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!
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 - 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 - Election 2017: What Just Happened?
Season 2017 - Episode 23 - Aired 6/12/2017
Theresa May's election gamble has resulted in a catastrophic outcome for the Conservatives, whilst Jeremy Corbyn has defied many expectations. Following the election that's changed the face of British politics, Nick Robinson asks how and why it happened.
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#3 - How Safe is Your Operation?
Season 2017 - Episode 39 - Aired 10/16/2017
Jailed surgeon Ian Paterson profited from hundreds of unnecessary operations, but do his crimes reveal wider failings in Britain's private healthcare? Reporter Darragh MacIntyre investigates whether some private hospitals - and those working within them - have put profit before patients. With thousands of NHS patients now being sent to private hospitals for their operations, he uncovers disturbing evidence about safety standards and patient care in parts of the private sector.
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#4 - 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.
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#5 - Hate on the Street
Season 2017 - Episode 38 - Aired 10/10/2017
On the eve of Hate Crime Awareness Week, Panorama investigates what is happening on the country's streets. With exclusive access to the government's new crime figures, the programme reveals that race andreligious hate crime is at its highest since current records began in 2008. Reporter Livvy Haydock travels the country meeting victims and perpetrators to discover what is causing the rise in these hate-driven crimes. Official figures have already revealed a significant spike in hate crime immediately after the EU referendum. Now, a year on, Livvy discovers that hate crimes have remained higher than their pre-referendum average. Livvy meets young victims who still bear the physical and emotional scars of attacks and say they had never experienced race hate on this scale before the vote. But she also hears from residents in areas with a high number of reported race hate crimes who say that the race card is being played too easily and that Brexit is being blamed for wider social problems in their community.
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#6 - 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.
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#7 - Trump's Fortress America
Season 2017 - Episode 27 - Aired 7/17/2017
Donald Trump fought the US presidential election with a promise to send millions of illegal immigrants back to Mexico. While the world focuses on his troubles in Washington, Panorama investigates how behind the scenes Trump is putting his controversial deportation plans into action. Reporter Hilary Andersson meets families split by immigration arrests and children of detained parents left to fend for themselves. It has been claimed that Trump's policies are dividing America. The programme hears from those who support the deportations and films with police in Arizona as they hunt down illegal immigrants at night.
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#8 - 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.
#9 - 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.
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#10 - 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.
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#11 - The Benefits Cap: Is it Working?
Season 2017 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/5/2017
How far should we go to force unemployed people back into work? Tens of thousands of families on benefits have had their payments cut as part of a radical government policy. Out-of-work benefits used to be assessed on need, but now payments in most of the country are capped at £20,000 a year. Panorama follows parents who have lost hundreds of pounds a month and are struggling to keep their homes - knowing that to escape the benefit cap they will have to find a job.
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#12 - 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.
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#13 - Life in Immigration Town
Season 2017 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/27/2017
What happens when a community is changed by immigration? Slough has gone from a majority white British town to a place where they are the minority. Ten years ago, Panorama's Richard Bilton reported on how Slough was struggling to cope with its migrant population. Now he's back. He finds a town with a booming economy and new families arriving every day. But there is a darker side. White British people are abandoning Slough, and some foreign workers say the dream is over.
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#14 - 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.
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#15 - 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.
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#16 - Britain's Food and Farming: The Brexit Effect
Season 2017 - Episode 26 - Aired 7/10/2017
Brexit marks a seismic shift for the UK's food and farming industry, but what will it mean for the consumer? The EU affects the whole food chain from field to fork. It dictates what farmers are allowed to grow, sets animal welfare standards and offers a large supply of cheap labour to work in the fields and processing plants. Panorama's Tom Heap talks to insiders who claim Brexit will mean higher prices, lower quality and less choice on the shelves. Others claim it is a fantastic opportunity to address inefficiency and design a new mode of food production for the next generation. The programme also travels to the USA, where farming is run on an industrial scale. Will UK consumers back British farmers or switch to potentially cheaper imports of hormone-filled meat from abroad?
#17 - Westminster Terror Attack
Season 2017 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/27/2017
Last week, the UK Parliament came under attack in the most serious terror incident in the country for over a decade. Speaking to witnesses and the injured, BBC Panorama pieces together what happened during the attack that left five people, including the attacker, dead and many more injured. The programme also looks into the life of Khalid Masood to ask what motivated him to carry out this fatal terror attack in the heart of London.
#18 - Manchester Attack: Terror at the Arena
Season 2017 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/29/2017
One week on from the atrocity at the Manchester Arena, Tina Daheley reports on the attack targeted on the audience of thousands of young and teenage girls as they left a pop concert. She hears from concert attenders and parents, and investigates the community context and the extremist Islamist links behind the mass murder committed by the suspected suicide bomber, a 22-year-old man born of Libyan parents in the city.
#19 - 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.
#20 - Inside the Litter Police
Season 2017 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/15/2017
Panorama goes undercover inside Britain's litter police and reveals some of the methods behind the soaring litter fines - over 140,000 were handed out in 2015-2016. The programme hears from people who have been stung with fines for offences like pouring coffee down the drain, dropping tiny pieces of orange peel and even leaving out their weekly rubbish. The undercover reporter goes inside one leading private enforcement company, with over 50 council contracts, to capture the litter police in action and reveals the bonus system used to reward enforcement officers for the number of tickets they issue.
#21 - 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?
#22 - Sleepless Britain
Season 2017 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/6/2017
Britain's kids are going to bed later and sleeping less, and hospital visits triggered by poor sleep have tripled in ten years. This is playing havoc with children's health and education and causing obesity, problems for parents and teachers, and even family breakdowns. In this film, reporter Jenny Kleeman finds that children's rocketing use of technology coupled with more lax modern parenting is creating an epidemic of poor sleep. Jenny visits a sleep charity in Doncaster that gets up to 200 emails a day from desperate parents. She meets Jayne, mum to a toddler who takes up to four hours to go to sleep, and follows them as they trial a firmer bedtime routine. At Honley High School in Yorkshire, Jenny investigates how poor sleep is affecting pupils' concentration and behaviour in class. Jenny also visits the sleep lab at Sheffield Children's Hospital, which has seen a tenfold increase in referrals in the last decade.
#23 - 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.
#24 - 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.
#25 - 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?