Everyman

Two British women, Sally Croft and Susan Hagan , are facing extradition to America on murder conspiracy charges as the result of their devotion to the controversial guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. They were key figures in the Bhagwan's inner circle in when the cult set up a new religious retreat in Oregon, despite opposition from the local authorities. Guns were bought, local people poisoned and their leader escaped in a private plane. Everyman examines how they became involved in this conflict.

For the first time, the Samaritans have allowed filming of a branch at work and this powerful documentary follows one night in their busy Birmingham office. Each year the organisation deals with two-and-a-half million calls from people feeling desperate or suicidal, and yet, until now, their workings have been secretive, the volunteers not free to talk about their work.

Foreign Correspondent of the Year, Ed Vulliamy of The Guardian, first broke the story of the Serbian detention camps that shocked the world. In this bitter, elegiac film he travels back to the Bosnian town of Travnik to honour a way of life almost destroyed by "brutish nationalism" and the world's inertia. Before the end, he wants Bosnia's last testament to be heard.

For the first time the 16 survivors of the 1972 Andes plane crash, who managed to live for three months by eating the bodies of their dead friends, have agreed to participate in a documentary. They are still close friends, living within half a mile of each other in Montevideo, and this compelling and sometimes disquieting film shows how for 20 years they have been unable to escape the consequences of their decision. They live beside the families of those who died, and whose bodies saved them, but they have never talked to them about the human taboo they broke and the relatives interviewed in the film continue to grieve their loss.

Are the British anti-German? Do we talk too much about the war? Everyman takes a wry look at the experience of people with a foot in each camp; Germans living in Britain, a British ex-soldier born in Germany and a British Jew who lived there. As we approach the 50th anniversary of many of the victories that led to the defeat of Nazism, this sometimes ironic and challenging film asks uncomfortable questions about attitudes to one of our European Community partners.

The pre-meditated murder of a young British Unicef worker in Somalia earlier this year shocked the world. Four months on, the precise motives for Sean Devereux 's death still remain unclear. But what is certain is that children all over Africa have lost a remarkable and dedicated friend. Everyman celebrates the commitment shown by "Mr Sean " during his brief life, from his time as a 24-year-old mission teacher in Liberia until he became an assassin's target in Somalia four years later.

Since the tragic death in Liverpool of toddler Jamie Bulger , much has been said and written about the morality of the nation's youth. But one voice has remained unheard - that of the children themselves. Now Everyman talks to young people about their own values. Sharon wants to clear the drug addicts out of Liverpool and her ambition is to be a zoologist or a hairdresser. Nirena wants to improve school dinners and stop racism. Dave wants to avoid having his kneecaps broken by local drug dealers. Using a study of 15,000 teenagers, the programme reveals their hopes for the future and their fears of what may prevent them making the distinction between what is right and wrong.

The civil war in Yugoslavia has horrified the outside world, yet the causes of such hatred seem unfathomable. As the war threatens to spill over more Balkan borders, Everyman travels to one of the next potential flashpoints, Kosovo in the Serbian heartland, and meets two families - one Orthodox Serb, one Albanian Muslim. On opposite sides, the families have never met. but they are locked in conflict, sharing claims to the land on which they live.

Father Samuel Penney sexually abused children in parishes within the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham for 25 years. He was arrested in July 1992 and convicted this March after three families gave evidence in his prosecution. Penney pleaded guilty to ten charges of indecent assault against boys and girls aged between 8 and 14. Everyman investigates why it took the Church so long to recognise Penney was a paedophile. In this film, the families speak out for the first time about the abuse they suffered. They say several officials within the Archdiocese of Birmingham knew of Penney's activities years before his prosecution. One parent says: "You never want to hear the word 'yes' when you ask your child about abuse." Last in the series.

Over the centuries people who have been to the brink of death have reported strange experiences after they had apparently lost consciousness. Recent medical advances in revival techniques have led to a great increase in people having these near death experiences. Everyman meets three people who have had these sensations and two experts, a psychologist and a theologist, whose views of the meaning of near death experiences are worlds apart.

When Dublin housewife Susan McHugh heard that an IRA bomb had killed 3-year-old Jonathan Ball in Warrington she expressed what was in the hearts of many: "enough is enough". Four days later she launched Peace 93. This film tells the story of her journey of learning, from her first emotional outcry to confrontational meetings with Republicans and Loyalists. But can peace movements influence those who have chosen violence?

Since her draughty caravan trailer was blown away in a gale, Irene Gibson has had to move from under the shadow of Ireland's holy mountain, Croagh Patrick. Irene is a hermit. Now she lives in a cottage, but plans tobuildaseriesofcellsfor fellow hermits. It is an extraordinary plan for the late 20th century, a life of frugality, solitude and prayer, of sharing "the loneliness of Christ" in a remote corner of County Mayo. Six years ago, as Sister Irene , she left the Benedictine monastery where she was a nun. She says, "You can't survive in solitude if you're running away from people, because solitude is communion.... people are with you in prayer and in your heart."

Dot Burrows is the down-to-earth warden of a hostel for young male offenders. Her aim is to help them find a way of going straight. This difficult job is made more dangerous by the threats and intimidation that the "Top Men" within the hostel direct at the more vulnerable residents, known as "Joeys". Somehow, Dot has to deal with this often violent conflict, and this documentary, filmed over two months at the hostel, shows how her faith in human nature is tested to the full.

Contemporary culture bombards us with images of erotic athleticism. Celibacy, we are led to believe, belongs to certain strict religious orders - but does it? Tonight Everyman examines the role celibacy plays in an increasing number of lives.

Imagine befriending a stranger who has Aids. This is what a "buddy" does. Why do they undertake the commitment involved in being a buddy? What does a person with Aids want from them? Filmed over six months, the programme follows the lives of four buddies and the people they have befriended.

Disputes between neighbours are on the increase. They often end in violence.... and in a court of law. Tonight's programme looks at an organisation called Bristol Mediation, a voluntary group which aims to resolve disputes without resort to conflict or the law. Inspired by Quakerism, mediators hope to bring the parties together to talk. But can they succeed where emotions are running high?

Why do young women, and sometimes men, become obsessed by the fear of putting on weight? With past and present patients, a specialist in eating disorders explores the painful struggle of those for whom fat is the ultimate enemy.

Since the late 80s there have been disturbing allegations from several Third World countries that children are killed and their organs used for transplants. This film brings the first evidence that a vicious black market in organs is indeed developing.

In the first of an Everyman series of four modern pilgrimages, Alexander Frater journeys through Nepal to Bodh Gaya in northern India, where Buddha gained enlightenment. On the way he watches Keanu Reeves on location in Bertolucci's latest epic Little Buddha, meets a 2-year-old reincarnated monk, gets caught up in the curfew following the destruction of the Ayodhya temple and enters a world tourists rarely glimpse. Archaeological digs in 19th-century India uncovered evidence of the life of Prince Siddhartha who, as Buddha, became the inspiration for a worldwide spiritual awareness. The discoveries revealed episodes in his life and became shrines: Frater retraces the trail from high up in the Himalayas to the plains of the Ganges.

In the second of an Everyman series of four modern pilgrimages, Nicholas Shakespeare goes to the Andes in Peru, where the beliefs of imported Christianity blend with the rituals of Inca religion. Each year, to commemorate a miracle in which Christ appeared to a boy herding alpacas, thousands of people dance and sing their way to Q'olloritti, a mountain 16,000 feet above sea level that stands in the shadow of a glacier. Numb from the music, local beer and the fatigue of three days and nights without rest, Shakespeare watches the secret ceremonies and ritual battles.

In the third of an Everyman series of four modern pilgrimages, writer David Lodge follows the ancient route of St James to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. During the 1,000-mile trek he meets some of the 30,000 people who attempt the mammoth journey every year, and encounters a dazzling mixture of the sacred and profane, including the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

In the last of this special Everyman series, Emma Freud goes on a trek across the Arabian deserts in search of frankincense - one of the gifts of the Three Wise Men. She travels the route taken 2,000 years ago when the incense, then as valuable as gold, was carried to temples in the Mediterranean. The journey takes her from the wildness of the frankincense groves in Oman to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. She uncovers an ancient and mysterious world of lost cities, strange customs and passionate beliefs.