The Recycled Orchestra run by Favio Chavez, began as a safe haven for kids living in the Cateura slum. It turned into a global phenomenon when it caught the attention of rock royalty and actual royalty around the world. Playing instruments made from the trash thrown away at the local landfill site, teenagers who once only knew the streets around their homes now travel across the planet performing with bands like Megadeth, Metallica and Stevie Wonder. But despite their success, they still play the same instruments made of garbage and remain in the shanty town, putting everything they make back into their community.

Archive in this programme is from the documentary Landfill Harmonic.

Presenter: Clayton Conn

Producer: Mariana Des Forges

Picture: Favio Chavez

Credit: Landfill Harmonic Movie

Nicole Fosse is the daughter of two American dance superstars – Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. Their legendary collaboration led to the reinvention of the modern musical, and huge stage and screen successes like Chicago and Cabaret. They were one of the most influential couples in show business and their style has inspired even Beyonce and RuPaul. The Fosse-Verdon relationship was remarkable but, as Nicole recalls, life wasn’t always as smooth as her parents’ celebrated choreography.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Maryam Maruf

Picture: Bob Fosse, Nicole Fosse and Gwen Verdon

Credit: Getty Images

In 1988 Li Jingzhi’s 2-year-old son was abducted from a hotel lobby in China and disappeared without a trace. She never stopped looking for him, appearing on numerous Chinese television shows and distributing more than 100,000 flyers. Through her many years of searching she was able to help reunite many other parents with their missing children. Then this year, after 32 years she was finally reunited with her son.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Deiniol Buxton

Picture: Mao Yin reuniting with his mother Li Jingzhi

Credit: Getty Images

Jack Sim is a Singaporean multi-millionaire tycoon with an unusual nickname: Mr Toilet.

His obsession with toilets has had him mingling with presidents, A-list celebrities, he's even had a resolution passed at the UN. After growing up without a working toilet in Singapore he's now on a global mission to make sure others don't go through the same.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Picture: Jack Sim aka Mr Toilet

Credit: Jim Orca

When Judy Heumann was growing up in the 1950s, expectations for someone like her were low. Her disability wasn't her main problem, it was other people's prejudices. Judy Heumann was the first person in a wheelchair to become a teacher in New York, and she went on to dedicate her life to fighting discrimination. In doing, so has helped shape history. In April 1977, she helped orchestrate the longest ever occupation of a federal building in the history of the US. As a result of that, important regulations were brought in which made it both illegal and costly to discriminate against disabled people in many areas. And those regulations paved the way for further victories. Her book is called Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist.

Presenter: Emily Webb.

Producer: Fiona Woods.

Picture: Judy Heumann. 

Credit: Rick Guidotti/Positive Exposure.

Growing up, Julie Lindahl felt a sense of shame hung over her family, but had no idea why. Her father’s dying words confirmed she needed answers. And so began a seven year search for information. She started at the German Federal Archives where she was handed a file that exposed her grandfather’s Nazi past. Her findings sent her on a life-changing journey to track down and make amends with people who had fallen victim to her grandfather’s brutality.

Julie has written a book about her story called The Pendulum: A Granddaughter's Search for Her Family's Forbidden Nazi Past.

Presenter: Andrea Kennedy

Producer: Mariana Des Forges

Picture: Julie Lindahl aged three and her grandfather in Brazil

Credit: Courtesy of Julie Lindahl

A few years ago, writer Mira Feticu received an anonymous letter with instructions on how to find a stolen Picasso, buried under a tree in a Romanian forest. The painting, the Tête d'Arlequin or Harlequin Head, had been stolen in 2012 from the Rotterdam's Kunsthal museum. Within days, Mira had found the spot where the artwork was supposed to be hidden. But a shock was in store.

 

Presenter: Jo Fidgen.

Producer: Fiona Woods.

Picture: Pablo Picasso's Harlequin Head.

Credit: The Triton Collection Foundation.

When war broke out in Somalia in the 1990s, Omar Mohamed’s dad was killed and he was separated from his mum. Omar, who was only four at that time, picked up his disabled younger brother Hassan and started running. The brothers eventually ended up in Kenya’s vast Dadaab refugee camp - the biggest refugee camp in Africa. For years, they never stopped looking for their mother. Until one day, rumours spread around the camp that a woman was looking for them. Could this stranger be Omar and Hassan’s mum? 

 

Omar's extraordinary story has been turned into a graphic novel co-written by Victoria Jamieson, and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson and Iman Geddy. It’s called When stars are scattered. Omar has set up his own charity called Refugee Strong.

 

Presenter: Jo Fidgen.

Producers: Katy Takatsuki and June Christie.

Picture: Omar Mohamed.

Credit: Patrick Blain.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas is very well known in Africa, even though almost no one knows what he looks like. Anas is a trained lawyer-turned-investigative reporter in Ghana, and a frequent presenter of the BBC's Africa Eye. In his nearly 20 years working undercover, he's exposed judges taking bribes for a not guilty verdict; top football officials fixing matches; sex trafficking rings; organ harvesting. To do so, he had to disguise himself as a psychiatric patient, as a janitor in a brothel and as a rock in a barren landscape. His work has led to numerous convictions, but his methods are sometimes dangerous and controversial. His latest investigation for BBC Africa Eye is called Corona Quacks, exposing the sale in Ghana of fake 'cures' for coronavirus.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen.

Producers: Andrea Kennedy and Harry Graham.

Picture: Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

Credit: BBC Africa Eye.

Colin Foord and Jared McKay are childhood best friends with a passion for aquatic life. As a kid Colin developed a strong love of sea life and would construct his own aquariums. Later, when Jay was suffering from depression, Colin would send him equipment needed to build his own reef aquarium in his living room. Eventually they became partners in a coral business, growing home grown corals in their living rooms. Their love of coral life led them to create bespoke films, music and artwork, an eventually install Coral City Camera, a webcam streaming live from an urban coral reef in Miami which since lockdown has attracted thousands of dedicated daily viewers.

Presenter: Clayton Conn.

Producer: Maryam Maruf.

Picture: Colin Foord (R) and Jared McKay (L).

Credit: Karli Evans.