Documentaries & Specials
Each month, the BBC World Service offers new documentaries and specials selected specifically for U.S. audiences, with in-depth, relevant reporting. Typically one-hour, or two half-hours on a similar topic, they offer great content for any time of day, and satisfy audiences' needs for deeper narratives and more reflective listening.
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World Book Club: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Air window: January 24 - February 24, 2026
One hour
Harriett Gilbert welcomes bestselling author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni into the World Book Club studio to discuss her internationally acclaimed novel, The Palace of Illusions. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni answers readers’ questions about reclaiming women’s voices from myth and legend, the challenges of retelling an epic from a female perspective, and why mythology is still so powerful for modern readers.
World Book Club: Linwood Barclay – Take Your Breath Away
Air window: February 7 - March 6, 2026
One hour
Harriett Gilbert hosts a master of suspense, Canadian author Linwood Barclay, in the World Book Club Studio to answer listener questions about his thriller “Take Your Breath Away.” The story centers on Andrew Mason, whose wife Brie vanished six years ago, making him the prime suspect. But just as he’s beginning to rebuild his life, a mysterious woman resembling Brie suddenly appears, forcing him to uncover the truth about what happened to his wife, uncovering secrets and lies at every turn.
Linwood will answer questions about how to craft a mystery that keeps readers hooked until the last page, how playing with different points of view can mask or reveal the truth, and why vivid settings can be just as important as characters to telling a compelling story.
World Questions: New Zealand
Air window: February 14 - March 13, 2026
One hour
High rents, rising food costs and a perceived lack of opportunities are driving young people out of New Zealand. Last year, more people left than ever before. Immigrants are replacing their numbers, but do they have the skills that the country is losing? What can be done to improve living conditions and stop the loss of young talent? The current government has opened the question of Maori land rights in a quest to exploit the New Zealand natural resources. An attempt to overturn a historic treaty failed last year, but as New Zealand faces an autumn election, the issue is not going away. There is much for Jonny Dymond and a panel of political leaders to debate as they face questions from across the country.
Discussion and Documentary: The Dream Makers
Air window: February 21 - March 20, 2026
One hour
In Christopher Nolan’s 2010 blockbuster “Inception,” Leonardo DiCaprio’s protagonist is paid to implant an idea into a target’s subconscious mind. It’s the stuff of science fiction — or is it?
Dream engineering is an experimental new field — with scientists, dream researchers and engineers pursuing the goal of influencing our thoughts as we sleep. For some, the idea holds the promise of a bright future, with benefits for our memories, creativity and wellbeing. On the other hand, the ethical issues it raises amid the unregulated world of an emerging technology have led to warnings of a future where our very dreams could be for sale.
In The Dream Makers, Anand Jagatia investigates both the fascinating potential and developing concerns over what the future of dream engineering could hold.
Discussion and Documentary: Rewriting a Revolution
Air window: February 28 - March 27, 2026
One hour
On February 25, 1986, the Philippines, Asia’s oldest democracy, peacefully took control of its destiny. Ferdinand Marcos, a democratically elected president-turned-dictator accused of widespread graft and human rights abuses, had gambled on one too many rigged elections. After days of mounting protests and the defection of the military to the opposition, Marcos and his family were ejected from their gilded palace in Manila. These events have since been named the People Power Revolution.
The uprising ushered in a return to constitutional democracy, guardrails on executive power, and a new constitution that redistributed power from Manila to local governments across the 7,500-island archipelago. It was also supposed to seal the fate of the Marcoses once and for all: permanent exile in Hawaii. At least, so the Filipinos thought.
Forty years on, not only are the Marcoses back, but they’re arguably stronger than ever. Ferdinand’s eldest, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, is now president, with his sister, son, and various cousins in Congress. It’s a far cry from the Philippines of 1986, when the post-revolution state vowed ‘never again’ to let any Marcos near the halls of power.
But the story of the last four decades isn’t simply one of a profound Marcos restoration. While the family has certainly been adept at resurrection, the story of the postrevolutionary Philippines can’t be separated from the failures of the post-revolutionary state. Politics remains dynastic, the economy profoundly unequal, while corrupt officials rarely face accountability. It’s a cocktail for popular disaffection with democracy itself.
World Book Club: Laurent Binet - HHhH
Air window: March 7 - April 7, 2026
One hour
Harriett Gilbert welcomes the French author Laurent Binet to the World Book Club studio to answer your questions about his acclaimed novel HHhH.
The book tells the story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the chief architects of the Holocaust, and the daring mission carried out by Czech resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Prague. At the same time, Binet places himself into the narrative, obsessively questioning how history should be told, where fact ends and fiction begins, and whether a writer ever has the right to blur that line.
Recorded in front of a live audience at The American Library in Paris, Laurent will be answering your questions about blending history and fiction without betraying the truth, why he chose to make himself writing part of the story itself, and how storytelling is an attempt to confront, or make sense of, the darkest moments in history.
World Questions: Guyana
Air window: March 14 - April 13, 2026
One hour
Guyana has the world's fastest growing economy - thanks to the discovery of vast amounts of offshore oil. But will the benefits of the find be shared equitably among the country's population? Jonny Dymond is joined by a panel of leading politicians who will take questions from a large public audience, in the country's capital, Georgetown.
Hope and Fear - India's Space Revolution
Air window: March 21 - April 17, 2026
One hour
For decades, India focused its space program on limited, inexpensive projects directly benefiting its citizens, such as weather satellites and communications networks. But in recent years, the country earned global recognition with a series of audacious exploratory missions – sending probes to the lunar south pole and Mars.
Now, the most ambitious mission yet is underway: India will send humans into space. Science journalist Alok Jha speaks to people at the heart of this radical shift to understand how it is happening and what’s driving it. Dr Madhavan Nair, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) takes us inside the room where it all began, a high-stakes one-to-one meeting with the prime minister of the time. We relive tense moments of ISRO’s famous Mars mission with its Science Director, Dr Seetha Somasundaram. And Indian-American astronaut Anil Menon counts down to his own launch mission. We also visit India’s leading rocket company to witness a start-up boom.
Alongside all the excitement, there are also important questions. Why has India decided to channel so much effort and investment into space exploration? What benefits will it bring to the population? And is ISRO being transparent about its failures, as well as its amazing successes? As India’s historic human spaceflight launch approaches, the program reflects on the hopes and fears driving not only this country’s space program, but the entire 21st-century space age.
From famine to hope - Women reshape Madagascar
Air window: March 28 - April 24, 2026
Half hour
Today, Madagascar is one of the most food insecure countries in the world and women and children are the most vulnerable. This despite the fact that women produce around 80% of the country’s food yet own less than 10% of the land.
Lying off the south-eastern coast of Africa, Madagascar has been pushed into crisis by a deadly combination of climate change, poverty and environmental degradation. In 2021, more than 1.6 million people faced acute food insecurity, while nearly half of all children under five were chronically malnourished. Rainfall has become increasingly unpredictable, and when it does arrive it often comes as destructive cyclones, wiping out entire seasons of crops.
In southern Madagascar, forests no longer cast shade over the villages of Androy. Once celebrated as the “Green Island” for its extraordinary biodiversity, Madagascar is now known as the “Red Island”, its deep red soil exposed by decades of deforestation, drought and environmental collapse. The land has turned to dust, harvests have failed and famine has followed.
Journalist Georgie Styles travels from the war-like scenes and dust-choked streets of Ambovombe, the capital of the Androy region, to the windswept farms of the Tsimananada commune. Along the way, she meets women from across Madagascar who are defying famine and patriarchal norms, experimenting with agro-ecological farming and adapting to a rapidly changing climate, determined not just to survive, but to reclaim their land and their future.
Namibia’s hydrogen superpower dream
Air window: March 28 - April 24, 2026
Half hour
A near-pristine desert wilderness on Southern Africa’s remote Atlantic coast, in Namibia, could soon be hosting a huge green hydrogen development, raising concerns for the area’s unique plant and animal life, but also hopes for wealth and desperately needed jobs.
Namibia’s young population is struggling, with youth unemployment among the highest in the world. Many are hoping they’ll have a part to play in Namibia’s green energy future and Johannes speaks to officials who believe the project could transform the country’s future.
Broadcast Rights
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