The WORST episodes of Dispatches
Every episode of Dispatches ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Dispatches!
Covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, and often features a mole inside organisations under journalistic investigation.
#1 - Secrets of the Saudi State
Season 2002 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/5/2002
'Dispatches' reporter Deborah Davies goes undercover in Saudia Arabia, one of the world's most secretive and repressive states. Davies talks to one of the Britons accused of involvement in the illegal alcohol trade and reports on the appalling conditions endured by westerners in Saudi jails. Davies also details how non-Muslim foreign workers are routinely tortured and even executed for minor crimes.
#2 - The Telford Hangings
Season 2000 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/20/2000
#3 - The Real Story of the Leeds Fans
Season 2000 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/20/2000
#4 - Sally Clark
Season 2000 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/27/2000
#5 - Children of the Secret State
Season 2000 - Episode 15 - Aired 10/19/2000
#6 - The Search for Lucie Blackman
Season 2000 - Episode 16 - Aired 10/26/2000
#7 - Bras - The Bare Facts
Season 2000 - Episode 17 - Aired 11/2/2000
#8 - How to Jump the Health Queue
Season 2000 - Episode 19 - Aired 11/23/2000
#9 - Bloody Foreigners Part 1
Season 2001 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/3/2001
In the first ot two documentaries examining the predicament of Britain's immigrant communities, the film looks at the secret world of the illegal immigrant. The report exposes the organised crime behind the trade together with the appalling living conditions with which the immigrants are faced and their exploitation in the workplace. For six months, a team of four undercover reporters lived as illegal immigrants, joining gangs of Albanians exploited in the building trade, being attacked by racists, and working long hours for low pay in London hotels and restaurants. The programme also reveals the plight of asylum seekers in the north of England, where, having been placed in cold and inadequate flats on housing estates where they are continually threatened by racist gangs, large numbers are leaving the accommodation and are vanishing from the system. Contributors include Martin Slade of the Immigration Service Union and Lord Desai.
#10 - Bloody Foreigners Part 2
Season 2001 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/4/2001
In this programme, stand-up comedian Omid Djalili, son of Iranian immigrants who came to the UK in 1958, presents his view on living in Britain as a "bloody foreigner". He investigates what life is like for today's asylum seekers.
#11 - Unforgiven - The Boys Who Murdered James Bulger
Season 2001 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/12/2001
Documentary reporting on the proposed forthcoming release of murderers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, and the emotions this has stirred up, with the Justice for James campaign organised by James Bulger's mother Denise Fergus, protesting against their release. Looks at questions of punishment and rehabilitation and at how inmates at secure units are treated.
#12 - Outbreak: The True Story of Foot and Mouth
Season 2001 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/3/2001
Documentary investigating the agricultural crisis caused by the recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease and takes a critical look at the handling of the situation by government and the authorities. Examines how chaos reigned from the very staff, and looks at aspects such as resources and logistics, how the crisis spread, the effects on farmers and communities and the more long-term effects in economic recession in some areas. Includes interviews with farmers, politicians, scientists, soldiers drafted in to help dispose of carcasses and policy makers.
#13 - Bin Laden's Plan of Terror
Season 2001 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/2001
Investigation into Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaida terrorist network, considering its spread, recruitment, workings and capabilities.
#14 - Unholy War
Season 2001 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/11/2001
Documentary in which Sairah Shah returns to Afghanistan and investigates the motivations and attitudes of the Taliban and al-Qaida, as well as the Northern Alliance. Also looks at the ordinary people caught between the Taliban regime and the Northern Alliance and the effects of a culture caught up in almost perpetual violence and conflict for over twenty years.
#15 - Paedophiles - Assessing the Risks
Season 2001 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/14/2001
The results of a year long investigation into the system for protecting children against paedophiles. Includes contributions from : Prof Kevin Browne (University of Birmingham), Det Sgt Mick Studley (retired), Jim Reynolds (former Head Met Paedophile Unit), Det Insp and Cath Hannon.
#16 - Down the Tube
Season 2001 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/2/2001
Investigates the current state of the London Underground system, looking at aspects such as under-investment, decay, track and signal problems, the planned public-private partnership and serious safety problems. Also, at what commuters and users of the system have to put up with.
#17 - The Nuclear Files
Season 2000 - Episode 10 - Aired 4/13/2000
#18 - State of Terror
Season 2002 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/13/2002
An investigation into the Israelis' tactics in quelling the Palestinian revolt, including the recent attack on the refugee camp at Jenin.
#19 - The Colombian Connection
Season 2002 - Episode 3 - Aired 5/26/2002
Documentary investigating why three Irishmen with strong IRA links were arrested in the summer of 2001 in an area of Colombia controlled by the narco-terrorist group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Reporter Sandra Jordon looks into the background of the three men, interviews former FARC operatives and learns how FARC appear to have adopted IRA military tactics as evidence of the IRA's involvement in global terrorism grows.
#20 - How to Break into Britain
Season 2002 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/9/2002
Documentary about illegal entry into Britain, from forged papers to hiding in the back of a lorry. Includes filming at the Sangatte centre in France with members of a people smuggling network.
#21 - Speed Trap
Season 2002 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/6/2002
An investigation into whether speed cameras are making Britain's roads safer. Jonathan Miller travels on some of the country's most dangerous roads and finds evidence that motorists are using various tactics to avoid being caught speeding, and that the Government's policies are failing to cut road death figures.
#22 - Bin Laden's New Network
Season 2002 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/8/2002
Dispatches reports from the new frontlines of the war on terrorism where, far from being beaten and disbanded, the 10,000 fighters of Al Qaeda are now regrouping for the next phase of their war on the West.
#23 - Lifting the Veil
Season 2002 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/10/2002
Just over a year after going undercover in Afghanistan to make the award-winning Beneath the Veil , Dispatches returns to the former Taliban-run country to reveal the story behind one of that film's most shocking images. Pictures smuggled out by the opposition group RAWA showed the medieval barbarity of the regime - symbolised by the execution of a woman in the middle of a football pitch. But what had the 35-year-old woman and mother of seven children done to warrant her fate? The Dispatches team track down her children and reveal her harrowing story as well as uncovering shocking evidence that the plight of women in Afghanistan has changed very little since the fall of the Taliban.
#24 - Truth and Lies in Baghdad
Season 2002 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/17/2002
Reporter Sam Kiley goes undercover in Iraq to discover the barbarity that Saddam Hussein and his government want to keep from the outside world. He discovers a people terrorised by its own government and secret police. Civilians are assassinated and subjected to military brutality and women are beheaded in busy streets.