Philosophy and Ethics

Abortion On Trial

Fifty years after the Abortion Act was passed, Anne Robinson brings together a group of people with conflicting views on abortion to ask if the law is fit ...

Kids with Guns | Stacey Dooley Investigates

Stacey Dooley explores the issue of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war, where an estimated 30,000 chi...

How to Kill a Human Being | Horizon

Michael Portillo pushes his body to the brink of death in an investigation into the science of execution.

Amazon deforestation | Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

Liz Bonnin witnesses the devastation of the Amazon rainforest from the sky.

Young, British and Anti-Abortion

Film-maker Poppy Jay meets the Gen Zers leading anti-abortion campaigns. Online, on campuses and on the streets, she finds a movement growin...

06: Should We Close Our Zoos? | Horizon

Liz Bonnin investigates how and why zoos keep animals and looks at whether they need to change to keep up with modern science.

Shot for Going to School

Schoolgirl Malala Yousafi was just 14 when she was shot for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan. Nel Hedayat travels to the areas where the...

Should assisted suicide be legalised? | Matters of Life and Death

This film looks at the viewpoints of Charlotte and Paul whose life experiences have left them on opposing s...

Malala: Shot for Going to School | Panorama

One year ago, Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban on her school bus. In this Panorama special, she talks exclusively to Mish...

S01E01: Execution | Life and Death Row

Series telling the story of capital punishment through the eyes of young people whose lives have been shaped by it. It looks at two of...

Anti-Abortion Camp | Brainwashing Stacey

Stacey Dooley travels to California to meet Survivors, one of America's most extreme anti-abortion groups, to learn about their acti...

What are the rights and wrongs of abortion? | Matters of Life and Death

This film explores some of the ethical and moral questions around the issue of abortion, and focuses ...

Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

From colossal farms in America to the destruction of the Amazon, Liz Bonnin investigates how our hunger for meat is killing our planet.

Child Labour: Kids for Sale | Stacey Dooley

Stacey Dooley explores the issue of child labour in Nepal, after being exposed to it when working in the Indian fashion industry ...

The Debt Saviours

Access-all-areas documentary following Christians Against Poverty, asking whether the charity's motivation is debt relief or bringing people to Jesus.

Is it ever right to experiment on animals? | Matters of Life and Death

The film features representatives of different faiths and religions explaining their perspectives on a...

Slavery on the High Street

For seven years, vulnerable victims of trafficking were forced to make food for major high street chains. How did their exploitation go undetected...

Different perspectives on Euthanasia | Matters of Life and Death

Representatives from different religions discuss their opinions about euthanasia.

Arguments for Euthanasia | Matters of Life and Death

A man explains his reasons for wanting access to euthanasia.

What are the rights and wrongs of the death penalty? | Matters of Life and Death

The film features representatives of different faiths and religions explaining their perspec...

Faith Behind Bars

With access to HMP Edinburgh, this film follows the prison chaplains as they give spiritual guidance and religious support to offenders - including those c...

Background to Christian forgiveness | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

An introduction to the ancient context in which Jesus first preached about forgiveness.

Humza: Forgiving the Unforgivable

What happens when your instincts tell you to seek revenge, but your faith demands that you forgive? YouTuber and comedian Humza Arshad expl...

What's the Point of Forgiveness?

Inspired by Jesus's words on the cross, Bettany Hughes traces the history of this challenging virtue. What does it really ask of us? And how...

Inside the Convent | Stacey Dooley

Stacey Dooley moves into a convent to explore the lives of nuns. Will she cope with the sisters' strict lifestyle, and what can she learn ...

The Holocaust | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

Discussing the possibility of forgiveness after the atrocities of the Holocaust.

A short history of evil | KS4 Curriculum Bites

What is evil? Where does it come from? How can it be reduced? How do some religions personify evil? What connection is there b...

03: How to Measure Pleasure | Justice

Michael Sandel's lecture uses Hamlet and The Simpsons to explore John Stuart Mill's theory that utilitarianism can make room for a dist...

South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

How forgiveness was used in the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Back to Jail: Crime and Punishment

Following three ex-prisoners as they struggle to adjust to life after being released.

Laura on the murder of her sister and faith | KS4 Curriculum Bites

Laura Storrs was only 14 when her older sister was murdered. She found her whole life turned upside-down b...

01: The Moral Side to Murder | Justice

Professor Michael Sandel presents the first in a series of lectures from his Harvard undergraduate course in Political Philosophy. He ...

Right or Wrong? | Worlds of Belief

Schools religious education program for 14-18 year olds. A hotelier who, suspecting a staff member of stealing, sets a trap and catches hi...

Forgiveness | Worlds of Belief

Discussion and debate are powerfully provoked using real-life case studies.

Test of Time: Forgiveness | Belief File

Joe Seremane, a black South African MP imprisoned on Robben Island, talks about apartheid and the need for forgiveness.

S01E01: My Life in Their Hands | Parole

54-year-old Colin committed a brutal murder 25 years ago. With his victim's widow waiting anxiously for the decision, will the parole...

Justice: A Citizen's Guide to the 21st Century

Harvard professor Michael Sandel looks at the philosophy of justice, testing the theories of Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant and...

Moral dilemma | Vigil

Expressing the moral dilemma in the studies of ethics in regards to the sub revealing its location by saving the trawlermen.

02: The Case for Cannibalism | Justice

Michael Sandel presents a lecture from his Harvard course on justice, exploring Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian philosophy with reference...

Forgiveness during the Reformation | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

Bettany Hughes and Diarmaid MacCulloch discuss the impact that the Reformation had on Christian forgive...

01: Buddha | Genius of the Ancient World

Historian Bettany Hughes travels to India, Greece and China on the trail of three giants of ancient philosophy. To begin, she invest...

02: Socrates | Genius of the Ancient World

Historian Bettany Hughes is in Greece, on the trail of the hugely influential maverick thinker Socrates, who was executed for his ...

03: Confucius | Genius of the Ancient World

In the final episode, Bettany travels to China on the trail of Confucius, a great sage of Chinese history whose ideas have fundam...

04: A Lesson in Lying | Justice

Harvard professor Michael Sandel examines Immanuel Kant's stringent theory of morality, which says that telling any type of lie is a violatio...

01: Marx | Genius of the Modern World

Bettany Hughes retraces the lives of thinkers whose ideas shaped the modern world. Drawing on expert opinion and new evidence, she look...

07: Freedom vs Fit | Justice

Michael Sandel's lecture looks at the issue of individual rights and the freedom to choose, and he addresses one of the most glaring objections ...

05: What's a Fair Start? | Justice

Michael Sandel's lecture looks at John Rawls, who argued that for a fair social system one must start from an imaginary position where eve...

03: The Dissent of Karl Marx | The Age of Uncertainty

JK Galbraith investigates the impact of Karl Marx on our economic interpretation of society. The life and work of Marx ...

02: Nietzsche | Genius of the Modern World

Bettany Hughes retraces the lives of great modern thinkers. Nietzsche's uncompromising ideas smashed the safe presuppositions and ...

06: The Good Citizen | Justice

Michael Sandel's lecture on the philosophy of justice links Aristotle's belief that the purpose of politics is to promote the virtue of a coun...

Are You Good or Evil? | Horizon

Horizon meets researchers studying psychopathic killers to try to determine what makes people good or evil. One such scientist believes he ha...

Did Darwin Kill God?

Conor Cunningham is a Christian and a firm believer in Darwin's theory of evolution. He attempts to overturn the view that Darwin's ideas have weakened ...

The End of God?: A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion

Thomas Dixon delves into the BBC's archive to explore the troubled relationship between religion and science, from t...

Life after Death | Worlds of Belief

Schools religious education program for 14-18 year olds. A young mother, an atheist, develops complications whilst giving birth and has a...

What Makes a Human? | Horizon

Professor Alice Roberts investigates what exactly makes human beings different from the animal kingdom. What is it that truly makes us human?

Episode 2 | Derren Brown: Fear and Faith

Stunts and psychological tricks from illusionist Derren Brown.

Afterlife discussion | A Question of Faith

Students discuss questions of heaven, hell and if there is an afterlife.

Christianity: Creation | Pathways of Belief

Programme looks at the Creation and the concept of God as Earth's creator.

The Day I Died

Tonight's documentary explores the theory that near-death experiences actually come from beyond the brain. New clinical research is daring to suggest the impo...

Is there a God? | KS4 Curriculum Bites

This film presents 12 perspectives from Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, as well as atheism and agnosticism, on the question of belie...

Intelligent design | Did Darwin Kill God?

An explanation of the theory of Intelligent Design and some of the scientific and theological criticisms it has provoked.

Darwinism and Victorian Christianity | Did Darwin Kill God?

Darwin's theories were largely accepted by Victorian Christians but clashed with the ideas of William Paley.

03: The God of the Gaps | The Story of God

Professor Robert Winston explores how belief in God has been challenged in the modern world by secular ideas, in particular scienc...

Does God Exist? | Worlds of Belief

Schools religious education program for 14-18 year olds. Billy, a Belfast boy, who regains his faith in Maze prison.

The creationist view | Did Darwin Kill God?

From the 1960s, a new view of creation emerged in America, contradicting the theory of evolution… and previous Christian teaching...

How old is the Earth? | Did Darwin Kill God?

The Reformation and the discovery of fossils influenced Christian ideas of how old the Earth was.

The Case for God?

With religion coming under increasing attack from atheists and sceptics, The Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, goes into the lion's den, putting his faith ...

A brave new world | KS4 Curriculum Bites

What if the world as we know it ended? Would the younger generation be able to construct a new world better than the one we have? Th...

The Scopes Trial | Did Darwin Kill God?

The conflict between Darwinism and Christianity first came to a head in 1925 in rural Tennessee when a school teacher was put on tria...

Philo of Alexandria's view of Genesis | Did Darwin Kill God?

The ideas of a philosopher from almost two thousand years ago could help Christians reconcile Darwinian and bibl...

Do You See What I See? | Horizon

Horizon explores the evidence for the theory that colours are really an illusion, experienced subjectively depending on age, sex and even mood.

Can good come out of suffering? Part 1 | A Question of Faith

The students visit children with extreme disabilities. They discuss their enjoyment of life and the children's a...

Stormzy | Louis Theroux Interviews...

Louis Theroux meets platinum-selling rapper Stormzy for a frank and revealing conversation about his life and career.

Stormzy and Church | Louis Theroux Interviews...

Stormzy takes Louis to church to speak about its inspiration and the effect it had on him growing up.

03: Music | Do Black Lives Still Matter?

The music industry pledged millions in support of people of colour. But will the money help to fix its own problems with diversity? ...

02: Football | Do Black Lives Still Matter?

George Floyd's death drew attention to problems with diversity in football. Grime artist Saskilla meets people from across the ga...

01: Brands | Do Black Lives Still Matter?

Following the death of George Floyd, major brands pledged to address racial inequalities across their businesses. Grime artist Sask...

Identity and Belonging | Belief File

Schools religious education program for 14-18 year olds. This program looks at identity and belonging.

S01E02 | Family Secrets and Lies

This programme features Melissa, born Les, who has been cut off from her family since she announced that she wanted to become a woman.

John Barrowman | The Making of Me

The series of science documentaries in which three famous people question why they are the way they are sees John Barrowman challenging sci...