Listen to Wednesday Documentary (BBC WS) online

MI6 - A Century in the Shadows

Mon, Oct 19 Listen

In Programme Two, we find out what were spies really up to behind the Iron Curtain. MI6 chief John Scarlett describes his clandestine meeting with an agent, and the Russian defector Oleg Gordievsky talks about his reasons for coming over to the other side.

DocArchive: Assignment Armenia: The cleverest nation on the planet

Thu, Oct 15 Listen

Every two years teams from all over the world compete with one another in the Chess Olympiad. In the last two Olympiads, the winning medal has gone to a small country in the Caucasus. How has this nation done it? Gabriel Gatehouse investigates.

DocArchive: John Simpson Returns to 1989

Thu, Oct 15 Listen

The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson tells the story of 20 years of post-communist life. Through personal stories, he traces the different roads that East Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania have taken since 1989.

MI6 - A century in the shadows

Mon, Oct 12 Listen

An unprecedented look inside MI6 - Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, which marks its centenary this year. Programme One - Gadgets & Green Ink explores the early years of MI6, set up by Sir Mansfield Cumming, a formidable figure known as 'C' who signed his name in green ink.

DocArchive: Memento, part two

Fri, Oct 9 Listen

Imagine that conflict and violence force you to flee your country, leaving behind all that you know and love. In the chaos and panic, you have to choose a single object to take with you - something so full of resonance that it will always remind you of the life and people that you left behind. In the second part of Memento, we meet people who have fled to Britain.

DocArchive: Assignment - Three Strike Lifers

Thu, Oct 8 Listen

A life sentence for stealing a pair of socks. In California the tough 'three strikes' law is sending people to prison for life even if their third crime is a non-violent one. Now a group of law students is trying to change things. Rob Walker reports.

DocArchive: Yiddish - a Struggle for Survival - Part One

Wed, Oct 7 Listen

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. What will become of it now?

The Crash: Back from the brink

Mon, Oct 5 Listen

The third part of the BBC's definitive series on the banking crash tells the extraordinary story of how politicians reacted, and asks what has been learnt from the entire calamity. Could it happen again?

DocArchive: Assignment - The Mystery of the Arctic Sea

Thu, Oct 1 Listen

It's straight out of the pages of a thriller novel: a cargo ship, lost without trace; pirates working the seas at the heart of Europe; whispers of arms smuggling and the scent of international conspiracy. The mysterious disappearance of a Russian-operated cargo ship off the coast of Britain in late July sparked furious speculation that's never been resolved. For Assignment, Sarah Rainsford tries to shine a light on what really happened on board the vessel, the Arctic Sea.

DocArchive: Desperate Dreams - Part Two

Wed, Sep 30 Listen

Presenter Jenny Cuffe sets out to find Fereinatu, a teenage girl who was trafficked for sex. She had returned to her impoverished home in Benin City, but she is missing once more and relatives fear she may have been sucked back into prostitution.

DocArchive: Assignment - Chasing the Tax Cheats

Tue, Sep 29 Listen

This week's Assignment looks at the much-vaunted crackdown on tax havens announced by the G20 earlier this year. The drive is aimed at getting tax havens to agree to yield up information on tax cheats. But is the G-20's weapon of choice, shooting blanks? Is its approach cumbersome and ineffective in the fight to get every dollar that's owed to tax authorities? Lesley Curwen investigates.

The Crash: The Age of Risk

Mon, Sep 28 Listen

The second of this three-part series that examines the boom before the bust of 2008 looks at how our attitudes to risk and debt changed with disastrous consequences.

DocArchive: Building out of the Recession - part two

Fri, Sep 25 Listen

Can we build our way out of the recession? The Empire State Building was started just weeks after the Wall Street Crash, giving Americans hope in times of depression. Jonathan Glancey, architecture correspondent for the Guardian newspaper in London, looks at the economic and social policies of the 1930s and the parallels we can find today.

DocArchive: Desperate Dreams - part one

Tue, Sep 22 Listen

Two years ago, Jenny Cuffe followed the journeys of migrants trying to leave Africa and find a better life in Europe. Innocent Akibor left Nigeria to get to Spain. As exploitation greets him at almost every step of his journey, listen to find out if he made his dream come true.

The Crash: The bank that busted the world

Mon, Sep 21 Listen

What were the key moments that led to financial meltdown, and what happened in the aftermath? The first of a three-part series that looks closely at the turbulent events in the autumn of 2008.

DocArchive: Building Out of the Recession

Thu, Sep 17 Listen

Just weeks after the Wall Street Crash in 1929, work began on the Empire State Building. The Guardian's architecture correspondent Jonathan Glancey assesses the economics of building out of a recession.

DocArchive: Dreams from my mother

Tue, Sep 15 Listen

President Barack Obama has famously written of the influence exerted on him by his father in his memoir Dreams of My Father, but what of his mother, Ann Dunham? Listen to Judith Kampfner as she unveils more about this unconventional and idealistic woman.

DocArchive: Benjamin Jealous - the future of the NAACP

Mon, Sep 14 Listen

enjamin Jealous is the leader of America's oldest and largest black civil rights group. In a USA fronted by Barack Obama, what are the future battlegrounds for African American human rights?

World Stories: Mexico's Missing Island

Fri, Sep 11 Listen

Bermeja Island is missing. This strategically important island was clearly visible on maps of the Gulf of Mexico until the middle of the 20th century but it's now gone. BBC Mundo's David Cuen goes in search.

DocArchive: Citizen Journalism - Part Two

Wed, Sep 9 Listen

n the second episode Michael Buerk visits Cairo and experience for himself how bloggers - arguably among the most hounded anywhere in the world - are taking on the Egyptian government.

DocArchive: Why is Africa poor? Part three

Mon, Sep 7 Listen

Enterprise, money, innovation are all there. Is tapping into a continent's optimism the key to Africa's future? Mark Doyles looks at the solutions to solve Africa's poverty.

DocArchive: Assignment - China Saving's Habit

Thu, Sep 3 Listen

Colin Yu is a teacher who lives in Shanghai. He has a job but still struggles to support his parents on his modest income. Colin would like to spend more money and the Chinese government is offering incentives to people like him to go out and buy Chinese goods. They're hoping that by doing so it will help the country to survive the current global economic downturn. Average savings rates in China stand at around 30% and, as Chris Hogg discovers, most of that money is spent on healthcare. For...

DocArchive: Citizen journalism - democracy or chaos?

Wed, Sep 2 Listen

Michael Buerk analyses the potential – and the dangers – of citizen journalism. In part one, he talks to bloggers and critics from Sri Lanka, Iran, Burma, and Iraq.

DocArchive: Why is Africa poor? Part Two

Mon, Aug 31 Listen

Accusations of tribalism, corruption and complacency have all been offered as explanations to the question of Africa's poverty. Mark Doyle looks at each of these and asks why the status quo persists.

DocArchive: World stories: new media in Kashmir

Fri, Aug 28 Listen

Violent footage from the Kashmir conflict has been shared almost in real-time by citizen-journalists on video sharing websites. Suvojit Bagchi tells the story of the impact of new media communication in a conflict zone.

DocArchive: Assignment - Mutiny in Bangladesh

Thu, Aug 27 Listen

Six months ago there was a short military revolt in Bangladesh that threatened to push the country into nationwide armed conflict. But some things remain mysterious. Why was it so brutal? Who was really behind it? What did they hope to achieve? In this week’s addition of Assignment, Mark Dummett has tracked down key participants and eyewitnesses in search of some answers.

DocArchive: Gold - part three

Wed, Aug 26 Listen

Nick Rankin explores how we assess the value of gold.

DocArchive: Why is Africa poor?

Mon, Aug 24 Listen

Mark Doyle crosses the continent of Africa and finds a place rich in natural resources and human potential, which begs the question, why is Africa poor? Outsiders have been coming to Africa for centuries for its raw materials and potential. It was an exploitative relationship that has contributed to Africa's poverty, but can foreigners now turn the fortunes of a modern Africa?

World Stories: Fighting for Pao Culture in Burma

Fri, Aug 21 Listen

Ko Ko Aung from the BBC's Burmese Service, travelled to Burma to find out why a rebel army of 100 men is taking on the 400,000 strong Burmese army.

Assignment: America's African Outpost

Thu, Aug 20 Listen

Fran Abrams is given rare access to the US base in Djibouti questioning military chiefs, local leaders and ordinary Djiboutians as she explores the role and impact of America's African outpost.

Wednesday Documentary (BBC WS) (Documentary)