Alan Hayling

Long-running Channel 4 documentary series covering issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment. Known for featuring a mole inside organisations under journalistic investigation.

A Titanic dive. A fatal implosion. Five lives lost. As the world watched, investigators raced to uncover the truth behind the disaster. But was this more than a tragic accident?

Searching for the disgraced pop star

A new Channel 4 series takes archaeology to the edge this summer as a team of experts tackles sites across the country that are beyond the reach of normal investigations. In Extreme Archaeology, an eight-part series starting on 20 June, a team of archaeologists with help from top climbers, cavers and divers investigates amazing and unique archaeological sites throughout the UK. Many archaeological locations are beyond the reach of your average archaeologist. They are found in inaccessible caves, on treacherous cliffs, deep under water, or in locations simply too remote or dangerous for normal investigation. Their remoteness often means that their secrets are unique, but they can also be under threat from erosion or other factors and this adds a rescue element to any investigation. Using some of the most advanced scientific equipment available, and high-tech miniature cameras and communication systems to record the action, Extreme Archaeology's experts are dropped into extreme and inaccessible environments under time and other pressures that test their personal and professional skills to the limit.

News on Sunday was a left-wing tabloid that launched to great fanfare in 1987 and went bankrupt just eight weeks later. It was one of the boldest business ventures ever attempted by the far left and it was a disaster. A group who met through a tiny left-wing faction called Big Flame were convinced it was possible to market a left-wing mass-circulation newspaper. They were led by ex-Ford worker Alan Hayling (now head of BBC Documentaries) under the editorial leadership of John Pilger, who walked out before the paper had even launched.

A documentary about the life and activism of Jaha Dukureh, a Gambian anti-female genital mutilation campaigner who returns to her country of birth to confront the harmful tradition that she and 200 million women and girls have undergone globally.

Filmmaker Vikram Jayanti offers this gripping documentary that follows legally blind dogsled musher Rachael Scdoris as she competes in her third Iditarod, the punishing 1,161-mile dogsled race through the treacherous Alaskan wilderness. Accompanied by helper and Iditarod veteran Joe Runyan, Scdoris calls upon a remarkable well of courage and determination to contend with the dangerous race course, unusually vocal critics and her disability.

A Hasidic True Crime Story. An astounding 300.000 people attended the funeral of Rabbi Schik - an admired American ultra-Orthodox Rabbi. Unbeknownst to his followers, Rabbi Schik was also the leader of a transatlantic crime organization which established an extreme and segregated cult spanning between Brooklyn and Israel. While female members were forced into underage marriages and sustained sexual assaults, the money was flowing into the Rabbi’s own pockets. This corrupt culture prevailed for decades, with no one ever daring to expose the painful truth – until now.

The hunters are the Innu people and the bombers are the air forces of several NATO countries, which conduct low-level flights over the Innu's hunting terrain. The impact of the jets is hotly debated by peace groups, Indigenous people, environmentalists and the military. But what is often overlooked are the many complex changes underway in Innu society, as social and technological changes confront a traditional hunting culture.

The documentary traces speculation on the commodities markets and its political, social and military consequences.

During 2006-07, four students keep a video diary of their final year at Tariq bin Ziad High School in Baghdad. As violence escalates, the four prepare to take the National Exams they must pass in June to secure their diploma. They are Ali, a Kurd, Anmar, a Christian who starts the school year not having heard from his girlfriend for a few days, and a Shia and a Sunni - Hayder, a rap poet and songwriter, and Mohammad, fatherless, living with his mother and extended family. Amid explosions, gunfire, and power outages, they study, wrestle, play games, listen to music, dance, and talk boy talk. Mid-year, one moves north, safe but bored. Will they pass their exams? Will they live?

The iconic design of the Boeing 747 has endured for over 5 decades, but the end of production is looming. In this documentary special we follow the build of this last aircraft, whilst exploring how the 747 truly changed the world and influenced our lives in ways we never even realised.

There are over three thousand forgotten prisoners languishing in jail in England and Wales, held indefinitely with no idea when they’ll be released, even though they completed their sentences years earlier. They’re IPP prisoners – people who were given an additional indeterminate sentence, Imprisonment for Public Protection. Martin Read’s film looks at the punishment described by Conservative former Justice Minister Ken Clarke as ‘a stain on the Justice System’, following both the stories of individuals trapped in a Kafka-esque world of labyrinthine bureaucracy that has seen them swallowed up by a system, and those campaigning for their rights as human beings to have their lives returned to them.

Nicky Taylor hits the drinking circuits of Britain to investigate what's going on with women on their nights out, asking how big is the problem, is the binge drinking to blame, and what the link is between alcohol and aggression.

Scientists and campaigners claiming that chemicals in toiletries and cleansing products may have harmful effects, Nicky Taylor and Tim FitzHigham stopped using them for a month.

A testimonial film about events that took place over thirty years ago, on October 17, 1961, in Paris, during the Algerian war. Based primarily on interviews with those involved in the events, together with archive footage, photos and radio documents from the period, our investigation proves that almost 200 Algerians were killed (drowned, tortured) by the French police.The film asks two key questions: how could such events have taken place in the capital of a Western democracy just thirty years ago? And why have they been ignored ever since?

Documentary in which, over two months, 41-year-old single mum Nicky Taylor tries a huge variety of anti-aging treatments in a bid to turn back the clock. She even looks at what plastic surgery, both here and abroad, could do for her.

John Romer’s documentary, originally broadcast on Channel 4 in 1993, where he sets out a case for a sympathetic and effective conservation of ancient Egyptian culture.

Thousands of Ukrainian children, some of them orphans, were taken to Russia after the war started. Many were sent to recreational camps in Russia by their parents to escape the shelling; they were then stuck there, sometimes for months, waiting for their mothers to bring them back. Others were fostered into Russian families, led to believe that Russia had saved them after their parents had abandoned them. This remarkable doc explores the journey of these children, and the parents trying to bring them home.