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Dispatches Season 27 Episodes

38 Episodes 2013 - 2013

Episode 1

Secrets of Your Car Insurance

28 mins

Investigates claims that major insurers cash in when you have a crash, through maximizing profits, lucrative referral fees and rebate deals, sometimes at the expense of doing what's best for you and your car.

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Episode 2

Sharing Mum and Dad

Today, 1 in 3 children in the UK grow up in a home with only one parent. Are we doing what's best for the children of separated parents? Dispatches investigates the current situation surrounding shared parenting after divorce or separation

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Episode 3

Secrets of Your Supermarket Shop

28 mins

A look at rising food price and the comparison between different supermarket stores, food markets and independent shops.

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Episode 4

Weight Watchers: How They Make Their Millions

27 mins

Investigates the UK's largest diet brand: Weight Watchers.

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Episode 5

Britain's Hidden Child Abuse

40 mins

In a year-long investigation, other victims of child abuse from this closed community express their anger about the lack of justice caused by their leaders' misguided approach to dealing with the issue.

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Episode 6

Plebs, Lies & Videotape

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Episode 7

How Safe Is Your Child's Nursery?

As the government unveils its plans to increase the number of children each nursery staff member is allowed to look after, Dispatches investigates whether parents can really trust their child's nursery.

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Episode 8

The Horse Meat Scandal

From burgers to ready meals, Britain's horse meat scandal has grown and grown. For Dispatches, Morland Sanders asks how Britain's meat supplies became so contaminated with unauthorized horse meat and who is to blame?

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Episode 9

Britain on Benefits

The Disability Living Allowance helps more than 3 million people lead useful lives. But the benefit bill has to be cut, and the gov't plans to take more than half a million claimants off DLA. What will that mean for those who depend on it?

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Episode 10

Death on the Wards

Dispatches investigates the truth behind allegations that tens of thousands of seriously ill people have been put on a pathway to death. That doctors have callously killed off patients who could have had months or even years to live.

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Episode 11

Undercover Designer Dogs

Designer dogs are all the rage with celebrities and many animal lovers. But Dispatches has discovered a darker side to this canine phenomenon: thousands of puppies are being imported illegally into Britain every year from Eastern Europe.

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Episode 12

Rich and on Benefits

In budget week Michael Buerk investigates claims that Britain's pensioners are part of an untouchable group when it comes to government welfare cuts and that some should not be receiving any help at all.

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Episode 13

The Truth About Junior Doctors

Three years ago, European regulations were brought in to limit hours and to protect both doctors and patients. In this Dispatches, Dr Christian discovers that junior doctors across Britain are still regularly working up to 100 hours a week

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Episode 14

Immigration Undercover

In this report Morland Sanders investigates whether Britain's immigration system is fit for purpose with reports that tens of thousands of files sit uncleared in the system and a large backlog of immigration cases not dealt with.

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Episode 15

Syria: Across the Lines

50 mins

This powerful documentary vividly shows how Syria's civil war is tearing communities apart. Film-maker Olly Lambert spent five weeks with opposing factions in the Orontes river valley where Free Syrian Army supporters live less than a mile from government loyalists.

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Episode 16

Britain's Millionaire Criminals

Why are some convicted criminals still enjoying luxury lifestyles funded by their ill-gotten gains? Dozens of fraudsters, drug dealers and money launderers are still enjoying the high life despite being convicted of serious crimes.

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Episode 17

Secrets of Your Missing Mail

With shoppers increasingly relying on private parcel companies to deliver online purchases, Dispatches goes undercover to find out why couriers sometimes fail to deliver.

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Episode 18

Murdered in Tenerife

In 2011, Jennifer Mills-Westley, a 60-year-old British grandmother, was attacked and publicly beheaded in broad daylight in Tenerife. Traumatized by the event, her family have never spoken in detail - until tonight.

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Episode 19

The Hunt for Britain's Sex Gangs

Three years ago Telford police allowed cameras to start filming what became one of the biggest child sex abuse cases in the UK. The investigation, Operation Chalice, encompassed over 100 victims, and around 200 suspected perpetrators

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Episode 20

Boston, Woolwich & the New Terror

On 15 April two bombs exploded at the finishing line of the Boston Marathon. Just over a month later a British soldier was run over and hacked to death on a London street. The images from either side of the Atlantic shocked the world.

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Episode 21

Diets, Drugs and Diabetes

Dr. Deborah Cohen, investigations editor at the British Medical Journal, examines a new generation of diabetes drugs that some drug companies hope could also be a magic treatment for obesity.

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Episode 22

How Councils Waste Your Money

Councils across the UK have annual budgets in the tens of billions of pounds. But do you know what they really spend it on?

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Episode 23

The Police's Dirty Secret

Dispatches exposes the shocking story of Britain's secret police and how undercover officers reportedly used sex and lies to spy on members of the public. Dispatches reveals the names of high-profile targets spied on by the police.

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Episode 24

The Prince and His Secret Properties

Last year Prince Charles earned more than £18 million from the Duchy of Cornwall, but how much do we know about this secretive estate? A hugely profitable property empire and the amount of tax Prince Charles is paying.

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Episode 25

South Africa's Dirty Cops

With South Africa's future under the spotlight, Channel 4 Dispatches examines allegations that the country's police have become a brutal and corrupt force.

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Episode 26

Taliban Child Fighters

More than 200 children convicted of fighting for the Taliban are currently being held in special prisons across Afghanistan. Their crimes include the laying of improvised explosive devices, ambush and the preparation of suicide missions.

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Episode 27

NHS Undercover

Two undercover reporters reveal worrying failings in the new NHS 111 call system. Working as trainee call handlers, the reporters filmed evidence of patients left waiting, concerns about training, and staff shortages.

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Episode 28

Celebs, Brands and Fake Fans

Dispatches investigate what's real and what's fake in the brave new world of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, exposing new tricks used by marketers to plug brands, from buying fake Facebook 'likes' to influencing social media conversations.

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Episode 29

Ryanair: Secrets from the Cockpit

Channel 4's flagship current affairs programme: Dispatches, hears from pilots of Europe's biggest airline about their concerns around passenger safety.

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Episode 30

The Paedophile MP: How Cyril Smith Got Away with It

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Episode 31

Secrets of Your Pay Packet

Morland Sanders meets employees at some of Britain's biggest businesses who say they're paying for the bosses' cost-cutting measures and, while profits have gone up, their working conditions may never recover.

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Episode 32

The Property Market Undercover

Reporter Antony Barnett secretly films the latest tactics used by estate agents to secure sales and commissions and asks whether some agents are even willing to lie to seal the deal.

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Episode 33

Energy Bills Exposed

Energy bills are on the rise and in the news. Consumers are furious. The Labour Party wants a price freeze. John Major wants a windfall tax. But the big six energy firms say it's not their fault prices are so high.

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Episode 34

Can You Trust Your Surgeon?

Dispatches reveals that failing doctors routinely slip through the system. We've been filming secretly in GP practices and have uncovered concerning evidence of misdiagnosis by doctors who have failed in the past, but are still practicing.

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Episode 35

North Korea: Life Inside the Secret State

46 mins

North Koreans are breaking down the barriers of the gulag state. Following covert filmmakers, this doc shows real life under the new leader Kim Jong Un, highlighting the contrasting ox-drawn farms to the glittering life of the elite in Pyongyang. The starving children on the streets are of artificial food shortages engendered by corruption. See how USBs, cell phones and DVDs from the South are transforming North Koreans' views of their world.

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Episode 36

What's Your Pension Really Worth?

Michael Buerk investigates the pensions crises facing us all. As the cost of living rises faster than many pay packets and life expectancy increases, he asks what your pension is really worth?

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Episode 37

Britain's Big Fat Bill

As Britain gets fatter, Channel 4 Dispatches investigates what the real cost is to the nation. The programme follows the treatment of some of Britain's morbidly obese patients to reveal the spiralling cost to the NHS.

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Episode 38

Secrets of the Discount Stores

27 mins

Lifts the lid on the shops promising luxury labels for less.

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