File on 4 Investigates

DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared, leaving the children and their mothers without support.
With exclusive access to every stage of this cutting-edge process, we follow as a team of lawyers and a leading geneticist travel to Kenya. We witness the groundbreaking legal and scientific detective work used to find the missing military dads.
Lawyers believe British soldiers stationed at the army base in Nanyuki, Kenya, may have fathered hundreds of children over decades — the oldest we meet is now 70 the youngest just three years old.
What’s at stake is not only the reputation of the British armed forces and the UK’s post-colonial legacy. The mixed-heritage children have in some cases been ostracised by their communities and denied a chance of British citizenship since birth.
Presenter: Ivana Davidovic
Producer: Josephine Casserly
A Long Form Audio production.

Jack Butcher investigates allegations that children in West German welfare institutions were subjected to widespread medical abuse, including medical experiments.
During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, many children found themselves in West Germany's sprawling network of children's institutions. In recent years, Germany has been shocked by revelations that some were used as guinea pigs for powerful new drugs, including potent anti-psychotics, as doctors worked hand in hand with pharmaceutical companies to observe the effects of new medications on young children.
The allegations were first brought to public attention by Sylvia Wagner, a pharmaceutical historian who grew up in a care home, and whose own brother was a victim of medical abuse.
Pulling together Sylvia's research, speaking to victims and digging through the documentation, Jack Butcher and reporter Ilona Toller, who led a major investigation of the scandal for German national radio, lay bare the horrendous human cost and tell the story of the tenacious activists who have challenged the conscience of their nation.
Producer and Presenter: Jack Butcher
With reporting from Ilona Toller and Anouk Millet, and additional research by Leonie Mombaur.
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design: Phoebe McIndoe
Mix: Arlie Adlington
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

White disadvantaged girls are being overlooked, school leaders are warning. Whilst white working-class boys remain one of the worst performing group in their GCSEs, white girls from low income homes aren’t much further behind them.
File on 4 Investigates has worked with the BBC Data team to compare 2025's GCSE results in England with those of 2019. The team found that white working class girls in England have seen some of the biggest declines in attainment since 2019 - with just 38 percent of these students passing their English and Maths exams. All girls are down by 1.6 percentage points at GCSE but low-income white British girls are down by 6.4 percentage points. Cutting the link between 'background and success' and halving the 'disadvantage gap' is something the Department for Education has pledged to tackle.
In this programme we examine what is behind the decline for this group of girls and meet school leaders who are working to reverse it.
Reporter: Hayley Mortimer
Producer: Ashley Kennedy
Technical Producer: Cameron Ward
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

What happens when the sperm or egg donor you choose isn’t the one you get? Northern Cyprus is a sun-soaked haven for affordable IVF. But behind the glossy clinic websites, parents are discovering their chosen sperm or egg donors might not have been used. For File on 4 Investigates Anna Collinson follows parents searching for answers and children wondering where they have come from.
File on 4 Investigates Sunshine & Secrets: The hidden side of IVF
Producer: Jo Adnitt
Executive Producer: Rob Brown
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott
Details of organisations offering information and support with infertility are available on the Pregnancy related issues page at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

The UK was once a world leader in heart and lung transplantation. Pioneering surgeons attracted patients from all over the world. But the NHS has not kept pace with medical and technological developments and today the UK lags far behind most similar countries. It carries out fewer transplants and a lack of resources mean it doesn’t routinely use modern technologies. Many of the health service’s leading surgeons have left to work overseas in recent years, frustrated, they say, at the lack of attention transplant services have received from NHS England.
Through speaking to patients, surgeons and experts, File on Four Investigates looks at what the UK needs to do to update and transform this life-changing service.
Reporter Michael Buchanan
Producers: Adam Eley & Paul Grant
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott