The BEST episodes of Dispatches season 2009

#1 - Lords, Billionaires and the Russian Connection

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

Dispatches investigates the elusive Russian oligarchs who have been trying to buy up our football teams, newspapers and car companies.

#2 - Lost in Care

Season 2009 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/11/2009

Part of the Britain's Forgotten Children season, this programme reveals the scandals of the British care system and asks, is it working or failing our children?

#3 - Afghanistan's Dirty War

Season 2009 - Episode 22 - Aired 6/15/2009

Investigating an American assault on the village of Azizabad last year, in which scores of civilians, including dozens of women and children were killed. The film examines the reaction of the US forces - which initially declared the operation a success and denied any civilian deaths.

#4 - Congo's Forgotten Children

Season 2009 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/2/2009

#5 - Rape in the City

Season 2009 - Episode 23 - Aired 6/22/2009

Journalist Sorious Samura examines gang rape in the wake of two recent high-profile cases, investigating why such violent attacks are now happening in the UK. He uncovers the extent of the problem by meeting four victims who describe their traumatic experiences, learns the shocking truth about a group of teenagers' attitude to sex and relationships, and hears from youth workers, police officers and academics

#6 - Unseen Gaza

Season 2009 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/22/2009

With reporters unable to enter Gaza, attempted media manipulation from both sides and strict regulations governing what images that can be shown on British TV, Jon Snow asks a range of journalists from at home and abroad about the challenges of getting the full story.

#7 - Confessions of a Nurse

Season 2009 - Episode 39 - Aired 3/23/2009

As patient numbers and pressures increase, Dispatches investigates the reality of work for nurses around the country and examines whether patient care is being compromised in NHS hospitals.

#8 - The Trouble With Boris

Season 2009 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/30/2009

#9 - The Westminster Gravy Train

Season 2009 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/19/2009

In May 2008, freedom-of-information campaigner Heather Brooke won a court battle that should have prompted the release of all politicians' expense claims. A year later, with those expenses still to be published and the flow of leaked information ever increasing, Heather studies the information that is available to piece together a forensic insight into how public money is being spent.

#10 - Crash - How the Banks Went Bust

Season 2009 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/20/2009

Just before he became Prime Minister in 2007, chancellor Gordon Brown congratulated the city on their ingenuity and creativity during his tenure: 'An era that history will record as the beginning of a new golden age for the city of London'. He couldn't have been more wrong. Now, thanks to the financial crash, Britain is facing economic catastrophe. The debts the UK is incurring will take generations to pay off. But how did the economy get from boom to bust? In this two-part special, economist and author Will Hutton gives the definitive insider's account of what went wrong. Talking to the key players in government, Wall Street and the City, Hutton unveils the true extent of the greed, ambition and reckless risk-taking that is now carrying the economy into the worst recession for a century. Is it really true that no one saw it coming? Or could the recession have been prevented?

#11 - CRASH - How Long Will It Last ?

Season 2009 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/27/2009

In the second half of this special two-part Dispatches, economist and author Will Hutton continues the definitive insider's account of how Britain's economy went from boom to bust. Hutton reveals how those who tried to warn of the impending financial disaster were shouted down, ignored or fired. As a result, the repercussions of the collapse of Lehman Brothers hit an unprepared and vulnerable UK, and left the government frantically trying to prevent a banking collapse from turning the UK into an economic wasteland. Despite the collapse of Northern Rock a year before, the government, the regulators and the banks had largely ignored the warning signals that more collapses would follow. Hutton looks at the weeks that followed Lehman's collapse: weeks that will go down as some of the most crucial in Britain's economic history.

#12 - Afghanistan - Mission Impossible?

Season 2009 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/6/2009

The death toll of British soldiers in Afghanistan continues to rise as the world's leaders gather at a Nato summit to debate the future of the West's involvement in the country. Here, reporter Stephen Grey questions whether troops have been provided with the necessary equipment and resources, while senior officials share their thoughts on the military operation in Helmand Province.

#13 - Britain's Bankers: Still Cashing In

Season 2009 - Episode 17 - Aired 5/18/2009

Britain's top bankers helped bring the economy to the brink of ruin; their gambling triggered thousands of job losses and exposed taxpayers to over a trillion pounds of possible risk. In this edition of Dispatches, journalist Jane Moore investigates exactly how much these former bosses have been rewarded for these failings - and how much they are still raking in.

#14 - The War Against Street Weapons

Season 2009 - Episode 18 - Aired 5/25/2009

#15 - The Truth About Your Energy Bill

Season 2009 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/29/2009

#16 - Too Old to Work

Season 2009 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/9/2009

#17 - The Problem Princes

Season 2009 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/13/2009

#18 - Unholy War

Season 2009 - Episode 41 - Aired 9/17/2009

#19 - Crash Gordon

Season 2009 - Episode 21 - Aired 6/8/2009

In the first account of its kind on television, award-winning journalist Andrew Rawnsley presents the inside political story of the credit crunch. The programme features exclusive interviews with senior figures close to the economic crisis, including cabinet ministers, senior politicians and former treasury insiders. As Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has presided over the biggest recession in 75 years. Rawnsley examines the key moments, showing how Brown as Prime Minister inherited the economic problems of his own 10 years as chancellor. The programme charts the roller coaster journey of Brown's fortunes from the moment the credit crunch began.

#20 - How They Squander Our Billions

Season 2009 - Episode 40 - Aired 3/9/2009

Jane Moore highlights the findings of a report about how the government wastes billions of pounds of taxpayers' money each year

#21 - The Big Job Hunt

Season 2009 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/16/2009

Former Minister of Trade Digby Jones examines how the Government is tackling the unemployment crisis. He analyses each of Gordon Brown's pledges to help people retrain for work, to see whether the system for handling the newly unemployed will be a success, and unpicks statements and statistics to reveal the true scale of the problem.

#22 - Do you know what’s in your breakfast?

Season 2009 - Episode 34 - Aired 10/26/2009

In this edition of Dispatches, reporter Jane Moore reveals how nutritious the nation's breakfasts really are and the marketing techniques employed by this lucrative industry. Dispatches investigates the evidence provided to support these claims and asks if some of the healthy-sounding cereals and pro-biotic yoghurts are all they are cracked up to be. Moore finds that the unwillingness of retailers and manufacturers to adopt the traffic light systems recommended by food standards authorities is confusing things further. Even if you want to eat the right thing, it is not always easy to tell what that is. She also tests the regulators' rules on 'healthy' branding by baking a cake that could still make many of the health claims made by cereals. Moore examines the recent shifts in cereal marketing which enable manufacturers to stay ahead of the regulators. Moore discovers that their marketing has moved to prime-time TV and the internet.

#23 - Pakistan's Taliban Generation

Season 2009 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/16/2009

Award-winning Pakistani journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy investigates how the war on terror is creating a generation of child terrorists in her homeland - children prepared to kill both inside and outside Pakistan. Sharmeen investigates how the Taliban are recruiting increasingly younger fighters to their campaign. She meets a 14-year-old boy in her home city of Karachi who is desperate to become a suicide bomber. She then follows the elite unit of the anti-terror police squad - who warn that the Taliban are hiding out in the city's sprawling slums and recruiting children from small madrassas in deprived neighbourhoods. Sharmeen also interviews a Taliban commander responsible for child recruitment, who reveals that children as young as five are now being used by the Taliban.

#24 - The True Cost of Cheap Food

Season 2009 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/22/2009

As the credit crunch bites, thousands of families are cutting back by swapping expensive premium-range food for cheaper budget lines - but at what cost? Food critic and author Jay Rayner examines what goes into these budget products and asks why, too often, low cost means low quality.

#25 - Battle Scarred

Season 2009 - Episode 28 - Aired 9/7/2009

As British forces fight on two fronts in military operations, award-winning filmmaker David Modell examines the devastating trauma suffered by many soldiers - which leaves no visible scars, but great psychological injury. The programme tells the moving stories of four soldiers as a result of their experiences in combat zones. To many here, the conflicts may seem remote, but this film provides an intimate portrait of its impact on the lives of individual soldiers and their families. Examining the consequences of long and repeated tours of duty, the film raises serious questions about the adequacy of existing support structures to help returning soldiers cope with any trauma they may be suffering. In addition to the film, this website details more individual cases, plus information and research into the key issues of alcohol, mental health, relationships and suicide.