File on 4 Investigates

While Britain and France were brought to a standstill during the coronavirus lockdown, record numbers of migrants in Calais were on the move, boarding small boats to make perilous journeys to the UK.

Reporter: Paul Kenyon

The covid-19 pandemic continues to have a profound effect on society - including the world of serious organised crime.

From the Olympics to Euro 2020, the world’s biggest sporting events have fallen like dominoes because of coronavirus. But as the global pandemic was declared and most European countries closed their sports stadiums, the UK allowed events to carry on with hundreds of thousands of fans coming together to watch everything from Champions League football to the Cheltenham Gold Cup. File on 4 casts a forensic eye over the decisions that were made before the UK went into lockdown, speaks to those at the heart of these big events and asks whether allowing them to go ahead, enabled the virus to spread and put more lives at risk.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg

The awful impact of Covid-19 on the lives of care home residents and staff is now well understood. But many in the industry believe the authorities, both local and national, didn't recognise the threat of the virus on the most vulnerable elderly early enough and didn't react quickly enough to stop it spreading through their homes.

Editor; Ciaran Tracey

They’re the intensive care staff we see on the TV news. In their protective equipment, we can’t see their expressions – even their own colleagues find it hard to recognise them behind their masks. We can’t read their faces, but we can hear their thoughts - as they record a series of diaries as the weeks in the grip of the virus go by.

Reporter: Jane Deith

Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has a global reputation for providing outstanding care to children with the most complex medical conditions who need expert help.

Producer: Ben Robinson

Usman Khan was released from prison in 2018 for plotting a terror attack. He'd undertaken two de-radicalisation programmes designed to turn him away from violent extremism. Yet despite efforts to rehabilitate him, Khan launched an attack near London Bridge - killing two people. It was the first of two violent attacks involving convicted extremists in a little over two months. So just how effective are schemes designed to de-radicalise offenders? For the first time, File on 4 hears from those at the heart of these programmes - the 'intervention providers' tasked with turning offenders away from violence. Some say offenders are able to cheat the system and convince the authorities they've changed their ways. So how can these intervention providers ever know when their work has been successful? The programme hears from a serving prisoner in a maximum security jail who says convicted terrorists are "gaming" the system by pretending to comply with "de-radicalisation" courses - and he warns that non terrorist offenders are being dangerously radicalised.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg

When a video of one of the UK's biggest rap stars being attacked went viral, it marked the start of a series of events that left three young people dead. They died when tensions escalated between rival gangs in Tottenham and Wood Green in the north London borough of Haringey. File on 4 has been told the events that led to their deaths were triggered by an attack on a rapper called Headie One from the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham. Tensions were escalated via social media - violent tit-for-tat attacks filmed and posted on Snapchat and You Tube. Livvy Haydock hears the stories of those at the heart of this feud and from those whose lives it has devastated.

Reporter: Livvy Haydock

In January 2020, a British Airways flight from Athens to London issued a "Mayday" emergency call when the pilot flying the plane became incapacitated during a "fume event". The airline industry does not reveal how often fume events happen, but according to some estimates they occur every day on airlines worldwide.. They are thought to be caused by air containing chemicals from engine oil passing into the cabin.

Pilots and cabin crew say that sudden fume events and long term low level exposure to toxic cabin air can make them seriously ill. In some cases they claim exposure to affected air has caused premature death.

The industry insists that serious leaks of toxic gas into cockpits and cabins are relatively very rare, given the number of flights each day. And that no causal link between toxic cabin air and health problems has yet been proven.

But the industry faces multiple court cases this year. On File on 4 one representative of the airline industry agrees to face questions on fume events, claims of a lack of transparency and claims that the health of hundreds of pilots, cabin crew and frequent fliers is being affected.

We reveal confidential airline and Coroners' reports in connection with fume events and so called "aerotoxicity". We hear about pilots and crew who say they've been poisoned by toxic cabin air. And from scientists about research being done on potential links between airline cabin contamination and neurological health.

Presenter: Mike Powell

In recent years, betting companies have invested millions in Britain’s professional football leagues through sponsorship deals and blanket advertising campaigns. The ever-increasing collaboration between the two has been labelled as the ‘Gamblification of professional football’ – a term which, for many, raises serious concerns. File on 4 puts this controversial relationship under the microscope, asking if football’s public endorsement of gambling companies is helping to normalise, even encourage, a pursuit which, for those most vulnerable, can lead to addiction, financial devastation and suicide in extreme cases.

In addition, we investigate the failure of gambling companies to stop millions in stolen money from being wagered on the beautiful game by customers involved in criminality. Firms should carry out anti-money laundering checks when large sums of money are lodged, won or lost by customers. But File on 4 has learned that some betting companies ignore these obligations, opening the door for the proceeds of crime to be gambled - and potentially laundered. In hearing the testimony of industry whistle-blowers, and that of problem gamblers who stole hundreds of thousands to fuel their addiction, we lay bare the sometimes darker matters associated with the fusion of the football and gambling industries.

Reporter: Paul Connolly