The BEST episodes of Panorama season 2017
Every episode of Panorama season 2017, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Panorama season 2017!
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme. First broadcast in 1953, it is the world's longest-running public affairs television programme.
#1 - The Operation that Ruined My Life
Season 2017 - Episode 47 - Aired 12/11/2017
Women across the UK are suffering after an operation they were told would transform their lives. Instead, some of them say their lives have been ruined. For years women have been fitted with mesh-like devicesto treat prolapse or incontinence - often caused by childbirth. Although it's been a successful treatment for many of them, thousands of women in the US, the UK and Australia are now suing, after finding themselves in agony or suffering other serious complications. Reporter Lucy Adams meets women living with constant pain. She investigates how and why these devices were approved for use in the first place and asks whether manufacturers and regulators should have acted sooner to take some of them off the market.
Watch Now:Amazon
#2 - How Safe is Your Operation?
Season 2017 - Episode 39 - Aired 10/16/2017
Jailed surgeon Ian Paterson profited from hundreds of unnecessary operations, but do his crimes reveal wider failings in Britain's private healthcare? Reporter Darragh MacIntyre investigates whether some private hospitals - and those working within them - have put profit before patients. With thousands of NHS patients now being sent to private hospitals for their operations, he uncovers disturbing evidence about safety standards and patient care in parts of the private sector.
Watch Now:Amazon
#3 - Student Loan Scandal
Season 2017 - Episode 44 - Aired 11/13/2017
As the government backs private colleges to help open up higher education to all, Panorama goes undercover to expose how fraud is costing the taxpayer millions. Secret filming reveals how shady education agents are recruiting bogus students to private colleges so they can claim loans they are not entitled to. Reporter Richard Watson finds agents prepared to supply fraudulent qualifications, offer coursework for sale and fake attendance. It comes at a time when student debt has soared to one hundred billion pounds.
Watch Now:Amazon
#4 - Hate on the Street
Season 2017 - Episode 38 - Aired 10/10/2017
On the eve of Hate Crime Awareness Week, Panorama investigates what is happening on the country's streets. With exclusive access to the government's new crime figures, the programme reveals that race andreligious hate crime is at its highest since current records began in 2008. Reporter Livvy Haydock travels the country meeting victims and perpetrators to discover what is causing the rise in these hate-driven crimes. Official figures have already revealed a significant spike in hate crime immediately after the EU referendum. Now, a year on, Livvy discovers that hate crimes have remained higher than their pre-referendum average. Livvy meets young victims who still bear the physical and emotional scars of attacks and say they had never experienced race hate on this scale before the vote. But she also hears from residents in areas with a high number of reported race hate crimes who say that the race card is being played too easily and that Brexit is being blamed for wider social problems in their community.
Watch Now:Amazon
#5 - Back to the Falklands: Brothers in Arms
Season 2017 - Episode 22 - Aired 6/5/2017
In 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, and a task force of over 100 vessels and 26,000 men and women sailed 8,000 miles from Britain to defend the islands. In a short but brutal war lasting three weeks, hundreds died on both sides, the Argentinians were defeated, and the islands were reclaimed. But what happened after the parades were finished and the flags were put away? In this moving film, Panorama uses animation drawn by a Falklands War veteran to explore how the trauma of fighting a war can continue to affect soldiers even decades later. The film follows a group of Welsh Guards whose lives were shaped by their Falklands experience as they return for the first time to the islands to confront their demons.
Watch Now:Amazon
#6 - Trump's First 100 Days
Season 2017 - Episode 16 - Aired 4/24/2017
A Panorama special looking at the first 100 days of President Trump. Jeremy Paxman crosses the US for a wry and searching examination of the whirlwind past three months.
#7 - Undercover: Britain's Immigration Secrets
Season 2017 - Episode 32 - Aired 9/4/2017
On the front line of the fight to control immigration, BBC Panorama goes undercover in an Immigration Removal Centre and reveals chaos, incompetence and abuse. The centre is a staging post for detainees who face deportation from the UK. It is a toxic mix, and detainees who have overstayed visas or are seeking asylum can share rooms with foreign national criminals who have finished prison sentences. Some have been held in the privately run centre for many months, even years. The covert footage, recorded by a detainee custody officer, reveals widespread self-harm and attempted suicides in a centre where drugs, particularly the synthetic cannabis substitute spice, are rife. Many officers do their best to control the chaos, but some are recorded mocking, abusing and even assaulting detainees.
#8 - Trouble at the RSPCA
Season 2017 - Episode 30 - Aired 8/3/2017
The RSPCA, which has been rescuing and protecting animals for almost 200 years, is one of the best-loved charities in England and Wales. Last year it secured nearly 1,500 convictions for animal welfare offences. Now Panorama's John Sweeney - and his dog Bertie - meet people who accuse the RSPCA of being heavy-handed by prosecuting them and taking away their animals when help or advice would have been more appropriate. He also asks why an RSPCA branch rehomed dogs imported from Europe. Following the RSPCA chief executive's sudden resignation in June, John investigates what's going on at the top of the charity and meets former senior insiders who have concerns about the charity's governing council.
#9 - Offshore Secrets of the Rich Exposed
Season 2017 - Episode 42 - Aired 11/5/2017
A special edition investigating a huge new leak of data that reveals how the wealthy and powerful invest offshore.
#10 - Marine A: The Inside Story
Season 2017 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/7/2017
Alexander Blackman has had his murder conviction for shooting an injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan reduced to manslaughter. Panorama re-examines the events.
#11 - The Billion Pound VAT Scam
Season 2017 - Episode 45 - Aired 11/27/2017
Current affairs programme featuring interviews and investigative reports.
#12 - Myanmar: The Hidden Truth
Season 2017 - Episode 48 - Aired 12/18/2017
In August 2017, 11-year-old Monzur Ali saw things no child should ever see. Military helicopters landed on the football pitch in his village in Northern Rakhine in Myanmar. 'We didn't really want to leave my village but there was a lot of shooting. Some people were hanged from trees and shot. The dead bodies were left hanging', Monzur told Panorama. He and his family fled the country and are now living across the border in a giant refugee camp in Bangladesh. Like Monzur, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar in 2017 to escape being killed, raped and abused by security forces and local Buddhists. It has been described by the UN as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, but could it amount to genocide? Using powerful eyewitness testimony, government documents and previously unseen footage, reporter Justin Rowlatt reveals how the Rohingya population has been isolated and weakened, and shows that attacks were part of a highly-planned and organised operation.
#13 - Britain's Offshore Secrets Exposed
Season 2017 - Episode 43 - Aired 11/6/2017
Current affairs programme featuring interviews and investigative reports. Richard Bilton explores the secrets of Britain's offshore empire.
#14 - What Facebook Knows About You
Season 2017 - Episode 18 - Aired 5/8/2017
Facebook is thought to know more about us than any other business in history, but what does the social network that Mark Zuckerberg built do with all of our personal information?
#15 - Out of Jail: Free to Offend Again?
Season 2017 - Episode 41 - Aired 10/25/2017
An investigation into the government's reforms of the probation service, which many critics say are putting the public at risk as well as failing offenders themselves. Reporter Daniel Foggo meets two women whose sons were murdered by offenders on probation following the reforms, which saw part of the service privatised. They believe that failures in supervision contributed to their sons' deaths. The programme also reveals evidence that offenders being supervised by one private company have missed thousands of appointments and no action was taken.
#16 - Plane Drunk
Season 2017 - Episode 31 - Aired 8/14/2017
Panorama investigates the growing numbers of British passengers flying drunk. Tina Daheley uncovers shocking footage filmed by passengers and meets whistleblowers from the airline industry who reveal just how badly our journeys are being disrupted. With exclusive new figures showing a rise in drink-related incidents and arrests, Tina asks how some airlines are fighting the problem and meets the Majorcan official sick of Brits arriving on her island already drunk. Campaigners are pushing for new licensing laws, but with alcohol sales a key source of revenue for many airport retailers, is profit taking precedence over passenger convenience and safety?
#17 - London Tower Fire: Britain's Shame
Season 2017 - Episode 24 - Aired 6/19/2017
The fire that is believed to have started on the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower engulfed almost the entire 24-storey building at shocking speed. Firefighters battling the inferno say they have never seen anything like it before. Why were the fears of residents about fire safety apparently ignored and why did the flames rip so quickly through their council tower block? Richard Bilton investigates what happened that terrible night, as well as the grief and anger surrounding one of Britain's worst fire disasters in living memory, which occurred in one of its richest boroughs.
#18 - Contaminated Blood: The Search for the Truth
Season 2017 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/10/2017
It has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. More than 2,000 people died and thousands more were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being treated with contaminated blood products. All the victims were infected over 25 years ago, but even now new cases are still being diagnosed. Survivors and their families are trying once more to persuade the government to hold a UK public inquiry. Panorama examines recently released documents, and asks if the government could have done more to save lives. The film hears the heartbreaking testimony of some of the victims and their families and explores the dilemmas of doctors who had to carry on treating their patients through the unfolding crisis.
#19 - Why Mum Died: Britain's Sepsis Crisis
Season 2017 - Episode 33 - Aired 9/11/2017
Is the health service facing up to a medical emergency that now kills more than any cancers and heart attacks? When Alistair Jackson's elderly mother died suddenly in her local hospital, he was told she had received the best care possible. It took him two years to uncover how the tell-tale signs of suspected sepsis were missed and how potentially life-saving antibiotics weren't administered for hours. After getting to the truth, he meets the families of some of the estimated 14,000 people whose deaths might have been prevented with better treatment and hears from the health professionals trying to tackle Britain's 'silent killer'. The film reveals how under-reporting of sepsis cases means the crisis is likely to be far deeper than thought. With exclusive access to NHS figures he discovers that despite high-profile improvement campaigns, people's chances of getting the best care can still depend on where they live - and goes back to his mother's hospital to ask if anything there has changed.
#20 - Africa's Billion Pound Migrant Trail
Season 2017 - Episode 34 - Aired 9/18/2017
Panorama investigates the African migrant trade and reveals the extraordinary scale of people-smuggling across sub-Saharan Africa - a multibillion-pound industry described by some as a new 'slave trade'. As theEU desperately tries to cut the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, reporter Benjamin Zand investigates how hundreds of millions of euros of EU funding is being spent and asks if EU efforts to tackle the smugglers could be leaving some migrants in an ever more dangerous limbo.
#21 - Germany's New Nazis
Season 2017 - Episode 35 - Aired 9/19/2017
Violent right-wing extremism in Germany has surged to its highest level since the downfall of the Third Reich, with a record number of attacks against asylum seekers and their supporters. Panorama has spent six months in Freital, a small town at the heart of the new wave of far-right terror. As Germany goes to the polls, this film hears how long-held taboos are being broken in a country still haunted by its Nazi legacy and far-right views are becoming mainstream once more. Across the world, far-right extremists have been on the march, from Charlottesville in the United States to the suburbs of Paris and the streets of Manchester. But how worried should we be by the rise of the far right in Europe's most powerful country?
#22 - When Kids Abuse Kids
Season 2017 - Episode 37 - Aired 10/9/2017
Panorama investigates a hidden world of child sexual abuse, one in which children sexually assault other children. It's often referred to as 'peer-on-peer' abuse and can happen in classrooms and even in theplaygrounds of primary schools. In this part-animated film, children, interviewed anonymously to protect their identities, talk candidly about the abuse they have experienced and describe how they felt let down when they tried to report it. The programme also speaks to some parents who say they struggled to get help from schools, social services and the police. Using freedom of information requests, the programme reveals an increase in sexual offences carried out by under-18s on other children and a dramatic rise in sexual assaults committed by children even on school premises.
#23 - Life at 100
Season 2017 - Episode 40 - Aired 10/23/2017
There are around 14,500 centenarians in the UK, a number predicted to double every ten years. One in every three babies born now is likely to live to be at least 100. Presented by Joan Bakewell, this Panorama Special follows seven people who have reached 100 years or more. Many are still alert and active, like 105-year-old Diana Gould, who exercises every day. Actor Earl Cameron's last part was at 97 in Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio. He is ready if his agent calls. Others are acutely lonely, like George Emmerson, an amateur painter and former tax officer, now living alone after his wife of 68 years died. But like many, he values his independence and still wants to live at home. Almost all need help and care from the government, the NHS, local authorities and families. But are they all prepared for life at a hundred?
#24 - Jihadis You Pay For
Season 2017 - Episode 46 - Aired 12/4/2017
Millions of pounds of British aid money have been spent trying to bring security to Syria and to protect the UK from terrorism. But whistleblowers say our development efforts have been undermined by mismanagement, waste and corruption. Using hundreds of leaked documents, reporter Jane Corbin pieces together the shocking truth about one of the government's flagship foreign aid projects. She discovers how some of the cash has ended up in the hands of extremists and how an organisation we are funding has been involved in executions and torture.
#25 - North Korea's Nuclear Trump Card
Season 2017 - Episode 36 - Aired 10/2/2017
Trump versus Kim - it is the most chilling nuclear stand-off for decades. No longer is the world asking whether North Korea can be stopped from developing nuclear weapons but instead whether it can be stopped from using them. As the two leaders trade threats, reporter Jane Corbin investigates how North Korea has dodged sanctions and thwarted international efforts to stop it becoming a nuclear power. She also asks how the two leaders can move back from the brink and how likely it is this could all end in nuclear war.