Louise Lancaster - approaching 60 - received one of Britain's longest ever jail terms for peaceful protest, in July 2024.

She served part of her sentence in HMP Bronzefield, the UK's highest security women's prison, alongside some of Britain's most notorious killers.

Louise was one of five Just Stop Oil activists involved in bringing much of the M25 to a standstill in November 2022, and has taken part in several other high profile acts of direct action climate protest.

The judge, in sentencing Louise and a number of co-defendents, told them:

"Each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.

"You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law."

Journalist and producer Patrick Steel has been following Louise's story for several years, and has intimately recorded access to Louise, and her family and friends.

In this documentary, Patrick explores Louise's transition from law-abiding Middle England mum and special educational needs teacher, to law-breaking direct action eco-activist, and criminal.

Has Louise indeed 'crossed the line'? Are her actions a heroic self-sacrifice for the greater good of tackling climate change, or are they damaging and reckless fanaticism?

Presenter: Patrick Steel Producers: Patrick Steel and Carys Wall Sound Design: Tom Drew A Bespoken Media / Fat Toad Films production, from an idea by Terry Macalister

The daily realities and private thoughts of a young woman living through war.

Every morning, Hanya Aljamal sees the same man from her balcony. “He has this tiny garden in the middle of all this concrete stuff,” she says. “Just across the road, there’s a blown-up building. Yet he’s cultivating these little herbs and plants. And I look at that and it just looks like the purest form of resistance.”

Hanya has been living in a war zone for 20 months. In daily audio diaries, she describes what she sees and hears from her balcony and in her work for an aid organisation, from drones and kites to funeral marches and sun rises. Her insights and reflections offer a window into life in a place devastated by conflict.

Producer/presenter: Simon Maybin Editor: China Collins Sound mix: Eloise Whitmore Production coordinators: Hattie Valentine & Gemma Ashman

As the UK Treasury grapples with a massive financial ‘black hole’, its once impoverished neighbour, the Irish Republic, is grappling with the dilemma of how to spend a bounty of €14bn.

It’s a 'pot of gold' which the Irish government didn’t expect – and surprisingly didn't want - but was eventually forced to accept by a European Court ruling that the mighty US corporation, Apple, had underpaid taxes on its extensive Irish-based operations. Added to a mighty windfall from other companies, taking advantage of its low corporate tax policies, Ireland is now one of the richest countries in the European Union.

Dublin's River Liffey waterfront, once a depressed, neglected area, has been transformed into 'Silicon Docks’, a gleaming hub of high rise offices, housing American tech giants including Google, Meta, Airbnb and Docusign.

While other western economies haved struggled and stagnated Ireland has attracted new, dynamic American firms. It's estimated that 700 multinational tech and pharmaceutical companies have bases across Ireland, employing more than 150,000 people. Politically, the country may be tied to Europe but economically it straddles both sides of the Atlantic.

Despite these riches, Ireland has a severe housing crisis, a crumbling health system, weak transport and energy infrastructures and a myriad of other demands on the public purse. While the politicians argue over how the money should best be spent there are growing concerns that Donald Trump's arrival in The White House, could bring these lucrative tax benefits to an end.

For a country so dependent on global trade and the American multi-nationals in particular, it's a moment of serious economic jeopardy, as the BBC's Ireland correspondent, Chris Page, reports.

Presenter: Chris Page, BBC Ireland Correspondent Producers: Kathleen Carragher and John Deering Sound Engineer: Kris McConnachie

Permanent exclusions from schools in England have risen over the last decade. Neil Maggs explores why this might be happening - and what happens to the children who are excluded from the classroom. He visits a pupil referral unit where children are sent if they are excluded from a mainstream school; a school in the North East of England that excluded just one pupil last year to see what it's doing differently, and speaks to experts to see what factors lie behind school exclusions. Presenter: Neil Maggs. Producer: Fergus Hewison. Technical producer: Richard Hannaford. Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith.

The beautiful Atlantic island of Madeira has a chronic problem with a cheap synthetic drug imported through the post.

The drug - nicknamed Bloom - is so easy to get hold of, so cheap and so addictive that authorities are struggling to cope.

Helen Clifton has spent time with police and frontline services to get an idea of how big a problem Bloom now is across Madeiran society. She comes face to face with addicts, and hears about the desperate social impact of a drug more addictive than heroin.

With authorities trying - but failing - to stop the supply, Bloom addicts are in full sight on the streets amongst locals and tourists.

So how can Madeira get a grip on its Bloom problem, before it grows out of control?

Presenter/Producer: Helen Clifton Additional reporting: Erica Franco Research: Liliana Jardim

On a cold night in January 2024 a dog walker finds a baby in a bag - a foundling. She's named Elsa, after the Frozen character.

Reporter Sanchia Berg begins to follow the case, gaining rare access to the Family Court and to the police investigation. DNA tests reveal Elsa is the sibling of two other babies found abandoned in the same area over recent years. What has happened to the mother?

Produced by Lucy Proctor Mixed by James Beard Edited by Matt Willis

The latest figures on NHS finances don't make pretty reading. NHS England alone faces a projected deficit of £6.6 billion for this financial year and the situation looks as bleak right across the NHS in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The NHS has always had to make tough choices about what to prioritise but this deficit is prompting health bosses to make decisions that were previously unthinkable to balance the books.

New research shared exclusively with the BBC by the independent think tank The Kings Fund, surveyed Chief Executive and financial leaders across the NHS in England about the kind of difficult decisions they are having to make because of the huge deficits

But faced with having to make efficiency savings, cutting staff numbers and rolling back on patient services, BBC Health correspondent Dominic Hughes learns how painful these decisions really are, from the people having to make them.

Presenter: Dominic Hughes Producer: Jay Unger Editor: Richard McIlroy Executive Editor: Pete Wilson

Vicky Spratt investigates how people have remained trapped in high interest mortgages since the financial crash of 2008.

Some of these so-called ‘mortgage prisoners’ are homeowners who were formerly customers of Northern Rock, a bank which was famously nationalised by the UK Government.

Since then, these customers have not been able to move out of their high interest mortgages and many are now living in poverty, and often suffering from poor mental and physical health.

There are tens of thousands of ‘mortgage prisoners’ in the UK, and housing journalist Vicky travels to Hartlepool and Blackpool to speak with two of them. She wants to find out how the issue arose and what the Government can do to help.

Presenter: Vicky Spratt Producer: Emily Uchida Finch Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones Assistant Producer: Sam Stone A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4