Philosophy and Ethics

My New Heart | My Life

The story of a 12-year-old boy waiting for a heart donor.

Test of Time: Forgiveness | Belief File

Joe Seremane, a black South African MP imprisoned on Robben Island, talks about apartheid and the need for forgiveness.

New Boys in Town | My Life

How do you make friends in a new school if can't speak their language? 12-year-old Adel knows exactly how this feels as he had to leave his home i...

Campaigning for disability rights | Fern Britton Meets…

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson talks about her campaigning on disability rights in the House of Lords.

Public attitudes to disability | Fern Britton Meets…

Tanni Grey-Thompson discusses how the 2012 Paralympics changed public attitudes to disability and the progress that st...

Sustainable meat production | Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

Liz Bonnin discusses the importance of understanding the process behind the meat we eat (warning: this clip conta...

Animal feed production | Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

Liz Bonnin explores the impact that animal feed production is having on insect biodiversity.

Amazon deforestation | Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

Liz Bonnin witnesses the devastation of the Amazon rainforest from the sky.

Pig farming and water pollution | Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

Liz Bonnin investigates the polluting impact of pig manure from factory farms.

Cattle feedyard | Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

Liz Bonnin visits a cattle feedyard, a mass factory farm, that contains about 50,000 cows.

Moral minefield | KS4 Curriculum Bites

Tony Morris hosts a talk show examining some ethical questions about sex, adultery and open relationships.

3: Crisis Stage | Life and Death Row

Film following students from the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of Houston as they fight last-ditch appeals for two of the young...

2: Judgement | Life and Death Row

Following the trial of Guy Heinze Jr, with access to jury members charged with reaching a verdict on allegations that he beat his father an...

1: Execution | Life and Death Row

Series telling the story of capital punishment through the eyes of young people whose lives have been shaped by it. It looks at two of the ...

Animal Rights | A-Z of Belief

Chrissie Hynde, Kevin Godley, and Linda Davidson share why they have joined the campaign for animal rights. Jane Harris, a member of the Animal...

Episode 2 | Miriam's Dead Good Adventure

In the concluding episode of this compelling documentary series, inimitable actress Miriam wants to know if we can ever be ready to ...

Episode 1 | Miriam's Dead Good Adventure

Miriam Margolyes is on a mission to confront her fear of aging and death. Miriam checks into a dementia care home, to see what getti...

3: Unnatural Practices | The Baby Makers

The technology, ethics and human stories of the assisted fertilization revolution.

2: Fighting For Survival | The Baby Makers

The technology, ethics and human stories of the assisted fertilization revolution.

The Baby Makers

The technology, ethics and human stories of the assisted fertilization revolution.

3: Music | Do Black Lives Still Matter?

The music industry pledged millions in support of people of colour. But will the money help to fix its own problems with diversity? G...

2: Football | Do Black Lives Still Matter?

George Floyd's death drew attention to problems with diversity in football. Grime artist Saskilla meets people from across the gam...

1: Brands | Do Black Lives Still Matter?

Following the death of George Floyd, major brands pledged to address racial inequalities across their businesses. Grime artist Saski...

Identity and Belonging | Belief File

Schools religious education program for 14-18 year olds. This program looks at identity and belonging.

Stormzy and Church | Louis Theroux Interviews...

Stormzy takes Louis to church to speak about its inspiration and the effect it had on him growing up.

Stormzy | Louis Theroux Interviews...

Louis Theroux meets platinum-selling rapper Stormzy for a frank and revealing conversation about his life and career.

John Barrowman | The Making of Me

The series of science documentaries in which three famous people question why they are the way they are sees John Barrowman challenging sci...

S1E2 | Family Secrets and Lies

This programme features Melissa, born Les, who has been cut off from her family since she announced that she wanted to become a woman.

Can good come out of suffering? Part 1 | A Question of Faith

The students visit children with extreme disabilities. They discuss their enjoyment of life and the children's a...

Test of Time: Peace | Belief File

Pam White, a PC on duty when a bomb went off outside Harrods in 1983, talks about how she found peace after becoming a Christian. Plus ''Go...

Test of Time: Commitment | Belief File

Debbie Santiago talks about how she became an alcoholic and homeless. And James Mawdsley is released from a 17 year jail sentence in B...

Test of Time: Forgiveness | Belief File

Joe Seremane, a black South African MP imprisoned on Robben Island, talks about apartheid and the need for forgiveness.

A short history of evil | KS4 Curriculum Bites

What is evil? Where does it come from? How can it be reduced? How do some religions personify evil? What connection is there b...

Victim of bullying fights back | KS4 Curriculum Bites

A bully who enjoys fighting targets a boy that does not. What will cause the victim to finally take a stand against his...

Should prejudice be forgiven? | KS4 Curriculum Bites

In this drama Emma, Jo and Lucy meet at the gym. Lucy's just joining and she fancies the instructor, Dan. The other two ...

Laura on the murder of her sister and faith | KS4 Curriculum Bites

Laura Storrs was only 14 when her older sister was murdered. She found her whole life turned upside-down b...

8: The Good Life | Justice

Michael Sandel lecture using controversies over same-sex marriage and abortion to examine whether it is necessary to reason about the good life in...

3: How to Measure Pleasure | Justice

Michael Sandel's lecture uses Hamlet and The Simpsons to explore John Stuart Mill's theory that utilitarianism can make room for a disti...

2: The Case for Cannibalism | Justice

Michael Sandel presents a lecture from his Harvard course on justice, exploring Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian philosophy with reference ...

1: The Moral Side to Murder | Justice

Professor Michael Sandel presents the first in a series of lectures from his Harvard undergraduate course in Political Philosophy. He e...

What's the Point of Forgiveness?

Inspired by Jesus's words on the cross, Bettany Hughes traces the history of this challenging virtue. What does it really ask of us? And how...

South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

How forgiveness was used in the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Holocaust | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

Discussing the possibility of forgiveness after the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Forgiveness during the Reformation | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

Bettany Hughes and Diarmaid MacCulloch discuss the impact that the Reformation had on Christian forgive...

Uncle Tom's Cabin | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

Bettany Hughes discusses the impact that Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' had on slavery in America.

Christian forgiveness and the Crusades | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

Bettany Hughes explains how forgiveness was understood during the Crusades.

Background to Christian forgiveness | What's the Point of Forgiveness?

An introduction to the ancient context in which Jesus first preached about forgiveness.

Inside the Convent | Stacey Dooley

Stacey Dooley moves into a convent to explore the lives of nuns. Will she cope with the sisters' strict lifestyle, and what can she learn ...

Forgiveness | Worlds of Belief

Discussion and debate are powerfully provoked using real-life case studies.

2: Nietzsche | Genius of the Modern World

Bettany Hughes retraces the lives of great modern thinkers. Nietzsche's uncompromising ideas smashed the safe presuppositions and a...

3: Confucius | Genius of the Ancient World

In the final episode, Bettany travels to China on the trail of Confucius, a great sage of Chinese history whose ideas have fundame...

1: Marx | Genius of the Modern World

Bettany Hughes retraces the lives of thinkers whose ideas shaped the modern world. Drawing on expert opinion and new evidence, she looks...

2: Socrates | Genius of the Ancient World

Historian Bettany Hughes is in Greece, on the trail of the hugely influential maverick thinker Socrates, who was executed for his b...

7: Freedom vs Fit | Justice

Michael Sandel's lecture looks at the issue of individual rights and the freedom to choose, and he addresses one of the most glaring objections t...

6: The Good Citizen | Justice

Michael Sandel's lecture on the philosophy of justice links Aristotle's belief that the purpose of politics is to promote the virtue of a count...

5: What's a Fair Start? | Justice

Michael Sandel's lecture looks at John Rawls, who argued that for a fair social system one must start from an imaginary position where ever...

4: A Lesson in Lying | Justice

Harvard professor Michael Sandel examines Immanuel Kant's stringent theory of morality, which says that telling any type of lie is a violation...

1: Buddha | Genius of the Ancient World

Historian Bettany Hughes travels to India, Greece and China on the trail of three giants of ancient philosophy. To begin, she investi...

Christianity: Creation | Pathways of Belief

Programme looks at the Creation and the concept of God as Earth's creator.

What meanings to life can be found? | KS4 Curriculum Bites

This clip provides 12 perspectives from Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, atheism and agnosticism, on the...

A brave new world | KS4 Curriculum Bites

What if the world as we know it ended? Would the younger generation be able to construct a new world better than the one we have? Th...

Is there a God? | KS4 Curriculum Bites

This film presents 12 perspectives from Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, as well as atheism and agnosticism, on the question of belie...

What Makes a Human? | Horizon

Professor Alice Roberts investigates what exactly makes human beings different from the animal kingdom. What is it that truly makes us human?

Many Happy Returns | Forty Minutes

This is the extraordinary story of two normal children who think they vividly remember aspects of their 'previous' lives as other people. ...

Episode 2 | Derren Brown: Fear and Faith

Stunts and psychological tricks from illusionist Derren Brown.

Life after Death | Worlds of Belief

Schools religious education program for 14-18 year olds. A young mother, an atheist, develops complications whilst giving birth and has a...

Does God Exist? | Worlds of Belief

Schools religious education program for 14-18 year olds. Billy, a Belfast boy, who regains his faith in Maze prison.

Are You Good or Evil? | Horizon

Horizon meets researchers studying psychopathic killers to try to determine what makes people good or evil. One such scientist believes he ha...

The End of God?: A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion

Thomas Dixon delves into the BBC's archive to explore the troubled relationship between religion and science, from t...

The Day I Died

Tonight's documentary explores the theory that near-death experiences actually come from beyond the brain. New clinical research is daring to suggest the impo...

The Case for God?

With religion coming under increasing attack from atheists and sceptics, The Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, goes into the lion's den, putting his faith ...

Reconciling Darwinism and Christianity | Did Darwin Kill God?

Francis Collins, a leading geneticist, explains how he reconciles his understanding of Darwinism with his Chris...

Ultra-Darwinism | Did Darwin Kill God?

For a group of scientists and philosophers, Darwin's theories are evidence for atheism.

The creationist view | Did Darwin Kill God?

From the 1960s, a new view of creation emerged in America, contradicting the theory of evolution… and previous Christian teaching...

Intelligent design | Did Darwin Kill God?

An explanation of the theory of Intelligent Design and some of the scientific and theological criticisms it has provoked.

The Scopes Trial | Did Darwin Kill God?

The conflict between Darwinism and Christianity first came to a head in 1925 in rural Tennessee when a school teacher was put on tria...

How old is the Earth? | Did Darwin Kill God?

The Reformation and the discovery of fossils influenced Christian ideas of how old the Earth was.

Darwinism and Victorian Christianity | Did Darwin Kill God?

Darwin's theories were largely accepted by Victorian Christians but clashed with the ideas of William Paley.