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  • 1968: The year that changed the world?

    In this four part series Sir John Tusa traces what made 1968 such a climactic year.

  • The 66 Club

    Ruth Evans tells the extraordinary story of 11 women brought together on the internet by one man's sperm.

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  • A Dollar A Day

    In this five-part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it is really like to have to live on one dollar a day.

  • A Quiet Revolution in the Concert Hall

    The Venezuelan sistema - an intensive orchestral training for children - does more for young people than give them music.

  • After the KGB

    Martin Sixsmith gets under the skin of Russia's secret service, the fastest growing and arguably most politically influential secret service in the world.

  • Age of Terror

    The 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris.

  • Al-Qaeda's Internal Debate

    BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner talks to former allies of Osama bin Laden who are now engaged in countering the terrorist leader's agenda.

  • America's first principles

    Allan Little presents an appraisal of Thomas Jefferson that will consider some of the key "Jeffersonian principles" and look at what they show us how his vision continues to define the continent of America and its relationship with the world today.

  • Anatomy of a Car Crash

    Tracing the profound physical and emotional toll on all those involved in the wake of a single collision on a road.

  • Animal Migration in a Climate of Change

    Brett Westwood presents four special programmes looking at how environmental change is affecting the movement of animals. In the first programme, he explores how sustainable forestry can help to preserve the Orange Monarch butterfly.

  • Argentina - Dancing To The Music Of The Mind

    Argentinian film director, writer and tango enthusiast, Edgardo Cozarinsky, talks to artists, dancers and novelists about why psychotherapy and tango have such a pervasive hold on the Argentine mind and soul.

  • The Atrocity Archives

    Evidence of police atrocities during Guatemala’s civil war.

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  • The Bad Samaritan

    Bernard Madoff’s 'Ponzi' scheme is probably the largest ever pyramid fraud in US history and mongst his many victims were charities.

  • Bangladesh Floods

    It's been three months since cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh. Siobhann Tighe returns to the region to trace those she spoke to and photographed. She finds out how their lives have changed after the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh since 1991.

  • Beatles in the USSR

    This documentary, presented by Paul Gambaccini, reveals the extraordinary ways that the Beatles' music was listened to in the Soviet Union during the 1960s and asks whether 'Beatles On Bones' caused the end of communism.

  • Beijing Calling

    Russell Fuller and BBC World Service Sport look at the difficult journeys of six hopefuls from around the world in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.

  • Beijing Calling

    Russell Fuller and BBC World Service Sport look at the difficult journeys of six hopefuls from around the world in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.

  • The Bicycle Diaries

    Three portraits of the use of the bicycle around the world. With more than a billion models worldwide, the bicycle has found a place in every society.

  • The Billion Dollar Election

    The United States is due to have the first billion-dollar election in its history. The BBC’s Steve Evans presents a two-part investigation into election spending done in collaboration with the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington DC.

  • Bomb Hunters

    More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Bomb Hunters tells the stories of the people living in Xieng Khuang in Laos and how they survive in a land still littered with UXO.

  • Boom or Bust

    Sharon Mascall investigates the Australian mining industry where many inexperienced workers are lured by high wages but face harsh conditions, poor safety standards and an uncertain future.

  • Brand Cuba

    Allan Little analyses some of the factors that have kept Cuba alive in the public imagination over such a long period.

  • Building Better Health

    Jill McGivering compares two very different free health systems in the developed world: the British NHS and that of the US state of Massachusetts.

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  • Children of the Revolution

    How has the war with Iraq acted as a continuation of the Revolution in Iran? What does life has to offer the country's young population trapped by conservatism and an ailing economy?

  • Chinua Achebe: A Hero Returns

    The greatest of all African novelists, Chinua Achebe, takes his first trip for many years back to his homeland of Nigeria.

  • Countdown to the Olympics

    China claims there is 'vigorous growth in the public practice of religion' but Gerry Northam discovers that religious persecution is still taking place.

  • The Cricket Revolution

    The traditional format of 5 day test cricket is being challenged by the arrival of Twenty20.

  • Culture not colour

    Aboriginal Australian Jared Thomas goes in search of the nature of identity and what it means to his world.

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  • Debt Threat: Credit Monster

    The first programme will show how rapidly the shock wave of the credit crunch is spreading and why it is now moving far beyond the sub-prime homeowners where it began.

  • The Desert Capitalists - Part One

    The Marwari trading caste from India has become a major global economic and political force. Explore their journey from the desert to building their global empire.

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  • Martin Wolf

    Examining the state of the global markets

  • El Sistema Goes Global

    Juan Carlos Jaramillo looks at the two projects aimed at social improvement through music: Big Noise and New York's Harmony

  • Elegy for the Tech

    Poet, author and Virginia Tech lecturer Fred D'Aguiar lost a close colleague and a student during the tragic shooting one year ago. This programme follows D'Aguiar as he reflects on 12 months of both his own and his students' work.

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  • Fading Traditions

    In Marrakech, old men sit in the square telling stories to anyone who will gather around. They are known as halakis and their art is dying out.

  • Failure at the Central Bank

    For the last six decades, central bankers have run the international financial system with the aid of a powerful set of economic levers handed to them after the World War 2. Last year, these levers came off in their hands.

  • Failure or fraud

    As the global banking crisis deepens, a flood of multi-million dollar lawsuits is beginning to shed light into some of the darkest corners of international finance. Michael Robinson investigates these cases and what they reveal about the present disaster.

  • Feeding the Spirit of New Orleans

    Feeding the Spirit of New Orleans: restoring the culinary heritage of a devastated city.

  • Freedom from Slavery in Mauritania

    David Gutnick visits Mauritania, and finds out how entrenched the master/slave relationship still is.

  • Fresh start

    As prison numbers in Britain continue to soar, this three part series asks what can be done to stop criminals re-offending?

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  • Global Account

    A visit to the disputed Thai "Red Zone" and victims of an under-reported war.

  • Global Perspective

    The BBC World Service's international documentary series.

  • Green deserts

    Climate change issues in the African desert

  • Growing old

    Discovering a philosophy of good ageing

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  • Harare Festival

    The diary of the man behind Zimbabwe's Harare International Festival of the Arts, as he attempts to stage his event amidst the election drama in the country.

  • Hard lessons from Afghanistan

    Former Kabul correspondent, Alan Johnston, reflects on decades of turmoil in Afghanistan.

  • Health For All

    Uduak Amimo asks if the world has the will, people and money to deliver basic good health to everyone.

  • Health For All

    Uduak Amimo asks if the world has the will, people and money to deliver basic good health to everyone.

  • How Iraq's War Shaped our World

    Jim Muir looks at the beginning of the invasion and the handover of power to the Iraqis

  • How crime took on the world

    Misha Glenny has been investigating criminal networks in our newly globalised world. He begins his journey in Canada, where the wholesale production of marijuana is posing a challenge to the US-led 'War on Drugs'.

  • Human Rights and Wrongs at the UN

    The United Nations spent 2008 celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We investigate whether the UN's Human Rights Council is fulfilling its role to protect the most vulnerable from human rights abuses.

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  • Indonesian journeys

    In the run up to the Indonesian elections in April, Anita Barraud travels to four different regions of the country to take a closer look at its politics and democracy.

  • Is al-Qaeda winning?

    Owen Bennett-Jones presents this series that explores the success or otherwise of the global war on terror after seven years of fighting.

  • The Italian patient

    What is the state of health of the Italian nation today? Is Italy in crisis or undergoing a new Renaissance? Italian journalist Annalisa Piras returns home to find out.

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  • Keeping the Peace

    In 2003 peace was declared between the Liberian government and rebels.

  • Keeping the Peace - Part 2

    Audrey Brown explores the challenges of balancing up peace and justice in Liberia

  • Kidnapped

    Ritula Shah reunites former hostage Norman Kember with the people personally involved in negotiations to free them.

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  • The Legacy of George W Bush

    President George W Bush’s legacy was always going to be controversial. Justin Webb, presents this two-part series looking into how he will be remembered.

  • Leila's Story

    The powerful story of a young Iranian woman called Leila, sold into prostitution at the age of nine by her own family and sentenced to hang aged 18.

  • Political hero?

    Exploring Abraham Lincoln's legacy 200 years after his birth

  • Living With Chico Mendes

    To mark the 20th anniversary of his assassination in December 1988, this programme marks the life of Chico Mendes, the highly significant green activist who helped to galvanise the race to preserve the Amazon.

  • Looted Art

    At the end of World War Two, as Nazi Germany lay in ruins, millions of works of art were secrety shipped back to Russia by the Soviet Army. Charles Wheeler now investigates their fate and the political row that still surrounds them in Looted Art.

  • Tiananmen

    Has the will to protest been crushed forever?

  • The lost veterans

    Andrew Purcell has been speaking to 'lost veterans' - like Phil - trying to get back on track, hearing about their struggles reintegrating into civilian society and how they feel abandoned by the military.

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  • Message from China

    Dr Anne Marie Brady investigates why the communist party in China has decided to modernise its propaganda system.

  • Mubarak's Egypt - part one

    After 28 years in power, President Mubarak's promise of shepherding his country into a stable democracy has all but dissipated.

  • Musical Migrants

    Musical Migrants traces journeys across borders, driven by a passion for the music of a foreign land.

  • My Lai Tapes

    Robert Hodierne reveals the truth about the infamous My Lai massacre of 16th March 1968, based on the audio testimony made during a Pentagon inquiry.

  • My Senator, My Vote

    We know the two US presidential candidates and what they would do in office - but what does the electorate itself want? Robin Lustig travels to the candidates' home states to meet four Americans to find out what issues have determined their choices.

  • My World: Kades

    The story of Kades, who has only ever seen one way to escape from the Majengo slums of Nairobi, through his poetry.

  • My World: a different kind of stroke

    The story of Dr Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist who suffered a massive stroke 13 years ago.

  • My World: the infidelity agency

    Meet Vivek Kumar, he runs India’s number one detective agency from a small office in Mumbai.

  • My World: the library cart

    The Library Cart focuses on a day in the life of Cartegena's Martin Murrillo, a mobile cart librarian and self-taught teacher.

  • My World: the homecoming

    Gemma Tracee Apiku a former refugee who spent her teenage years in the camps of Sudan returns to Africa to become a relief worker.

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  • Obama's Pentagon

    Will Obama's presidency see substantial reform at the Pentagon?

  • Obama's Pentagon

    Will Obama's presidency see substantial reform at the Pentagon?

  • Obama: Professor President

    Kwame Anthony Appiah is one of America’s leading public intellectuals. In this investigative feature he is on a mission to find out what Barack Obama is like as an intellectual.

  • On the brink

    Michael Robinson looks at the increasingly desperate efforts to stave off a global economic slump and depression.

  • Only One Bakira

    Bakira Hasecic is unrelenting in her pursuit of the war criminals of the Bosnian war. How does she and the members of the Association of Women Victims of War find the strength to talk about the rapes and other horrors they endured?

  • Out of the Ghetto

    Two Chicgao tell the story of life in inner city Chicago 15 years after their popular documentary Ghetto Life 101 aired in the USA.

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  • Pain: body, mind, culture

    Experiencing pain is an elemental part of what makes us who we are. It lies at the intersection between body, mind and culture.

  • Pain: body, mind, culture

    Experiencing pain is an elemental part of what makes us who we are. It lies at the intersection between body, mind and culture. In this two part series, BBC Iraq correspondent, Andrew North, takes a personal journey through pain.

  • The Pardon Game

    Owen Bennett-Jones investigates the constitutional right of US presidents to grant pardons.

  • Pirates

    From pirates to piracy, in this three part series, Nick Rankin finds out how they have adapted to changing times. He takes a journey through history looking at pirates past, present and future.

  • Playing Castro's Tune

    On January 1, 1959 General Batista's regime in Cuba was overthrown by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement.

  • Poetry from the Front Line

    BBC War correspondent Jonathan Charles on the poetry being written as a result of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • Policing the Poppy Fields

    Kate Clark, who's had rare access to the fight against the Afghan opium trade over the past year, asks how effective attempts to control it can be.

  • Policing the UN

    As part of a special investigation, the BBC's Africa editor Martin Plaut sets out to examine serious new allegations of corruption and wrongdoing within the United Nations' peacekeeping operations.

  • The Presidential Contenders

    Barack Obama: a profile of the first black person ever nominated to run for president on behalf of a mainstream party in the USA.

  • Press For Freedom

    Roy Greenslade presents this four-part documentary series on the freedom of the press. In part one Roy looks at the effects of government control and the risks that journalists take to pursue the truth.

  • The Priest of Pará

    Father Henri Des Roziers, a Dominican priest and human rights lawyer working in Pará, talks about his life, his faith and the cause he would give his life for.

  • Public Places, Private Lives

    The stories of those who live and work in famous places

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  • Quest for a cure

    Peter Day reports on whether the US Food and Drug Administration will licence the HIV/AIDS drug Maraviroc.

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  • Race and Reconciliation

    In this three part series, Audrey Brown travels to South Africa to find out how recent racial incidents have revealed cracks in what was dubbed the miracle of 'the rainbow nation'.

  • Rat attack

    Neil McCarthy pieces together a story of rats, famine and insurrection from the 1950’s to present day, in remote hills of North East India.

  • Rehearsing for War

    The extraordinary US military base at the heart of a vast shift in American military strategy, aiming for nation-building and peacekeeping.

  • Return to Kurdistan: Part One

    Michael Goldfarb returns to visit the people of Kurdistan and in particular the Shawkat family, with whom he became close during the Iraq War

  • Return to White Horse Village

    Carrie Gracie witnesses the upheaval as a rural community in the mountains of China is turned into a city.

  • The Right to Know

    Freedom of information is well on the way to being seen as an essential for a modern democracy. But there's almost always a backlash from politicians and officials.

  • The Rules of Risk

    As Europe and America struggle to re-write the rules of international finance following the credit crunch, Claire Bolderson investigates the roots and role of risk. Is bad risk management to blame for the economic crisis?

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  • Secrets in the Blood

    In this two-part investigation, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use and cover-ups at the highest levels in sport.

  • Securing Pakistan's bomb

    If the government of Pakistan collapsed, could extremists acquire the country's nuclear weapons? Gordon Corera reports.

  • See Iraq, Think Vietnam?

    BBC's Jonathan Marcus asesess the impact of the two conflicts on American society.

  • Simpson Returns to China

    John Simpson returns to Tiananmen Square where he witnessed the massacre of student demonstrators in June 1989.

  • The Story of Braille

    Braille has been adapted into almost every known language. It's used on bank notes in Canada and Mexico, and in published parliament acts in India. It's been a revolution for the blind but is it under threat today?

  • Strangers in Marseille

    Laurie Taylor explores Marseille's unique racial geography to find out what kept the peace during 2005 and 2007 when race riots tore at the fabric of France.

  • Street art

    Can street art survive its own success?

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  • Tales from the Commonwealth

    The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are popular holiday destinations for wealthy tourists. In this four part series, Robin White visits these island nations to find out what life is really like for people who live there.

  • Taxi to the Dark Side

    In "Taxi To The Dark Side", American film-maker Alex Gibney reports on the use of torture by American soldiers in Afghanistan. Was the torture the work of a few rogue soldiers, or officially approved by the Pentagon?

  • Teacher Flower

    Kathy Flower revisits China 25 years after she became famous as an English teacher on Chinese television.

  • Timeline

    A topical and fast moving look back into the archives at stories which have special resonance today

  • Tired of Terror - Part one

    Rupa Jha talks to former militants in Kashmir and their families about why they took up arms and the reasons behind giving up violence. What are the challenges of returning to normal society?

  • Too Many Santas

    Throughout much of the Christian world there are many different versions of Santa. Most are jolly, many look familiar and some are a little strange.

  • The Torturers' Tale

    What is it like to be a torturer?

  • The Trouble with Money

    Michael Robinson sees trouble ahead. Is the world's economy now threatened by what some believe is the most dangerous crisis since the depression of the 1930s?

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  • Uncovering Pakistan

    Why have so many of the hopes and aspirations of Pakistan's founders remained unfulfilled?

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  • West African Journeys - Part Four

    Sorious Samura is in a fishing village near Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone in the last of this four part series.

  • West African Journeys - Part One

    Sorious Samura goes to his homeland Sierra Leone as a starting point for a trip through four neighbouring countries in West Africa.

  • What Lies Beneath

    International seas are largely unregulated, meaning most underwater archaeological wealth can be retrieved and sold without any obstacle.

  • What next for Kenya?

    In a two-part series, former BBC East Africa Correspondent Mike Wooldridge journeys from the bustling capital, Nairobi, to wary communities in the Rift Valley to report on the issues behind the conflict that erupted in Kenya at the turn of the year.

  • What’s cooking

    The Kitchen Sisters – Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson – are a town mouse, country mouse team. They have created inventive and insightful features on American Public Radio for the past three decades.

  • Why they're dying in the Congo

    BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mark Doyle explores why over five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past decade.

  • The Wildlife Smugglers

    The global illegal trade in wildlife is worth up to $25 billion a year. With lower fines and shorter prison terms compared to drugs or weapons smuggling it's attracting organised criminals, looking for big money and low risk.

  • The World's Shifting Balance

    The dynamics of the old world and the new world are changing and the balance of economic systems is shifting. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times asks leading economists how important is the American financial cycle to the rest of the world?

  • The world without...cows

    Discover just how important cows have been to civilisation, all around the world.

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  • Yiddish survival

    Exploring the decline of a language

  • Yiddish: A Struggle for Survival

    Yiddish was the language of the Jewish Diaspora, the language of a people on the move across Europe. It has suffered a dramatic decline over the last century.

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