Beyond Today

Donald Trump is trying to shore up his evangelical support before November's presidential election. Ramping up his Christian outreach, he's been helping teenagers who say they’re being bullied for their religious beliefs at school. These students have organised “prayer lockers” and are running a nationwide “Pray Anyway” campaign. BBC reporter Tara Mckelvey visited one of them in Kentucky to find out how the teenager's struggle went all the way to the White House.

Presenter: Matthew Price

Julia Ebner monitors extremists during her day job as a counter-terrorism expert, where she advises governments and tech companies on how to respond to their activities. Two years ago she decided to go undercover to find out exactly what drives people into these groups. She ended up meeting white supremacists in a Mayfair pub; she befriended female misogynists in America, and she travelled to a Nazi rock festival on the border of Germany and Poland. Julia’s written about her disturbing encounters in a new book ‘Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists’ - and came into the Beyond Today studio to tell us all about it.

Presenter: Tina Daheley

Insomnia affects about a third of adults in the UK according to the NHS. It also says adults should be getting between 7 and 9 hours sleep a night, but very few of us actually get that. We speak to Samantha Harvey who has written a book called ‘The Shapeless Unease’ about her year of not sleeping. We also speak to Stephanie Romiszewski, a sleep physiologist and director of The Sleepyhead Clinic in Exeter. She came into the Beyond Today Studio to give us her top 5 tips for a good night’s sleep.

Presenter: Matthew Price

It’s been two years since the Windrush scandal, where at least 164 black British citizens were wrongly deported to countries of their birth or detained in the UK. The scandal has had a lasting impact on the Afro-Caribbean community, with many owed compensation from the government.

The Home Office recently approved a flight from London to Jamaica which was deporting convicted offenders who have been here for most of their lives. Once again, many black Brits say they feel targeted and are being forced to question what it really means to be British.

We spoke to two BBC reporters: Shamaan Freeman-Powell, who’s been following the story from the beginning, and Greg McKenzie, who followed the flight to Jamaica and has spoken to Brits who say they’ve been forced to leave their home. Maria Thomas, a lawyer at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, explains why a last-minute legal challenge stopped some of the detainees from being deported.

Presenter: Tina Daheley

Coronavirus has reached 24 counties outside of China, with 8 confirmed cases in the UK. As the disease is spreading so is a lot of information, some of it misleading. The World Health Organisation has warned that "trolls and conspiracy theories" are undermining their response to the virus. We speak to Mike Wendling from BBC Trending and Vitaly Shevchenko, Russian Editor at BBC Monitoring, about the theories being circulated.

Presenter: Tina Daheley

Callie Lewis was just 24 years old when she took her own life. Callie had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at a young age and had always struggled with chronic depression and suicidal thoughts, but at the end of her life she fell through the cracks of an overstretched mental health system. She sought solace online and ended up on a suicide forum where she was given detailed advice on how to kill herself. Callie’s death comes at a time when many people are struggling to connect with the services they need, and the news that growing numbers of young women are taking their own lives.

In this episode we speak to Ellie Flynn, a reporter for the BBC’s Panorama programme who’s spent the last 16 months getting to know Ellie’s family and friends and trying to unpick what happened in the run up to her death. We also hear from Caroline Herroe, the CEO of a suicide prevention project in Nottingham.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this episode, help and support can be found on the BBC Action Line website.

Presenter: Matthew Price

South Korean film Parasite has been named best picture at this year's Oscars, becoming the first non-English language film to take the top prize. It won four awards in total, including best director for Bong Joon-ho. The film is a vicious social satire about two families from different classes in Seoul - one who live in poverty in a semi-basement, and another rich family residing in a large home.

We speak to the BBC’s Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker about how South Koreans have reacted to the film’s success. We also hear from Jean Lee – director of the Korea programme at the Woodrow Wilson Center – about how the country is stepping into the limelight as a pop culture powerhouse.

Presenter: Matthew Price

It was the celebrity scandal that gripped the nation in an era where tabloids ruled the roost and affairs and addiction dominated front pages. Right in the middle of the drama was one of the biggest entertainment TV presenters of the age - Michael Barrymore.

In 2001, when a 31 year old man called Stuart Lubbock was found unconscious in Michael Barrymore’s pool in Essex he was initially believed to have drowned during a party. When a second post-mortem flagged up severe injuries consistent with serious sexual assault, it shocked the country. People close to the TV presenter sold their stories to the press - including Michael Barrymore’s boyfriend.

An inquest into Stuart’s death saw the coroner record an open verdict, but Essex police now suspect foul play and are calling on the eight party guests to cooperate. In 2007 Michael Barrymore was arrested, but later released without charge. 19 years later the case is still unsolved and a new Channel 4 documentary ‘Barrymore: The Body In The Pool’ has shone a light on the story that never went away

We discuss some of the ethical issues raised in the documentary with TV critic Scott Bryan and speak to William Mata who covered the story for the Harlow Star. William spent time with Stuart’s father Terry during his campaign for justice.

Producers: Lucy Hancock and Duncan Barber

The president sort of won the Iowa Democratic caucus.

This week was supposed to be when the race to be the candidate to take on Donald Trump in November’s presidential election really got going. But the Iowa Democratic caucus was a mess: a tech failure meant a delay in getting results, and a lot of red faces in the party hoping to unseat the current Commander in Chief. Nearly all the results are in, and it looks like Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have come out on top. But, in a week that also saw him acquitted in his impeachment trial, did the chaos mean Donald Trump is the real winner? Beyond Today producer Harriet Noble takes us through the Democratic candidates, and Senior North America reporter Anthony Zurcher looks at what it all means for the incumbent president.

Presenter: Matthew Price

Yesterday an inquiry into the harm that breast surgeon Ian Paterson did to his patients finally delivered its results. The inquiry recommended that all of his 11,000 patients should have their treatment reassessed. Paterson, who claimed to be a specialised breast surgeon, performed unnecessary surgeries, misdiagnosed patients with cancer and treated patients incorrectly.

Paterson is already serving a 20 year jail term for 17 counts of wounding with intent, but his victims remain deeply scarred by the damage he inflicted on them.

In this episode we speak to Jade Edginton, a woman who was repeatedly unnecessarily operated on as a teenager for lumps in her breast, and BBC Midlands reporter Kathryn Stanczyszyn who heard the results of the inquiry from the court room.

We also hear from John Hynes, whose wife did not survive Paterson’s horrific malpractice, and Emma Doughty, the head of clinical negligence at Slater and Gordon, the firm that brought the civil case against Paterson. She tells us how he was able to get away with what he did for so long and why this sort of thing could happen again.

You can hear the full Slater and Gordon podcast here

Presenter: Matthew Price