Q.E.D. (1982)

Bruce Silcock 's neighbours are less than excited about his plans to become a millionaire. Bad enough, they think, to live near his small fishing bait farm in Essex, with its pits of maggots and stench of rotting meat, but now Bruce wants to start maggot production on an industrial scale. The Maggot Mogul follows Bruce as he seeks planning permission to build the biggest maggot farm in the world. He explains that the maggot is an environmentally useful creature - not only does it neatly dispose of the huge amounts of dead and diseased meat generated by factory farming, but Bruce has now discovered that the waste it produces makes an excellent organic fertiliser. This is a timely discovery considering that this country is facing an environmental crisis over what we should do with the animal carcases left over from the factory farm industry. As far as Bruce is concerned, he believes this is his chance to make a lot of money. All he has to do now is run the gauntlet of reluctant planning committees and protesting locals before he can achieve his dream. Michael Elphick narrates the extraordinary story of one man's battle to persuade his local council-and his neighbours - to appreciate and respect what must be the world's most unusual environmental saviour.

As part of the BBC season marking the Year of the Family, QED returns to the Webbers, subject of last year's "A Family Game". Amanda and Clive Webber 's lives were dominated by the constant temper tantrums of their 5-year-old son, and the film followed the family through a pioneering course of therapy at the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital in London. Psychological disturbances in Amanda's own life were discovered, and so one concern of this follow-up programme is to discover whether she has come to terms with her past, as well as to report on the progress of the Maudsley experiment. The film also considers the implications for families who may well be less capable than the Webbers of taking steps to tackle the problem of overbearingly disruptive children.

New methods designed to help accident victims make quick and full recoveries from their injuries are being pioneered in Stoke-on-Trent. The Staffordshire Royal Infirmary is conducting a unique experiment by running a trauma unit in the casualty department. This means that when an injured patient is admitted, at whatever time of day or night, a specialist consultant is on hand to assess the damage and immediately decide on a course of action. This expertise, when combined with facilities one would normally expect to find in other hospital departments, has proved effective in saving lives and shortening in-patient time. QED returns with an extended edition following the work of the trauma unit. Says Tony Redmond , one of the trauma team leaders: "We're saving more lives and the quality of the ones we save is improved."

Although the football boot has evolved over the years, becoming lighter and more streamlined, the first radical re-think had to wait for former Liverpool player Craig Johnston and a rainy day in his native Australia. It has always been accepted that a football boot is made of leather, but is this the best material to provide control of the ball? Many experiments and prototypes later, Johnston's moulded rubber boot is undergoing trials and is arousing huge interest throughout the football-playing world. Leeds veteran Gordon Strachan says: "You've never seen anything like it - it's got a sweet spot like a golf club." And after testing the boot Liverpool and England under-21 player Jamie Redknapp confessed: "I could not hit those shots with my normal boot." Although Johnston has no training in technology he has always been an 'ideas man', and this film traces the story of what could prove to be his most lucrative idea to date.

Alex Torbet is Britain's equivalent of the Birdman of Alcatraz. After a distinguished RAF career he murdered his wife and father-in-law in an uncontrollable fit of anger, and in 1979 was sentenced to life imprisonment. In Saughton Prison, Edinburgh, Torbet became interested in the fish in the prison's aquaculture unit, attached to Stirling University, and was soon saving the university a huge amount of money thanks to his skill in breeding both fish and shellfish for their experiments. He was particularly drawn to a species called tilapia, whose ability to provide high-protein food from a diet of rubbish gave it great potential as a source of food for poor countries. He developed a golden strain, attractive as well as nutritious, which is now helping to feed the Third World. Due for release this year, Torbet was hoping to continue his work at Stirling, but the university had reservations about his joining their team. QED examines his life and work behind bars, and his hopes for the future.

At the age of 12 Sir John Wilson was blinded in a school laboratory accident, and has dedicated his working life to the prevention and treatment of disability. Thirty years ago the Prime Minister of India, Pandit Nehru , told him that India's greatest asset was its railway system, and many years later Sir John has persuaded the Indian government to provide a train fitted out as a mobile hospital, travelling from village to village throughout India. Bismilia is 7. Since contracting polio as a baby she has never been able to stand, gettingaround her village by crawling in the dirt. Then her mother heard about the " magic train", the Lifeline Express. QED follows the train into Bismilla's village to treat those suffering from polio, blindness and deafness. The film also covers Sir John's first visit to the train, and the first steps Bismilla takes after her operation. Narrator Sue Lawley. Producer Fiona Holmes

Maurice Ward is a Hartlepool hairdresser. He is also the inventor of a substance that can withstand any amount of heat, while remaining cool. The implications for science and industry are limitless. Ward, his wife and his daughter know the formula, and he is well aware of the value of his invention, which has been christened Starlite. This means that he is also extremely cagey about revealing anything that might compromise his control over it. In turn, this makes it impossible for Starlite to be independently tested, patented or exploited. QED follows Ward on a trip to talk to scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the USA, who realise the implications of Starlite for space travel. Ward is willing to wait for the right deal - how many millions should tempt him to sign away the secret?

"Every time we lose an animal we're haunted by doubts, "says RSPCA vet Ian Robinson , who is on call seven days a week at the high-tech East Winch animal hospital in Norfolk. "The vast majority of animals we come across are suffering because of man.Wherever there's an interaction between man and wildlife, wildlife suffers. Here we have an opportunity to redress that balance." In the last of this series, QED records life at East Winch over four months, in particular following the story of Grouper the grey seal and his fight for survival. Grouper was found stranded on a Humberside beach with an infected gash on his neck, near to death. The film also looks at a wounded badger, a sick kestrel and a hedgehog with no spines. "We're in a situation where there is so much unknown," says Robinson, "but I think we're getting better."

"Killer bug ate my face!" "Dither and you die!" screamed the tabloid headlines in May this year. For one week the nation was terrorised by an outbreak of flesh-eating bacteria stories. The "epidemic" of streptococcal infections started in Gloucestershire, but within days claimed victims across the country. Then suddenly there were no more reported cases and the panic was over. Curse of the Killer Bug goes behind the headlines to examine how the superbug scare happened. Staff at Stroud and Gloucester hospitals assess the way they handled the scare, journalists describe how the story broke and the people of Stroud talk about being the focus of a world news story. But this first programme in a new series of QED also reveals that while the headlines concentrated on these lurid cases, another deadly strain of bacteria has killed 60 people in the Midlands alone this year.

Three years ago, Annie Reid was told she had cancer. She decided to fight the disease as long as possible and leave her young family a legacy including poems, songs, and a book for the children. In this moving film portrait, Annie faces her greatest challenge so far - a huge operation which could save her life. QED cameras follow her as she waits to hear the results of vital tests and prepares for what may lie ahead.

"We've come a long way from Barbara Woodhouse ; nowadays it's the owners who get told to sit," says Michael Houldey , producer of this insight into a new British breed - the dog psychologist. Once thought of as a faddy indulgence on the part of Americans with more money than sense, the canine counselling business is booming and vets and owners are taking it seriously. For the Robotham's, man's best friend has become their worst nightmare - Blue the alsatian can only be walked at night. Oscartheterrier'sfamily are virtual prisoners in their own home. And Stanley, a doberman, has been ordered by a court to be destroyed. Will eminent dog psychologist Roger Mugford 's "character testimony" save him? Mugford is one of three behaviourists who contribute to the programme and although each has a different approach, all agree that owner psychology is equally important when it comes to assessingtheir pets. "The problem is that people do not take into account the traits of their breed," says one. " Not only this but they view their dogas a little human, which it isn't. It's a dog - a civilised wolf."

It's a normal day at the green customs channel at Heathrow airport. A random check on a jumpy passenger carrying a camcorder case reveals a deadly cargo.... six live rattlesnakes. Producer Will Aslett , who made this film about the animal quarantine stations near Heathrow's Terminal 4, witnessed the incident - and several more like it. Finches from Senegal, stuffed 150 to a cage the size of a briefcase, and a suspiciously cold bag packed with the thawing carcasses of a hunter's booty, from armadillos to silver foxes, bound for an Italian taxidermist. Last year alone, 12,853 animals, mostly endangered species, were seized. All the animals that arrive at Heathrow, whether smuggled or legally imported, have to go through the quarantine station, Europe's first line of defence against disease. But it's an uphill struggle: five new diseases have entered the UK in the past 18 months and the relaxing of European laws on quarantine is makingtheir work even harder.

"If you eat your dinner, you can have pudding." How many people remember that bribe as a child? And how many repeat it to their own offspring? Yet an apparently innocent remark like that can be the start of a vicious circle of feeding difficulties in children. Food Fights looks at parents' attitude towards children's eating habits by focusing on one family, the Marklews. Their 3-year-old son [text removed] has eaten very little for the last year and his parents are particularly anxious because he has had a heart operation. This documentary picks up the Marklews' story with their first visit to psychologist Gill Harris, whose advice seems to contradict fundamental beliefs.