Mescaline In 1955,
Panorama filmed
Christopher Mayhew taking
mescaline under medical supervision. The resulting programme was never broadcast, though the footage and transcripts were later released.
Spaghetti tree Panorama broadcast a famous
hoax film about the harvesting of the spaghetti crop on
April Fool's Day, 1957.
Salvador Dalí Broadcast on 4 May 1955,
Malcolm Muggeridge talked with
Salvador Dalí, the Spanish
surrealist artist.
Maggie's Militant Tendency In January 1984,
Panorama broadcast an episode which claimed that three
Conservative MPs (
Neil Hamilton,
Harvey Proctor and
Gerald Howarth) had links to
far-right organisations both in Britain and on the continent. The programme was based on an internal Conservative Party report compiled by Phil Pedley, Chairman of the
Young Conservatives.
Panorama confirmed its status with a senior Conservative Party vice chairman. The report was formally presented to the party in the week before the programme was aired. During the making of the programme, attempts to contact some of the named MPs for comment were unsuccessful. (Hamilton's wife Christine later described how "Neil and I had devised a method for making sure that
Panorama personnel would not be in a position to say that Neil had refused to speak".) The programme was vetted prior to transmission by the BBC's lawyers, by the head of currents affairs television, and by the chief assistant to the director general, Margaret Douglas. Two of the MPs named in the programme (Hamilton and Howarth) sued the BBC and the programme-makers. The
director-general,
Alasdair Milne, reviewed the BBC's own legal advice, and that of his chief assistant, and declared the programme to be "rock solid". The
board of governors also gave their backing for the programme to be defended in court. Stuart Young died in August 1986, two months before the libel case against
Panorama came to trial. A new chairman,
Marmaduke Hussey, had been appointed but had not formally arrived at the BBC when the trial opened on 13 October 1986. Hussey nevertheless spoke with the BBC's barrister, Charles Grey. Hussey says in his memoirs that "Grey thought it unlikely the BBC would win". Sir Charles Grey disputes this statement, saying that "my junior and I both thought the case was winnable". Hamilton and Howarth were each awarded £25,000 in damages. Costs amounted to £240,000. They dropped their case against Phil Pedley. There was controversy over the editing of the programme: it juxtaposed shots of Howarth wearing a train driver's uniform at a steam railway enthusiasts' rally with the claim that he had attended a fascist meeting in
Italy, suggesting that the uniform he was wearing was a fascist one.
Diana, Princess of Wales interview Arguably the best-known
Panorama programme is the 1995 interview of
Diana, Princess of Wales by
Martin Bashir. Conducted following Diana's separation from
Charles, Prince of Wales, the interview openly discussed the rumours about her personal life. Its filming and planning was subject to extreme secrecy, with
Richard Ayre, the controller of editorial policy, authorising a series of clandestine meetings between Bashir and Diana. A quarter-century later, it was revealed that Bashir had used journalistically unethical practices in gaining the interview. In late 2020, the BBC director general
Tim Davie apologised to
Earl Spencer, Diana's brother, for the use of highly dubious methods. The Earl, who had introduced Diana and Bashir, rejected the apology and demanded an inquiry. Former Justice of the Supreme Court
John Dyson, Lord Dyson conducted an independent inquiry into the issue. Dyson's inquiry found Bashir guilty of deceit and breaching BBC editorial conduct to obtain the interview.
Omagh bombing One of the most controversial broadcasts of recent time was the "Who bombed Omagh?" programme, which named those suspected of involvement in the
Omagh bombing.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry of
Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist unit
SO13 said that the
Real IRA attack on the BBC Television Centre could have been a revenge attack for the broadcast.
Scientology In 1987, the
Panorama programme "Scientology: The Road to Total Freedom?" for the first time exposed on broadcast television the secret upper-level doctrines of the
Church of Scientology, and featured an animated retelling of the
Xenu incident of Scientology doctrine. A follow-up programme, "
The Secrets of Scientology", was broadcast on 28 September 2010, presenting proof that the Church had harassed Sweeney during the making of the earlier documentary, with the specific intention of making him react in the way he eventually did. The episode also included numerous interviews with former high-ranking members of the organisation who had been subject to harassment.
Panorama and Seroxat Since 2002,
Panorama has made four programmes about the anti-depressant
Seroxat (paroxetine / Paxil): "The Secrets of Seroxat" (2002); "Seroxat: Emails from the Edge" (2003); "Taken on Trust" (2004) and "Secrets of the Drug Trials" (2007). "The Secrets of Seroxat" elicited a record response from the public as 65,000 people telephoned the BBC helpline and 1,300 people emailed
Panorama directly. The major mental health charity
Mind collaborated with
Panorama in a survey of those who emailed the programme. Anonymous findings from the 239 responses were sent to the
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets On 19 September 2006
Panorama showed a documentary called "Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets", which alleged payments in English football contrary to the rules of
the Football Association, involving: • That
Bolton Wanderers manager
Sam Allardyce, and his agent son Craig were implicated for taking "bungs" (a
bribe or kickback) from agents for signing certain players. Two agents, Teni Yerima and Peter Harrison, were secretly filmed, each claiming separately that they had paid Allardyce through his son. Allardyce denies ever taking, or asking for, a bung. The programme was aired on the same night that Bolton beat
Walsall 3–1 in the
Carling Cup, so Allardyce missed the original showing. •
Portsmouth manager
Harry Redknapp is secretly filmed discussing the possibility of buying the
Blackburn Rovers captain
Andy Todd with agent Peter Harrison, which is against
Football Association rules. • Then Portsmouth first-team coach
Kevin Bond, who was first team coach of
Newcastle United at the time of broadcast, is secretly recorded admitting he would consider discussing receiving payments from a proposed new agency involving agent Peter Harrison. Consequently, Bond was relieved of his duties at Newcastle. •
Chelsea director of youth football
Frank Arnesen is secretly filmed making an illegal approach or "tapping up"
Middlesbrough's England youth star 15-year-old
Nathan Porritt. Arnesen offers a fee of £150,000 spread over three years as an incentive to relocate. Both of these allegations are against FA rules. • Agent Peter Harrison told the undercover reporter that, to secure transfer deals with Bolton, he bribed Sam Allardyce by offering to pay his son Craig. Harrison is a
FIFA-listed agent who is based in the north-east of England. • That three different Bolton transfer signings involved secret payments from agents to Craig Allardyce, some when he was contractually banned from doing any Bolton deals.
Panorama alleged Bolton's transfer signings of defender
Tal Ben Haim, midfielder
Hidetoshi Nakata and goalkeeper
Ali Al-Habsi involved secret payments from agents to Craig Allardyce. Allardyce's son quit the agency business in summer 2006, and has admitted in newspaper interviews that his working as an agent might have cost his father the chance of becoming England manager.
Sex Crimes and the Vatican On 1 October 2006,
Panorama broadcast an episode on
Crimen Sollicitationis, a church "instruction" approved by
Pope John XXIII in 1962, which establishes a procedure for dealing with
child sex abuse scandals within the
Catholic Church. It was enforced for 20 years by
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the
Pope. It instructs bishops on how to deal with
allegations of child abuse against priests. Critics claim the document has been used to evade prosecution for
sex crimes.
Daylight Robbery Panorama investigated claims that as much as $23 billion (£11.75 billion) may have been lost, stolen or not properly accounted for in Iraq. The
United States Department of Justice has imposed gagging orders that prevent discussion of the allegations. US and other media have reported little on this issue.
Death in the Med In a programme broadcast in 2010,
Jane Corbin investigated what really happened on the ship
MV Mavi Marmara, when Israeli commandos seized the ship as part of the
blockade of Gaza. Abbas Al Lawati, a reporter for
Gulf News, who was on the
Mavi Marmara during the
Gaza flotilla raid, criticised
Panorama's reporting of the raid in the documentary, "Death in the Med", stating that it was either a result of "weak journalism" or "deep bias". Nobel Peace Laureate
Mairead Maguire, who had also participated in the
Free Gaza flotilla, has also accused the programme of a "lack of truth" and "bias" in a letter to the BBC, describing its effects on the families of those who died as a "grave injustice". "The
BBC Trust has ruled that a
Panorama documentary about the Israeli boarding of the Mavi Marmara was "accurate and impartial" overall..."
FIFA's Dirty Secrets On 29 November 2010, three days before voting for the
2018 FIFA World Cup,
Panorama broadcast an investigation into bribes by senior FIFA officials.
Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed On 31 May 2011
Panorama aired an investigation into physical and psychological abuse suffered by people with
learning disabilities and challenging behaviour at Winterbourne View private hospital in
Bristol. It showed a number of patients being repeatedly punched, kicked, slapped, pinned down and given cold punishment showers – then left outside in near-zero degree temperatures. Local social services and the national regulator had received various warnings but the mistreatment continued. One senior nurse three times contacted the national regulator saying he wanted to talk about "abuse" – but heard nothing back. The hospital was shut down. On 21 June 2011, 86 people and organisations wrote to prime minister,
David Cameron about the revelations, "We are aware of the various actions currently being taken within and outside government – such as the
DH review and
CQC internal enquiry. We hope to make submissions to those both individually and collectively. However, on their own these will not be enough and a clear programme is needed to achieve change." The prime minister responded saying he was "appalled" at the "catalogue of abuses"
Panorama had revealed. In June 2011 the Association of Supported Living issued a press statement, which was followed up in writing to every member of parliament in the United Kingdom, calling for community-based assisted living services to replace institutional services for people with learning disabilities. The national regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) did a nationwide check on facilities owned by the same company – as a result, three more institutions have been closed. The CQC also inspected 132 similar institutions and a
Serious Case Review was commissioned — some of the roughly ten local and national enquiries were carried out to examine what went wrong, including one by
NHS South West which was one of the first to be published and list many of the others. The head of the Care Quality Commission resigned ahead of a critical government report, a report in which Winterbourne View was cited. Eleven people plead guilty to criminal offences of neglect or abuse as a result of evidence from Undercover Care and six of them were jailed. Immediately after the eleventh person pleaded guilty, the Serious Case Review was published, revealing hundreds of previous incidents at the hospital and missed warnings. Mencap published a report warning that similar abuse could be going on elsewhere and calling for the closure of all large institutions far from people's families. The film has also won a number of awards including the RTS Scoop of the year and a BAFTA.
The Daily Telegraph said, "It is impossible to read the details of what went on at Winterbourne View, a care home for the severely disabled in
Gloucestershire, without feeling repelled. In the wake of an exposé from the BBC's Panorama, 11 members of staff were convicted of almost 40 charges of neglect and ill-treatment of those in their care."
Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate on 12 June 2012 On 28 May 2012
Panorama examined the issues of
racism,
antisemitism and
football hooliganism which it stated were prevalent among Polish and Ukrainian fans. The programme, titled "Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate", included recent footage of fans chanting various antisemitic slogans and displays of
white power symbols and banners. The documentary recorded antisemitism and monkey noise taunts of black players in
Poland.
Panorama filmed former England defender
Sol Campbell watching these clips, and then asked him whether he would recommend families go to the Championship. He responded: "Stay at home, watch it on TV. Don't even risk it... because you could end up coming back in a coffin." The report was then followed up by most of the British media, which published a large number of articles accusing Poles and Ukrainians of racism. The documentary was criticised as sensationalist, unbalanced and unethical. Jonathan Ornstein, Director of the Jewish Community Center in
Kraków, Poland, and who was interviewed for the film said: "I am furious at the way the BBC has exploited me as a source. The organization used me and others to manipulate the serious subject of anti-Semitism for its own sensationalist agenda... the BBC knowingly cheated its own audience – the British people – by concocting a false horror story about Poland. In doing so, the BBC has spread fear, ignorance, prejudice and hatred. I am profoundly disturbed by this unethical form of journalism." The BBC rejected Ornstein's criticism, however, saying: "The context of the programme was made clear to Mr Ornstein both before and during the interview which he kindly agreed to do with the programme makers.
Panorama disagrees in the strongest terms that his interview was misrepresented." The BBC reproduced the text of Ornstein's interview, including those parts which were not broadcast, and also pointed out that Ornstein "contacted the programme makers two days after it was broadcast in the UK on 28 May and immediately thereafter running on
YouTube. He made none of the comments featured in his statement of Wednesday 6 June. We note that his statement was made following the programme's broadcast on Tuesday 5th June on Polish TV." Another source used in the film, anti-racism campaigner Jacek Purski said: "The material prepared by the BBC is one-sided. It does not show the whole story of Polish preparations for the Euros. It does not show the Championship ran a lot of activities aimed at combating racism in the "Respect Diversity" campaign. For us the Euro is not only about matches. The event has become an opportunity to fight effectively against racism and promote multiculturalism. There is no country in Europe free from racism. These are the facts." Black Polish MP
John Godson said: "The documentary was biased, one-sided and rather sensational. I have received information that there were also interviews that were omitted by the BBC—for example, interview with the Polish police." A reporter from
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's most popular
left-wing newspaper, questioned
Panoramas practices and said: "I am becoming more and more surprised with what the BBC says. So far it has denied two situations I witnessed. I would not be surprised if the BBC prepared a statement saying that the
Panorama crew has never been to Poland." and that "Nazi symbols can be seen at ... any match in England". Polish Prime Minister
Donald Tusk stated: "Nobody who comes to Poland will be in any danger because of his race. This is not our custom, as is not pointing out similar incidents in other countries."
The Guardian reported: "Other sources have come forward to say that an interview with a Jewish Israeli player was also cut from the programme because he failed to confirm
Panoramas "anti-semitism" thesis. The BBC interviewed midfielder
Aviram Baruchian, who plays for the Polish team
Polonia Warsaw. One source who was present said the
Panorama journalists had complained afterwards that the interview was "useless".
Panorama strongly denies this. It says the interview was not used because Baruchian had only played in the Polish league since January.
Panorama responded to the criticism, saying: England football coach
Roy Hodgson said the racism allegations were "the biggest negativity in England... As a result, I think we've lost a lot of fans who didn't come because of a lot of horror stories about how life would be in the Ukraine and Poland." Hodgson added that he had nothing but positive impressions of Poland and Ukraine. Jessica Elgot wrote an article in
The Jewish Chronicle headlined "I went all the way to 'racist' Kiev and all I got was love", reporting how "By-and-large, no one understood why we were going. Friends raised their eyebrows in horror, before inquiring if we had seen "that Panorama programme". My grandmother politely inquired why we wanted to go to "that shmatte place". As I left for the airport, I got a sweet good-bye text from my house-mate. "Have a lovely trip. Please don't get Jew-bashed." The deputy mayor of Kraków, referring to the incidents of racism and anti-Semitism broadcast by
Panorama, said: "We believe that, step by step, the clubs will also take more responsibility for this kind of activity at stadiums". Adam Bulandra, project coordinator of the Interkulturalni Foundation and co-author of Kraków's new anti-racist strategy said: "The local community does not react properly to this problem, it does not actively oppose the incidents that happen, that's why they are so visible, and we want to change this situation." A spokesperson for Poland's Ombudsman for Citizens' Rights, noted that while there may seem to be only a small number of racist incidents in Poland, that 80 per cent of racist crimes go unreported in the country. In 2014,
Jewish News and other news organizations reported that during the making of the documentary, host
Chris Rogers had been filmed giving a
Nazi salute while marching in front of the crew. Rogers was reprimanded by the BBC, apologized and had not been re-hired by the
Panorama program for two years after the incident.
North Korea Undercover "North Korea Undercover" was filmed in
North Korea in late March 2013 by a three-person team that accompanied a group of students from the
London School of Economics. The trip was organised through the Grimshaw Club – an international relations club affiliated with LSE – by Tomiko Sweeney, the wife of
John Sweeney. The North Koreans, who require permission for entry by journalists, and who have jailed journalists who have attempted unauthorised entry, were not informed of the BBC team and failed to recognise John Sweeney, calling him "professor". The degree to which the students were informed led to a difference of opinion between the institutions later, with the BBC maintaining that less than full disclosure was a measure taken to protect the students in the event of discovery. Sweeney and his wife were accompanied by a BBC cameraman. Subsequently, however, a public statement signed by six of the 10 LSE student participants on the trip said that "We feel that we have now been put in more risk than was originally the case, as a result of the LSE's decision to go public with their story". They also indicated that they had no objection to the broadcast of the BBC
Panorama documentary and that they were satisfied with how the BBC handled the trip. According to Gianluca Spezza, an informed critic and one of the directors of
NK News, the documentary was of low quality, comparable to many of the videos frequently taken by tourists and posted to YouTube. In addition, according to Spezza, the undercover filming had a detrimental effect on responsible efforts to engage in legitimate cultural exchange and development of mutual understanding.
Contaminated Blood: The Search for the Truth Originally broadcast on 10 May 2017, the one-hour special episode "Contaminated Blood: The Search for the Truth" examined some of the events surrounding the
contaminated blood scandal of the 1970s and 1980s, whereby
haemophiliacs were infected with
Hepatitis C and
HIV via
Factor VIII medicine products. The programme featured former health ministers
Andy Burnham and
David Owen, both were critical of successive governments roles in the scandal, with the former suggesting it was "criminal". Professor John Cash (former Director of the
Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service) told the programme that the truth about the scandal in England and Wales "[had] not yet been told". One of the victims' sons, Jason Evans, told the programme he was taking legal action, which was subsequently billed by the press as a "landmark legal case", calling for a public inquiry into records and documents of the scandal, with allegations that some records could have been destroyed at the time. The case, entitled
Jason Evans & Others v Secretary of State for Health, is ongoing ; an inquiry into the scandal, also ongoing , was announced by prime minister
Theresa May shortly after the programme aired.
Is Labour Anti-Semitic? The hour-long episode "Is Labour Anti-Semitic?" premiered on 10 July 2019 and explored allegations of
antisemitism in the Labour Party. During the programme, eight former members of Labour party staff said that senior Labour figures had intervened to downgrade punishments handed out to members over antisemitism. The programme was presented by
John Ware and produced by Neil Grant, both of whom also worked on a 2015
Panorama programme, "Labour's Earthquake". Grant, who had been a teacher at
JFS and London Labour Party activist,
Ken Loach called it "probably the most disgusting programme I've ever seen on the BBC. Disgusting because it raised the horror of racism against Jews in the most atrocious propagandistic way, with crude journalism ... and it bought the propaganda from people who were intent on destroying Corbyn." The Labour Party submitted a formal complaint about the programme to the BBC, which received around 1,600 complaints in total. The BBC's Executive Complaints Unit rejected these complaints. Over 20 complaints of bias were taken to
Ofcom, who ruled that the programme had been "duly impartial" and had given appropriate weight to Labour's position. After the episode aired, a party spokesman accused staff featured in the documentary of being "disaffected former officials... who have always opposed Corbyn's leadership, worked to actively undermine it, and have both personal and political axes to grind." Labour Party staff represented by the
GMB Union voted 124–4 to demand the party apologise to the former staff and
John Cryer, chair of the
Parliamentary Labour Party, said that attacking former Labour staff who appeared on the documentary was "a gross misjudgment". In July 2020, the Labour Party, now under the leadership of
Keir Starmer, retracted in full the allegations it had made about both
John Ware and the participants in the
Panorama documentary, which it conceded were false, issued a formal apology, and agreed to pay damages and costs, estimated to be around £600,000. In 2022, an
Al Jazeera documentary called
The Labour Files depicted the
Panorama episode as highly misleading and showed it had spliced together different parts of a whistleblower's statement, falsely rendering it as accusing Labour members of praising Hitler "every day" in her presence. In December 2022, the BBC published a clarification stating that if the episode were to be re-broadcast, the whistlerblower's "additional comments" would be shown. In a public letter to
The Guardian, Ware and Grant admitted this clip was mishandled, though still defending the overall merit of the episode. Sanders additionally slammed the BBC's clarification as obviously disingenuous. The report's author, Martin Forde KC, received a request from the BBC and Ware to amend the report's approach to the
Panorama episode, with Forde describing an email Ware sent him as "quite aggressive in tone", but ultimately deciding against any such changes. The investigation also examined the reversal of the designation of COVID-19 as a "High consequence infectious disease" (HCID) and the simultaneous downgrading of PPE guidance. It was argued that the decision-making was fuelled, in part, by the lack of suitable equipment in the stockpile. Among the interviewees was public health expert
John Ashton, who described the findings as "breathtaking" and said "The consequence of not planning; not ordering kit; not having stockpiles is that we are sending into the front line doctors, nurses, other health workers and social care workers without the equipment to keep them safe".
The Missing Princess In February 2021,
Panorama released a full-fledged investigative documentary,
The Missing Princess, about the daughter of
Dubai ruler Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
Princess Latifa, who attempted to flee her home country in 2018. However, she was captured and brought back to Dubai from international waters. In 2019, a family court in the UK ruled that Sheikh Mohammed had ordered the abduction of Princess Latifa, who was publicly seen only once since, in December 2018 during the visit of former
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Mary Robinson.
The Missing Princess was released in 2021, after
Panorama received a video message secretly recorded by Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum from her bathroom in 2018. The messages were sent by Princess Latifa's friends, who were not able to get in touch with her for a long time. The Princess accused her father, Sheikh Mohammed, of holding her "hostage". She also gave details of her abduction, where she was drugged and brought back by Emirati soldiers on a boat and then a private jet. Saying that she feared for her life, Latifa complained about being tired in the
solitary confinement without any medical and legal assistance. Release of the documentary prompted the
United Nations to intervene in the matter, where the organisation questioned the
United Arab Emirates about Princess Latifa and asked for a proof that she is alive.
Trump: A Second Chance? editing controversy and BBC resignations The episode titled "Trump: A Second Chance?" aired on 28 October 2024 in the run up
2024 United States presidential election. It looked at the reasons why supporters of candidate for
President of the United States Donald Trump wanted him to return to the
White House and why Trump continued to be a popular choice for voters in general. The episode sparked major controversy as it featured two small snippets relating to the
6th January 2021 attack on the US Capitol building edited to sound like a single quote: "We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell”. The two snippets of speech used in the edit were actually spoken almost an hour apart from each other. The BBC was heavily criticised by viewers for making it appear as though Trump had incited the attacks, omitting the sections of Trump's speech where he called for a peaceful protest. On 9 November 2025, over a year after the episode first aired,
BBC Director-General Tim Davie and the BBC's CEO of news
Deborah Turness both resigned from their posts as a result of the controversies caused by this Trump-themed episode and the subsequent documentary programme
Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which was not part of
Panorama (as it was commissioned by the BBC for
This World). Trump has subsequently threatened the BBC with legal action as a result of the programme. The same day,
BBC chairman Samir Shah publicly apologised for an "error of judgment" in the way the speech by Trump was edited. Shah acknowledged that the editing "did give the impression of a direct call for violent action." ==Programme influenced by security services==