BBC Documentaries

The right thing: Gaza's parish priest

Loading player...
As a young missionary priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli left his native Argentina to work in the Middle East. He went out of a passion for bringing Christ to the people wherever he was called. He became Gaza’s only Catholic parish priest at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City. Life in the territory was never easy, but it became extraordinarily challenging after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 when around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry. The Gaza Hamas-run Health Ministry has put the number killed since the start of the war at around 74,000 including more than 20,000 children. Mike Wooldridge finds out what motivated Fr Romanelli to return to his flock and stay with them through the dangers and hardships of the devastating war that followed the Hamas attack. On the day of the assault, he was in Bethlehem in the West Bank – and it took him nearly seven months to obtain permission from the Israeli authorities to go back to Gaza.
22 Oct 8PM English United Kingdom Education

Other recent episodes

Rebranding sleep apnoea

Obstructive sleep apnoea is a condition where a person’s breathing stops and starts repeatedly while they sleep, possibly over 30 times an hour, leaving them exhausted on waking. It affects millions around the world and can lead to serious health problems if left untreated. Patients are often given a CPAP…
30 Oct 9PM 28 min

The right thing: Uganda’s fearless nun

Rosemary Nyirumbe became a nun when she was just in her mid-teens – and she felt her true vocation lay in rehabilitating children who had been through some of the worst trauma imaginable. So that’s what she did. In this episode Mike Wooldridge hears Sr Rosemary’s astonishing story. The feared…
29 Oct 9PM 32 min

Good Bad Billionaire: Gautam Adani

Gautam Adani’s businesses span almost every part of life in India. From energy to food, ports to mining, and drinks to weapons, the Adani group has widespread influence over millions of people day to day. From his early career as a diamond trader, Gautam built a reputation as always looking…
28 Oct 9PM 50 min

Digging deep to help farmers

A new farming method is having a dramatic effect on maize crops in Malawi, and assistance is coming from a solar-powered tractor. In the last of her visits to Malawi, Myra goes to a village where they are using a new method called Deep Bed Farming. It has more than…
27 Oct 9PM 28 min

Loving, living and dying together in the Netherlands

Els and Jan have fewer than three days left on Earth. Childhood sweethearts who met in kindergarten more than six decades ago, they know precisely when they will die. And how. On an early summer’s Monday morning they will travel to a nearby hospice. Some of their family and friends…
26 Oct 9PM 59 min
All episodes