Quentin McDermott
Director
Four Corners (1961)
Series 2013
Four Corners is Australia's longest-running investigative journalism/current affairs television program. Broadcast on ABC1 in Australia, it premiered on 19 August 1961 and celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021. Founding producer Robert Raymond and his successor Allan Ashbolt did much to set the ongoing tone of the program. Based on the Panorama concept, the program addresses a single issue in depth each week, showing either a locally produced program or a relevant documentary from overseas. The program has won many awards for investigative journalism, and broken many high-profile stories. A notable early example of this was the show's epoch-making 1962 exposé on the appalling living conditions endured by many Aboriginal Australians living in rural New South Wales.
Released Aug. 19, 1961
Episode 45 min
10+
Genres: Documentary, News
Keywords: tmdb.investigative-journalism, imdb.non-fiction, imdb.television, imdb.vigilantes, imdb.number-4-in-title, imdb.two-word-title, imdb.number-in-title
Network: ABC (AU)
S53E1 - Lance and the Truth
He's a drug cheat, a bully and a liar who abused his best friends to keep a terrible secret, but has Lance Armstrong finally told the truth? The answer - almost certainly - is no.
Jan. 4, 2013, midnight
S53E2 - America's Broken Dreams
It may be the wealthiest country in the world but as documentary maker Philippe Levasseur shows in America's Broken Dreams, when you lose your job in the US there is very little to protect you. In 2008 the global financial crisis hit the poor first, but now America's middle class is being devastated.
Feb. 11, 2013, midnight
S53E3 - Reach For The Sky
It's been called the smartest fighter plane on the planet but it is way over budget and still not delivered. Can the F.35 live up to the hype, or is the project set ot crash and burn?
Feb. 18, 2013, midnight
S53E4 - Punch Drunk
Australians love a drink, and some see no problem at all with drinking to excess. But now doctors, police and paramedics have called 'time', warning that alcohol-fuelled violence has reached crisis levels.
Feb. 25, 2013, midnight
S53E5 - A Betrayal of Trust
With Australia's population ageing, governments have made it very clear, you had better save and plan for your own retirement. But how can you be sure your money is in safe hands...
March 4, 2013, midnight
S53E6 - The Enemy Within
How did a Lebanese immigrant move from owning an ethnic newspaper business to become the most influential politician in the State...
March 11, 2013, midnight
S53E7 - The Untouchables
This PBS-Frontline investigation asks why the US Department of Justice has failed to act on credible evidence that Wall Street deliberately packaged toxic loans and sold them to investors.
March 18, 2013, midnight
S53E8 - Mission Accomplished?
The plan for Afghanistan was a robust democracy overseen by a well-trained army and police. But do the new security forces really have their hearts in the job?
March 25, 2013, midnight
S53E9 - Gas Leak!
The coal seam gas industry promotes itself as a cleaner carbon-fuel alternative; but how do we know this is true? Until now much of the information used to back this claim has come from the industry itself. Four Corners reveals what really happened when two major companies applied to develop thousands of square kilometres of southern Queensland for coal seam gas.
April 1, 2013, midnight
S53E10 - A Gracious Gift
This is a story Australians think they know: the gift of a donated organ that transforms the life of someone with a devastating illness. What we see here for the first time is the extraordinary journey families undergo whose loved ones are dying in hospital from a sudden, unexpected event.
April 8, 2013, midnight
S53E11 - The Spies Who Fooled the World
How the West was duped by informants who claimed Saddam Hussein had WMD and how this phony intelligence was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
April 15, 2013, midnight
S53E12 - Who's Cheating Whom?
Australians like to think their sports stars play fair but now it's alleged there's widespread drug taking and links with organised crime.
April 22, 2013, midnight
S53E13 - No Advantage
We go inside Australia's offshore refugee processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island. What you see will shock you. Protests, evidence of self-harm and testimony of suicide attempts.
April 29, 2013, midnight
S53E14 - The Surf Club
The surf life saving movement is Australia's biggest volunteer organisation and it saves thousands of lives each year. But right now Surf Life Saving Australia is at a crossroads... Wendy Carlisle investigates.
May 6, 2013, midnight
S53E15 - Raising Adam Lanza
An unflinching profile of the young man responsible for one of America's worst school massacres. Who was Adam Lanza - and what led him to kill 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary school last year?
May 13, 2013, midnight
S53E16 - The Big Gamble
We take a revealing look at the world of sports betting and the man who's made himself the face of the industry - Tom Waterhouse.
May 20, 2013, midnight
S53E17 - Hacked!
Andrew Fowler reveals that hackers, working from locations overseas, have targeted key Federal Government departments and major corporations in Australia.
May 27, 2013, midnight
S53E18 - The Hunt For Britain's Sex Gangs
It was the police investigation that stunned Britain. Young men of Pakistani heritage grooming young girls with the intention of abusing them, gang raping them and then trading them with other groups of men. How could it happen in modern Britain?
June 3, 2013, midnight
S53E19 - The Hunting Party
Hunting wild animals is a growth industry and now the pressure is on to get access to national parks. Who really benefits and who is at risk?
June 10, 2013, midnight
S53E20 - Escaping North Korea
Two North Korean defectors are smuggled across borders by a human smuggler who promises them a safe escape. Will they survive the perilous 5,000 km journey to freedom?
June 13, 2013, midnight
S53E21 - Fashion Victims
Australians love a bargain, but what's the real cost of cheap clothes from the sweat shops in Bangladesh? On 24th April this year more than a thousand people were killed when an eight storey building collapsed in the heart of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.
June 25, 2013, midnight
S53E22 - On the Brink
Could you live on 35 dollars a day and pay for food, clothing, transport and other bills? That's what single unemployed people are entitled to on the Newstart allowance.
July 1, 2013, midnight
S53E23 - To the Bitter End
Reporter Marian Wilkinson tells the turbulent story of Labor's bitter leadership struggle, the dramatic day that ended the term of Australia's first female Prime Minister and Labor's renewed ambition to win the next election.
July 8, 2013, midnight
S53E24 - Manhunt: The Boston Bombers
Next on Four Corners, PBS' NOVA documentary producer, Miles O'Brien, looks at how the events unfolded on the day of the bombing and he tracks how a team of investigators used modern technology, combined with good old fashioned detective work, to break the case.
July 15, 2013, midnight
S53E25 - Chemical Time Bomb
In the 1980s and 1990s governments across Australia outlawed the use of the herbicide 245T. The ban was introduced for one very good reason - 245T contains dioxin, a chemical impurity with the potential to seriously harm people who are exposed to it. But has the dioxin menace been tamed? Four Corners reveals evidence that this potentially deadly chemical compound may still be present in weed control products and that authorities do not routinely test for it.
July 22, 2013, midnight
S53E26 - In Search of Nathan Tinkler
The rise and fall of Australia's youngest billionaire, Nathan Tinkler. How did he make so much money and where did it go?
July 29, 2013, midnight
S53E27 - Walking Wounded
War photographer Giles Dooley lost both legs and an arm while on assignment in Afghanistan and returns to record the plight of Afghan civilians who've lost even more.
Aug. 1, 2013, midnight
S53E28 - Cry Freedom: Mandela's Legacy
Nelson Mandela promised a South Africa based on freedom and equality. But as the country's former leader lies in hospital critically ill, the nation he fought to create is slowly disintegrating. Violence is commonplace, unemployment is out of control and the ruling ANC Government is accused of rampant corruption.
Aug. 12, 2013, midnight
S53E29 - Finding Mercy
What do you do when your best friend is lost to you in a tide of violence and cruelty? Do you search across continents to find her? That is the story of filmmaker Robyn Paterson and her friend Mercy.
Aug. 19, 2013, midnight
S53E30 - Buying Time
There is not a person in the community that is not affected by cancer in some way. We go inside the hospitals and consulting rooms with Australians who are confronting the reality that the advanced cancer they have could kill them.
Aug. 26, 2013, midnight
S53E31 - No Margin For Error
Four Corners goes on the campaign trail, taking a fly-on-the-wall look at two seats that will be crucial in deciding who wins Government this time around.
Sept. 2, 2013, midnight
S53E32 - In Google We Trust
Australians are among the most technically connected in the world - but do we know where our data goes and how it's being used?
Sept. 9, 2013, midnight
S53E33 - My Own Choice
The story of a young man with a serious debilitating illness trying to find a way to legally end his own life.
Sept. 16, 2013, midnight
S53E34 - Preying on Paradise
A look at the renewed fight against corruption in Papua New Guinea. Will Australia help or hinder the battle? Marian Wilkinson reports.
Sept. 23, 2013, midnight
S53E35 - Cover Up
Two insiders blow the lid on a financial scandal that goes to the heart of one of Australia's most important and trusted institutions.
Sept. 30, 2013, midnight
S53E36 - Terror in the Desert
The harrowing story of an al Qaeda raid on a remote North African gas plant, told by the people who survived it.
Oct. 7, 2013, midnight
S53E37 - No Accounting
The Jawoyn people were held up as the model Indigenous community. What went wrong? Matthew Carney reports.
Oct. 14, 2013, midnight
S53E38 - While They Were Sleeping
It was an Australia Day paddock party for a group of 19-year-old school friends. But something went very wrong. By sunrise, two young people were dying. So why has no one been held to account?
Oct. 21, 2013, midnight
S53E39 - Fire In The Wire
We're told many bushfires are deliberately lit but close analysis suggests powerlines are the main culprits. What if many of our worst fires are in fact very much like industrial accidents which could have been prevented?
Oct. 28, 2013, midnight
S53E40 - Supersizing India's Kids
A large part of India is in danger of eating itself into an early grave. BBC This World discovers Indian families, obsessed with the glitter of the West, are indulging their children with fast, fatty foods.
Nov. 4, 2013, midnight
S53E41 - JFK - The Lost Bullet
Was John F. Kennedy the victim of conspiracy or a lone gunman? Can the third bullet fired at him that day in Dallas help answer that question?
Nov. 11, 2013, midnight
S53E42 - Trading Misery
In September a boat carrying 72 asylum seekers sank in stormy waters off the coast of Indonesia. Most of those onboard drowned, many of them children. Sarah Ferguson goes on the trail of the people smugglers who organised the vessel.
Nov. 18, 2013, midnight
S53E43 - Palmer Drama
Clive Palmer says he's bankrolled the Palmer United Party to give voice to millions of Australians who can't afford a lobbyist, but can we take him at his word?
Nov. 25, 2013, midnight
ABC (AU)
45 min/ep
60 min
Aug. 19, 1961
Nov. 3, 2025, midnight
Returning Series
TV-PG / 10+
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