Everyman

An Investigation into Opus Dei, UK. In Spain they call it 'Octopus Dei', in Italy the 'Sancta Mafia'. It has been accused of splitting families, of medieval spiritual practices, of financial and political chicanery. But the Pope has granted it a special status within the Church, and procedures for the canonisation of its founder have been opened. Opus Dei - God's Work - has been operating in this country for 35 years. Recently it has come under heavy criticism for its activities and attitudes. This Everyman film, the first of a new series, is the most thorough investigation of Opus Dei, UK, ever mounted. It contains the first television interview with Opus Dei's National Director, Fr Philip Sherrington, and brings to light evidence about the organisation never revealed before.

A journey in Wales written and presented by Donald Allchin. Wales often conjures up images of coalmines and rugby, daffodils and leeks, hymns and harps. For Donald Allchin, a very English Englishman and a canon of Canterbury Cathedral, discovering Wales and the Welsh language has been to discover a scarcely known part of our Christian heritage. From the Celtic centuries, through the Methodist revival and to Welsh poets of this century he detects, despite the outward differences, a common experience of the nearness of eternity. Each journey to Wales confirms for him the reality that the universe is not alien and hostile, that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. By their lives of faith and their prayers today they affirm that, in God, man is no longer a stranger.

The King is dead! - Long live the King! ... Or at least the King's ideas. Almost 20 years ago Walt Disney, the King of Fantasy, left his empire with a blueprint which promised to point the way to hope and optimism for mankind in the future. Disney called it EPCOT (an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) and was confident that his organisation had the ability and unity to re-educate humanity for the 21st century. Today the Utopian dream has become reality, attracting, entertaining and educating thousands a day with all the skills and gusto at its disposal. But can a corporation founded on the antics of Mickey Mouse ever be capable of tackling the true nature of man, and seriously shape his future character?

In the borders of Afghanistan, by the Khyber Pass, a young Russian soldier is handed over alive by his guerrilla captors to the International Committee of the Red Cross. In this notoriously bitter and ferocious conflict a small group of Swiss negotiators are achieving the apparently impossible. For the first time, the Red Cross has allowed cameras to follow these tense and delicate negotiations. David Jessel tells the story of idealism in practice, and the struggle - medical and political - to keep the victims of both sides of this bloody conflict alive.

Nirad Chaudhuri in East and West 'I blush for the English character. Once they came to my country to conquer and rule; now they come to learn. I myself preferred them in their previous incarnation.' The idea that the East, particularly India, possesses spiritual insights we in the West lack has become almost a cliche over the past 20 years. Nirad Chaudhuri sees the matter quite differently. He is 85, and one of the most celebrated Indian scholars and writers alive today. In this film he tells the story of his 'passage to England', the attraction England exerted on him as a child in India, and the impact it made on him when he came here for the first time at the age of 57. He examines the Western pilgrimage to the East, and explains his dismay at it: 'If anything persuaded me of the degeneration of the English spirit it was this "Hinduising" by which I mean adoption of some of the sloppier forms of Hindu worship without any understanding of the essential elements of Hinduism.'

This Everyman report, shot in the most remote parts of north-western Australia, explores what's happening to Aborigines today. They feel passionately about the need for land rights because their relationship to the land is at the heart of their religion. For hundreds of years, western civilisation has pronounced that it's the primitive natives who must learn from us. Now the Aborigines are saying it's we who should learn from them. Because, while our civilisation seems hell-bent on destruction, they hold the secret of survival.

This year Australia has been much in the news, but surprisingly little has been heard about the plight of the ' other Australians ', the Aborigines. Last week's Everyman reported on tribal Aborigines in the outback, on their struggle to retain their own way of life. But what happens to Aborigines caught up in the cities? This film explores the Aborigine experience of Sydney, and the response of one remarkable white priest, Fr Ted Kennedy , who believes it is time white ' civilisation' stopped telling ' primitive ' tribes how to live their lives.

General Efrain Rios Montt , President of Guatemala, is a man in trouble. Last year he swept to power in a military coup, and in this traditionally Roman Catholic country energetically promoted his brand of charismatic evangelism. This year Pope John Paul II was officially received with ill-disguised hostility: days before his arrival, six guerrillas were executed despite a papal plea for clemency. Now the Army's highest-ranking General has been sacked for claiming that religious sectarianism at the highest levels of government is causing ' unnecessary offence ' to the Catholic population. As the battle for the soul of Guatemala develops, David Jessel examines the nature of the evangelical movement and the Catholic opposition, and asks ' whose God is winning? '

Four years ago Mother Angelica. a 60-year-old Franciscan nun, became tired of complaining about the violence and materialism of American television and decided to go into the business herself. Today she runs the world's first Roman Catholic satellite-linked cable television network, from her tiny convent in Alabama.

Coleg Elidyr is a remarkable community where young people suffering from intense mental and physical maladjustment live together with teachers as a totally interdependent family, restoring dignity and wholeness to lives that would never otherwise be fulfilled. For at Coleg Elidyr it is believed that in each person there is a divine spark, the invincible spirit of man - recognise it and they will fight for it for all their lives.

On a hillside, a deserted village: the old stone houses partly ruined, fruit trees running wild, the cultivated terraces crumbling from neglect. After 34 years, three women and a man return to the village to find the houses they were bom in and retrace the paths they knew so well-to Fatma Hamdi the tailor's house, to the mosque, to the cucumber fields and the olive-groves. This Everyman film offers a unique insight into the experiences of Palestinian families in and around Jerusalem, and their restless search for the security of' home '.

"The Bronx is burning!" - victory cry of the 60s revolution. Today the fires have long gone out, leaving empty shells of buildings; a society of street-survivors, whores and hustlers. Yet in the heart of this devastated world a small community of elderly Jews clings on - Mr Sachs, the baker, Dave Lenten, comic and sign painter, Mrs Miroff, seamstress, protected by her street-wise gang of 'bums'. Everyman tells the remarkable story of their survival and of their battered synagogue - the sole focus of their faith, their pride and their history.