Four Corners Season 53, Episode 22: On the Brink

1

Lance and the Truth

He's a drug cheat, a bully and a liar who abused his best friends to keep a terrible secret, but has Lance Armstrong finally told the truth? The answer - almost certainly - is no.

45 min

2

America's Broken Dreams

It may be the wealthiest country in the world but as documentary maker Philippe Levasseur shows in America's Broken Dreams, when you lose your job in the US there is very little to protect you. In 2008 the global financial crisis hit the poor first, but now America's middle class is being devastated.

45 min

3

Reach For The Sky

It's been called the smartest fighter plane on the planet but it is way over budget and still not delivered. Can the F.35 live up to the hype, or is the project set ot crash and burn?

45 min

4

Punch Drunk

Australians love a drink, and some see no problem at all with drinking to excess. But now doctors, police and paramedics have called 'time', warning that alcohol-fuelled violence has reached crisis levels.

45 min

5

A Betrayal of Trust

With Australia's population ageing, governments have made it very clear, you had better save and plan for your own retirement. But how can you be sure your money is in safe hands...

45 min

6

The Enemy Within

How did a Lebanese immigrant move from owning an ethnic newspaper business to become the most influential politician in the State...

45 min

7

The Untouchables

This PBS-Frontline investigation asks why the US Department of Justice has failed to act on credible evidence that Wall Street deliberately packaged toxic loans and sold them to investors.

45 min

8

Mission Accomplished?

The plan for Afghanistan was a robust democracy overseen by a well-trained army and police. But do the new security forces really have their hearts in the job?

45 min

9

Gas Leak!

The coal seam gas industry promotes itself as a cleaner carbon-fuel alternative; but how do we know this is true? Until now much of the information used to back this claim has come from the industry itself. Four Corners reveals what really happened when two major companies applied to develop thousands of square kilometres of southern Queensland for coal seam gas.

45 min

10

A Gracious Gift

This is a story Australians think they know: the gift of a donated organ that transforms the life of someone with a devastating illness. What we see here for the first time is the extraordinary journey families undergo whose loved ones are dying in hospital from a sudden, unexpected event.

45 min

11

The Spies Who Fooled the World

How the West was duped by informants who claimed Saddam Hussein had WMD and how this phony intelligence was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

45 min

12

Who's Cheating Whom?

Australians like to think their sports stars play fair but now it's alleged there's widespread drug taking and links with organised crime.

45 min

13

No Advantage

We go inside Australia's offshore refugee processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island. What you see will shock you. Protests, evidence of self-harm and testimony of suicide attempts.

45 min

14

The Surf Club

The surf life saving movement is Australia's biggest volunteer organisation and it saves thousands of lives each year. But right now Surf Life Saving Australia is at a crossroads... Wendy Carlisle investigates.

45 min

15

Raising Adam Lanza

An unflinching profile of the young man responsible for one of America's worst school massacres. Who was Adam Lanza - and what led him to kill 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary school last year?

45 min

16

The Big Gamble

We take a revealing look at the world of sports betting and the man who's made himself the face of the industry - Tom Waterhouse.

45 min

17

Hacked!

Andrew Fowler reveals that hackers, working from locations overseas, have targeted key Federal Government departments and major corporations in Australia.

45 min

18

The Hunt For Britain's Sex Gangs

It was the police investigation that stunned Britain. Young men of Pakistani heritage grooming young girls with the intention of abusing them, gang raping them and then trading them with other groups of men. How could it happen in modern Britain?

45 min

19

The Hunting Party

Hunting wild animals is a growth industry and now the pressure is on to get access to national parks. Who really benefits and who is at risk?

45 min

20

Escaping North Korea

Two North Korean defectors are smuggled across borders by a human smuggler who promises them a safe escape. Will they survive the perilous 5,000 km journey to freedom?

45 min

21

Fashion Victims

Australians love a bargain, but what's the real cost of cheap clothes from the sweat shops in Bangladesh? On 24th April this year more than a thousand people were killed when an eight storey building collapsed in the heart of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.

45 min

22

On the Brink

Could you live on 35 dollars a day and pay for food, clothing, transport and other bills? That's what single unemployed people are entitled to on the Newstart allowance.

45 min

23

To the Bitter End

Reporter Marian Wilkinson tells the turbulent story of Labor's bitter leadership struggle, the dramatic day that ended the term of Australia's first female Prime Minister and Labor's renewed ambition to win the next election.

45 min

24

Manhunt: The Boston Bombers

Next on Four Corners, PBS' NOVA documentary producer, Miles O'Brien, looks at how the events unfolded on the day of the bombing and he tracks how a team of investigators used modern technology, combined with good old fashioned detective work, to break the case.

45 min

25

Chemical Time Bomb

In the 1980s and 1990s governments across Australia outlawed the use of the herbicide 245T. The ban was introduced for one very good reason - 245T contains dioxin, a chemical impurity with the potential to seriously harm people who are exposed to it. But has the dioxin menace been tamed? Four Corners reveals evidence that this potentially deadly chemical compound may still be present in weed control products and that authorities do not routinely test for it.

45 min

26

In Search of Nathan Tinkler

The rise and fall of Australia's youngest billionaire, Nathan Tinkler. How did he make so much money and where did it go?

45 min

27

Walking Wounded

War photographer Giles Dooley lost both legs and an arm while on assignment in Afghanistan and returns to record the plight of Afghan civilians who've lost even more.

45 min

28

Cry Freedom: Mandela's Legacy

Nelson Mandela promised a South Africa based on freedom and equality. But as the country's former leader lies in hospital critically ill, the nation he fought to create is slowly disintegrating. Violence is commonplace, unemployment is out of control and the ruling ANC Government is accused of rampant corruption.

45 min

29

Finding Mercy

What do you do when your best friend is lost to you in a tide of violence and cruelty? Do you search across continents to find her? That is the story of filmmaker Robyn Paterson and her friend Mercy.

45 min

30

Buying Time

There is not a person in the community that is not affected by cancer in some way. We go inside the hospitals and consulting rooms with Australians who are confronting the reality that the advanced cancer they have could kill them.

45 min

31

No Margin For Error

Four Corners goes on the campaign trail, taking a fly-on-the-wall look at two seats that will be crucial in deciding who wins Government this time around.

45 min

32

In Google We Trust

Australians are among the most technically connected in the world - but do we know where our data goes and how it's being used?

45 min

33

My Own Choice

The story of a young man with a serious debilitating illness trying to find a way to legally end his own life.

45 min

34

Preying on Paradise

A look at the renewed fight against corruption in Papua New Guinea. Will Australia help or hinder the battle? Marian Wilkinson reports.

45 min

35

Cover Up

Two insiders blow the lid on a financial scandal that goes to the heart of one of Australia's most important and trusted institutions.

45 min

36

Terror in the Desert

The harrowing story of an al Qaeda raid on a remote North African gas plant, told by the people who survived it.

45 min

37

No Accounting

The Jawoyn people were held up as the model Indigenous community. What went wrong? Matthew Carney reports.

45 min

38

While They Were Sleeping

It was an Australia Day paddock party for a group of 19-year-old school friends. But something went very wrong. By sunrise, two young people were dying. So why has no one been held to account?

45 min

39

Fire In The Wire

We're told many bushfires are deliberately lit but close analysis suggests powerlines are the main culprits. What if many of our worst fires are in fact very much like industrial accidents which could have been prevented?

45 min

40

Supersizing India's Kids

A large part of India is in danger of eating itself into an early grave. BBC This World discovers Indian families, obsessed with the glitter of the West, are indulging their children with fast, fatty foods.

45 min

41

JFK - The Lost Bullet

Was John F. Kennedy the victim of conspiracy or a lone gunman? Can the third bullet fired at him that day in Dallas help answer that question?

45 min

42

Trading Misery

In September a boat carrying 72 asylum seekers sank in stormy waters off the coast of Indonesia. Most of those onboard drowned, many of them children. Sarah Ferguson goes on the trail of the people smugglers who organised the vessel.

45 min

43

Palmer Drama

Clive Palmer says he's bankrolled the Palmer United Party to give voice to millions of Australians who can't afford a lobbyist, but can we take him at his word?

45 min