| NEXT PANORAMA - WHO WILL SAVE THE SAVERS?- MONDAY 8.30PM ON BBC ONE
CRIME PAYS
Last Monday, crooks and their profits from illegal activity were investigated in Panorama's Crime Pays. The programme looked at the Proceeds of Crime Act which was meant to help the Crown claw back the assets of felons but in many cases is failing. In some instances it has actually cost the tax payer more to recover criminal's assets than the assets are actually worth.
In the programme, reporter Samantha Poling exposed a convicted drug dealer who had escaped paying back some of his dodgy money and interviewed the former Home Secretary David Blunkett, who admitted the Act had failed.
Watch Crime Pays here.
See the interview with David Blunkett here.
RUSSIA REARMS
Russia will spend nearly £94.5bn on buying arms up until 2011, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.
The move comes over concerns about Nato's expansion near Russia's borders and regional conflicts.
It is thought the brief war in Georgia exposed problems with outdated equipment and practices within Russia's armed forces leading to calls for military modernisation.
The short war between Russia and Georgia was the catalyst for our report on the country last October.
In Panorama's Should we be Scared of Russia? - reporter Mark Franchetti investigated the growing gulf between Russia and the West and asked if the current tensions might degenerate into a new Cold War or even a violent confrontation.
You can view the film here.
Read about the Russian rearming announcement here.
IRAQI LIFE IMPROVES
On the 6th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, violence and insecurity are no longer the main concern for most Iraqis, an opinion poll suggests.
The survey was carried out for the BBC, and others in February. It is the sixth in a series of surveys and shows a marked overall improvement in perceptions.
Of particular note is the number of people who report direct experience of car bombs, suicide attacks, sectarian fighting, kidnappings and assassination in their areas are much lower than last year.
To mark the anniversary Panorama reporter Jane Corbin put together a collection of video archive footage from the five years she has been reporting from the country.
In the most recent programme about Iraq, Jane Corbin investigated the alleged corruption when contracts for caterers, security guards and interrogators were handed out as the US and its allies went to war.
You can watch this film, Daylight Robbery - What happened to the $23billion? here.
You can read the about the poll here.
You can read Jane Corbin's article and watch the video archive here.
WHO WILL SAVE THE SAVERS?
Next Monday Panorama looks at pensions. The economic crisis has meant that the already existing pension hole has taken on a new more critical dimension. For the episode Panorama is in Harrogate with a group of financial advisors to hear people's pension problems while offering to solve them.
The programme also meets ministers and those in charge of the pensions system, to find out how it's being run, and how it should be run.
You can watch a trailer for the programme here.
Panorama: Who Will Save the Savers? - Monday 23 March 2009, 20:30, BBC 1.
1959 - A PANORAMA GUIDE.
Next week BBC4 will be looking at 1959 through the prism of Panorama. It was a year that Britain finally realised the old world was fast disappearing, the game was up for the Empire and attitudes to class, race and gender were beginning to shift.
It was also a time when television was entering a golden age and Panorama was there to record the birth of modern Britain as it headed into the next decade.
It is not the first time BBC4 has looked at the past through the eyes of Panorama. It has already looked at a Panorama broadcast in 1960, which you can read about here.
1959 - A Panorama Guide is on BBC 4, Friday 27 March 8pm
 bbc.co.uk/panorama
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