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 - 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.
#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 - The Mystery of the Unknown Man
Season 2017 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/30/2017
The police and social services were baffled when an elderly man with an American accent was found lost on the streets of Hereford. He didn't know who he was or have any ID, and he was dressed from head to toe in brand new clothes from Tesco. He was in a nursing home before Panorama took up his case. Reporter Darragh Macintyre follows the clues to America and unravels the mystery of the unknown man - before confronting the person responsible for bringing him to Britain.
#5 - Behind Bars: Prison Undercover
Season 2017 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/13/2017
An undercover investigation reveals the reality of life behind bars in Britain's crisis-hit prison system. Footage recorded by a reporter also working as an officer at a Category C adult prison shows how inmates are effectively running the prison, with many of them off their heads on drugs and drink. It also reveals how prison officers don't feel able to maintain control and how they are at risk themselves. The programme also finds little evidence of rehabilitation or change, where some weak prisoners suffer, career criminals profit while jailed, drug addicts simply change which drugs they smoke, and the prisoners who could change their ways are being ignored. It comes as the government faces repeated warnings about the crisis inside Britain's prisons. There have been up to four riots in the last three and a half months, 354 deaths in prison last year and 6,430 assaults on staff in the year to September 2016.
#6 - 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.
#7 - 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.
#8 - 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.
#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 - Terror on the Beach: Why Did It Happen?
Season 2017 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/9/2017
Panorama returns to the scene of the killing of 30 British tourists by a gunman on the beach at Sousse in June 2015. Reporter Jane Corbin investigates whether security concerns were ignored before the attack and if lives could have been saved on the day. She asks why there wasn't tighter security or a warning to holidaymakers to stay away from Tunisia after similar attacks. And should the Tunisian government, the British tour operators and the Foreign Office bear any responsibility for what happened?
#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 - Revealed: Britain's Mental Health Crisis
Season 2017 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/6/2017
One month after prime minister Theresa May promised to 'transform the way we deal with mental health problems right across society', reporter Sophie Hutchinson investigates the troubled state of NHS mental health services. She hears the concerns of staff and patients at the first mental health trust in England to be placed in special measures, and learns of the deteriorating national picture for mental health care funding, exclusively revealing new figures that show a shocking increase in unexpected deaths of mental health patients.
#13 - 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.
#14 - 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?
#15 - 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.
#16 - Trump: The Kremlin Candidate?
Season 2017 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/16/2017
On the eve of the new president's inauguration, Panorama investigates Donald Trump's strange bromance with Vladimir Putin. John Sweeney - who has confronted both men in the past - travels to Russia, the United States and the battlefields in Ukraine to report on what's behind their mutual admiration. He investigates whether Russian cyber-warriors helped get Donald Trump into the White House and asks how safe the world will be if they stay friends - or if the bromance falls apart.
#17 - 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.
#18 - 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.
#19 - 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.
#20 - 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.
#21 - 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.
#22 - 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?
#23 - 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.
#24 - 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.
#25 - 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.