Everyman

Last year Magdalena Babicka delighted the audience at the Miss Czech-Slovak beauty contest by stating that she wanted to cleanse her city of all its brown-skinned inhabitants. Do her comments suggest that the gypsies of eastern Europe are becoming nationalism's latest scapegoats?

To many children, experience of family life has meant only fear, tragedy or violence. This special edition of Everyman explores what the concept of "family" means to children who have never known one. Adoption these days does not only Involve babies. The film looks at the lives of three young boys, aged from 9 to 11, who are waiting to be adopted. They are difficult cases, as yet unplaced by overworked local authorities, who are now in the hands of a specialist agency. Can a family answer their needs?

How does a 21-year-old American come to terms with being regarded as a messiah? Telo Rinpoche, aka Eddie Ombadykow , was brought up in a Tibetan monastery and recognised by the Dalai Lama as a high reincarnate lama. Now back in his homeland, Kalmykia in Russia, the young Buddhist monk struggles to accept his unusual destiny.

Recovering from illness, Mavis Pittilla had her first glimpse of the spirit world. Now this former member of the Church of England has introduced her faith in spiritualism to people devastated by grief. Like Rose and David Foster , whose son died in a car crash, and who insist that receiving "proof" of his life after death has helped them deal with their loss. But opponents of spiritualism argue it can stop the natural grieving process.

As many Anglicans consider following the Duchess of Kent and John Gummer over to Rome, Everyman explores the state of Catholicism in Britain today. How much does the Pope really have to do with the beliefs and practices of ordinary Catholics? Is there such a thing as a "Catholic identity"? And what is the church's relationship with other denominations? Vin and Dorothy Jones from Birkenhead are "model Catholics": they have eight children and entertain their priest to Sunday lunch. Father Edward Black objects to the Second Vatican Council and regards the Pope as a heretic, while aristocrat Leanda de Lisle believes she is in a liberal church. These and other Catholics attest to a broad church embracing everything from dogma to radicalism.

Eighteen years ago Sarah Boston gave birth to a son, Will. He had Down's syndrome and died while still a baby. Medical tests now widely available give women the option to terminate Down's pregnancies, so society could virtually screen out Down's syndrome. In the year that Will would have come of age, Sarah celebrates his birthday with an appreciation of the contribution that Down's people make to our humanity. This is an intensely personal film in which Sarah still feels Will's absence from her life, and questions the set of values we have when we make choices about genetic screening. Director Nikki Stockley Editor John Blake

A Holy Land without a living Christian population? The rapidly increasing emigration of Christian Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Territories to the United States, Canada and Australia has led church leaders to appeal to western consulates to stop issuing emigration visas. This appeal has failed and the dwindling number is felt very strongly in the Holy City of Jerusalem where the Christian community is down to a quarter of what it was 50 years ago. Against the backdrop of the recent massacre at Hebron, reporter Charles Glass investigates the reasons behind this exodus and the difficulties faced by the Christians who remain.

Abortion is illegal in Ireland. As a result, at least 100 Irish women travel to England each week to terminate their pregnancies. Condemned by Church, state and sometimes their families, the women face immense practical and emotional difficulties. Tonight's programme charts the experiences of four women who had to overcome an information ban, a hostile medical establishment, economic hardship, and the trauma of doing something they had been taught from childhood was a sin.

Western society may be turning away from organised religion, but conversions to Islam in this country are increasing at a remarkable rate. The rules of the faith are unchanged since they were formulated 1,400 years ago: followers must wash and pray five times a day, fast for four weeks every year, give two-and-a-half per cent of their income to charity, and abstain from smoking, drinking and extra-marital sex. Women are expected to cover their hair and bodily shape. To renounce the faith is punishable by death. This film examines the appeal of Islam through the eyes of two potential converts. Both are parents with young children. One is frustrated by a society that "promises freedom and prosperity but delivers racism and poverty". The other explains: "Islam offers clear guidelines, values, to bring up your kids. In Britain today no kid is safe - kids are going round murdering other children."

Eighty-five per cent of British people get married at some point in their lives. Half of these marriages fail and yet many people remarry - some of them more than once. For Better.... is the first of a two-part documentary examining matrimony in Britain today. Eight people who have each tied the knot at least four times describe why they felt compelled to repeat the experience so many times. For some the reasons are religious or moral, for others they are romantic or sexual. Among those contributing are 42-year-old Patricia, who has already wed five times yet is still searching for the ideal husband, and 48-year-old Tony who is divorcing for the fourth and, he says, final time. "Marriage no longer means what it used to mean," he confesses. Next week's programme, entitled.... for Worse, finds out how people feel about repeated marital breakdown.

A second marriage, Dr Johnson once observed, is the triumph of hope over experience. In ... for Worse the second of two documentaries about matrimony in Britain, six people who have each been married at least four times talk about their experience of divorce and repeated marital failures. The programme opens at one couple's divorce party, but not all the splits were so amicable and some of them resulted from physical abuse. Among those sharing their views is Annabel, a Catholic who is about to marry for the fifth time and yet still believes it will be for ever, and four-times-divorced Tony who thinks it is the exclusivity of a marriage contract that results in its failure.

When Mike and Gill West-Eacott discovered that their daughter Alison was caught up in a religious cult, they feared she would be lost to them for ever. The Church of Christ is one of the fastest growing cults in the world and is alleged to use techniques of mind control to keep its members in its power. Eventually, the West-Eacotts were put in contact with a "cult-breaker" - a counsellor who specialises in persuading cult followers to return to normal life. Using hidden cameras, Everyman follows the attempt to get Alison to leave the Church of Christ and examines the techniques used by both cult and breaker.

"I wasn't the person thought I was," said Jon Bradley when,aged 28,he finally found his birth parents. Jon had been adopted by a Jewish couple and brought up in the Jewish faith, although his birth mother was an unmarried English Catholic and his father was a Kuwaiti Muslim. Now working with an organisation that attempts to break down the barriers between Jews and Arabs, Jon has come to identify strongly with the current situation in Israel and the occupied territories. In the wake of the Hebron massacre, he travels to Israel to meet both Israelis and Palestinians who are fascinated by his story. Jon 's Journey retraces each step of his discovery and explores the revelations which continue to affect his sense of identity and belonging.

The seal trade enabled the Inuit people, the Eskimos, to hold on to their traditions. But pressure from the anti-fur trade lobby to stop the killing led to an international boycott supported by the Church of England but not the Bishop of the Arctic, Christopher Williams. He believes his own colleagues are helping to destroy a way of life. This programme profiles the lives of the Inuit and shows how the Bishop's personal beliefs have been transformed since he has been living with them.

After 25 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, why does religion remain part of the problem, offering no prospect of an end to the violence? Colin Morris cross-examines clergy on both sides of the divide and asks whether far from offering a way out of the violence and hatred, the churches have themselves been sucked into the sectarian power struggle. Producer Roger Childs

An apple a day might keep the doctor away but many of the inhabitants of Wenatchee in America prefer a Prozac a day to keep them happy and healthy. This documentary takes a look at the most prescribed anti-depressant drug in America by visiting Wenatchee - or "Happy Valley, Prozac Capital of the World" as it is known. Wenatchee psychologist Dr Jim Goodwin prescribes Prozac for all his clients because he believes everyone is depressed, they just don't realise it. He argues that Prozac is "probably less toxic than salt" - he even takes it himself. Not surprisingly he has his critics. Psychiatrist Dr Peter Breggin puts forward his theory that suffering is a necessary fact of life, while members of the Prozac Survivors Support Group give some harrowing accounts of how their lives have been destroyed by the drug.

Thirty years ago, when there was no access to the Family Planning Association without a wedding ring, Lady Brook founded the Brook Advisory Centre to give contraceptive advice to unmarried women. How has the moral climate in Britain changed? The Ostrich Position reveals that when it comes to sex, we still prefer to keep our heads in the sand.

This is the International Year of the Family and yet the media is full of stories about family breakdown and the social problems it causes. In this documentary, the Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks examines whether the shift away from a traditional family unit is a threat to society. If the family is broken, he asks, can we mend it? Among those he talks to are a single parent, who believes her children cannot miss the fathers they have never known, and a young offender who says he would not wish his fatherless background on any child. He also talks to the experts, who agree there is a problem but have different solutions - some are sympathetic, others take a tough line.

Rumours about the failing health of Pope John Paul have prompted speculation about who might succeed him. Whether from Africa, the Americas, Europe or Asia, the next Pontiff will represent 900 million Roman Catholics, 2,000 years of history and an increasingly uncertain future. In what direction will the next Pope take the Church?

Since 1947, when they were first found, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Recently, the scrolls went on public display but gave few clues to their true content and meaning. So how is it that the writings of a strange and ancient desert community can still outwit the 20th-century mind?

In 1973 former Beatie George Harrison donated a manor house in leafy Letchmore Heath , Hertfordshire to the Hindu Hare Krishna movement. But this act of generosity has tested the tolerance of villagers, who have had to face a regular influx of worshippers which reachesa peak of 35,000 during Krishna's two-day birthday celebrations. To appease residents and provide access to this important temple, devotees have applied for planning permission to build an approach road bypassing the village. Everyman reports on an issue that for worshippers has become "an emblem of injustice", for villagers a case of "not in my back yard and for religious tolerance a row of national proportions.

Lionel Dahmer talks about living with the discovery that his son, Jeffrey Dahmer, is a serial killer.

A group of young American evangelicals, aiming to convert as much of the former Soviet Union to Christianity as possible, find the people of Ternopol, in the Ukraine, less than receptive to their message.

In the year that her son Will would have come of age, Sarah Boston celebrates his birthday with an appreciation of people with Down's syndrome and questions the values behind the choices made about genetic screening.

Since the Salman Rushdie affair, the religious Fatwa has been regarded by the non-Muslim world as an oppressive tool designed to silence dissent with the threat of death. But to Muslims it is central to Islamic life, guiding them through everyday existence.

Ever since Mary Murray rang the local radio station to report that the statue of the Mother of God in her back room was shedding blood and tears from its face, pilgrims from all over the world have descended upon the tiny Irish village of Grange Con in County Wicklow. The villagers themselves, however, are less willing the accept the validity of this "miracle".