Four Corners — Season 54
Australia's premiere current affairs programme, incisive investigative journalism.
About this season
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.
Episodes (44)
1. This Trucking Life
Aired 3 February 2014 • 45 min
Long haul truckies say they're being pushed to the brink by big business and government with lethal results.
2. Stone Cold Justice
Aired 18 February 2014 • 45 min
Violence is part of life in the Middle East but have children now become a new target for Israeli security forces? A special investigation by journalist John Lyons.
3. Inside North Korea
Aired 17 February 2014 • 45 min
Follows the journeys of a small group of North Korean secret film-makers, revealing what life is really like under the new leader Kim Jong Un.
4. Little Boy Lost
Aired 24 February 2014 • 45 min
A little boy lost and a family's search for answers; how did the police get the investigation so wrong? Geoff Thompson reports.
5. Tales from the Organ Trade
Aired 3 March 2014 • 45 min
Faced with death, would you illegally pay for a heart, lungs or kidney? Thousands do and the international black market is booming.
6. The Boy with the Henna Tattoo
Aired 10 March 2014 • 45 min
The inside story of an investigation to rescue an Australian child from an international paedophile ring. Caro Meldrum-Hanna reports.
7. Drawing the Line
Aired 17 March 2014 • 45 min
An investigation of the intelligence operation that's caused friction in Australia's relationship with East Timor. Marian Wilkinson reports.
8. The Dancing Shiva
Aired 24 March 2013 • 45 min
Quentin McDermott investigates the scandal that's engulfing the National Gallery. Were our finest art experts duped?
9. How China Fooled the World
Aired 31 March 2013 • 45 min
An investigation of the Chinese debt binge that's left economists holding their breath. What will be the impact on Australia?
10. A Lender of Last Resort
Aired 7 April 2014 • 45 min
How does a mortgage broker, whose work has prompted multiple complaints and is the subject of ongoing police investigation, continue to operate? Linton Besser reports on Australia's shadowy world of unregulated lending.
11. End of the Road
Aired 14 April 2014 • 45 min
The car manufacturing industry is on the way out, so what's the real impact? Stephen Long reports.
12. Day of Days
Aired 21 April 2014 • 45 min
Four Corners commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
13. The Manus Solution
Aired 28 April 2014 • 45 min
Geoff Thompson puts together the most comprehensive account yet of what took place at The Manus Island Regional Processing Centre in February 2014.
14. Banking Bad
Aired 5 May 2014 • 45 min
Putting the spotlight on a top bank's financial planners. Was it bad advice or just greed? Adele Ferguson reports.
15. Streets of Shame
Aired 12 May 2014 • 45 min
A shocking insight into the sexual exploitation of many thousands of poor and vulnerable children in Pakistan, one of the world's most important Muslim nations.
16. Lost: MH370
Aired 19 May 2014 • 45 min
How did Malaysian authorities lose a plane, search in the wrong place and ignore significant evidence for so long? Caro Meldrum-Hanna reports on the Mystery of Flight MH370.
17. The Walking Wounded
Aired 26 May 2014 • 45 min
It was a high-tech hip replacement that failed. The company tried to cover it up. Now they're exposed. Quentin McDermott reports.
18. The Pope's Revolution
Aired 2 June 2014 • 45 min
Can Pope Francis reform a Church weighed down by scandal and controversy?
19. Chamber of Horrors
Aired 9 June 2014 • 45 min
With ample evidence of sex abuse in the military, why don't the top brass deal with the abusers? Michael Brissenden reports.
20. In the Shadow of the Stadiums
Aired 16 June 2014 • 45 min
Brazil splurged billions to host the soccer World Cup while many live a life of poverty and crime. What price the "beautiful game?"
21. Democracy for Sale
Aired 23 June 2014 • 45 min
Democracy is a powerful concept. But it doesn't come cheap. Reporter Linton Besser delves inside the investigation that blew the lid on corruption within Australia's major political parties.
22. Rupert, Rebekah and Andy
Aired 30 June 2014 • 45 min
She was the queen of the British tabloids, a faithful and trusted servant of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. He was the top aide to the British Prime Minister. But for the past eight months, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson have been the focus of one of the longest-running criminal trials in British history.
23. Power to the People
Aired 7 July 2014 • 45 min
While the rest of the world moves to embrace renewable energy why is Australia drawing back? Four Corners documents the revolution in power generation taking place across the globe.
24. Rosie's Story
Aired 15 July 2014 • 45 min
It was a crime that left Australians horrified. The tragic death of Luke Batty, killed by his father. Could his brutal murder have been prevented? Luke's mother Rosie tells her story.
25. Generation Like
Aired 21 July 2014 • 45 min
Thanks to social media, today's teenagers are able to interact directly with their culture and their heroes, dispensing approval to music, videos, food and clothes, as well as each other. They say that's empowering because they can deliver a verdict instantly. But is this empowerment or a new form of slavery? And are teenagers being manipulated by big corporations and the marketing moguls who see social media as the ultimate marketing tool?(Australia, English)
26. Cult Of Horrors
Aired 28 July 2014 • 45 min
He is a self-styled evangelist who told his followers he was The Anointed One, chosen by God to convert the world to his beliefs. In reality, Scott Williams was a cult leader who used his own brand of religion to warp biblical scripture in the pursuit of sex, money and power. Reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna investigates the rise of Scott Williams and his incredible path around the world and back to Australia, exposing how he created a hell on earth for many followers.(Australia, English)
27. ISIS Terror in Iraq
Aired 4 August 2014 • 45 min
They're known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and they are sweeping across Iraq with frightening speed. They brutalise anyone they perceive as an enemy and then show the results in graphic detail, through a co-ordinated campaign on social media. BBC reporter Paul Wood goes into the front lines of this shocking conflict to investigate how and why ISIS or Islamic State, as they now call themselves, are ripping Iraq apart.(Australia, English)
28. In the Name of the Law
Aired 11 August 2014 • 45 min
They were sexually abused by the clergy and then found themselves targeted by the Church's lawyers. Why did it happen and who was responsible for the strategy? Reporter Quentin McDermott reveals the systematic way the Catholic Church sought to conceal the sexual abuse of children, using lawyers to minimise the potential financial impact to the organisation.(Australia, English)
29. Battle for the Reef
Aired 18 August 2014 • 45 min
Testing claims the Reef is at risk and should be on the UNESCO World Heritage 'in danger' list. Marian Wilkinson reports.
30. The Hand that Holds the Scalpel
Aired 25 August 2014 • 45 min
He was a highly paid neurosurgeon, addicted to cocaine and obsessed with sex. Yet despite significant evidence he was running out of control, and the death of a call girl he'd hired, Suresh Nair continued operating in a private hospital. In a joint Four Corners/Fairfax investigation, reporter Tracy Bowden analyses what the NSW Medical Board, Nepean Public Hospital and the Nepean Private Hospital knew about the rogue doctor.
31. The White Widow
Aired 1 September 2014 • 45 min
The story of the woman dubbed the White Widow, now one of the world's most wanted terror suspects.
32. MH17 - Caught in the Crossfire
Aired 8 September 2014 • 45 min
The horror of flight MH17 and the shocking war that resulted in the plane being shot down. Stephen Long reports.
33. High Rollers - High Risk?
Aired 15 September 2014 • 45 min
Australian casinos that target Asian VIP gamblers to boost their profits could run a serious risk of exposure to organised crime, according to a range of law enforcement and security experts. Reporter Linton Besser investigates the drive to entice foreign gamblers to Australia and the implications of that strategy.
34. Made in Thailand
Aired 22 September 2014 • 45 min
Inside the surrogacy industry. Debbie Whitmont reports.
35. The Seduction of Smoking (1)
Aired 29 September 2014 • 45 min
The tobacco industry is pouring vast amounts of money into developing electronic or e-cigarettes which are claimed to be safer than conventional cigarettes and could save millions of lives. (Part 1 of 2)
36. The Seduction of Smoking (2)
Aired 30 September 2014 • 45 min
The tobacco industry is pouring vast amounts of money into developing electronic or e-cigarettes which are claimed to be safer than conventional cigarettes and could save millions of lives. (Part 2 of 2)
37. Privacy Lost
Aired 6 October 2014 • 45 min
How governments use internet providers to spy on you.
38. Fat Chance
Aired 13 October 2014 • 45 min
This week, reporter Geoff Thompson goes to the Victorian town of Ararat to see if an ongoing community intervention to promote weight loss and better health can work.
39. Ice Rush
Aired 20 October 2014 • 45 min
This week on Four Corners, reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna travels through the regions of two states, riding with police and users, to tell the shocking story of towns and people in the grip of ice.
40. The Enemy Within
Aired 27 October 2014 • 45 min
Investigating the Green on Blue killing of three Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. Quentin McDermott reports.
41. Gangster Jihad
Aired 3 November 2014 • 45 min
Khaled Sharrouf: jihadist or simply a criminal? Marian Wilkinson reports.
42. Ireland's Lost Babies
Aired 10 November 2014 • 45 min
The shocking story of how young unmarried Irish mothers were forced to work in work-houses to atone for their sins while their children were taken away from them.
43. Being Me
Aired 17 November 2014 • 45 min
The story of girls and boys, born in the wrong body and their struggle to be who they are. Janine Cohen reports.
44. In Our Care
Aired 24 November 2014 • 45 min
How caregivers preyed on the vulnerable, unable to defend themselves. Nick McKenzie reports.