Original title
Dispatches
Released
10/30/1987
Origin country
GB
Genre
Documentary, News
Production companies
ITN Productions, Bigger Bang, Hardcash Productions
Status
Returning series
Number of seasons
39
Number of episodes
383
Dispatches is the British TV current affairs documentary series on Channel 4, first transmitted in 1987. The programme covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, and often features a mole inside organisations under journalistic investigation.
Documentary profile of the people of Hungary, whose country has been the centre of world attention in 1989 with the return of democratic elections.
Documentary report from Czechoslovakia on the recent political upheavals over the twelve days since Friday 17th November.
Journalists uncover the bloody truth of the world's most successful private army, Executive Outcomes. Sent wherever mineral resources like diamonds or oil promise wealth, these mercenaries, trained as soldiers in apartheid-era South Africa and equipped with state-of-the-art weapons of war, sell their security services to the highest bidder and frequently leave a trail of destruction in their wake. And British interests are behind it all.
Two groups of high school kids, one from England and one from Ireland set up shop as online arms dealers and broker various deals, shipping arms from the far east to homes in America.
Jezza Neumann arrived in Gaza to follow the lives of 3 children over a year. Surrounded by the remnants of the demolished Gaza Strip and increasingly isolated by the blockade that prevents anyone from rebuilding their homes and their lives.
South Africa has the highest incidence of rape and 80% of the victims are girls under 13. The trauma of 5 such girls in Port Elizabeth is discussed. Ineffective police, lax judiciary and the stretched social welfare system are highlighted.
In the midst of a post Arab-spring turbulent Middle East, Israel's threats of military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities have raised fears of a confrontation between the two countries. This film, which has obtained exclusive access to Israeli theoretical war exercises, provides unprecedented insight into Israel's internal tensions concerning an attack between Israel and Iran which, if escalates, could have major implications for global stability It features exclusive access to a theoretical exercise, a ‘war game', conducted by the INSS - an Israeli think tank made up of senior Israeli experts and former political and military leaders - the results of which are fed back to the Israeli government. Dispatches explores the views of those who are both for and against military action and demonstrates how some elements in Israel believe Iran would retaliate; providing a valuable insight into the likelihood of any military attack.
North Korean citizens reveal what life is like for the 24 million people who live in the world's most secretive country, where the state controls every aspect of their life.
Anja Popp goes in search of the truth about crimes linked to traveller sites. She talks to members of the public who have experienced crime waves and intimidation, goes out on patrol with police dealing with rural incidents and hears from travellers and their advocates, who say they suffer prejudice and attack.
With Britain's Covid death rate one of the world's highest, Antony Barnett examines the evidence and asks did the government get it wrong?
Morland Sanders investigates the American food that could be coming to Britain soon as part of a post-Brexit trade deal. with exclusive lab results revealing levels of dangerous bacteria on US supermarket meat. He looks at the widespread use of pesticides and hormones currently banned in the UK, and uncovers animal welfare concerns and declining hygiene standards in American food production, as well as fears the deal could harm the British farming industry.
Britain in lockdown faces the worst economic nosedive in 300 years. Liam Halligan looks at the financial cost of the pandemic and what it could mean for our futures.
Is Boris Johnson, the great political survivor, finished? Britain's top political interviewer Andrew Neil has the inside track on the Tories in turmoil.
The extraordinary story of Russia's covert efforts to corrupt British democracy and politics in the years before invading Ukraine. MI5 declined to comment on the programme for operational reasons.
Secret footage filmed over the winter reveals ambulance workers battling the odds and A&E departments overwhelmed as patients suffer needless harm and death.
Autistic patients trapped in mental health units tell their stories, revealing a system of poor treatment, abuse and long stretches inside with their symptoms only getting worse.
More than two million pensioners are living in poverty in the UK. Dispatches follows four older people through the winter as they struggle to make ends meet.
The full story of Boris Johnson's friendship with press baron Evgeny Lebedev and his dad Alexander, an ex-KGB spy, revealing the secret fears of security services
What's the environmental impact of the UK's huge soft drink habit? With a thirsty nation getting through two billion plastic bottles a year, and the same for cans, do Coke's recycling claims stand up?
Potholes everywhere. Controversial Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and electric vehicle confusion too. Car journalist Ginny Buckley asks is this the worst time ever to be a motorist in the UK?
The story of the Israeli military assault on Gaza. Seen through the eyes of children, journalists and doctors, Dispatches takes an unflinching look at the horrific challenges and heartbreaking loss.
What's the story behind the runaway success of the addictive Chinese shopping app? With half a billion downloads worldwide, are some of Temu's rock-bottom prices and products too good to be true?
A look inside the lucrative world of waste crime with video, surveillance footage and interviews from insiders. Exposing how banned waste has been dumped for years in a major landfill site, seemingly unnoticed by the authorities, while posing a risk to human health. This documentary reveals new satellite data suggesting hundreds of unregulated waste dumps are being operated in plain sight and investigates evidence of the growing role of organisations engaging in illegal fly-tipping, with little fear of action against them.
Undercover report filmed over two months at an NHS Accident and Emergency Department, which exposes the suffering and dangers patients face on a daily basis. The programme features footage of seriously ill patients forced to sleep on chairs for up to two days because there are no beds, and a dangerous superbug outbreak linked to overcrowding and falling hygiene standards.
Election campaigners and experts have warned that artificial intelligence tools could risk politically motivated disinformation flooding social media feeds in ways that recently seemed unimaginable. The fear is that deepfakes and other AI-generated material could influence votes. Cathy Newman reports on the issue, illustrating the effect that AI could have on 12 households of undecided voters. The homes are fed AI-generated material advised by political experts, with the residents none the wiser. Will the experiment succeed? If so, what does it say about the power of AI to influence the vote?
Analysing police data, Dispatches reveals local hotspots where 100% of neighbourhood crimes go unsolved. The team watch a theft in action and go on the trail of the criminals.
With Barbiemania putting toy maker Mattel back in the limelight, Dispatches goes undercover in one of Mattel's factories, exposing the reality for workers making the famous dolls
The online secondhand clothes app Vinted is booming. Is its soar-away success too good to be true? Dispatches uncovers the truth behind some of the products sold on the platform.
For years, the royals kept details of some of their wealth secret. Dispatches reveals what they have kept under wraps - about who is paying them, and for what.
In this high-stakes true crime investigation, Dispatches goes undercover to expose the organised criminal networks behind the UK's shoplifting epidemic.
With the recent rise in working-age people on sickness benefits - many of them under 35 - Dispatches asks what's driving the surge?
Undercover reporting reveals major flaws in how skinny jabs are sold at Boots and finds registered NHS nurses prescribing jabs to patients who aren't overweight.
Reporter Cathy Newman investigates and tracks down the woman who facilitated Mohamed Al Fayed's rape and sexual abuse of women at Harrods for over a decade.
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