Globalisation and Geopolitics

Requiem for Detroit?

Built by the car for the car, Detroit was the embodiment of the American dream. Now it leads the way again but in a very different direction.

Episode 1 | Made in Britain

Evan Davis busts the myths that Britain was wrong to let manufacturing go abroad, and that it has become a nation of shopkeepers.

Why Industry Comes and Goes: Part 1 | The Geography Programme

Malcolm Stacey investigates the rise of industry in South Wales from the days of the early ironmasters to the b...

Episode 2 | Made in Britain

Evan Davis looks at how Britain's focus on the knowledge economy contributes greatly to the nation's bank balance.

Episode 3 | Made in Britain

Evan travels to Dubai to explore how the country's service expertise has been successfully exported around the world.

Town of Steel | BBC Wales Investigates

As thousands of steelworkers’ jobs hang in the balance, the town of Port Talbot is facing a crisis. We go back 15 years to catch up wi...

Why Industry Comes and Goes: Part 2 | The Geography Programme

Malcolm Stacey investigates the rise of industry in South Wales from the days of the early ironmasters to the b...

Episode 1 | The Chinese Are Coming

Justin Rowlatt investigates what the world will be like if China overtakes America as the world's economic superpower. He looks at the phe...

S03E02: America Was Here: Cambodia | Holidays in the Danger Zone

Cambodia is still recovering from the genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime, yet, 30 years on, no one has been ...

S02E04: Violent Coast: Nigeria | Holidays in the Danger Zone

Ben Anderson 's journey along the troubled West African coast ends in the continent's most populous country, Nig...

Beyond Utopia: Escape from North Korea

A documentary that takes a suspenseful, immersive look at the lengths to which people will go to gain freedom, following various indiv...

North Korea Undercover | Panorama

Panorama reporter John Sweeney spends eight days undercover inside North Korea, the most rigidly-controlled nation on Earth.

03: Stealing Africa | Why Poverty?

With reference to Zambian copper mines, Christoffer Guldbrandsen investigates the dark heart of the tax system employed by multi-nationals...

Is Greenland for Sale?

US president Donald Trump says he wants the US to take over Greenland. Many people think it will never happen. But could it? If so, how?

Dan Snow's History of Congo | This World

Dan Snow travels to Congo to reveal how its troubled history has turned one of the world's potentially richest countries into one of...

Episode 1 | Syria: The World's War

The story of the Syrian civil war. In this episode, Lyse Doucet tracks the first months of the uprising through to the chemical attack in ...

Episode 2 | The Chinese Are Coming

Justin Rowlatt asks what will happen if China overtakes America as the world's economic superpower. Justin sees China's impact on industry...

07: The Great Land Rush | Why Poverty?

Documentary looking at how rich, land-hungry nations like China and Saudi Arabia are leasing Mali's land in order to turn large areas ...

Why Ships Crash | Why...?

When the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal, it triggered a global crisis. Featuring eyewitnesses speaking for the first time, this documentary aims...

African Railway

Documentary about the Tazara railroad in east Africa, built by the Chinese after independence but now in crisis with derailments and mechanical breakdowns ha...

S03E05: America Was Here: Honduras and Panama | Holidays in the Danger Zone

Chemical weapons await reporter Ben Anderson when he visits the resort island Panama. Whose are t...

S03E04: America Was Here: El Salvador | Holidays in the Danger Zone

A gun-carrying ex-gang leader from Los Angeles is reporter Ben Anderson 's guide through the Central Amer...

S03E03: America Was Here: Nicaragua | Holidays in the Danger Zone

The successful left-wing coup in Nicaragua that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power led to t...

S03E01: America Was Here: Vietnam | Holidays in the Danger Zone

The Americans may no longer be fighting the communists in South East Asia but the mark they left there is ind...

S02E02: Violent Coast: Sierra Leone | Holidays in the Danger Zone

Ben Anderson's journey along the traumatised coast of West Africa reaches Sierra Leone, where the grim lega...

S02E03: Violent Coast: Ivory Coast and Benin | Holidays in the Danger Zone

Ben Anderson continues his journey along the hazard-strewn West African coast, an area synonymous ...

S02E01: Violent Coast: Liberia | Holidays in the Danger Zone

Ben Anderson packs his passport to begin a perilous journey along the West African coast, a region marred by the...

01: The City of the Future | Reggie in China

Beginning his adventure, Reggie Yates visits Shenzhen, the brainchild of 80s Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Just 40 years old, Sh...

02: City of Dreams | Reggie in China

Reggie Yates visits Beijing, the belly of the beast, home to President Xi Jinping, meeting migrant workers and millionaire businessmen a...

Episode 1 | China: A New World Order

The story of Xi Jinping's controversial six-year rule, and how he set about transforming China into a controlled state where loyalty to ...

03: East Meets West | Reggie in China

In this final episode, Reggie Yates visits Chengdu, meeting artists pushing government censorship to its limit, and to Shanghai, where ...

Dan Snow's History of Congo | This World

Dan Snow travels to Congo to reveal how its troubled history has turned one of the world's potentially richest countries into one of...

04: Freedom and Justice | China

Democracy is stirring in China closely monitored by the Beijing government. Religious freedom is limited in an atheist state, and some groups...

02: Women of the Country | China

One woman in China kills herself every four minutes. With the highest female suicide rate in the world, China's women talk candidly about th...

Rural urban migration in China | Today

Workers for the Chinese fast-fashion brand Shein are labouring for more than 75-hours a week; the BBC talk to the workers about their ...

Episode 1 | China on Four Wheels

Anita Rani and Justin Rowlatt embark on two car journeys across China. Anita takes the high road through the rich cities of the east, while ...

Untold: Inside the Shein Machine

Reporter Iman Amrani explores how Shein has mastered social media marketing to become a global fast fashion phenomenon. With rumours spreadi...

Cars | What Britain Buys and Sells in a Day

Ed Balls, Ade Adepitan and Cherry Healey explore how much we really know about the logistics that enable Britain to buy and sell ...

Boohoo's Broken Promises | Panorama

Fast fashion giant Boohoo faced serious criticism in 2020 for poor working conditions at its suppliers. A Panorama investigation reveals ...

The Electric Car Revolution: Winners and Losers | Panorama

Tesla is now worth more than all the other major car makers put together, but how ethical is its supply chain? Dar...

Apple's Broken Promises | Panorama

Richard Bilton takes an undercover look at what life is like for the workers making the iPhone 6 in China and the children working in dang...

Belfast City: Mud, Sweat and 400 Years

Presenter and engineer Dick Strawbridge returns to Belfast to tell the story of one of the world's most important seaports. Using stat...

03: Globalisation | World 2000

What is globalisation and how does it affect us?

Episode 1 | Inside Dubai: Playground of the Rich

Meet Sonia, whose wardrobe is worth £4 million; Abu, whose car number plate alone is worth £7 million; Money Kicks, a teenag...

The Box That Changed Britain

Poet Roger McGough narrates the story of how a simple invention - the shipping container - changed the world forever and forced Britain into the...

Episode 3 | Flatpack Empire

In episode three, we follow the company's biggest challenge in a generation - pushing into India with an aggressive expansion plan.

Bangladesh: The End of Fast Fashion? | Our World

Has coronavirus changed the way we buy clothes forever - and what about those who are being left behind?

The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve | This World

Simon Reeve heads to Vietnam to uncover the stories behind the morning pick-me-up. He travels to the central highlands, where ...

Counting the Cost

Climate change, the COVID pandemic and now the crisis in Ukraine, have disrupted supply chains and exacerbated the soaring cost of living, leaving people o...

Episode 2 | Flatpack Empire

What does it take to get new products from initial design to stores around the world?

Episode 1 | Flatpack Empire

IKEA is one of the world's most successful and recognisable brands. In a major new 3-part series our cameras travel the world to discover the sec...

India's Supersize Kids | This World

Investigating the obesity epidemic engulfing India's growing middle class. Anita Rani travels to Mumbai to meet some of India's overweigh...

Cocaine Capital of the World | Stacey Dooley

Stacey Dooley investigates why Peru became the world's cocaine capital in 2013, meeting smugglers, producers and government forces.

01: Honey I Shrunk the World | James May's 20th Century

James May discovers how planes, cars, televisions and computers made our world seem a whole lot smaller.

Episode 1 | My Year with the Tribe

Writer Will Millard visits the treehouse-dwelling Korowai tribe in Papua, Indonesia, to try and understand the pressures they face as they...

Episode 2 | My Year with the Tribe

Will Millard returns to the treehouse-dwelling Korowai to spend time with two old men living in the forest, but is shocked by what he sees...

Episode 1 | The Party's Over: How the West Went Bust

Robert Peston examines how decisions taken 30 years ago shaped the world we live in today, and concludes that the West f...

Episode 3 | Inside Dubai: Playground of the Rich

As Dubai plans to double the number of visitors over the next 20 years, how is the city - and the Brits who have made their ...

04: Chicken | Blood, Sweat and Takeaways

Six young British food consumers go to live and work alongside people in south east Asia's poultry industry.

03: Rice | Blood, Sweat and Takeaways

Six young British food consumers go to live and work alongside the workers in Thailand's rice industry, where they must survive on a ty...

02: Prawn | Blood, Sweat and Takeaways

Six young British food consumers go to live and work alongside the workers in Indonesia's prawn industry. They are surprised to find t...

01: Tuna | Blood, Sweat and Takeaways

Six young British food consumers go to live and work alongside the workers in Indonesia's tuna industry, enduring the heat in the canne...