Documentaries

In the occupied Palestinian territories the rate of blindness is as high as ten times the norm in the West. We follow the story of different people whose lives converge through the work of St John Eye Hospital, which has been bringing modern medical care to a community in desperate need, regardless of ethnicity, religion or politics.

There's a crisis of culture in Bosnia Herzegovina. The guardians of the nation's heritage - the museums and libraries - are under threat of closure. Assignment's Rebecca Kesby reports from Sarajevo.

English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of the future in rising South East Asia? In part two, Jennifer Pak visits Hanoi in Vietnam to look at how the country, with a French and Russian colonial history, is now adopting English in preference to Mandarin, despite the growing neighbouring Chinese economy.

Mair Bosworth looks at conflict between generations in a small family business in London.

The Syrian city of Homs has seen some of the worst violence in the government's crackdown against opposition activists and armed fighters in the country. BBC reporter Paul Wood and his team managed to slip into Homs as the bombardment of the city was getting underway. In this special programme, Paul tells the story of his four days in Homs - how the story unfolded, how he reported it and what life is like for residents of a city under fire.

The BBC's Hilary Anderson examines what it means to be poor, in the richest country in the world.

English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of the future in rising South East Asia? In the first of two documentary programmes Jennifer Pak visits Malaysia and Singapore, two countries where colonial ties to the English language are loosening.

Alison Finch meets one of Ireland's last traditional matchmakers as he reigns over the great Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival.

Rob Walker investigates what’s happened to billions of dollars in oil revenues paid to the government of Equatorial Guinea.

To celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens' birth, Indian writer Ayeesha Menon explores India's love affair with Dickens.

In this documentary-fantasy we bring the danger back to Dickens. Slipping in and out of his weird and brilliant imagination, we see modern London as he might have done, travelling through the city's streets at night to crack dens and strip-joints as the police sirens wail. We meet characters from his novels and characters who would be in his novels if he were still alive today.

Undercover in Damascus for Assignment. Tim Whewell enters the dangerous world of the Syrian opposition to find out how strong they are – and what they really want.

Nina Robinson reports from two Olympic cities - Beijing who were hosts in 2008 and Rio de Janeiro, who will be hosts in 2016.

Australia's mining boom is proving lucrative for its so called Fly in Fly Out (FIFO) workers but as James Fletcher reports in Assignment, it can come at a cost.

The gap between the super-rich and the rest has grown sharply around the world. Michael Robinson examines its effects on London.