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Documentaries & Factual

The DeLorean Story

On 19 October 1982, at the Sheraton Plaza, Los Angeles, grainy footage showed businessman John DeLorean taking delivery of a mysterious suitcase before being arrested by the FBI.

Back in Northern Ireland, his devoted workforce, recruited from hard-line Loyalist and Republican areas, looked on in disbelief.

This film tells the story of the transformation of a muddy field in Belfast into a state-of-the-art factory. The workforce turned out thousands of the gullwing-doored wonder-cars.

They didn't really work properly, but they looked great. Even Michael J Fox thought so.

´óÏó´«Ã½ FOUR goes back to the future, to a time when Belfast battled with Milan and Detroit's finest. (LK)

Malaria Mission

In a remarkable new observational documentary, filmed over three years, ´óÏó´«Ã½ FOUR tracks the fight to find a vaccine for the oldest disease known to man.

Malaria still claims two million victims every year. Most cases appear in sub-Saharan Africa but the disease is spreading by the day and has recently reappeared in the southern states of America.

As the malaria parasite develops, its resistance to each new drug increases and the need for a vaccine becomes ever more urgent.

Malaria Mission follows the life of sufferers in a Kenyan village and in Florida, as experts in Britain and America fight against the clock to discover an effective vaccine. (ER)

The Other Side Of… The Suez Crisis

On 26 July 1956, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt made a strategic move that caught the Western world by surprise.

He nationalised the Suez Canal Company, precipitating what became known as the Suez Crisis - one of the biggest political stalemates of the century.

The Other Side Of... The Suez Crisis reveals, for the first time, the complexity of this historic story from the Egyptian and Russian perspective.

Unravelling the development of the world-changing political events step by step, the programme combines interviews with key political players and exclusive access to Soviet policy-making documents, to assess what led Nasser to this ultimate test of wills. (CC/EF)

The House Of Saud - Storyville

The House Of Saud is a fascinating and exclusive look at the al-Sauds, the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.

Through revealing portraits of the five monarchs, the programme retraces recent political history and provides a unique insight into this complex tribal nation.

Since the events of 11 September 2001 and the actions of its most infamous son, Osama Bin Laden, Saudi Arabia has been propelled into the limelight.

The country's very survival depends on maintaining the precarious balance between Islam and modernity.

However, as support for Islamic fundamentalism grows and relations with the USA become increasingly tense, The House Of Saud examines whether the al-Saud family can weather the turbulent times ahead. (CC/EF)

The World

With a distinctive news agenda, the daily news programme on ´óÏó´«Ã½ FOUR has been relaunched, and now features a new set and more in-depth reporting from around the globe.

Presented by Kirsty Lang, The World reports international news from a global perspective, exploring intriguing stories and angles.

The World is shown at 8.00pm every weekday on ´óÏó´«Ã½ FOUR and simultaneously on ´óÏó´«Ã½ World, which is broadcast to 273 million homes in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

The half-hour programme draws on the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s newsgathering operation - the largest of any broadcaster in the world. (PR)

Holidays In The Danger Zone: America Was Here

From the Vietnam War and the secret war in Laos in the Seventies to George Bush Senior's invasion of Panama a decade ago, American foreign policy has had a major effect on a number of countries on most continents.

Holidays In The Axis Of Evil reporter Ben Anderson returns to take a lively and eventful trip through the countries that have experienced American intervention - and to feel and see what life is like today for their inhabitants. (PR)

Selling Greece - Storyville

As Athens - the birthplace of Olympic spirit - prepares to host the 2004 Olympic Games, Storyville investigates just how Athenians really feel about hosting the greatest show on Earth.

Following the story of the run-up to the Olympics, the film takes vox-pop opinions from everyday men and women on the street, neatly juxtaposing their down-to-earth concerns with the high ideals of the Athens Olympic Committee, senior politicians and local glitterati.

What follows is a fascinating insight into Greek national pride, as Athenians battle with organisational shortcomings and inbuilt prejudices to achieve the unachievable. (CC/EF)