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 ...

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?

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die

Author Sir Terry Pratchett - an Alzheimer's sufferer - travels to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland and witnesses first-hand the procedures...

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 ...

A Short Stay in Switzerland

One-off drama inspired by the true story of Dr Anne Turner, who in 2006 took her own life in a Zurich clinic having developed an incurable degene...

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.

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...

S01E03: Crisis Stage | Life and Death Row

Film following students from the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of Houston as they fight last-ditch appeals for two of the ...

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...

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...

How to Die: Simon's Choice

The dramatic and poignant story of one man facing the heartwrenching decision of whether to end his life at a suicide clinic after being diagnosed...

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...

Better Off Dead?

A documentary on assisted suicide, authored by actor and disability rights activist Liz Carr.

Chimps Are People Too | Horizon

Danny Wallace presents a documentary which makes the case that chimpanzees, who share 99 per cent of our DNA, should be given the same rights...

Palliative care doctor | Better Off Dead?

A palliative care doctor talks about her worries of making assisted dying legal.

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...

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 ...

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...

Back to Jail: Crime and Punishment

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

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Test of Time: Peace | Belief File

Pam White, a PC on duty when a bomb went off outside Harrods in 1983, talks about how she found peace after becoming a Christian. Plus ''Go...

Test of Time: Commitment | Belief File

Debbie Santiago talks about how she became an alcoholic and homeless. And James Mawdsley is released from a 17 year jail sentence in B...

The Holocaust | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

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

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...

Hillsborough - Never Forgotten

Documentary looking at the impact of the Hillsborough Independent Review's findings on the survivors and families of the people who died in th...

Moral dilemma | Vigil

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

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 ...

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.

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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?

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

Afterlife discussion | A Question of Faith

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

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...

I Believe in Ghosts: Joe Swash

Joe Swash searches for proof that ghosts exist. On the journey, he meets Britain's youngest professional psychic and sleeps in a haunted bedro...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 Kendal Project | Newsnight

Conducted by Lancaster University sociologists, the study investigated religious and spiritual participation in the town of Kendal, Cumbria. T...

Many Happy Returns | Forty Minutes

This is the extraordinary story of two normal children who think they vividly remember aspects of their 'previous' lives as other people. ...

Episode 2 | Derren Brown: Fear and Faith

Stunts and psychological tricks from illusionist Derren Brown.

Big Bang | Short Circuit

An introduction to the origins of the universe, exploring the Big Bang theory and the evidence supporting it as well as what people believe.

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...

Christianity: Creation | Pathways of Belief

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

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.

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.

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...

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...

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.

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? ...

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...