It’s good pickin’s for TV next week so as always at the weekend, here are our Primetime Picks for your upcoming televisual delight… Read more & comment »

In the second of this two-part Dispatches , Will Hutton continues the definitive insider’s account of what went wrong. Hutton reveals how those who tried to warn of the impending financial disaster were shouted down, ignored or fired. As a result, the repercussions of the collapse of Lehman Brothers hit an unprepared and vulnerable UK. Hutton reveals the story of the weeks that followed Lehman’s collapse: weeks that will go down as some of the most crucial in Britain’s economic history, and asks what it will it take to lift the UK out of the biggest recession in living memory?

Monday 27 April 2009
8:00pm, Channel 4

Just before he became Prime Minister in 2007, Chancellor Gordon Brown congratulated the city on their ingenuity and creativity during his tenure: “An era that history will record as the beginning of a new golden age for the city of London.” How did the economy get from boom to bust? In this special two-part Dispatches , economist and author Will Hutton gives the definitive insider’s account of what went wrong. Talking to the key players, in Government, Wall Street and the City, Hutton unveils the true extent of the greed, ambition and reckless risk taking that is now carrying the economy into the worst recession for a century.

Monday 20 April 2009
8:00pm, Channel 4

In May 2008, freedom-of-information campaigner Heather Brooke won a court battle that should have prompted the release of all politicians’ expense claims. A year later, with those expenses still to be published and the flow of leaked information ever increasing, Heather studies the information that is available to examine how public money is being spent. As well as a series of inconsistencies and hard-to-explain expense claims, this programme investigates the controversial role of patronage and lobbying in both houses and questions to what extent this serves personal rather than public interests.

Sunday 19 April 2009
7:00pm, Channel 4

In this sixth edition of Unreported World, reporter Oliver Steeds and director Sam Farmar quite literally took their lives – and at least their liberty – in their hands as they began their journey to report on the thousands of North Korean’s who risk everything to escape the harsh regime of their home country to get to – ideally – South Korea but most often, China where they’re forced to live in a shadowy underworld in constant fear of being sent back to North Korea.

We heard that if escapees are caught crossing the border, the North Korean guards have a shoot to kill policy which they readily instigate. And even for those who make it across, if repatriated, they face detention and prison camps which few come out of. The inmates are tortured and often starved to death, but for those who do escape, the scars, mental and physical remain and run deep… Read more & comment »

As the death toll in Afghanistan continues to rise, and many question just what British troops are dying for, Dispatches asks the senior military commanders in charge of the campaign whether they are engaged in mission impossible. In an unprecedented series of interviews, Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshall, Sir Jock Stirrup; the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt; and other commanders reveal what they think of the successes and failures, and lessons learned, during Britain’s three-year intervention into Helmand province.

Monday 6 April 2009
8:00pm, Channel 4

In the aftermath of last week’s damning report into the “appalling failings” at Stafford Hospital, Confessions of a Nurse sought to “lift the lid” on what it’s really like to work as a nurse in NHS hospitals, and it wasn’t a pretty picture.

And despite one ex-nurse saying, “The managers might know what goes on at night but certainly the general public don’t,” anyone who’s ever been in hospital overnight would doubtless disagree with her… we are very well aware of what goes on. This particular Nurse was sacked for selling knickers on eBay during a night shift using her NHS email address… so I didn’t drop dead of shock to hear she’d been given the boot.

Confessions of a nurse didn’t tell me anyway, anything I didn’t already know, and I’m sure it was the same for anyone who’s ever been in an NHS hospital or indeed, ever reads the papers or listens to the news. However well any particular hospital scores on the various surveys, targets and polls it’s subjected to, staff shortages, sometimes staff indifference and always a lack of money make any trip to, or stay in, an NHS hospital of a nightmarish quality for many… Read more & comment »

As the pressures on nurses increase with growing patient numbers, Dispatches investigates the reality of their work and examines whether patient care is being compromised in NHS hospitals. In candid interviews nurses describe what life is really like on many wards, and make shocking admissions. This film also reveals the results of a specially commissioned YouGov survey of nurses working in NHS hospitals across the country, revealing the high percentages of nurses who argue that patient care has deteriorated over the last few years, and the number who say they have too many patients to look after properly.

In last night’s disturbing documentary from Dispatches, the deservedly award-winning Pakistani journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy investigated how the “war on terror” is creating a generation of child terrorists in her homeland Pakistan. These children are prepared to kill others and themselves, both inside and outside Pakistan.

Sharmeen investigated how the Taliban are recruiting increasingly younger and younger “fighters” to serve their need for what amounts to cannon fodder and expendable ’soldiers’.

She met with a 14-year-old boy in her home city of Karachi who is desperate to become a suicide bomber. Sharmeen then followed the elite unit of the anti-terror police squad who warn that the Taliban are hiding out in the city’s sprawling slums and recruiting children from small deprived neighbourhoods.

Sharmeen also interviewed a Taliban commander who’s responsible for child recruitment, and he happily revealed that children as young as five are now being used by the Taliban. Read more & comment »

Award-winning Pakistani journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy investigates how the war on terror is creating a generation of child terrorists in her homeland: children prepared to kill both inside and outside Pakistan. With the recent attack in Lahore on the Sri Lankan cricket team, and last year’s massive suicide bombing in Islamabad and assault on Mumbai, Pakistan’s radical Islamists are bringing violence to the major cities of Pakistan and beyond. Sharmeen investigates how the Taliban are recruiting younger and younger fighters for this campaign.

Monday 16 March 2009
8:00pm, Channel 4

Welcome to our Primetime Picks of what we reckon is worth tuning into this coming week!

Oh and don’t forget, there’s no episode of Lost tonight. It’s not on until next Sunday… don’t know how I’m going to cope without my Lost-Sunday-Fix but I suppose I’ll just have to… Read more & comment »

Jane Moore examines the findings of a report due to be released on 9 March which details the escalation in government public sector spending and sets out what needs to be done to stop waste. It is reported that public spending wastage has cost every household nearly £50,000 over the past eleven years.

Read more & comment »

With Prince Charles waiting in the wings to become the next King of England, Dispatches examines what the future holds for William, second-in-line to the throne. Channel 4 News presenter Alex Thomson investigates the roles currently adopted by the royal princes and how their activities are shaping the modern monarchy that William will inherit. Thomson examines the type of royal duties being carried out by William and analyses the value of William and Harry’s military training and active service. Thomson also looks at claims that the Palace are not averse to media manipulation.

Monday 23 February 2009, Channel 4 8PM

Four months after leaving his post as Minister of Trade, Lord Digby Jones examines how the government is tackling the unemployment crisis. He analyses each of Gordon Brown’s pledges to help people back into work and training, to see whether the system for handling the newly unemployed is working. Drawing on his political and business experience as former Director of the CBI, he unpicks government announcements and statistics to uncover the scale of the problem and see just how dire the situation is for those who have lost their jobs.

Monday 16 February 2009
8:00pm, Channel 4

With the number of unemployed in the UK nudging two million, Dispatches reveals the ageism that is rife among employers and recruitment agencies. The investigation reveals that being ‘older’ – even just over 45 years old is a risk in the workplace. Older workers are more likely to lose their jobs and fail to secure another position. Dispatches carries out an experiment, pitching two accountants – a 57-year-old father and his 25-year-old daughter – in a contest to see who can achieve the most offers of work from agencies.

Monday 9 February 2009
8:00pm, Channel 4