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Documentary Archive

John McCain

The Presidential Contenders

John McCain: a profile of the man who talks of honour and patriotic duty and admits having a legendary short fuse.

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  • Archive

    2 Items

  • A

    10 Items

    • A Dollar A Day
      In this five-part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it is really like to have to live on one dollar a day.
    • After the KGB - Part One
      Martin Sixsmith gets under the skin of Russia's secret service, the fastest growing and arguably most politically influential secret service in the world.
    • Age of Terror
      In the first part of this series, Peter Taylor reveals how events unfolded in the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris which ends with a bid to rescue hostages from Idi Amin's Uganda
    • A Journey from Conflict to Brotherhood
      John McCarthy looks at how the Kaduna Declaration in Nigeria, has had some success in bringing Muslims and Christians together amidst violence.
    • American Dreams
      Jamie Naughtie examines the use of the military as an instrument of US foreign policy.
    • American Dreams
      Immigrants are fuelling Houston's economic boom, but is the resentment from locals damaging the faith in the American Dream?
    • American Dreams
      Have the American Dream hopes collapsed for those living in Michigan, a rust belt state with an economy in decline?
    • Argentina - Dancing To The Music Of The Mind
      Argentinian film director, writer and tango enthusiast, Edgardo Cozarinsky, talks to artists, dancers and novelists about why psychotherapy and tango have such a pervasive hold on the Argentine mind and soul.
    • Armies For Hire
      Since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been a staggering boom in the demand for civilian soldiers who carry arms for private companies.
    • A Year with the Nuclear Police
      A two-part documentary charting the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations - the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - as concern grows about the spread of nuclear weapons.

  • B

    12 Items

    • Bangladesh Floods
      It's been three months since cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh. Siobhann Tighe returns to the region to trace those she spoke to and photographed. She finds out how their lives have changed after the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh since 1991.
    • Beijing Calling
      Russell Fuller and BBC World Service Sport look at the difficult journeys of six hopefuls from around the world in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.
    • Beijing Calling - Part Two
      BBC World Service sport tracks the progress of six young Olympians from around the world to the Beijing Olympics.
    • Being Different
      Geoff Adams-Spink travels to three continents to meet a number of disabled people.
    • Benazir Bhutto - The Investigation
      The former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to her homeland in October 2007 after almost a decade in self-imposed exile.
    • The Billion Dollar Election
      The United States is due to have the first billion-dollar election in its history. The BBC’s Steve Evans presents a two-part investigation into election spending done in collaboration with the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington DC.
    • Bomb Hunters
      More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Bomb Hunters tells the stories of the people living in Xieng Khuang in Laos and how they survive in a land still littered with UXO.
    • Boom or Bust
      Sharon Mascall investigates the Australian mining industry where many inexperienced workers are lured by high wages but face harsh conditions, poor safety standards and an uncertain future.
    • Boys from the Bush
      The Bhundu Boys brought their dizzy style of Zimbabwean guitar-playing to a world audience when they visited the UK on their first trip abroad in 1986.
    • Bridges of Blood and Bone
      More than ten years after conflict broke apart the former Yugoslavia, many thousands of people from the region are still missing.
    • Building Better Health
      Jill McGivering asks if China is doing enough to provide healthcare to 1.3 billion people and what it can learn from the struggles in the developed world.
    • Building Better Health
      Jill McGivering compares two very different free health systems in the developed world: the British NHS and that of the US state of Massachusetts.

  • C

    9 Items

    • Call me Nana
      The stories of love, devotion and struggle of grandparents who turn their lives upside down to raise a child for a second time.
    • Can America Go Green?
      The United States of America produces one quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.
    • China's Long Arm
      As part of the BBC World Service's Ruling China season, China's Long Arm comprises two series of two programmes each.
    • The Clinton Years
      From displays of political brilliance to the darkest days of personal turmoil, Bill Clinton's presidency was as controversial as it was colourful.
    • Coming Out
      Homosexuality is one of the world's biggest taboos.
    • The Convict Streak
      The resourcefulness and resilience of prisoners bidding to escape in the past, that make Australians today proudly boast of their own inherited 'convict streak'
    • The Cost of...
      This two-part series brings you an exploration of the cost and value of two commodities - coffee and cotton - via workers' stories at each stage of production.
    • Countdown to the Olympics
      China claims there is 'vigorous growth in the public practice of religion' but Gerry Northam discovers that religious persecution is still taking place.
    • Credit Crunch
      In September 2007, the world's financial markets were in turmoil - as cheap home loans to millions of American homebuyers suddenly dried up, and with them, cheap money for huge international investors.

  • D

    4 Items

    • Death To America
      Around the world, by every measure, America's reputation and image has never been so poor.
    • Debt Threat: Any Escape?
      Will the present credit crisis turn into a full scale recession? This programme examines the seemingly desperate attempts of bankers, regulators and politicians to prevent that happening.
    • Desperate Dreams
      Every year, thousands of sub-Saharan Africans set off across the desert dreaming of a better life.
    • Dirty Business: Mafia and the garbage trade in the USA
      Vast amounts of waste are exported daily from the industrialised world to developing countries - all in the name of recycling.

  • E

    4 Items

    • Elegy for the Tech
      Poet, author and Virginia Tech lecturer Fred D'Aguiar lost a close colleague and a student during the tragic shooting one year ago. This programme follows D'Aguiar as he reflects on 12 months of both his own and his students' work.
    • Escape to New Zealand
      Environmental refugees seek a home somewhere in the planet where the predicted global changes can, perhaps, be weathered.
    • Escaping the Water Wolf
      With climate change bringing new threats of rising sea levels and increased rainfall, will luck and ingenuity continue to save the Netherlands from submersion?
    • Eyewitness Iraq
      Only seven days after the defeat of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqis who had welcomed the end of his brutal time as the country's leader, took to the streets to protest at the disappearance of their security.

  • F

    10 Items

    • Fading Traditions
      Temple prostitutes: The ancient Hindu tradition of dedicating young girls to the temple has come up against the modern horrors of AIDS.
    • Fading Traditions
      Georgia, considered to be the birthplace of wine, risks losing its wine industry. How are the producers coping?
    • Failure at the Central Bank
      For the last six decades, central bankers have run the international financial system with the aid of a powerful set of economic levers handed to them after the World War 2. Last year, these levers came off in their hands.
    • The Falklands and the White House
      April 2007 marked the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war. This programme looks at the decisive role played by the United States in the conflict.
    • Feeding the Spirit of New Orleans
      Feeding the Spirit of New Orleans: restoring the culinary heritage of a devastated city.
    • Feeding the World
      This series investigates the growing but often under-reported challenges facing the world's food supply.
    • For Richer For Poorer
      It seems that inequality is greater now than it has been since the 1920s. There is a New Guilded Age of the rich in ever bigger mansions and the poor looking in through the gates.
    • France Versus the World
      The French maintain that they - their culture, their social model and their foreign policy - are exceptional. But for how much longer?
    • Free at Last
      Between the 15th and the 19th Centuries up to 15 million people were forced to migrate from the African continent to the New World, where they were forcibly enslaved.
    • Freetown Rap
      During the ten-year civil war in Sierra Leone, much of the graffiti covering Freetown drew heavily on the language, culture and imagery of American rappers.

  • G

    4 Items

    • The Generals Debate Iraq
      The war in Iraq has cost the lives of more than 3,600 American soldiers. So whose fault is that? The politicians or the generals?
    • Ghana: Winds of Change
      "The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact and we must take account of it."
    • Global Account
      A visit to the disputed Thai "Red Zone" and victims of an under-reported war.
    • Globesity
      With 1.6 billion people overweight worldwide, fat is now recognised as a major global health threat - even in the developing world.

  • H

    10 Items

    • Harare Festival
      The diary of the man behind Zimbabwe's Harare International Festival of the Arts, as he attempts to stage his event amidst the election drama in the country.
    • Health For All
      Uduak Amimo asks if the world has the will, people and money to deliver basic good health to everyone.
    • Health For All
      Campaigners for improving maternal health have been lobbying the G8 to get the topic on the agenda for next week's meeting in Japan. Is there enough political will to combat maternal mortality?
    • Heritage: The Balkans
      The Balkan Wars of the 1990s left many Balkan cities and historic buildings in ruins.
    • The Hijras of India
      This is the story of around one million people in India who, in the eyes of the society at large, have no real identity. The story of those who describe themselves as 'transgender'.
    • Hobo Heaven
      Gerry Anderson recalls the days of the hoboes - railroad tramps and itinerant workers who "jumped the boxcars" and rode the freight trains around America.
    • Hong Kong 10 Years On
      The BBC's Jonathan Dimbleby returns to Hong Kong ten years on from the handover of the city state to China.
    • How crime took on the world
      Misha Glenny has been investigating criminal networks in our newly globalised world. He begins his journey in Canada, where the wholesale production of marijuana is posing a challenge to the US-led 'War on Drugs'.
    • How Iraq's War Shaped our World
      Jim Muir looks at the beginning of the invasion and the handover of power to the Iraqis
    • Hunting US
      Nicholas Walton reports on the changing face of hunting in the United States.

  • I

    4 Items

    • India Rising
      India is home to one sixth of the world's population, and is poised to overtake Japan as the world's third largest economy. But as its burgeoning middle-class become increasingly consumer-orientated, are traditional values being eroded?
    • India Rising - New Wealth
      This landmark series explores what globalisation and a decade of economic reforms have done to India and the way that it sees itself.
    • In Search of a New Kyoto
      In a special BBC WS One Planet debate, we bring together four people at the heart of their governments' response to climate change -from the USA, Indonesia, Brazil and the UK.
    • Inside the Climate Change Talks
      In this three part series Mike Williams dips into the delicate negotiations to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

  • J

    1 Item

  • K

    3 Items

    • Kidnapped
      Dr Thomas Hargrove, an American scientist kidnapped by FARC is reunited with the family's German neighbour, who was part of 'Team Tom' which organized the negotiations.
    • Kidnapped
      Ritula Shah reunites former hostage Norman Kember with the people personally involved in negotiations to free them.
    • The Kremlin and the World
      In this four part series, Tim Whewell looks at the recent conflict of issues that could re-draw the old fault lines that once divided East and West.

  • L

    5 Items

    • The Land of the Mobile Millionaires
      Matthew Sweet presents the extraordinary story of Finland's Nokia Millionaires.
    • Leila's Story
      The powerful story of a young Iranian woman called Leila, sold into prostitution at the age of nine by her own family and sentenced to hang aged 18.
    • Life After Vietnam
      Since Lance Corporal Michael Baronowski was killed in action with the US Marines in Vietnam in November 1966, his sister Lorraine, his brother Alexander and his comrades Tim and Ray have carried their own memories of him and their own grief at his death.
    • Living With Chico Mendes
      To mark the 20th anniversary of his assassination in December 1988, this programme marks the life of Chico Mendes, the highly significant green activist who helped to galvanise the race to preserve the Amazon.
    • Looted Art
      Charles Wheeler has been following the trail of artwork removed by the Soviet army from Germany and other European countries at the end of World War Two.

  • M

    6 Items

    • Maids: The Untold Story
      Women who go to work overseas as maids often encounter unforeseen terror and tragedy. Judith Kampfner investigates.
    • Making a Living
      In this three-part series, Owen Bennett-Jones not only discovers what the new working day is like in these new frontiers of the global economy, but actually experiences it for himself.
    • Message from China
      Dr Anne Marie Brady investigates why the communist party in China has decided to modernise its propaganda system.
    • Mexican Drugs: So Far From God
      Last year five severed human heads were thrown onto a dance floor in a town in western Mexico. Nick Caistor takes a closer look at the causes and effects of the drug violence which is reaching alarming proportions in parts of the country.
    • Mother's Mountain
      In August 1986 Julie Tullis became the first British woman climber to reach the summit of K2, one of the most challenging Himalayan peaks. She died during her descent.
    • My Lai Tapes
      Robert Hodierne reveals the truth about the infamous My Lai massacre of 16th March 1968, based on the audio testimony made during a Pentagon inquiry.

  • N

    3 Items

    • Nigeria: Black Superpower?
      Who speaks for Africa? Kofi Annan or Boutros Ghali at the head of the United Nations? Nelson Mandela, the moral voice of the continent? A Ghanaian, an Egyptian, a South African?
    • No Milk and Honey
      Australia has always traded off its image as a land of milk and honey. Reporter Sharon Mascall talks to asylum seekers and economic lifestyle migrants and finds that the era of globalisation means that "a different life" is losing its meaning.
    • Nuclear Detectives
      The mysterious death in London of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was a story which could have come from the pages of a dramatic spy novel. This two-part series examines the work of scientists, acting as nuclear detectives.

  • O

    3 Items

    • On Europe's Edge
      Countries in the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and Turkey, hope to join the European Union. It's a waiting game. BBC Brussels correspondent Oana Lungescu investigates the problems facing countries seeking membership.
    • Only One Bakira
      Bakira Hasecic is unrelenting in her pursuit of the war criminals of the Bosnian war. How does she and the members of the Association of Women Victims of War find the strength to talk about the rapes and other horrors they endured?
    • On The Road In Iraq
      Many ordinary people in Iraq continue to live in extraordinary circumstances. World Affairs correspondent, Mike Woolridge follows the story of a taxi driver whose life has been turned upside down.

  • P

    7 Items

    • Pain: Body, mind, culture
      Andrew North explores the strategies we use to survive pain, through expressing and suppressing it.
    • Philosophy in the Streets
      Nick Fraser recalls the intellectual revolution of May 1968 that spread from the academy to the streets of Paris, and from Paris to the world. Contributors include key philosophers and thinkers, former activists and writers.
    • Pirates
      From pirates to piracy, in this three part series, Nick Rankin finds out how they have adapted to changing times. He takes a journey through history looking at pirates past, present and future.
    • Policing the Poppy Fields
      Kate Clark, who's had rare access to the fight against the Afghan opium trade over the past year, asks how effective attempts to control it can be.
    • Policing the UN
      As part of a special investigation, the BBC's Africa editor Martin Plaut sets out to examine serious new allegations of corruption and wrongdoing within the United Nations' peacekeeping operations.
    • The Presidential Contenders
      Barack Obama: a profile of the first black person ever nominated to run for president on behalf of a mainstream party in the USA.
    • Press for Freedom
      Roy Greenslade presents this four-part documentary series on the freedom of press.

  • Q

    2 Items

    • Quest for a cure
      Peter Day reports on whether the US Food and Drug Administration will licence the HIV/AIDS drug Maraviroc.
    • Quiet Please
      Billions of people around the globe enjoy watching sport. But who appreciates the sound of sport? In this programme, Chris Mitchell finds out how professional athletes deal with sound, what puts them off and what spurs them on?

  • R

    7 Items

    • Race and Reconciliation
      In this three part series, Audrey Brown travels to South Africa to find out how recent racial incidents have revealed cracks in what was dubbed the miracle of 'the rainbow nation'.
    • Rebuilding Southern Sudan
      Darfur has diverted attention from Southern Sudan, now emerging from civil war. Mike Wooldridge investigates its hopes for peace.
    • Rehearsing for War
      The extraordinary US military base at the heart of a vast shift in American military strategy, aiming for nation-building and peacekeeping.
    • Return to Kurdistan: Part One
      Michael Goldfarb returns to visit the people of Kurdistan and in particular the Shawkat family, with whom he became close during the Iraq War
    • Return to Kurdistan: Part Two
      For Iraqi Kurds these are the best times they have ever known. But can the desire for full independence be contained? Michael Goldfarb goes to Kirkuk disputed heart of northern Iraq's oil industry and the future source of wealth.
    • Rice Bowl Tales
      Rice Bowl Tales is a series of four programmes exploring the importance of rice to Asian economies, and how the crop contributes to a sense of national identity.
    • The Right to Know
      What do Freedom of Information laws actually achieve and are they sometimes more symbolic than practical in their impact?

  • S

    10 Items

    • Secrets in the Blood
      In the run up to the Beijing Olympics, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use and cover-ups at the highest levels in sport in this two-part investigation.
    • Securing Pakistan's bomb
      If the government of Pakistan collapsed, could extremists acquire the country's nuclear weapons? Gordon Corera reports.
    • Seeing Iraq, Thinking Vietnam
      In the years that followed the end of the Vietnam war US army had to be totally reorganised.
    • Simpson Returns to China
      John Simpson meets the ladies cracking down on spitting in Beijing before the Olympics and chats to China's own Oprah Winfrey on the set of TV show Win in China.
    • Simpson Returns to China
      John Simpson returns to Tiananmen Square where he witnessed the massacre of student demonstrators in June 1989.
    • Six Days that Changed the Middle East
      The BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen explores the causes, the events and the unfinished business of the 1967 War in the Middle East.
    • Sporting Scandals
      Stories of scandal, corruption and villains have brought sporting heroes to their knees. In this landmark programme we present the lowdown on the lowest of the low.
    • Stem Cell Bazaar
      Do stem cells really offer a miracle cure?
    • Strangers in Marseille
      Laurie Taylor explores Marseille's unique racial geography to find out what kept the peace during 2005 and 2007 when race riots tore at the fabric of France.
    • Sudan: The Lost Boy Returns
      John Majok is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, who as children fled the brutality of the government troops in the civil war in the 1980s. Jane Little follows him as he meets his mother and the girl he is due to marry.

  • T

    7 Items

    • Tales from the Commonwealth
      In this four-part series, broadcasters from Guyana, Mozambique, St Lucia and Papua New Guinea show us round their country's capitals, introduce us to local personalities, and talk about the issues they feel most strongly about.
    • Taxing Questions
      In the first of a four part series Maurice Walsh discovers why globalisation and the black market have drastically undermined governments' ability to generate revenue in the form of tax.
    • Taxi to the Dark Side
      In "Taxi To The Dark Side", American film-maker Alex Gibney reports on the use of torture by American soldiers in Afghanistan. Was the torture the work of a few rogue soldiers, or officially approved by the Pentagon?
    • Teacher Flower
      Kathy Flower revisits China 25 years after she became famous as an English teacher on Chinese television.
    • Top of the Class
      In this two-part series Owen Bennett-Jones visits educational establishments which have been judged to be the best - whether by tests or surveys - to find out what they can tell us a about the best educational practices.
    • The Treasury War
      Mark Gregory investigates how the US government has been economically squeezing its enemies in the "war on terror".
    • The Trouble with Money
      Michael Robinson sees trouble ahead. Is the world's economy now threatened by what some believe is the most dangerous crisis since the depression of the 1930s?

  • U

    1 Item

  • V

    1 Item

    • The Village That Got Too Old
      Japan has the oldest and fastest ageing population in the world. David Stenhouse travels to Ogama to find out how the residents took an extraordinary decision about their future.

  • W

    11 Items

    • War by Other Means
      Trade is the lifeblood of the global economy - and it depends on rules decided in tough negotiations behind closed doors. So what really goes on in the international trade talks? Dr Ngaire Woods of Oxford University investigates.
    • We're No Angels
      The journey from Communist state to 21st Century democracy has cumulated in a dilemma for Poland: to purge the poison of the past or to forgive and forget?
    • What Lies Beneath
      International seas are largely unregulated, meaning most underwater archaeological wealth can be retrieved and sold without any obstacle.
    • What next for Kenya?
      In a two-part series, former BBC East Africa Correspondent Mike Wooldridge journeys from the bustling capital, Nairobi, to wary communities in the Rift Valley to report on the issues behind the conflict that erupted in Kenya at the turn of the year.
    • Where the Buffalo Roam
      How have non-native creatures - from birds to bovines, reptiles to rhesus monkeys - become unlikely, but permanent, residents of Hong Kong?
    • Who Will Explode the Next Nuclear Bomb
      In a two part series, Robert Hutchinson, managing Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, looks at how the nuclear crisis has come about.
    • Why they're dying in the Congo
      BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mark Doyle explores why over five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past decade.
    • Winning the Peace
      In a series of four programmes, Lord Ashdown, Former High Representative of Bosnia, looks at the role of the international community in ending conflicts and rebuilding countries.
    • Wole Soyinka Returns to Biafra
      During the Biafran war, Wole Soyinka was a high profile campaigner speaking out against the human rights abuses that were spiralling out of control in Nigeria. In this two-part series he revisits Biafra to meet again the people he tried to help.
    • The World's Shifting Balance
      The dynamics of the old world and the new world are changing and the balance of economic systems is shifting. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times asks leading economists how important is the American financial cycle to the rest of the world?
    • World Stories: Letters from Partition
      Arif Shamim of the BBC's Urdu Service travels back to the contemporary Punjabs of both India and Pakistan to hear the story of Chaudri and Harkishan.

  • X

    0 Items

  • Y

    0 Items

  • Z

    1 Item

    • Zimbabwe Out of Control
      For the past seven years, Zimbabweans have been struggling to cope with an ever-deepening political and economic crisis. Paul Bakibinga finds out how it became so bad, and what the solution is?

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