The Documentary

Public employee one day, enemy of the state the next. The post coup reality in Turkey.

Country music is commonly associated with downtrodden, lovelorn, white inhabitants of America’s rural south, but it has also long been a significant form of expression for Australia’s Aboriginal peoples. Country music became popular 'down under' during the first half of the 20th Century. Thanks to gramophone recordings, wind-up radios and touring bands, it even reached the bush where most Aboriginals lived, often more or less imprisoned on missions and government-controlled reserves. At a time when their own cultural heritage was being systematically erased, country music became a medium through which they could maintain their practice of sharing stories via the oral tradition. Its resonance was enhanced by melodies which tended towards the melancholic. As one musician put it “country music was all about loss, and we’d lost everything”. Through country music, Aboriginal people were able to give voice to their personal experiences and ongoing struggles for justice. Songs describe, for example, how babies and l

After one of the most extraordinary and unpredictable US Presidential election campaigns, Americans have voted for their next President, choosing Donald Trump to take his place in the White House.Before the first Presidential debate, polls indicated that the candidates were neck and neck. Then the momentum of the campaign changed, with Donald Trump rocked by the leaked tape of his lewd comments and repudiation by some Republicans. Following an astonishing second debate, Trump fought to keep his campaign on the road, returning to the tactics which had originally secured his nomination, firing up his core support with anti-Washington rhetoric and increasingly bitter attacks on Hillary Clinton. For Hillary Clinton lingering doubts remained in voters’ minds about her trustworthiness, clouding her bid to become the first woman president.With the result still resonating, Katty Kay takes a post-election view from the perspective of the winning side. She hears why Trump supporters in the key swing state of Pennsylvan

In Mississippi in 2008, Chloe Hadjimatheou met a 15-year-old black boy with dreams of being a policeman. Eight years later, Chloe goes in search of him to find what became of him. Did he prosper in Obama's America?

Acclaimed percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie has a lifelong passion for understanding how we are impacted by rhythm. She explores the evolution of musical rhythm over several millennia through different cultures, demonstrating how migration has impacted many different styles of music across generations and regions, and how the resulting fusions gave rise to new rhythms in contemporary music.

The Bamboo club was built for the people of St Pauls, in Bristol, England - the people who were victimised or not welcome elsewhere because of the colour of their skin. We hear from dozens of people who were members, musicians, or simply occasional visitors. They all share the same idea that there were two themes running through the club – community and music.

There’s a shortage of criminals in the Netherlands. What are the Dutch doing about it?

For Dan Jeffries, an act of kindness proved to be a turning point that saved his own life. Robert Maxim, faced homelessness but found a way to survive for three months, and Alan Pickard turned his social life around – with dance. Also, Festo Michael Kambarangwe who lived with 50 siblings and 14 stepmothers; Oladipupo Adeola meets a Muslim for the first time and Pam Hawley finds love in an unexpected way. With contributions from Alla Salah, Misha Anker, Saba Fahim, Jean Richter.

A family stranded in a snowfield. A woman with vertigo on a mountain. A hiker falling in lava. These are just some of the jobs for Slysavarnafélagið Landsbjörg (Ice-SAR): the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue. Ice-SAR is an elite national emergency militia with a gallant reputation in Iceland. In place of an army, its skilled volunteers, all unpaid, are expertly trained, well equipped, self-financed and self-sufficient.

How has the US changed since 2008? As the world chews its nails, waiting to see how the US election story ends, Lizzie O’Leary tries to do something a little different: looking at data to figure out how America is different now, in November 2016, from the country which elected its first black president eight years ago. Lizzie – from the US radio show Marketplace – is joined in New York City by the political analyst Amy Holmes, demographer Bill Frey and the journalist Meghan McArdle. She’s also armed with audiographs, illustrating some surprising data in sound.

Gavin Lee documents the final days of France’s notorious migrant camp, meeting inhabitants from as far afield as Gambia and Afghanistan to ask what the future holds for them now.

A panel of writers talk to Audrey Brown about the African books which have had the biggest impact on them, their writing and the wider world. What makes a great book? On the panel are black British rapper-poet Akala; Abdilatif Abdalla, the Kenyan poet and activist; Nigerian novelist Sarah Ladipo Manyika; and Yewande Omotoso, South African poet and academic.

In April 1995 a devastating bomb ripped through the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and 168 people died and many more were injured. Emma Barnett travels to Oklahoma City to find out what happened afterwards. She hears stories of resilience, defiance and success against the odds as the city came together to support and help those who suffered.

How synthetic psychoactive drugs produced in China make their way onto Britain’s streets.

Every day Mary Ann Sieghart blanks friends and colleagues in the street - some people think she is the rudest woman they know. She has prosopagnosia, more commonly known as face blindness. Sufferers have problems perceiving or remembering faces. It is thought around one in 50 of us has the condition - the chances are you or someone you know will have it - but many people do not even realise they have it. Stephen Fry and former UK Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt are two of the well known people who have the condition and here they share how they've found ways of coping with it to get by in their careers. In extreme cases, some sufferers do not recognise family members or even their own reflection. Concerns are rising that it could lead to issues in security, justice and misdiagnoses. Psychologists and psychiatrists are trying to learn more about the condition and its effects, calling for it to be recognised formally and screened for in schools and in jobs. Mary Ann has long dreamed of a solution. Could techno

Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock visits Nigeria, her father's birthplace, and asks why African nations are apparently so keen to journey into the future as a space-going continent. Do space programmes restore a continent’s pride or are just vanity projects of the elite?

After three US presidential debates which have attracted some of the biggest viewing audiences in modern American political memory, what have we learned from these televised clashes? In one of the most bitter and polarised presidential campaigns, how much have Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton actually revealed about themselves, their policies and what they could bring to the White House?

A group of war veterans who stormed a police station in Armenia call themselves the Daredevils of Sassoun, inspired by an 8th century poem, but are they heroes or terrorists?

What would it be like to walk the streets of 17th Century Kyoto? Cathy FitzGerald explores a sumptuous pair of Japanese screens that depict the historic city in incredible detail. Temples, shrines, castles, shops and homes - the image is crammed with tiny scenes.

Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock visits Nigeria, the birthplace of her father, to look at why African nations are apparently so keen to journey into the future as a space-going continent. She explores the passionate desire among some to fly against the continent’s impoverished stereotype and join the space race.