Panorama - Season 65

Panorama - Season 65

First aired: 1/9/2017 48 episodes
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Episodes

9. Marine A: The Inside Story

Aired: 3/7/2017

Three years ago Alexander Blackman, better known as Marine A, became the first serving British soldier to be convicted of murder since the Second World War for the killing of a badly injured Taliban insurgent on the battlefield. He has now had his murder conviction reduced to manslaughter. Panorama re-examines the case to find out what really happened on that fateful day, six years ago. Film-maker and anthropologist Chris Terrill has been following the case since the beginning, including meeting Blackman a number of times in prison. Chris has spent many years working with the Royal Marines and was embedded with Blackman's unit at the time the incident occurred in Afghanistan. He has tracked down some of the men who were with Blackman that day and they speak for the first time about the six-month tour that proceeded the killing and reveal disturbing new insights about the day itself. Questions are raised about whether there were other pressures on Blackman to act. Using material Chris shot in Afghanistan when embedded with Blackman's unit, the film provides a stark sense of what it was like to be stationed in a 'kill or be killed' outpost set in what was then described as 'the most dangerous square mile in the world'. The new evidence is presented for the first time and raises concerns about the way our soldiers fight wars and apply ethics on the battlefield. The outcome of the Marine A case could well shape the way we fight our wars in the future.

16. Trump's First 100 Days

Aired: 4/24/2017

We're getting used to seeing a new Trump headline every day - or even several times a day. But we're all still clueless about what to expect next. A missile strike on Syria from an avowed America first president? As the unpredictable president approaches his milestone hundredth day in office, Jeremy Paxman crosses the US for a wry and searching examination of the whirlwind past three months. He'll attempt to make sense of the Trump agenda - and ask if it even makes sense to the man himself. Jeremy digs into the stories behind Trump's most controversial policies - visiting the home of North America's largest mosque to hear Arab-American experiences of the travel ban, and a north California migrant law centre that's working double-time. Amid the derelict factories of Detroit, he considers Trump's claims to be restoring America's economic fortunes. In Washington DC, Jeremy unpicks the phenomenon of fake news, and the consequences of Trump's self-declared 'war' on Washington itself. Grassroots critics and diehard cheerleaders tell us why they believe America will never be the same again. And senior figures from across the political divide - from Democrat deputy Senate leader Dick Durbin, Trump ally Ted Malloch, and former secretary of labour Robert Reich - share personal insights into Trump's White House and its new master. Jeremy asks what America - and the world - will look like after four years of Trump, and wonders if America's unlikely president might even have his sights set on four more.