Four Corners
Four Corners is Australia's longest-running investigative journalism/current affairs television program. Broadcast on ABC1 in Australia, it premiered on 19 August 1961 and celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021. Founding producer Robert Raymond and his successor Allan Ashbolt did much to set the ongoing tone of the program. Based on the Panorama concept, the program addresses a single issue in depth each week, showing either a locally produced program or a relevant documentary from overseas. The program has won many awards for investigative journalism, and broken many high-profile stories. A notable early example of this was the show's epoch-making 1962 exposé on the appalling living conditions endured by many Aboriginal Australians living in rural New South Wales.
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Season 53
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1
E1
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.
Jan 4, 2013 -
2
E2
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.
Feb 11, 2013 -
3
E3
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?
Feb 18, 2013 -
4
E4
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.
Feb 25, 2013 -
5
E5
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...
Mar 4, 2013 -
6
E6
The Enemy Within
How did a Lebanese immigrant move from owning an ethnic newspaper business to become the most influential politician in the State...
Mar 11, 2013 -
7
E7
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.
Mar 18, 2013 -
8
E8
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?
Mar 25, 2013 -
9
E9
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.
Apr 1, 2013 -
10
E10
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.
Apr 8, 2013 -
11
E11
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.
Apr 15, 2013 -
12
E12
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.
Apr 22, 2013 -
13
E13
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.
Apr 29, 2013 -
14
E14
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.
May 6, 2013 -
15
E15
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?
May 13, 2013 -
16
E16
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.
May 20, 2013 -
17
E17
Hacked!
Andrew Fowler reveals that hackers, working from locations overseas, have targeted key Federal Government departments and major corporations in Australia.
May 27, 2013 -
18
E18
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?
Jun 3, 2013 -
19
E19
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?
Jun 10, 2013 -
20
E20
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?
Jun 13, 2013 -
21
E21
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.
Jun 25, 2013 -
22
E22
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.
Jul 1, 2013 -
23
E23
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.
Jul 8, 2013 -
24
E24
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.
Jul 15, 2013 -
25
E25
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.
Jul 22, 2013 -
26
E26
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?
Jul 29, 2013 -
27
E27
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.
Aug 1, 2013 -
28
E28
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.
Aug 12, 2013 -
29
E29
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.
Aug 19, 2013 -
30
E30
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.
Aug 26, 2013 -
31
E31
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.
Sep 2, 2013 -
32
E32
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?
Sep 9, 2013 -
33
E33
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.
Sep 16, 2013 -
34
E34
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.
Sep 23, 2013 -
35
E35
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.
Sep 30, 2013 -
36
E36
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.
Oct 7, 2013 -
37
E37
No Accounting
The Jawoyn people were held up as the model Indigenous community. What went wrong? Matthew Carney reports.
Oct 14, 2013 -
38
E38
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?
Oct 21, 2013 -
39
E39
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?
Oct 28, 2013 -
40
E40
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.
Nov 4, 2013 -
41
E41
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?
Nov 11, 2013 -
42
E42
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.
Nov 18, 2013 -
43
E43
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?
Nov 25, 2013