The WORST episodes of Panorama
Every episode of Panorama ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Panorama!
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 - Kids in Crisis
Season 2018 - Episode 32 - Aired 9/24/2018
Britain is in the grip of a child mental health crisis. Nearly half a million children are either waiting for treatment or receiving it. The government has promised more money for child mental health but in the meantime getting help is a postcode lottery. Some children are waiting up to two years to be seen and others are being sent hundreds of miles away from home for treatment. In this Panorama, Sean Fletcher, whose own teenage son Reuben has been hospitalised with severe obsessive compulsive disorder, investigates the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service - CAHMS. He investigates whether care is being rationed in some areas, leaving children to deteriorate until they have to be hospitalised. And he speaks to children who have been let down by the system and despairing parents who believe their children's lives have been put at risk.
#2 - The Fake Murder that Fooled the World
Season 2018 - Episode 24 - Aired 7/23/2018
Found in a pool of blood, Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist and critic of President Putin, was declared murdered in Ukraine in May. But a day later he was back from the dead, appearing alive and well at a Kiev press conference. Speaking to all the key players for the first time, Jonah Fisher has the inside story of how to fake a murder. Why did Ukrainian security services stage his death? And in the propaganda war between the truth and fake news, what, if anything, did it achieve?
#3 - Get Rich or Die Young
Season 2018 - Episode 25 - Aired 7/30/2018
Life expectancy in Britain varies dramatically depending upon where you live. The rich live longer and the poor die younger. Reporter Richard Bilton visits Stockton, the town with the country's worst health inequality. He investigates why people in the town centre can only expect to live to 69, while their wealthier neighbours a couple of miles away will live an average of 18 years longer.
#4 - Online Doctors Uncovered
Season 2018 - Episode 26 - Aired 8/6/2018
Panorama goes undercover to reveal online doctor sites putting profit before patient care. In 2017 the Care Quality Commission issued a warning about the risks of buying drugs prescribed by doctors online. The programme discovers opiate-based painkillers and slimming tablets being sold to potentially vulnerable people and antibiotics being delivered across Europe in the face of warnings about resistance. Dr Faye Kirkland, journalist and GP, meets the families of patients who have died after online consultations and exposes the sites running rings around the regulators.
#5 - Doctors on Trial
Season 2018 - Episode 27 - Aired 8/13/2018
Panorama investigates the case which has sparked outrage among doctors - a junior doctor convicted of manslaughter and then struck off the medical register for her role in the death of a boy. In 2011, six-year-old Jack Adcock was admitted into the Leicester Royal Infirmary, under the care of Dr Hadiza Bawa Garba. Less than 12 hours later he had died from sepsis, a potentially life threatening condition which the doctor had failed to spot. But the action that was taken against her has provoked an outcry from the medical profession, who say she has been unfairly blamed for mistakes made while working in an overstretched and under-resourced NHS. So what should happen when doctors make mistakes? And who should take responsibility? Panorama talks to Dr Bawa Garba in her first interview and to the parents of Jack Adcock to explore the story.
#6 - Legal Weapon
Season 2018 - Episode 28 - Aired 8/20/2018
Panorama investigates how antique guns are being brought into the UK perfectly legally and ending up in the hands of criminals. Panorama buys two handguns, one in America, carrying it through customs, and the other from an antique guns fair in Birmingham. Under current legislation it is legal to buy and sell guns provided commercially manufactured ammunition is no longer available. But criminals are home making ammunition for these antique weapons and then using them to kill. Gloucester gun dealer Paul Edmunds flooded the streets of Birmingham and London with antique guns as well as modern guns passed off as antiques. These weapons have been used in multiple murders. Now West Midlands Police and the National Ballistics Intelligence Service are calling for a change in the law to close this loophole.
#7 - Murder on the Streets
Season 2018 - Episode 29 - Aired 9/3/2018
Across Britain serious violence is rising. There have been over 80 murders in London in 2018 alone, which includes eight children, under 18. Panorama investigates why young people are losing their lives, by focusing on just one of these murders. 17-year old Rhyhiem Barton grew up on the Brandon Estate in South London, and was killed on the streets there. Filming with his family and friends, the programme looks at the devastation and loss caused by Rhyhiem's death- from their perspective. It explores what might have led to his murder and how the community has responded to try and prevent more of their children being killed.
#8 - Profits before Pupils? The Academies Scandal
Season 2018 - Episode 30 - Aired 9/10/2018
More than 7,000 schools in England have been turned into academies and are now run by private trusts. The people in charge are not supposed to profit from children's education, but what's to stop them from cashing in? Reporter Bronagh Munro investigates a businessman whose companies have been paid millions from school budgets and asks whether it's the pupils who are paying the price.
#9 - Inside No 10: Deal or No Deal?
Season 2018 - Episode 31 - Aired 9/17/2018
The Brexit deadline is looming - just weeks left to get a deal, just months until the country is due to leave the European Union. The stakes are high for Britain, and at the centre of it all is the prime minister. Theresa May has to strike a deal with the EU and convince the public and MPs that her plan is the best plan. The only alternative, the government say, is no deal at all. But many disagree - and her own party, the opposition and the country are divided. So what does the prime minister's plan really mean, and what else could we do? At a crucial time for the country, Panorama has been inside Downing Street with Theresa May as she seeks to navigate Britain's negotiations with the EU. Nick Robinson interviews the prime minister and hears from all sides about deals and no-deal.
#10 - Fighting for my Child
Season 2018 - Episode 23 - Aired 7/16/2018
In the aftermath of the Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard cases, Panorama meets three extraordinary families who spend their lives caring for children with serious disabilities. The number of school-aged children with complex needs has doubled since 2004, but many families now struggle to secure the help their children need in the face of limited resources. Families let cameras into their homes to see what it takes to give their children the care they need on a daily basis - sometimes it's a fight to simply keep them alive. Are we willing to do what it takes to give these children a decent quality of life?
#11 - Can Violent Men Change?
Season 2018 - Episode 33 - Aired 10/8/2018
Panorama explores courses and therapies designed to stop domestic abusers from reoffending, asking how effective these interventions are and if violent men can ever really change.
#12 - Syria's Chemical War
Season 2018 - Episode 34 - Aired 10/15/2018
Panorama investigates the use of chemical weapons in the civil war that's torn Syria apart in the last seven years. President Assad and his allies Russia and Iran have consistently denied the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons. But Nawal Al-Maghafi's shocking expose reveals the true extent of chemical weapons use by the regime and shows they are a crucial part of his war-winning strategy, terrorising and driving out civilians from opposition-held areas. Never before have chemical weapons have been used in this way and to this extent, but Panorama shows the west has been unable to prevent it. Nawal hears from families who have fled their homes and joined the 13 million displaced people and refugees. Though the Syrian government is now saying it's safe for refugees to return, few dare to go back home. With extraordinary footage from inside the city of Idlib, the one remaining rebel outpost, Panorama reveals the lasting impact of these weapons.
#13 - Trapped by My Mortgage
Season 2018 - Episode 35 - Aired 10/22/2018
Andy Verity meets the ex-Northern Rock customers who are still trapped on high interest rates and whose mortgages have now been taken over by an aggressive private equity fund.
#14 - Trump: What Next?
Season 2018 - Episode 36 - Aired 11/5/2018
Will President Trump be forced out of office? On the eve of the most important US midterm elections for a generation, Panorama examines allegations that Trump colluded with Russia to win the presidency, and looks at the similarities with the Watergate scandal which brought down Richard Nixon. Reporter Hilary Andersson joins the campaign trail in West Virginia, where the president's message of a vast political witch-hunt against him has fired up Republican voters. If the Democrats do well tomorrow, it could open the door to impeachment, but Trump's supporters believe they will win and warn of riots should the establishment try to take their man down.
#15 - The Universal Credit Crisis
Season 2018 - Episode 37 - Aired 11/12/2018
As the government's controversial new benefits system, universal credit, is rolled out, Panorama is with families as they struggle with their claims. The programme follows one council as it deals with mounting rent arrears and tenants in crisis. The government has responded to criticism of the new system by announcing more funding, but is it too little too late?
#16 - Catfish: The Billion Pound Romance Scam
Season 2018 - Episode 38 - Aired 11/19/2018
It's a crime that breaks the hearts of victims as well as emptying their bank accounts. Thousands of people lose money to romance frauds each year after being conned on internet dating sites. The criminals are called catfish, and they promise love and marriage to get cash. Reporter Athar Ahmad turns the tables on the fraudsters by using his own fake dating profile to expose the international gangs behind the crime.
#17 - Salisbury Nerve Agent Attack: The Inside Story
Season 2018 - Episode 39 - Aired 11/22/2018
Panorama reveals the inside story of how Russia sent an assassination squad to Salisbury to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.
#18 - Ripped Off? Join The Club
Season 2018 - Episode 41 - Aired 12/3/2018
Panorama investigates a businessman targeting sports and social clubs with offers of financial help that can end up costing them everything. With little or nothing in the bank but assets worth thousands, these clubs are often the lifeblood of local communities across the UK. In one case, a football club claims to have lost its pitch, clubhouse, car park and nearly a million pounds from the sale of a plot of their land. As reporter Jon Cuthill reveals, they are just one club among many, including Conservative clubs and working men's clubs, who say they have been ripped off after seeking help with relatively small debts. Some, with long and proud histories, have ended up closing altogether, while many have had premises they once owned outright sold from under them.
#19 - Trump: Is the President a Sex Pest?
Season 2018 - Episode 22 - Aired 7/9/2018
Donald Trump has been accused of sexually inappropriate behaviour by more than 20 women, but he has dismissed them all as liars. Now one of those women is suing him for defamation. An American court will have to decide what really happened and whether the President of the United States is a sexual predator. So what is the truth about Donald Trump's behaviour towards women? In the week of his visit to Britain, reporter Richard Bilton investigates new allegations about Mr Trump and meets the women who say the president is a sex pest.
#20 - Smartphones: The Dark Side
Season 2018 - Episode 21 - Aired 7/4/2018
People are all increasingly glued to their smart phones and consumed by social media, but why? Panorama reporter Hilary Andersson tracks down tech insiders who reveal how social-media companies have deliberately developed habit-forming technology to get people hooked. A former Facebook manager tells the programme: 'Their goal is to addict you and then sell your time' and the creator of the 'like' button warns of the dangers of social-media addiction. Panorama investigates the science behind the lure of technology, and shows how behavioural science has been used to keep people endlessly checking their phones.
#21 - Exposed: Northern Dreams, Failed Schemes
Season 2018 - Episode 20 - Aired 6/27/2018
When the government launched the Northern Powerhouse, the plan was to attract investment and improve infrastructure. But four years on, some of the big projects have failed. These high-profile property developments were marketed with great fanfare, and some were promoted and backed by local authorities. Now building sites stand abandoned, local investors have lost millions and confidence in the north has been badly damaged. So what went wrong? Reporter Michelle Ackerley investigates why some projects have failed, as well as the local developers and businesses that made big promises but have failed to deliver.
#22 - Putin's Russia with David Dimbleby
Season 2018 - Episode 19 - Aired 6/13/2018
As thousands of British fans prepare to travel to Russia for the World Cup, David Dimbleby returns to a country he first visited when Yeltsin came to power 25 years ago. For 18 of those years, Vladimir Putin has ruled the largest country on earth, and he has another six years ahead of him. But with talk of a new Cold War, and with British Intelligence accusing Putin's government of 'criminal thuggery', this Panorama special asks what Russians see in him and how he has held on to power for so long. David talks to an eclectic mix of Putin's supporters, from a mother of ten who has been awarded the Order of Parental Glory, to a deputy prime minister and one of Putin's advisors. He joins children as young as seven learning to load and shoot guns in a patriotic youth club, and a group of young Muscovite fans of the president who are trying to cash in on the Putin brand. David also hears from opposition protestors, lawyers and journalists who reveal the extent and ruthlessness of the Kremlin's autocratic rule
#23 - Last Chance for Justice
Season 2018 - Episode 17 - Aired 5/30/2018
What if you were jailed for a crime you didn't commit? Panorama investigates the cases of two convicted murderers who have each spent almost 20 years in prison and have always protested their innocence. Their only hope of clearing their names lies with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body tasked with probing alleged miscarriages of justice. But many believe the CCRC is failing. Reporter Mark Daly finds new evidence in cases the CCRC rejected and investigates whether the watchdog is fit for purpose.
#24 - Grenfell: Who Is to Blame?
Season 2018 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/21/2018
It has nearly been a year since Britain's worst fire in living memory, and nobody has been arrested or held to account. Reporter Richard Bilton reveals new evidence about the safety failures that led to the deaths of 72 people at Grenfell Tower. He tracks down those with questions to answer and confronts those who may share the blame.
#25 - Police Under Pressure
Season 2018 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/16/2018
With a surge of violent crime in London and recorded crime rising across the country, Panorama films with four police forces to ask if Britain's police can cope. The film reveals forces stretched to crisis point by eight years of austerity and a national shortage of detectives. An exclusive analysis of police data for Panorama shows how fewer crimes are ending up with any suspect charged. Chief constables speak about the strains on their forces and how changes have had to be made not only in the way they prioritise crime, but how they investigate it too. But do the public accept these changes? Panorama hears from victims of crime and communities who fear Britain's streets are no longer being properly policed. Less