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!
Investigative documentary series revealing the truth about the stories that matter.
#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.
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#2 - How Safe Is Your Operation?
Season 2017 - Episode 39 - Aired 10/16/2017
Darragh MacIntyre investigates whether some private hospitals - and those working within them - have put profits before patient safety and care.
#3 - 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.
#4 - 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.
#5 - The Benefits Cap: Is It Working?
Season 2017 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/5/2017
Panorama follows parents who have had their benefits capped and are struggling to keep their homes, knowing that to escape they will have to find a job.
#6 - Britain's Food & Farming: The Brexit Effect
Season 2017 - Episode 26 - Aired 7/10/2017
Tom Heap examines the likely effects of Brexit on the UK's food and farming industry, talking to insiders to determine how the changes will impact consumers.
#7 - Marine A: The Inside Story
Season 2017 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/15/2017
Alexander Blackman has had his murder conviction for shooting an injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan reduced to manslaughter. Panorama re-examines the events.
#8 - The Billion Pound VAT Scam
Season 2017 - Episode 45 - Aired 11/27/2017
Current affairs programme featuring interviews and investigative reports.
#9 - 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.
#10 - 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.
#11 - 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?
#12 - 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.
#13 - 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.
#14 - 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.
#15 - Trump's Fortress America
Season 2017 - Episode 27 - Aired 7/17/2017
Donald Trump fought the US presidential election with a promise to send millions of illegal immigrants back to Mexico. While the world focuses on his troubles in Washington, Panorama investigates how behind the scenes Trump is putting his controversial deportation plans into action. Reporter Hilary Andersson meets families split by immigration arrests and children of detained parents left to fend for themselves. It has been claimed that Trump's policies are dividing America. The programme hears from those who support the deportations and films with police in Arizona as they hunt down illegal immigrants at night.
#16 - Cadet Abuse Cover-Up
Season 2017 - Episode 25 - Aired 7/4/2017
As one of Britain's largest youth groups, the cadet forces are responsible for nearly 130,000 children in more than 3,000 clubs across the country. However, not all members have positive memories of their time within the ranks. They are victims of sexual abuse by their cadet instructors, and this abuse could have been stopped but wasn't. This investigation shines a light on a culture of cover-up across the UK which allowed abuse to continue. Reporter Katie Razzall reveals the deeply troubling evidence with serious questions now facing the government organisation in overall charge - the Ministry of Defence.
#17 - Men, Boys & Eating Disorders
Season 2017 - Episode 28 - Aired 7/24/2017
Rugby referee Nigel Owens meets men and boys to hear their moving accounts of the impact of their eating disorders, and he confronts his own battle with bulimia.
#18 - A Prescription for Murder?
Season 2017 - Episode 29 - Aired 7/26/2017
Is it possible that a pill prescribed by your doctor can turn you into a killer? Over 40 million prescriptions for SSRI antidepressants were handed out by doctors last year in the UK. Panorama reveals the devastating side effects on a tiny minority that can lead to psychosis, violence, murder and possibly even mass murder. With exclusive access to psychiatric reports, court footage and drug company data, reporter Shelley Jofre investigates the mass killings at the 2012 midnight premiere of a Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado. A 24-year-old PhD student James Holmes, who had no record of violence or gun ownership, murdered 12 and injured 70. Did the SSRI antidepressant he had been prescribed play a part in the killings? Panorama has uncovered other cases of murder and extreme violence which could be linked to psychosis developed after the taking of SSRIs, including a father who strangled his 11-year-old son. Panorama asks if enough is known about this rare side effect.
#19 - 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.
#20 - 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?
#21 - 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.
#22 - 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.
#23 - 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.
#24 - 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?
#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.