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DocArchive: John Simpson Returns to 1989 - Part Two

Thu, Nov 19 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. In part two John returns to Prague to speak to those who lived through the Velvet Revolution.

A Dollar A Day - Part Three

Wed, Nov 18 Listen

In Nepal, severe drought and unreliable monsoon rains have led to acute food shortages. The impact is felt most by people like Charuri who is struggling to feed three children and cannot afford the medical help she needs.

The Crescent and The Cross: Part Two

Mon, Nov 16 Listen

Owen Bennett Jones explores five crucial battles in the relationship between Christianity and Islam. This episode looks at the Crusades.

Africa's Forgotten Soldiers

Thu, Nov 12 Listen

Seventy years after the start of the Second World War the overwhelming impression is of a conflict fought on the battlefields of Europe by white troops. Britain’s war effort was bolstered by soldiers from the white Commonwealth – Australia, Canada and New Zealand and later by the United States. The war in the Far East is often overlooked, as is the fighting that took place in Africa. Yet one million African troops participated in the conflict, fighting their way through the jungles of Burma,...

DocArchive: Assignment: Better Banking

Thu, Nov 12 Listen

As governments struggle to curb the so-called “casino-banking” practices which some blame for the global financial meltdown, Michael Robinson now reports on growing concerns over super-fast, computerised share-dealing systems which are earning massive new profits for banks.

DocArchive: A Dollar a Day - Part 2

Wed, Nov 11 Listen

Thrown off nearby farms at the time of Namibia’s independence, the squatters of Otjivero lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Last year a scheme was established to give every inhabitant a basic cash grant of US$10 a month, to spend as they wanted. School enrolment has shot up, small businesses are springing up, and the nurse at the local clinic says malnutrition rates amongst the children have dropped.

The Crescent and the Cross - Part One

Mon, Nov 9 Listen

The Crescent and the Cross, a four-part series, presented by Owen Bennett-Jones, examines several turning points in the relationship between Christianity and Islam covering Muslim Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and the struggle for Africa. Part One starts by look going back over 1,000 years ago, in what we now call Spain, but was then known as al-Andalus.

DocArchive: Youssou N’Dour at 50

Thu, Nov 5 Listen

To mark the 50th birthday of Youssou N'Dour, Robin Denselow travels to Senegal to profile the best known African musician of recent times.

DocArchive: Assignment - Guinea on the Brink

Thu, Nov 5 Listen

Mark Doyle reports from Guinea in West Africa on the harrowing events of 28 September when government troops crushed an opposition rally in the centre of the capital, Conakry. This programme contains some graphic description of sexual violence.

DocArchive: A Dollar a Day - Part 1

Wed, Nov 4 Listen

What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty? Mike Wooldridge travels to Nicaragua to meet Justa who hoped for a better life after the Sandinista revolution.

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Mon, Nov 2 Listen

The extraordinary but little-known tale of Russia's three all-female regiments that flew more than 30,000 missions on the Eastern Front. At home they were celebrated as 'Stalin's Falcons' but terrified German troops called them the 'Night Witches'.

DocArchive: Public Places, Private Lives - Part Two

Fri, Oct 30 Listen

Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons. The second programme is set in the Taj Mahal, where we hear the experiences of those people for whom one of the most important sites in India is part of their daily landscape.

DocArchive: Assignment - Dying to Give Birth

Thu, Oct 29 Listen

Jill McGivering travels to Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, to meet a doctor who is battling against the odds to prevent women from dying in childbirth. Listeners may find parts of this Assignment programme distressing.

DocArchive: Rebranding Nigeria - Part Two

Wed, Oct 28 Listen

Nigeria is campaigning for a new image and a new reputation in an effort to attract some much needed investment. Reporter Henry Bonsu follows the many steps of this charm offensive.

DocArchive: MI6 - A Century in the Shadows - Part Tree

Mon, Oct 26 Listen

The head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service Sir John Scarlett, talks for the first time about the interrogation of terrorist suspects and MI6’s role in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

DocArchive: Public Places, Private Lives - Part One

Fri, Oct 23 Listen

Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons.

DocArchive: Assignment - Protecting Britain's Children

Thu, Oct 22 Listen

When a 17 month-old London child died after horrific abuse by his family, it unleashed a barrage of criticism against British social services. For Assignment Catherine Miller gains rare access to the people whose job it is to protect Britain's vulnerable children.

DocArchive: Rebranding Nigeria - Part One

Wed, Oct 21 Listen

Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image? Is changing Nigeria's image an impossible mission?

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.

The Monday Documentary (Documentary)