The BEST episodes of Dispatches

#1 - Lords, Billionaires and the Russian Connection

Season 2009 - Episode 37 - Aired 11/30/2009

#2 - The Hunt for Britain's Sex Gangs

Season 2013 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/23/2013

In 2010 Telford police allowed cameras to start filming what was to become one of the biggest child sex abuse cases in the UK. The investigation, Operation Chalice, eventually encompassed over 100 victims, and around 200 suspected perpetrators. The Hunt for Britain's Sex Gangs follows - with unprecedented access - a live police investigation, showing just how difficult it is to secure justice for victims of sexual abuse, especially when some girls were just 11 when they were first abused. Gaining the trust of victims - who as a result of the grooming process, don't see themselves as victims - is key to the success of the case, but it takes months for the police to win their trust and keep them on board as they prepare for the harrowing process of going to court. As the police work with the victims, they begin to understand a vicious cycle of grooming, which starts with flattery and friendship, then moves on to a more overtly sexual relationship, and finally becomes exploitative as the groomers pass the girls around their networks of friends and family for sex.

#3 - Myanmar: The Forgotten Revolution

Season 2022 - Episode 13 - Aired 7/25/2022

A look at the world's forgotten civil war, where over 20,000 people have been reported dead, and thousands are fighting against a military coup that has removed elected government.

#4 - Britain's New Build Scandal

Season 2019 - Episode 19 - Aired 7/15/2019

Reporter Liam Halligan investigates allegations of shoddy standards, poor customer care and excessive profits at Britain's second biggest - and most profitable - builder, Persimmon.

#5 - Grenfell: Did the Fire Brigade Fail?

Season 2019 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/18/2019

Dispatches investigates the London Fire Brigade's response to the Grenfell fire, through interviews with survivors and firefighters, and using critical new evidence released by the public inquiry.

#6 - Getting Rich From the Housing Crisis

Season 2018 - Episode 16 - Aired 7/16/2018

As Britain faces a major housing shortage, how is it that some of those responsible for providing the social housing that we so desperately need seem to be doing so well out of the crisis? Reporter Anthony Barnett travels the country to hear from communities under threat at a time when the pay of social housing bosses has hit record levels, while the provision of housing for social rent has hit an all-time low. Among his discoveries is that an executive of a housing association in one of the poorest parts of the country received a pay-out of more than a million pounds.

#7 - Secrets of Coca-Cola

Season 2017 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/27/2017

Dispatches investigates Coca-Cola, one of the world's most iconic brands.

#8 - Britain's Benefits Experiment

Season 2015 - Episode 22 - Aired 11/2/2015

Tazeen Ahmed reports on a Department for Work and Pensions initiative to encourage people in work and in receipt of benefits to boost their income and reduce their dependency on the state. The project has implications for Britain's million lowest paid workers, and this documentary investigates if advice and encouragement will help them earn more, or if financial punishments, also known as sanctions, are the best way to get the working poor off benefits.

#9 - Lawless Britain: Where are the Police?

Season 2018 - Episode 22 - Aired 10/8/2018

Have you been burgled, robbed or assaulted but feel that the police brushed you off? You're not alone. Dispatches hears from victims of crime who claim that the police have failed to investigate their cases fully, if at all. These are stories of violent attacks, homes broken into, property vandalised and family businesses left to fend for themselves against thieves. Exclusive research featured in the programme raises concerns that Britain is now sliding into a new era of policing. One of the most comprehensive analyses to date reveals the levels of crimes that many forces are choosing not to investigate. Dispatches also examines the wider impact of the policy of 'screening out' and other practices by the police. Some victims are being left to investigate and seek justice themselves, others feel that law and order is slipping away from their community.

#10 - Britain's Coronavirus Catastrophe

Season 2020 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/3/2020

With Britain's Covid death rate one of the world's highest, Antony Barnett examines the evidence and asks did the government get it wrong?

#11 - Escape From The Taliban

Season 2021 - Episode 19 - Aired 11/27/2021

First-hand footage of the Taliban capture of Kabul and the subsequent flight of refugees, shot by a documentary crew that were filming in Afghanistan at the time. The film includes coverage of female rights activist Zoya Faizi's attempt to escape the country, and one of the senior figures of the Al Qaeda-backed Haqqani network visiting a prison where, until recently, he had been held.

#12 - The Truth About Traveller Crime

Season 2020 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/16/2020

Anja Popp goes in search of the truth about crimes linked to traveller sites. She talks to members of the public who have experienced crime waves and intimidation, goes out on patrol with police dealing with rural incidents and hears from travellers and their advocates, who say they suffer prejudice and attack.

#13 - The Truth About Vegans

Season 2019 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2019

Reporter Morland Sanders investigates the rising popularity of veganism. It's better for your health, the environment and animals but why do some activists resort to such extreme tactics to promote it?

#14 - Trouble on the Trains

Season 2017 - Episode 24 - Aired 11/6/2017

Dispatches gains exclusive access to go undercover with the British Transport Police's crime unit to expose racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism by football fans on Britain's trains. Reporter Morland Sanders investigates as ordinary passengers are subjected to shocking abuse. One youth sings anti-Semitic songs, and another group of fans subject travellers to their racism - all caught on secret cameras. The cops try to track them down and put them away. Paul Crowther, the BTP's most senior police officer, discloses that anti-social and abusive behaviour on Britain's trains by football supporters is under-reported by the public because it is tolerated as part of 'football culture'.

#15 - Is Britain Full?

Season 2017 - Episode 23 - Aired 10/30/2017

Is the country at breaking point? For many, high levels of immigration have caused real issues and arguably led directly to the Brexit vote. But is Britain really full? For Dispatches, Michael Buerk investigates the story behind the numbers and the impact of internal migration. New research reveals the true scale of massive movement within the UK and its impact on both overpopulated and underpopulated areas. Buerk travels to a northern English city that has almost halved in size over the years, meeting young people forming the exodus of migrants heading south for opportunity and better pay. Here he finds forgotten streets full of empty homes. The North-South divide is not just about wealth but also about numbers. Buerk asks whether we ignore the issue of internal migration at our peril and whether, with Brexit on the horizon, this issue will finally be discussed.

#16 - Undercover: Britain's Cheap Clothes - Part 2

Season 2017 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/30/2017

British shoppers have embraced the home delivery economy. During the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy before Christmas, the total online spend was almost £6.5 billion, driven by huge discounts and sales promotions. There are now 1500 warehouses servicing these orders in the UK, which is the equivalent of roughly 5500 football pitches or the total size of Cambridge. In this second Dispatches investigation into Britain's cheap clothing market, Morland Sanders investigates the working conditions inside some of these warehouses. Secret filming shows the realities of operatives walking miles of floorspace a day to get orders out on time at the busiest time of the year and reveals what can happen when workers are unwell, arrive at work late or don't want to work overtime. What does Black Friday mean for workers on the receiving end of your orders?

#17 - North Korea: Life Inside The Secret State

Season 2013 - Episode 33 - Aired 11/13/2013

Kim Jong Un rules the world's most secret and repressive state. But thanks to the digital revolution, Kim can no longer keep the world from seeing the reality of life in North Korea - or stop his own people from discovering that everything they have been told about the outside world is a lie.

#18 - Salt: Are You Eating Too Much?

Season 2015 - Episode 16 - Aired 6/29/2015

Tazeen Ahmad uncovers worrying inaccuracies in salt content food labelling

#19 - Boris, the Lord and the Russian Spy

Season 2023 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/27/2023

The full story of Boris Johnson's friendship with press baron Evgeny Lebedev and his former KGB spy father, Alexander Lebedev. Including exclusive interviews with intelligence officials and senior political figures who warned the former Prime Minister against the friendship, knowing it would put him 'in a direct line of being able to be influenced and compromised'. Despite being told by both Britain's security services and the House of Lords Appointments Commission that the friendship was dangerous, Johnson ignored this advice and became the first Prime Minister to over-rule intelligence advice related to national security for a parliamentary nomination.

#20 - Coronavirus Vaccine: Is It Safe?

Season 2020 - Episode 18 - Aired 12/18/2020

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the coronavirus vaccine. But how have we managed to get a vaccine so quickly and just how safe is it? What do we know about possible long-term side effects and which vaccine is the safest and most effective to take? In a Dispatches special, Matt Frei looks at the vaccines and asks whether this is the shot in the arm to get Britain moving again.

#21 - Growing Up Poor: Britain's Breadline Kids

Season 2019 - Episode 28 - Aired 12/2/2019

In Britain, 4.1 million children are growing up in poverty. Dispatches follows three families to show what life is like if there's not enough money for life's essentials.

#22 - The Prince and the Paedophile

Season 2019 - Episode 23 - Aired 10/21/2019

Dispatches investigates the friendship between Prince Andrew and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, as the Prince stands accused of sleeping with a 17-year-old girl supplied by the investor

#23 - Cannabis: Time to End the Ban?

Season 2018 - Episode 24 - Aired 10/22/2018

More than two million people smoke cannabis in the UK, some police forces don't prosecute for possession any more, and doctors can now apply for licences to prescribe the cannabis to treat patients with certain medical conditions. Canada has just legalised it, as have several American states. So is it time to look at the evidence and assess whether UK policy needs to change? Former Met Police chief Bernard Hogan-Howe, who has always supported tough laws on cannabis, investigates for Dispatches. He visits Colorado - one of the first states in the US to legalise - and sees first-hand how the cannabis business is booming, how the state is using its quarter-of-a-billion-dollar tax dividend and discovers that some strains of cannabis on sale are six times stronger than skunk. Will he change his mind about legalisation?

#24 - Myanmar's Killing Fields

Season 2018 - Episode 14 - Aired 5/14/2018

For the past five years an undercover network of Rohingya activists have been risking their lives to secretly film evidence of years of repression, violence and mass murder by the Myanmar authorities. This Dispatches special has been given exclusive access to hundreds of their videos and the first-ever interview with the network to provide the most complete account of how ethnic tension degenerated into what some are calling state-sanctioned genocide, with reporter Evan Williams asking whether Myanmar's leaders be held accountable for the atrocities.

#25 - Who Speaks for British Muslims?

Season 2018 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/12/2018

Across Britain, the police, local authorities and other public bodies are reaching out to Muslim groups in the fight against terrorism and extremism. But how much do they know about some of the Muslim groups they are talking to? John Ware investigates.