Documentaries

Thrown off nearby farms at the time of Namibia’s independence, the squatters of Otjivero lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Last year a scheme was established to give every inhabitant a basic cash grant of US$10 a month, to spend as they wanted. School ...

The Crescent and the Cross, a four-part series, presented by Owen Bennett-Jones, examines several turning points in the relationship between Christianity and Islam covering Muslim Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and the struggle for Africa. Part ...

To mark the 50th birthday of Youssou N'Dour, Robin Denselow travels to Senegal to profile the best known African musician of recent times.

Mark Doyle reports from Guinea in West Africa on the harrowing events of 28 September when government troops crushed an opposition rally in the centre of the capital, Conakry. This programme contains some graphic description of sexual violence.

What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty? Mike Wooldridge travels to Nicaragua to meet Justa who hoped for a better life after the Sandinista revolution.

The extraordinary but little-known tale of Russia's three all-female regiments that flew more than 30,000 missions on the Eastern Front. At home they were celebrated as 'Stalin's Falcons' but terrified German troops called them the 'Night Witches'.

Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons. The programme is set in the ...

Jill McGivering travels to Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, to meet a doctor who is battling against the odds to prevent women from dying in childbirth. Listeners may find parts of this Assignment programme distressing.

Nigeria is campaigning for a new image and a new reputation in an effort to attract some much needed investment. Reporter Henry Bonsu follows the many steps of this charm offensive.

The head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service Sir John Scarlett, talks for the first time about the interrogation of terrorist suspects and MI6’s role in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

In Programme Two, we find out what were spies really up to behind the Iron Curtain. MI6 chief John Scarlett describes his clandestine meeting with an agent, and the Russian defector Oleg Gordievsky talks about his reasons for coming over to the other ...

Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons.

When a 17 month-old London child died after horrific abuse by his family, it unleashed a barrage of criticism against British social services. For Assignment Catherine Miller gains rare access to the people whose job it is to protect Britain's vulnerable ...

Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image? Is changing Nigeria's image an impossible mission?

Every two years teams from all over the world compete with one another in the Chess Olympiad. In the last two Olympiads, the winning medal has gone to a small country in the Caucasus. How has this nation done it? Gabriel Gatehouse investigates.

The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson tells the story of 20 years of post-communist life. Through personal stories, he traces the different roads that East Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania have taken since 1989.

An unprecedented look inside MI6 - Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, which marks its centenary this year. Programme One - Gadgets & Green Ink explores the early years of MI6, set up by Sir Mansfield Cumming, a formidable figure known as ...

Imagine that conflict and violence force you to flee your country, leaving behind all that you know and love. In the chaos and panic, you have to choose a single object to take with you - something so full of resonance that it will always remind you of ...

A life sentence for stealing a pair of socks. In California the tough 'three strikes' law is sending people to prison for life even if their third crime is a non-violent one. Now a group of law students is trying to change things. Rob Walker reports.