The BEST episodes of Panorama season 1996

#1 - Violent Women

Season 1996 - Episode 33 - Aired 11/4/1996

Statistics show that British women are committing more and more violent crimes. Panorama investigates the shift in the traditional role of women as victims or accessories to crime to the aggressor. Su Pennington talks to women who get a thrill from their own brutality, and to some victims of the disturbing trend.

#2 - Have They Got News for You

Season 1996 - Episode 28 - Aired 9/30/1996

The spin doctors politicians rely upon to influence the news have been called "the men in the dark" . Do they pressure and cajole journalists and help politicians float stories that can later be denied, or simply protect their parties from a media obsessed with splits and personalities? In the run-up to the general election, reporter Steve Bradshaw reveals the spin doctors' tricks of the trade and asks whether British voters get the political debate they deserve.

#3 - 10/06/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 20 - Aired 6/10/1996

#4 - Mad Cows and Englishmen - the Making of the Beef Crisis

Season 1996 - Episode 21 - Aired 6/17/1996

So far BSE has meant the deaths of 160,000 cows and may lead to the condition Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease in humans. As the Government's handling of the "mad cow" crisis threatens to split Europe, Gerry Northam reports on a decade of official mistakes and cover-ups.

#5 - 24/06/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 22 - Aired 6/24/1996

#6 - Off the Rails?

Season 1996 - Episode 23 - Aired 7/1/1996

In the brave new world of privatised railways, it's cheaper to send trains by road than by rail. When trains need to be serviced, the new owners of the track charge operators so much that many prefer to load them onto trailers to be sent down the motorway. So trains can now cause traffic jams.John Ware asks, has privatisation of the railways gone off the rails?

#7 - 08/07/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 24 - Aired 7/8/1996

#8 - The Drugs Olympics

Season 1996 - Episode 25 - Aired 7/15/1996

Swifter, higher, stronger is the Olympic motto but has the athlete's ultimate dream to win gold created a culture of world-class cheats? Reporter Tom Mangold talks to Olympic athletes en route to this year's games who admit to having taken drugs and talks to the steroid gurus to reveal the hidden underground network behind the glamour of the centennial games.

#9 - Dunblane - the Legacy

Season 1996 - Episode 26 - Aired 9/16/1996

Panorama begins with this report on the aftermath of the massacre when Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and their teacher at Dunblane Primary School. As the Cullen Inquiry prepares to publish its report, BBC Scotland correspondent Jane Franchi talks to families whose children were murdered and the two teachers badly wounded in the shooting. She reveals how, despite so much being known about Hamilton's activities, little was done to stop him.

#10 - 23/09/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 27 - Aired 9/23/1996

#11 - Hard Lessons

Season 1996 - Episode 19 - Aired 6/3/1996

Are our children being let down by primary school education? New research suggests that over the last 25 years, standards in maths have fallen noticeably. Vivian White reports on what is going wrong in our primary schools and asks if there are hard lessons to be learnt from abroad.

#12 - The Billion Dollar Man

Season 1996 - Episode 29 - Aired 10/7/1996

Sir James Goldsmith is a billionaire at the gate of British politics - a financier who intends spending huge amounts of money promoting the Referendum Party at the next general election. The party's one-policy campaign has been dismissed in some quarters, yet Goldsmith's impact and money is widely feared.

#13 - 14/101996

Season 1996 - Episode 30 - Aired 10/14/1996

#14 - 21/10/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 31 - Aired 10/21/1996

#15 - On the Trail of the Real Bill Clinton

Season 1996 - Episode 32 - Aired 10/28/1996

As America prepares to vote for its next President and the candidates' election campaigns roll towards their conclusion, Edward Stourton journeys across the country on the trail of President Bill Clinton.

#16 - 11/11/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 34 - Aired 11/11/1996

#17 - Broken Hearts

Season 1996 - Episode 35 - Aired 11/18/1996

Martin Sashir reports on what seems to be a wide scale ignorance of the easily-treatable Kawasaki disease, the biggest cause of heart disease among children in the western world.

#18 - Your Pound in Their Pocket: Panorama's Tax Bombshell

Season 1996 - Episode 36 - Aired 11/25/1996

Tonight, Peter Jay contrasts the political rhetoric of the last 20 years with the realities of the tax burden, to discover if anything has changed. Panorama hears from families, former Chancellor Norman Lamont and former Treasury chiefs to assess what impact changes have had.

#19 - 02/12/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 37 - Aired 12/2/1996

#20 - The Price Is Wrong

Season 1996 - Episode 38 - Aired 12/9/1996

With Christmas imminent. Panorama investigates allegations that the prices of hi-fis, televisions and fridges are being kept artificially high. and reporter John Ware explains why finding a bargain might be difficult this year.

#21 - 04/03/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/4/1996

#22 - Boozing for Britain

Season 1996 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/8/1996

Alcohol abuse is responsible for up to 40,000 deaths every year in Britain, as well as domestic incidents, absenteeism and crime. But the government, which spends £10 million per year combatting drugs, has no similar policy for dealing with drink. Panorama asks why the government has failed to change such destructive drinking habits.

#23 - 15/01/1996

Season 1996 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/15/1996

#24 - From Cradle to Grave: Broken Promises

Season 1996 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/22/1996

Tonight, in the first programme of a special two part investigation on the reality of the welfare state, reporter Stephen Bradshaw looks at broken promises. Like families having to sell their parents homes to pay for old age care which they thought the state would provide, and the redundant who discover that claiming benefit traps them into dependency on the state.

#25 - From Cradle to Grave: Paying for the Future

Season 1996 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/29/1996

The second programme of a special two-part investigation into the welfare state. Stephen Bradshaw looks at the implications of the middle classes increasingly looking to private insurance for everything from pensions, schools fees and medical care. However, forecasters predict that only five to ten per cent of British families will be able to afford the cost of private welfare, creating a divided society.