UPCOMING EPISODES

The film is an account of the terrorist attack, on Patriots Day 2013, on the Boston Marathon perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers. It shows the carnage, especially the young couple who both had to have limbs amputated, how the bombers were identified and the bloody shoot out between the police and Tamerian Tsarnaev. The film implies that the brothers attacked the marathon out of the blue, having been radicalised. However the real story is that they had been suspected of criminal offences and radicalisation for years. The Russian government warned the US about the family’s behaviour on two occasions. Tamerlan remains connected to a triple homicide in Massachusetts in 2011. So what did the security services really know?

Zodiac is a 2007 film about the Zodiac series killings in San Francisco in 1969. They remain unsolved. The film follows the real life research of cartoonist Robert Graysmith, who became obsessed with the murderer, as he could decode some of his letters. Graysmith became convinced that the murderer was Arthur Leigh Allen. However the evidence against him was inconclusive. The final letter form Zodiac was sent in 1974. There have been no more Zodiac killings. Robert Graysmith stopped being a cartoonist and became a successful crime writer. So who was Zodiac? This film looks at the mystery.

The 2010 film, The Social Network, is the story of Facebook. Aaron Sorkin, the script writer, did most of his own research and a lot of people were interviewed by him on condition of anonymity. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, said the only accurate thing in the film was his wardrobe; ‘every shirt or fleece in the movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own.’ The rest, he said, was fabrication. Was it?

Born to a Black Panther mother, Tupac Shakur’s childhood was steeped in revolution and social injustice. Scarred by poverty and intimidation by the FBI, Tupac found an escape in acting and a love of Shakespeare. The coupling of words and rhythm with a burning message saw rap inevitably become his platform. But his belief in the need to live the life of those he represented saw him trapped in his role as a gangsta. It was a role that he played so well he was eventually killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996. This episode features exclusive interviews with close friends, including his former theatre guru Donald Hicken.

In the feature film, Lone Survivor, a secret US Navy SEAL mission in Afghanistan is ambushed and only one man, Marcus Luttrell, survives. The film follows Luttrell's struggle to escape from Taliban territory alive. But in reality, he couldn’t have done it without the bravery of an Afghan villager, Mohammad Gulab, who puts himself and his family at great risk. With Luttrell safely back in the US, Gulab becomes a target for the Taliban - and his relatives are caught in the crossfire.

In 2009 armed Somali pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama. Four years later Hollywood gave America a new hero in the form of its commander, Captain Phillips. But the real story is the desperate struggle of another man: Chief Engineer Mike Perry. Below decks he disables the ship and works to save the crew. His critical fight back leads to the captures of the pirate leader – a crucial bargaining chip in the eventual negotiations to get the pirates off the Alabama.