Dispatches - Season 36 / Year 2021

Lockdown Britain is enduring the sharpest economic nosedive for 300 years, with jobs and companies disappearing fast, government debt spiralling, and the Bank of England printing hundreds of billions of pounds to help make ends meet. Reporter Liam Halligan investigates the economic costs of the pandemic and what it could mean for our futures, revealing new figures on the scale of the damage and the shocking levels of joblessness the nation may soon face. He investigates the hard choices confronting the Chancellor and Prime Minister in the March Budget and the impact they could have on everyone. Will they gamble and borrow even more, hoping to boost jobs and generate economic growth to pay the Covid bill, or take the UK into austerity, with tax rises and spending cuts? As Halligan reveals, both options are fraught with danger.

Filmed over four months, this edition of the programme gives a unique perspective on life on the NHS frontline. Dr Saleyha Ahsan filmed her own journey through the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, capturing the pressure and personal tragedies she faced with the surge in patients, which included her own father. This special Dispatches film also shows the emotional and physical burden faced by friends and colleagues, and how they came close to breaking point with the psychological toll of fighting to keep people alive.

A look at how millions of tonnes of household recycling end up incinerated, hiking carbon emissions, with councils locked into long and expensive waste contracts.

Dispatches reports from Bradford, one of the UK's worst-hit communities during the pandemic. It's predicted that up to half a million people in the UK are now living with Long Covid. Dispatches asks if the NHS will be able to cope with the lasting legacy of the virus. Narrated by Fatima Manji.

Antony Barnett reports on the collapse of several of Britain's best-known brands, examining the influence of the internet and the pandemic on the decline of high street shopping. Barnett asks how much are these firms to blame for the problems on our high street, and questions whether it's fair that their owners still earned millions while tens of thousands of shopworkers lost their jobs.

Presenter and mother Rochelle Humes explores the shocking fact that Black women are four times more likely than White women to die during pregnancy and childbirth. 

As Britain's economy feels the impact of coronavirus, lockdowns and Brexit, Dispatches examines the future of work, wages and safety in the gig economy.

Dispatches reporter Morland Sanders investigates the reality of gig work and its growing influence in the job market over the last 12 months. Meeting current and former gig workers, Dispatches uncovers new evidence showing delivery workers feeling overworked, unsafe and under pressure to break the law, and meets NHS workers on zero hours contracts who lost all work in spite of the pressures of the pandemic.

Antony Barnett goes undercover to see what some of the Queen's family might be prepared to do for money, including offers of privileged access to Kensington Palace and Vladimir Putin

With two thirds of all British Covid deaths coming after September 2020, Dispatches investigates why, and examines what role the Prime Minister's decisions of last Autumn played in there being a massive second surge in infections that saw tens of thousands of people die. As Boris Johnson's former chief advisor Dominic Cummings threatens to reveal all, reporter Antony Barnett hears from some at the heart of Downing Street discussions, and learns why the Prime Minister ignored government scientific advice and continued to battle against another lockdown. Dispatches also probes the Prime Minister's border plans to stop virus variants coming into the UK and hears from a whistleblower who fears they've failed to do the job.

Ellie Flynn reports on the true scale of sexual misconduct by serving British police officers, including personal accounts from those who presented themselves to the police as the victim of a crime, and long term partners of serving officers who have endured domestic violence and abuse.

Harry Wallop reports on the impact that leaving the EU has had on Britain's import and export businesses, many of whom are struggling with increased costs, new tariffs and dwindling profits. The programme examines the evidence for whether the rising costs of EU trade are here to stay or simply bumps along the road.

As Britain frets over diesel and petrol shortages, and the Government advises the public to consider going green in all ways possible, electric cars have never been a more popular purchase. But is right now a good time to sink tens of thousands of pounds of hard-earned cash into buying an electric vehicle? Reporter and electric car owner Morland Sanders asks if Britain's charging network is good enough to keep drivers going flat-out, or set to leave them as flat as a pancake. He also looks at whether hybrid electric cars are as green as believed and considers the reliability and likely longevity of electric cars.

Morland Sanders investigates the health and environmental impact of industrial chicken production. This undercover investigation asks serious questions about supermarket chicken, animal welfare, environmental standards, and the impact that these farming techniques may be having on the British countryside.

Investigating a series of deaths, including suicide, by disabled benefits claimants - examining how failings by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) may have contributed. The programme includes findings from the first-ever survey into the devastating impact on the mental health of claimants. Reporter Richard Butchins, who has his own personal experience of dealing with the DWP, meets relatives who say they have lost loved ones as a result of the way the system is run.