Abortion is more controversial than ever, with pro-life activists challenging pregnant women as they try to enter clinics. Doctors in most of the UK are signing off terminations on questionable mental health grounds, while in Northern Ireland women and doctors risk life in prison over abortion. So is our legislation hopelessly outdated?

More than half a million foreign migrants are estimated to be hiding from the authorities in the UK. Some are failed asylum seekers who live in graveyards and abandoned garages or 'disappear' within their own communities.

Jackie and David Siegel, a former beauty queen and her billionaire husband, are triumphantly building their dream home in Florida.But when the economic crisis hits, the rarefied world of a truly unique family is turned upside down.

Storyville: Wonderfully archived and told with a remarkable sense of intimacy, visual style and musical panache, this inspiring biographical documentary surveys the life and times of singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte.

Documentary which follows the journey of a group of scientists and artists as they venture by ship into one of the last uncharted territories on Earth.

Filmed in more than twenty states, this film captures a definitive and heart-wrenching portrait of individuals at all levels of America's War on Drugs. From the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America's longest war, revealing its profound human rights implications.

A team of roboticists are creating the first ever complete bionic man. Where could this technology lead?

In the 2013 Richard Dimbleby Lecture, one of the world's greatest entrepreneurs and leading philanthropists, Bill Gates, explains his optimism for a world free of the debilitating disease, polio. He explains why he is devoting so much of his time, money and influence to eradicating polio, and how we can all help to finish the job.

A True Stories documentary following a ballroom dance programme for 10 to 11 year olds in the New York City public school system

Every year in Pakistan, over 100 people - mostly women - suffer brutal acid attacks. Saving Face follows plastic surgeon Dr Mohammad Jawad as he tries to help them.

Professor Jeremy Black examines one of the most extraordinary periods in British history: the Industrial Revolution. He explains the unique economic, social and political conditions that by the 19th century, led to Britain becoming the richest, most powerful nation on Earth. It was a time that transformed the way people think, work and play forever.

The Trouble with Aid tells the story of what really happened during the major humanitarian disasters of the last 50 years: from the Biafran War, through to the Ethiopian famine and Live Aid, to the military intervention in Somalia and to present-day Afghanistan. Despite the best intentions, aid can have some unintended and terrible consequences.

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Cuba to find a communist country in the middle of a capitalist revolution. Two years ago Cuba announced the most sweeping and radical economic reforms the country has seen in decades.

In a two-part series, Nel Hedayat meets the young rebels of the Arab spring and witnesses a new wave of violence breaking out around them. She gets caught up in rioting in Egypt and Bahrain and finds out from the people on the streets what they are living through a year after the first revolutions.

In the second of two films, Nel Hedayat meets the young rebels of the two countries which have suffered the worst violence of the Arab spring. In Libya she meets heavily-armed militias asserting their power, before travelling to the Syrian border in search of first-hand accounts of the horror unfolding beyond.

Every Saturday night in China, millions gather around their televisions to watch Interviews Before Execution, an extraordinary talk show which interviews prisoners on death row.

David Attenborough chooses his ten favourite animals that he would most like to save from extinction. From the weird to the wonderful, he picks fabulous and unusual creatures that he would like to put in his 'ark', including unexpected and little-known animals such as the olm, the solenodon and the quoll. He shows why they are so important and shares the ingenious work of biologists across the world who are helping to keep them alive

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UK chart, from the vaults of the BBC archive comes a selection of hits that attained the toppermost of the poppermost prize and made it to number 1 in the hit parade.

Do you remember buying your first single? Where you bought it? What it was? The thrill of playing it for the first time? What it sounded like? How it maybe changed your life? Lots of us do. Lots of us still have that single somewhere in a dusty box in the attic, along with other treasured memorabilia.

Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, this documentary follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers on a climbing expedition up the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri, on the north side of Everest. A dangerous journey soon becomes a seemingly impossible challenge made all the more remarkable by the fact that the teenagers are blind.

Geoffrey Smith's moving film follows Henry as he travels to Kiev to help Igor operate on a young man called Marian, who without surgery has just months to live. When Henry arrives, he faces a serious challenge - Marian must be awake when his tumour is removed, and Henry must use the most basic tools, including a Black and Decker drill.

In a personal journey into a family tragedy, filmmaker Cosima Spender explores how she and her relatives have been shaped by her grandfather - the pioneering Abstract Expressionist painter, Arshile Gorky.

Over the last five years an independent record shop has closed in the UK every three days. This film is documentary portrait of one of the very last still trading - a vinyl record shop in Teesside, a cultural haven in one of the most deprived areas in the UK.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili discovers the intriguing story of how we discovered the rules that drive the universe. Energy is vital to us all, but what exactly is energy?

Professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates one of the most important concepts in the world today - information. He discovers how we harnessed the power of symbols, everything from the first alphabet to the electric telegraph through to the modern digital age.

In the midst of a turbulent post Arab-spring Middle East, Israel's threats of military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities have raised fears of a confrontation between the two countries. This film, which has obtained exclusive access to Israeli theoretical war exercises, provides unprecedented insight into Israel's internal tensions concerning an attack between Israel and Iran which, if escalates, could have major implications for global stability.

There is a battle playing out inside your body right now. It started billions of years ago and it is still being fought in every one of us every minute of every day. It is the story of a viral infection - the battle for the cell.

This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe.

This is the story of the most extraordinary journey in human exploration, the Voyager space mission. In 1977 two unmanned spacecraft were launched by NASA, heading for distant worlds. It would be the first time any man-made object would ever visit the farthest planets of the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus.

A collection of performances from the BBC archives, celebrating the sights and sounds and the ups and downs of London through the words and songs through the years .