Four Corners (1961)
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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Episode 1 - "A Helluva Ride" - The Trump Revolution Begins
Release Date: 2017-02-06Four Corners returns with an incisive exploration of how President Trump will wield power. Reporter Michael Brissenden interviews key players in the Trump camp & Republicans on the political earthquake rippling across the US.
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Episode 2 - Swallowing It
Release Date: 2017-02-13How Australians are spending billions on unproven vitamins & supplements. With 7 out of 10 Australians taking a complementary medicine, Four Corners looks at the regulation & marketing of these products.
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Episode 3 - Highway To Hell
Release Date: 2017-02-20A Report from the Frontlines in the Battle Against the Islamic State. As the war against IS intensifies, Matt Brown reports from the frontlines of Mosul - the biggest urban battle since World War II.
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Episode 4 - Oceans Of Plastic
Release Date: 2017-02-27What happens to the plastic we throw away? A report on how our rubbish ends up in the ocean and the damage it causes.
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Episode 5 - Crown Confidential: Packer's Losing Hand
Release Date: 2017-03-06The Crown empire have bet big for years on China. Four Corners investigates what went wrong for James Packer's gambling & entertainment operations in China & what this might mean for its Australian business.
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Episode 6 - The Price Of The American Dream
Release Date: 2017-03-13Can President Trump keep his promise to make America Great Again? Four Corners meets the human face of America's working poor as they struggle to feed their families.
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Episode 7 - The Age of Consequences
Release Date: 2017-03-20Four Corners brings you the views of distinguished former members of the US military and senior policy makers who warn that climate change is not only real, it's a threat to global security.
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Episode 8 - Fighting The System
Release Date: 2017-03-27The mothers and carers battling for justice and protection for their disabled children.
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Episode 9 - Please Explain
Release Date: 2017-04-03Four Corners reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna reveals the brutal backroom politics ripping into Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.
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Episode 10 - Cracking The Code
Release Date: 2017-04-10Cracking the Code: What Facebook really knows about you. How one of the world's most powerful corporations is turning our lives and our data into vast profits, in ways we have no control over.
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Episode 11 - Syria's Disappeared
Release Date: 2017-04-24This powerful film shines a light on the barbarism of the Syrian regime at a time when the future of President Assad is being argued over by the world's most powerful nations.
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Episode 12 - After The Game
Release Date: 2017-05-01After the Game: Elite athletes blow the whistle on the high price paid for sporting glory.
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Episode 13 - Power Failure
Release Date: 2017-05-08Four Corners investigates how a nation as rich as Australia is in coal, gas, sunshine and wind, could find itself in an energy crisis.
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Episode 14 - Gun Runners
Release Date: 2017-05-15It was one of the biggest illegal firearms busts in Australian history. A criminal syndicate brazenly smuggling weapons into the country exposing the failings in the nation's border security. Ben Knight reports.
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Episode 15 - The Lindt Cafe Siege (Part 1)
Release Date: 2017-05-22A 2-part investigation into the Lindt Cafe siege. Sarah Ferguson talks exclusively with families of Tori Johnson & Katrina Dawson about their experience on the day & their devastation, anger & frustrations in the aftermath.
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Episode 16 - The Lindt Cafe Siege (Part 2)
Release Date: 2017-05-29Part Two takes you inside the Lindt Cafe & the police operation on the day, with a forensic examination of how the disaster unfolded. We expose what went wrong & ask whether Australia is prepared for another terror attack.
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Episode 17 - Power And Influence
Release Date: 2017-06-05An investigation uncovering how China's Communist Party is infiltrating Australia, tracking the activities of Beijing-backed organisations and the efforts made to intimidate CCP opponents.
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Episode 18 - Breaking The Brotherhood
Release Date: 2017-06-12The brave few who blew the whistle on Australia's most corrupt police force.
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Episode 19 - Rise Of The Trolls
Release Date: 2017-06-19With the rise of social media and smartphones in virtually every pocket, internet trolls are only ever a click, tap or swipe away. Four Corners takes you into the dark side of the internet.
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Episode 20 - Bleed Them Dry Until They Die
Release Date: 2017-06-26The retirement villages ripping off retirees. Adele Ferguson investigates.
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Episode 21 - The Company He Keeps
Release Date: 2017-07-03This Four Corners investigation will reveal how Donald Trump was negotiating luxury resort deals in Bali and Java, raising serious questions about Presidential conflicts of interest.
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Episode 22 - Forget Me Not
Release Date: 2017-07-10A story of identity, love and dignity, introducing three families who tell their stories about living with dementia.
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Episode 23 - Dark Secret
Release Date: 2017-07-17In Philadelphia in the early 2000s, a team of lawyers embarked on an investigation led by a formidable District Attorney. What they uncovered was one of the worst criminal cover-ups in US history.
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Episode 24 - Pumped
Release Date: 2017-07-24Stretching from Qld to SA, billions of dollars in taxpayer's money has been poured into rescuing the rivers & streams of the Murray-Darling Basin. Linton Besser investigates where the money, & the water is going.
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Episode 25 - Weapons Of Mass Surveillance
Release Date: 2017-07-31The digital age has revolutionised the way we live our lives. With the technology of smartphones governments have been given the ability to spy on their citizens on an astonishing scale. Nawal Al-Maghafi reports.
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Episode 26 - Trashed
Release Date: 2017-08-07The dirty truth about your rubbish. Four Corners investigates the big business of rubbish & where it ends up. In interviews with insiders, reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna exposes hidden practices occurring in the waste industry.
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Episode 27 - Inside The Greens
Release Date: 2017-08-14The Greens have been a party in disarray. As the party faces its biggest challenges since its foundation, Four Corners investigates if the party's actions live up to their spin. Louise Milligan reports.
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Episode 28 - Betting On The House
Release Date: 2017-08-21Australians are carrying more personal debt than ever. We hold the second highest level of household debt in the world. Michael Brissenden investigates the forces driving our debt fuelled housing boom & the risks it poses.
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Episode 29 - Blood Business
Release Date: 2017-08-28Giving blood is a selfless act that saves lives. For many, it's a way of giving back to the community. In other countries, blood has become a lucrative commodity fuelling a global trade worth billions of dollars.
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Episode 30 - Combustible
Release Date: 2017-09-04In the wake of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in London, reporter Deb Whitmont investigates the risk of flammable aluminium cladding in Australia & the dangerous legacy of failed regulation in the building industry.
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Episode 31 - North Korea - Murder In The Family
Release Date: 2017-09-11How Kim Jong-un's murderous ambitions & nuclear weapons program are threatening world peace - tracing his rise to power, his aggressive pursuit of a nuclear weapons program to eliminating potential rivals.
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Episode 32 - All That Glitters
Release Date: 2017-09-18Developers, deals and donations on the Gold Coast. In this pro-development town, a series of controversial billion dollar proposals have prompted a collection of unlikely allies to say enough is enough. Mark Willacy reports.
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Episode 33 - The Ransom
Release Date: 2017-09-25Inside the murky world of international kidnapping and hostage negotiation. Every year more than 30,000 people are kidnapped around the world. A small number are taken for political reasons, many more held for financial gain.
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Episode 34 - Digging Into Adani
Release Date: 2017-10-02The dubious dealings of India's corporate colossus. Four Corners travelled to India to dig into the business practices of Adani, the corporate giant planning to build Australia's biggest mine site. Stephen Long reports.
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Episode 35 - Contamination
Release Date: 2017-10-09It's one of the biggest environmental scandals in Australian history. Harmful chemicals, leaching into the ground & waterways, contaminating our water. Linton Besser investigates the toxic legacy of fire-fighting foam.
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Episode 36 - Hillary Clinton
Release Date: 2017-10-16In her only Australian TV interview, Hillary Clinton speaks exclusively with Sarah Ferguson. Candid, open & at times angry, the former presidential candidate talks about what went wrong & her fears for the future.
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Episode 37 - What's Wrong With The NBN?
Release Date: 2017-10-23As the National Broadband Network passes the halfway point in its rollout, Geoff Thompson investigates why Australia's fast broadband is stuck in the slow lane, leaving a growing number of customers disappointed and angry.
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Episode 38 - Germany's New Nazis
Release Date: 2017-10-30A right-wing nationalist party is centre stage in German politics for the first time since Hitler's Nazi Party. We chart the rise of a notorious anti-immigrant group which stands accused of a wave of violent attacks.
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Episode 39 - Inside The Tax Havens Of The Rich And Powerful
Release Date: 2017-11-06Inside the secretive world of tax havens where corporations and the wealthy operate far from public view. In a global investigation we reveal the lengths some business figures and global corporations go to avoid paying tax.
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Episode 40 - Malcolm In A Muddle
Release Date: 2017-11-13In the week of the same-sex marriage survey result Four Corners looks into the battle for control raging inside the Liberal Party. Whatever the survey result, the politicking will be far from over. Michael Brissenden reports.
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Episode 41 - The Murphy Scandal
Release Date: 2017-11-20Justice Lionel Murphy was one of the most senior political and legal figures in Australia. He was also at the centre of one of the most extraordinary scandals in our nation's history. Debbie Whitmont reports.