and the BAFTA TV Factual Award for Best Director

2008

 * 15 September What's in your Wine?, about the British wine industry, and practices; in 2007, Britain drank 1.5bn bottles of wine; there are no EU laws for wine producers to list contents; five main wine producers sell the most in Britain - Hardys, Blossom Hill, Jacob's Creek, Gallo and Stowells, in total selling £1bn; Malcolm Gluck, who wrote The Great Wine Swindle; the French Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) label in France; organic wine producer Nicolas Joly; Olivier Andrault of UFC-Que Choisir; Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard who had a dispute with the Wine and Spirit Trade Association; John Corbet-Milward of the WSTA; the French produce over 300m bottles of champagne a year; Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Champagne Lanson sell the most in Britain, in total £80m, but were not the best by content; in a taste test, consumers prefer the cheaper sparkling wine; champagne producer Anselme Selosse; Françoise Peretti of the CIVC; soil scientist Claude Bourguignon; organic champagne producer David Léclapart; Emiliano Fittipaldi of Italy and his investigation in April 2008, in L'Espresso, of Brunellopoli. Reported by Jane Moore, produced by Mark Fielder, directed by Tom Anstiss, made by Quickfire
 * 6 October The Hidden World of Lap Dancing, about regulation of lap dancing clubs in Britain; the Secrets club in Holborn in central London, on a Tuesday; the Wildcats club in Blackpool on a Wednesday; the Halos club in Newquay on a Friday; Lynda Waltho, Labour MP for Stourbridge; Tracy Earnshaw of Newquay; Dan Rogerson, Lib Dem MP for North Cornwall; Sandrine Leveque of the Object Campaign; Wade in the Water music; the Licensing Act meant that licences were now issued by less-prudish local authorities, not magistrates; Simon Hickson of St Katharine Docks, where a Secrets club opened; Stourbridge had two clubs; the Heaven club was opposite a 6th form college; in 2008 the Barbarella club opened next to the Labour MP's office; the Capricorn Club near Goodge Street tube station; six clubs opened in Blackpool; Prof Marion Roberts, who worked with the local government select committee. Narrated by Mark Bonnar, produced by Steve Boulton
 * 12 November Saving Africa's Witch Children. Won the 2009 BAFTA TV Award for Best Current Affairs

2010

 * 1 March Britain's Islamic Republic, about fundamentalist Muslim methods of entryism in east London; the East London Mosque in Whitechapel, the largest in Europe, and Muhammad Abdul Bari; Princes Charles visited on 27 November 2001, and it had received £10m of government money; Anwar al-Awlaki; the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) was headquartered at the mosque; Houriya Ahmed of the Centre for Social Cohesion; the Young Muslim Organisation was also headquartered at the mosque; the book Khutabat: Fundamentals of Islam by Abul A'la Maududi, published in 1988; Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick (politician); Abjol Miah of the Respect Party; Labour councillor Lutfur Rahman and infiltration by the IFE; Ted Jeory of the East London Advertiser; Mulberry Place; Brian Coleman; Easy Talk on Muslim Community Radio; the IFE infiltrated the Muslim Council of Britain. Produced by Steve Boulton, directed by Jane Drinkwater


 * 23 August When Cousins Marry; half of British Pakistanis marry their first cousin; the Mucolipidosis type IV disorder, causing blindness; the reporter's grandparents were first cousins, with five of their daughters dying in childhood, and three of her uncles being born deaf; in Bradford 75% of Pakistanis married their first cousin; 4-10% of children from these marriages had genetic disorders, with a third of children with these disorders dying before the age of five; in Birmingham, 50% of Pakistanis married their first cousin, a form of consanguinity; a third of children in Britain with genetic disorders were Pakistani, often with kidney or liver disorders; the propionic acidemia hereditary condition, which damages the liver; geneticist Prof Marcus Pembrey; British Pakistanis were three times more likely to have children with a learning disability; it cost around £250,000 a year, each, to provide for such children; not many Labour MPs would discuss the subject, but Ann Cryer did. Reported by Tazeen Ahmad, produced by Allen Jewhurst, directed by Anshu Rastogi, made by Chameleon Television

2012

 * 29 October Getting Rich on the NHS; Kings Heath in Northampton, with a medical centre run by Virgin Care; Christian Wolmar; Roy Lilley; Sir Andrew Haines; Peter Holbrook of Social Enterprise UK; Laurence Buckman of the BMA. Reported by Morland Sanders, produced by Adam Jessel and Karen Edwards, directed by Claire Burnett

2013

 * 17 April Syria: Across the Lines. Reported by Olly Lambert. Won the 2014 BAFTA TV Award for Best Current Affairs
 * 23 May The Hunt for Britain's Sex Gangs, about the Telford child sexual exploitation scandal; by September 2010, Telford police had been operating Operation Chalice for 12 months; 14 year old girls were raped, to see 'who was the best', then taken to Birmingham, to be plied with bottles of Bacardi; the girls were violently raped; a teenage witness recalls, whilst herself being raped by two males, a nearby locked room with other girls inside, screaming, whilst being raped by multiple males; the offenders were all Pakistani males; the parents of the girls reported them missing to the police over seventy times, but only when a girl made the first complaint 18 months later, did the police start to investigate anything; in early December 2009, with not enough evidence, DCI Edwards arrests nine male suspects in Wellington, Shropshire; nine girls give evidence, and identify the suspects; 22 year old Ahdel Ali, known as 'Eddie', and 26 year old Mubarek Ali, known as 'Max' of Regent Street in Wellington; with three other suspects (23 year old Mohammed Ali Sultan of Victoria Avenue in Wellington), Ahdel and Mubarek are released on bail, and immediately threaten the female witnesses with violence; fifty police officers are now investigating by September 2010; DCI Neil Jamieson is leading the investigation; girls were held hostage for over ten hours, being constantly raped; one female wrote a list of names of over a hundred male offenders; police believed that there were around two hundred male offenders; the police had not encountered such offences before; after one teenage female was initially raped, a few days later, the male offender would be accompanied by his cousin, and brother, and uncle; DS Sophie Wade sees the traits of the male offenders; the police realise that there is scarce forensic evidence; Sheila Taylor identified trafficking methods, and psychological manipulation in Derby; in being trafficked, a teenage female was passed around a total of 72 males, part of nine groups across England; with mobile phone records, and copious ANPR evidence, the Pakistani males could be tracked to a few square metres over months; when being rearrested, simpleton Ahdel Ali makes threats to the police; graphic text messages on the offenders' mobile phones will inevitably incriminate them, and could identify other possible offenders; from the text message evidence, a common place to meet the girls was the 'hospital bus stop'; the teenage girls were often referred to as 'bitch' or 'whore'; on 2 November 2010, simpleton Ahdel Ali is interviewed by police, informing the police that he did not rape the teenage girl, but admitting that he 'had sex with her'; the CPS decides not to take the series of rapes to court as the victim could be portrayed as an unreliable witness; court begins on 16 May 2011, with nine Pakistani men on trial, seven being married, and one a grandfather, with 47 charges; seven teenage girls give evidence; girls were exchanged at the Lal Komal restaurant in Oakengates, the Dhaka Tandoori on Tan Bank in Wellington, and Thiara's Fish Bar on Haybridge Road in Hadley, by Mubarek Ali, where they were gang raped by workers at the restaurant, up to four times a week; the court lasts for four months, where the girls are constantly accused of being a compulsive liar, in legal cross-examination; the court finishes on 6 September 2011, and all the Pakistani males walk free, due to inadequate female witness testimony; on 8 August 2012 at Worcester Crown Court, the offenders are finally convicted; in October 2012 24-year-old Ahdel Ali receives 18 years, and 29-year-old Mubarek Ali receives 14 years; six other offenders are convicted in December 2012. Reported by Tazeen Ahmad, produced by Brian Woods, directed by Anna Hall, made by True Vision North
 * 24 June The Police's Dirty Secret, about squalid sexual relationships between undercover police and females in protest movements, the UK undercover policing relationships scandal; Peter Francis was in the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) of Special Branch, where he was known as Pete Black; in 1993 he joined Youth against Racism in Europe, where he became a (convincing) branch secretary; Bob Lambert (undercover police officer) who was now a university lecturer, who had infiltrated the ALF; a female ALF protester knew Bob Lambert as Bob Robinson; Bob also had a wife and two children; in late 1985 Bob's son was born; Bob subsequently met 24 year old Belinda Harvey, who was not part of any protest group; animal rights protester Helen Steel attended London Greenpeace meetings in 1987, where she met fellow protester John Barker, who was really the police officer John Dines; Helen would know the police office for two years; the National Public Order Intelligence Unit superseded the SDS in 2008; SDS officer Mark Jenner lived with a female protester for four years, as Mark Cassidy; Mark Kennedy (police officer) had undercover relationships with female protesters across Europe, with one relationship being of six years; Chief Constable Mick Creedon, of Operation Herne. Reported by Paul Lewis (journalist), produced by George Waldrum, directed by Katherine Churcher, made by ITN Productions
 * 4 November Energy Bills Exposed; Neil Clitheroe of Scottish Power; Paul Massera of npower; Hither Green in south west London; the typical British annual energy bill was £1,400; Will Morris of SSE plc; forensic accountant Richard Murphy (tax campaigner); the top six energy companies each paid around £700m in dividends; Stephen Fitzpatrick of OVO Energy; Glasgow Labour MP John Robertson. Reported by Harry Wallop, produced by Denman Rooke, directed by Joanna Potts, made by October Films
 * 25 November Britain's Big Fat Bill, about obesity in the United Kingdom; there were 1.5m morbidly obese people in the UK; Norma Mills was 5ft 6 and 20 stone; for her obesity she took Xenical (Orlistat); Prof Mike Lean of the University of Glasgow; British hospitals were seeing eleven times as many obese patients from ten years before; it cost the NHS £5.1bn; Prof Nick Finer of UCL; bariatric surgery at St George's Hospital in Tooting; surgeon Paul Super in Birmingham; John Coakley, medical director of Homerton University Hospital. Reported by Tazeen Ahmad, produced by Charlotte Rowles, directed by Matt Haan, made by Watershed Television

2014

 * 22 January Children on the Frontline. Won the 2015 BAFTA TV Award for Best Current Affairs
 * 24 February Secrets of Your Credit Rating, Dispatches visited the Nottingham site of Experian, without Experian knowing; financial writer Sarah Pennells; there are three main credit rating agencies in the UK, Experian, Equifax and Callcredit; in the small print of credit agreements, information is allowed to be given to some of the agencies; John and Rebecca of the Leyland Band, who were husband and wife; teacher Ros Canning; James Jones of Experian; Experian's office in central Nottingham, with an undercover Dispatches reporter Georgia Boulton, purporting to be an employee, where the employee is trained about the Merlin and Portal systems; credit reports are assigned via a 'potential alias', introduced in 2001, which is not a 100% identification, and can be merely a lucky guess; Damon Gibbons of the Centre for Responsible Credit; Labour MP John Mann, Baron Mann had his credit report mixed up with another John Mann with the same date of birth, to detriment of his credit rating; the Federal Trade Commission; Reported by Morland Sanders, produced by Steve Boulton, directed by Sarah Hey, made by Nine Lives

2018

 * 14 May Myanmar's Killing Fields. Made with PBS. Won the 2019 BAFTA TV Award for Best Current Affairs

2021

 * 11 October Cops on Trial; a bipolar woman reports a boyfriend posting unsolicited content of her; a male police officer visits her house to interview her, views the explicit content, and gives her his Instagram details, and they meet up socially; the officer was investigated and found to have committed gross misconduct, but he resigned before any further investigation; forensic psychologist Terri Cole of Bournemouth University; in four years, around 2,000 male police personnel had been accused of sexual misconduct, with 370 alleged sexual assaults, and 100 alleged rapes; Alan Butler of Warwickshire Police took advantage his position; around 250 police personnel had been accused of this offence over four years; there are around 150,000 police officers in the UK; Glasgow police officer Fraser Ross battered his girlfriend for six years, but escaped jail, keeping his police pension, as he had resigned; Police Scotland had 166 personnel accused of misconduct in four years, but none were dismissed; Susannah Fish, former chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police; Louisa Rolfe of the National Police Chiefs' Council. Reported by Ellie Flynn, produced by George Waldrum, directed by Ben Ryder, made by ITN Productions