Bad Cops
Why do good cops go bad? Jessica Lussenhop, of the weekly radio show This American Life, looks at corrupt US police officers in a series made for the BBC World Service. She delves into the story behind Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force, and asks more broadly why decent and honourable police officers are tempted over to the dark side. The Baltimore tale begins to unravel following civil unrest in the city and the arrest of a major heroin dealer, which leads to the FBI being called in.
Stephen Fry’s Edwardian Secrets
In a follow-up to his warm and illuminating Victorian Secrets series, Stephen Fry considers all the clichés of the Edwardian era as a golden age of peace and beauty, an endless summer of idyllic garden parties. He hears from historians who reveal the period’s complex energy and its darker side, especially for suffragettes, people of colour and growing labour movements. It was a period that saw rapid innovation in film, psychology and technology—as well as a new widespread belief in fairies.
The Fake Paralympians
Another BBC World Service series, this one tells the story of the 2000 Spanish Paralympian basketball team, many of whom were found to be faking learning disabilities. The team, which had won gold at the Sydney Olympics, had to return their medals two months later when their fraud emerged. It’s presented by an ex-Paralympic swimmer, Dan Pepper, who has a learning disability and was later prevented from competing at the games due to the subsequent ban on intellectual impairment sports. Pepper’s account is intensely personal and includes a meeting with those members of the Spanish team who were truly learning disabled, and who felt deeply let down.
