Politics

Spread Of The Communist Ideology | Genius of the Modern World

The Bolshevik Revolution kickstarted the shift towards communism, but Russia didn't have the predicted variable...

03: Five Million Ways to Be Scottish | Referendum Documentaries

Documentary series focused on the upcoming Scottish referendum. Stuart Cosgrove asks what it means to be Scot...

The Rise of the Far-Right

The far-right is surging across Europe. Jean Mackenzie travels across the continent to meet the people behind the movements and those fighting to s...

Episode 1 | Wales: England's Colony?

Historian Martin Johnes explores the story of the uneasy relationship between England and Wales across the centuries and discovers the w...

The Communist Manifesto | Genius of the Modern World

In 1847, poor crop growth leading to famine brought political unrest which inspired the commissioning of Marx and Engels...

02: Scotland's Smoking Gun | Referendum Documentaries

Documentary series focused on the upcoming Scottish referendum. This first programme looks at some of the worldwide eve...

The storming of the US Capitol | Newsround

This news clip reports on what happened when pro-Trump protestors stormed the Capitol building, the consequences and why it was su...

10: The Games People Play | Referendum Documentaries

John Beattie investigates the potential influence a successful Commonwealth Games may have on the way Scots vote in the ...

09: Janet's Scotland | Referendum Documentaries

Writer and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter is in Scotland to find out more about the referendum and some of the issues behind...

Will King Charles Change the Monarchy? | Panorama

As the nation prepares for the coronation of King Charles III, Panorama asks if the new king will adapt the monarchy to sui...

Das Kapital | Genius of the Modern World

Bettany and an economic journalist use the example of an 1860s 9-year-old boy who worked a 15-hour shift every day as the benchmark ...

Later Life | Genius of the Modern World

In 1849, Marx went to London and lived in the slums of Soho with his wife and four children, where he was spied on by Prussian spies.

S02E01: Traitor | Play for Today

Western journalists visit Moscow to interview Adrian Harris, a former controller in British intelligence who was also a double agent for the...

Miss World 1970: Beauty Queens and Bedlam

The story of the 1970 Miss World contest, when protestors dramatically disrupted the event, kickstarting a feminist revolution in f...

13: How the Campaign Was Won | Referendum Documentaries

Following Scotland's historic vote on independence, this programme looks at what went on behind the scenes of both ca...

12: What's in It for Me? | Referendum Documentaries

Laura Kuenssberg meets some of the Scottish working public, and attempts to find out how the outcome Scottish referendum ...

11: Mind Games | Referendum Documentaries

Documentary in which Ken MacDonald explores the psychological techniques used by both campaigns to influence how people vote in the...

08: Blethering Referendum - Part 2 | Referendum Documentaries

Comedian Sanjeev Kohli takes a humorous look at the referendum on independence and explores the questions that ...

06: What Women Want | Referendum Documentaries

In this programme, Jackie Bird investigates the reasons for the apparent gender gap at the centre of the campaign for Scottish...

07: Blethering Referendum - Part 1 | Referendum Documentaries

Comedian Sanjeev Kohli takes a humorous look at the referendum on independence and explores the questions that ...

Episode 1 | Clash of the Superpowers: America vs China

Donald Trump comes to office in 2017 and upends America’s relationship with Beijing. He promises to ‘make China pay’, ...

Educating North Korea | Panorama

Reporter Chris Rogers travels to North Korea, where a university paid for by the west is attempting to open the minds of the secretive state...

The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea: Part 1 | Storyville

A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to pe...

Hong Kong: Life Under the Crackdown | Panorama

Reporter Danny Vincent follows those who have lived through Hong Kong's street protest movement, both as activists and reporte...

Episode 2 | Clash of the Superpowers: America vs China

As the battle for technological supremacy ramps up, a controversial visit to Taiwan brings the two superpowers closer ...

01: Kazakhstan | Dictatorland

From golden handprints of the president to the scene of a massacre, in Kazakhstan Ben Zand experiences the sinister and bizarre sides to living...

Nelson Mandela | Icons

At the trial that saw him sent to prison, Mandela made a speech that galvanised international condemnation of Apartheid South Africa. 27 years later t...

The Rise of the Far-Right

The far-right is surging across Europe. Jean Mackenzie travels across the continent to meet the people behind the movements and those fighting to s...

Putin: The New Tsar

Documentary revealing the story of Vladimir Putin's extraordinary rise to power - from a lowly KGB colonel to Boris Yeltsin's right-hand man and ultimate...

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?

How to Brainwash a Million People | Panorama

Panorama reveals how China runs its re-education camps, where more than a million people have been locked up in one of the bigge...

02: Belarus | Dictatorland

To find out what life is like in a dictatorship, Ben Zand bathes in the rumoured source of the president's powers and comes face to face with the ...

Ukraine Crisis 2022 | Ukraine and Belarus: Uneasy Borders

In February 2022, Russian troops are gathering along Ukrainian borders, and long-standing tensions appear to be gro...

Russia and NATO | Russia: The Empire Strikes Back

Russia's actions in Crimea and elsewhere have lead to tensions between Russia and NATO, as explored in this report from 2020.

03: Tajikistan | Dictatorland

From enforced beard shaving to being tracked down by the police, Ben Zand experiences the sinister and bizarre side to living in a dictatorship.

Alexander Litvinenko's Murder: The Inside Story | Newsnight

The inside story of the mysterious poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

Episode 3 | Europe on the Edge with Katya Adler

Katya continues her journey through Spain, training with a team of firefighters, and heads to France, witnessing a rocket lau...

Episode 2 | Europe on the Edge with Katya Adler

Katya continues her journey through Germany and into Spain, paragliding over Neuschwanstein Castle and meeting nationalists i...

Episode 1 | Europe on the Edge with Katya Adler

Katya visits Italy and Germany to explore how they're changing in the turbulent new world. She attends the Palio in Siena, jo...

The Casalee File | Dispatches

A major Berkshire-based tobacco company, The Casalee Group, now called Defco, has been secretly at the heart of the arms trade and breached int...

Episode 2 | Salmond and Sturgeon: A Troubled Union

In the aftermath of the 2017 general election, insiders reveal Alex Salmond's anger at having lost his Westminster seat.

An Idiot's Guide to Politics

Comedian Jolyon Rubinstein is on a mission. He wants to find out why young people are so disengaged from politics. Is this apathy and ignorance,...

01: Lifting the Lid | Inside the Commons

Presented by Michael Cockerell, this series takes an unprecedented look at the heart of British democracy.

Episode 1 | Salmond and Sturgeon: A Troubled Union

The inside story of the alliance between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, the transformation of the SNP, and their very p...

Darkest Hour (2017)

As the Nazis advance against Britain's European allies, newly elected prime minister Winston Churchill must decide whether to leave neighbouring countrie...

The Human Rights Act | Daily Politics

This clip explains the Human Rights Act and the potential move to a British Bill of Rights.

The Rise of the SNP

Following the SNP's landslide in the general election across Scotland, Sarah Smith charts the party's extraordinary rise. From their humble beginnings as...

Episode 1 | Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution

Two young MPs, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, are determined to modernise the Labour party against a backdrop of economic ...

Margaret Thatcher | Icons

Britain's first female prime minister, Thatcher was marked out not only by her gender, but for pushing through reforms so bold they have shaped the...

S03E03: Breaking the Mould | Disclosure

No women of colour have ever been elected to Scotland's parliament in its 22-year-history. Disclosure hears from five women hoping to...

02: Scotland's Smoking Gun | Referendum Documentaries

Documentary series focused on the upcoming Scottish referendum. This first programme looks at some of the worldwide eve...

03: Five Million Ways to Be Scottish | Referendum Documentaries

Documentary series focused on the upcoming Scottish referendum. Stuart Cosgrove asks what it means to be Scot...

04: Reinventing the House | Inside the Commons

In the final episode, battles break out over the future of the House. Plus the ongoing struggle to conserve the palace.

Five Days that Changed Britain

Behind-the-scenes story of five days in May 2010 when the UK's political leaders haggled over the next government. David Cameron, Nick Clegg a...

Episode 2 | Fight Again: The Long Retreat

Roy Hattersley continues his personal account of the Labour Party's fortunes. The Long Retreat. From the depths of despair in the e...

Episode 1 | Fight Again: The Long Retreat

Hattersley traces the development of his beliefs from boyhood in Sheffield, entering parliament after Gaitskell's call to "fight ag...

The Left Behind

Support for the far right is growing in Britain's post-industrial towns and cities. This factual drama tells the story of a young man who gets drawn into a f...

01: Winston Churchill | Walden on Heroes

The man credited with leading the nation to victory in the Second World War was, according to Walden, arrogant, callous and a milita...

Black Wednesday

Five years ago Britain was in financial crisis. On a day when speculators made fortunes and the Bank of England lost billions propping up the pound, the prim...

04: Towards a Classless Society? | Class Rule

Michael Cockerell looks at the years from Margaret Thatcher to John Major. Mrs Thatcher succeeded in winning more working-class...

Four Hours at the Capitol

A journey into January's storming of the US Capitol, featuring exclusive footage and interviews with the people at the heart of the action, many of...

Trump: The Return? | Panorama

Will Donald Trump run for president again? On the eve of the US midterm elections, reporter Hilary Andersson visits Selma, North Carolina, to f...

04: The Arc of History | Inside Obama's White House

The last episode begins with Obama's decision to launch the special operation into Pakistan, to catch Osama Bin Laden.

02: Obamacare | Inside Obama's White House

This episode looks at how his proposals for affordable, accessible healthcare sparked a bitter conflict.

01: 100 Days | Inside Obama's White House

The story of how Barack Obama tried to reshape America. A month after his victory, Obama discovered America was on the verge of a g...

JFK (1991)

Oliver Stone's re-creation of the 1963 Kennedy assassination in Dallas and its aftermath, focusing on the investigations of New Orleans DA Jim Garrison (Kevin Cos...

04: John F Kennedy | Walden on Heroes

Young and talented, JFK embodied a new spirit of optimism in postwar America and his assassination in 1963 immortalised him as a politi...

Arnold Schwarzenegger on Climate Change

Terminator star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sits down with Tom Heap to discuss his journey to becoming an en...

Trump's Immigration Crackdown | Panorama

President Trump's crackdown on immigration has led to a big drop in the number of migrants illegally crossing the border. Are his to...

White Man Walking | Storyville

A Storyville documentary that follows white film-maker Rob Bliss as he walks 1500 miles through America's southern states wearing a Black Live...

America's New Female Right

Layla Wright travels to the USA to meet the influencer women posting antifeminist and other offensive content online.

Charles Wheeler: JFK - Legend and Leader

A look at the life and career of President John F Kennedy. Veteran BBC correspondent Charles Wheeler speaks to key figures of the 60...

The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald | Timewatch

An investigative biography of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man at the centre of the political crime of the 20th century, the...

By the People: The Election of Barack Obama

Film-makers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams tell the behind-the-scenes story of the passionate campaigners who helped a young African-Am...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt | Icons

Paralysed from the waist down, FDR's bold social and economic reforms turned a country on the brink of catastrophe into a superpower, and h...

Trump in Tweets

Examining how Trump used Twitter to change US politics, exploring why this technophobe became a serial tweeter and witnessing the impact his tweets have on t...

Frost/Nixon (2008)

The story behind one of the most unforgettable moments in TV history - David Frost's interview with disgraced President Richard Nixon. Starring Michael Sh...

05: Impeachment | Watergate

President Nixon clings on to the White House as the case against him mounts. The automatic recording system he ordered to be installed in the Ova...

The storming of the US Capitol | Newsround

This news clip reports on what happened when pro-Trump protestors stormed the Capitol building, the consequences and why it was su...

S01E04: Head for the Hills | Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

In Idaho, Louis meets right-wing patriots and militia enthusiasts who are preparing for what they believe is inev...