This World - Season 12 / Year 2015

International investigative documentary series. When Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and murdered 20 small children, many believed it was a tragedy that would change America's attitude to gun violence forever.

Filmed by award-winning director Jezza Neumann, Surviving Sandy Hook follows three families involved in the shooting over two years as they try to make sense of the tragedy, comprehend America's complex relationship with guns and violence, and find a way to move on and rebuild their lives.

Gilles Rousseau, whose daughter Lauren was a teacher murdered in the attack, has found his campaign for moderate reform met with implacable resistance from America's gun lobby. Scarlett Lewis, whose six-year-old son Jessie was killed, believes that the malaise in American society goes deeper than gun control and has begun a crusade to get a message of hope to some of the country's most deprived and violent fringes. This a deeply moving film about grief, hope, love and guns. Part of the award-winning This World strand.

The arrest of Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'el Chapo' Guzman in February 2014 was hailed as a victory in America's war on drugs, but the truth behind the capture could be just another murky chapter in the scandal-ridden history of US involvement in Latin America and the Mexican drug wars.

BBC2's award-winning This World strand investigates the American authorities' relationship with the biggest and most powerful criminal organisation in the world, the Sinaloa Cartel, a multi-billion dollar international corporation with franchises in 58 countries. Despite its leader's arrest, the cartel is still enjoying extraordinary success, and this programme examines allegations that the group has been given an easy ride in return for informing on other cartels.

High-level informants, immunity deals, government-sanctioned gun trafficking and a mysterious go-between charged with carrying messages between the DEA and the cartel: a picture emerges of a dirty war being fought with little regard to the thousands of victims of the violent conflict being fought for control of Mexico's drug-smuggling routes to America.

For years we have looked on in envy at a French way of life that combined high living standards, generous welfare benefits and superb public transport. But now Robert Peston investigates how economic stagnation is threatening the treasured 'social model', and how a potential political earthquake could undermine the very fabric of the European Union itself.

In the wake of the great economic crash of 2008, as other countries embarked on financial belt-tightening, the French shunned austerity and eventually voted in a left-wing president who instead promised tax rises and a continuation of the high public spending the country was accustomed to. Now even Francois Hollande has had to perform a U-turn and is promising reforms. This in turn has led to a surge in support for the right-wing politics of Marine Le Pen and the Front National, with their ferociously anti-European agenda.

Like left-wing anti-austerity movements in Greece and Spain, Le Pen promises to shield the French from the rigours of global competition. 'There is no more left and right. There are nationalists and globalists. That's the big demarcation line that determines the fate of the world today.' As the Front National achieves ever more electoral gains and Le Pen has a realistic run at the presidency of France, the consequences for the rest of Europe, including Britain, could be enormous.

More than sixty young British women have travelled to join the so-called Islamic State in Syria, lured by a combination of slick marketing, social media and religious fervour. With access to the friends and family of the some of the girls, Britain's Jihadi Brides reveals how the sophisticated recruiting tactics of IS have shattered so many lives.

Christianity is facing the greatest threat to its existence in the very place where it was born. Jane Corbin travels across the Middle East to some of the holiest places in Christendom and finds that hundreds of thousands of Christians are fleeing Islamic extremists, conflict and persecution. From the Nineveh plains in Iraq to the ancient city of Maaloula in Syria, Kill the Christians reveals the story of how the religion that shaped Western culture and history is in danger of disappearing in large parts of its ancient heartland.

The inside story of how a small band of fanatical jihadi fighters became the world's richest terror army ever. Featuring the first major TV interview with an imprisoned senior leader of the so-called Islamic State, Peter Taylor looks behind its medieval savagery and investigates how it became so fabulously rich and resilient. Part of a season of films on BBC Two about the Islamic State.

The inside story of how and why the worst Ebola outbreak in history wasn't stopped before it was too late. Award-winning filmmaker Dan Edge traces the roots of the outbreak back to the jungles of Guinea and tracks down key witnesses and survivors responsible for its spread across West Africa. They include the father of Patient Zero, the child who was believed to be the first person to die in the outbreak, as well as a young woman considered to be among the first to bring Ebola across the border from Guinea to Sierra Leone.

The film includes revelatory interviews and candid admissions of failure from key government officials and those responsible for the woeful international response to the disaster. From the jungles of Guinea to the slums of Monrovia, the film exposes tragic missteps in the response to the epidemic. It's a real-life disaster movie that sounds a warning: the world is not safe from future epidemics.

When an elite team of American special forces stormed a compound in Pakistan and killed the world's most wanted terror target it was the high point of Barack Obama's presidency. But as more and more informationemerges, the doubts about the official account of Osama Bin Laden's death have been raised - to the point where veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has now alleged that the whole story was fabricated. For the BBC's award winning This World strand, Jane Corbin examines the evidence for this supposed conspiracy and uses a treasure trove of newly released documents to reconstruct Bin Laden's life in his secret compound.

The legendary statistical showman Professor Hans Rosling returns with a feast of facts and figures as he examines the extraordinary target the world commits to this week - to eradicate extreme poverty worldwide. In the week the United Nations presents its new goals for global development, Don't Panic - How to End Poverty in 15 Years looks at the number one goal for the world: eradicating, for the first time in human history, what is called extreme poverty - the condition of almost a billion people, currently measured as those living on less than $1.25 a day.

Rosling uses holographic projection technology to wield his iconic bubble graphs and income mountains to present an upbeat assessment of our ability to achieve that goal by 2030. Eye-opening, funny and data-packed performances make Rosling one of the world's most sought-after and influential speakers. He brings to life the global challenge, interweaving powerful statistics with dramatic human stories from Africa and Asia. In Malawi, the rains have failed as Dunstar and Jenet harvest their maize. How many hunger months will they face when it runs out? In Cambodia, Srey Mao is about to give birth to twins but one is upside-down. She's had to borrow money to pay the medical bills. Might this happy event throw her family back into extreme poverty?

The data show that recent global progress is 'the greatest story of our time - possibly the greatest story in all of human history'. Hans concludes by showing why eradicating extreme poverty quickly will be easier than slowly. Don't Panic - How to End Poverty in 15 Years follows Rosling's previous award-winning BBC productions Don't Panic - The Truth About Population and The Joy Of Stats.