Revelations
More information: IMDB
Watch Revelations episodes from 2009
Episode 2131
Divorce: Jewish Style
aired: Sun, Aug 2, 2009
In Jewish law, it is the husband's right to decide whether he will give his wife a divorce, called a Get. If he refuses her, the wife may be sentenced to years of living in a dead marriage. She cannot remarry in the Orthodox Jewish way, and any child she has from a new relationship is considered illegitimate. In Hebrew, she is called an Agunah: a 'chained woman'. With rare access to the Orthodox Jewish community, both here in the UK and also in Israel, this film explores the controversial world of Jewish divorce to find out why these apparently outmoded laws still hold sway.
Episode 2061
Muslim and Looking for Love
aired: Sun, Jul 26, 2009
If you're young, single and Muslim, finding love is getting increasingly difficult. Qualifications, height, job prospects and even complexion are high on the list of demands. Then there's the question of nationality. Will your husband or wife come from Britain or from abroad? For professional women, educated Muslim men are in short supply. Muslim men tend to marry at a younger age, not good news when you're pushing 30. At the Birmingham Central Mosque, they think they have the answer. As well as ministering to its congregation, it also offers the services of one of the largest Muslim marriage bureaus. The Bureau has over a thousand people on its books and Mr Haq and Mr Razzaq are the voluntary matchmakers. Unlikely as it may seem, these two middle-aged men are at the vanguard of a Muslim marriage revolution. For them, the Bureau offers a third way, a space between the traditional arranged marriage and the Western dating scene.
Episode 1991
The Exhumer
aired: Sun, Jul 19, 2009
An observational documentary following the work of exhumation specialist, Peter Mitchell, whose profession has already seen him exhume 30,000 bodies - sometimes individuals, sometimes whole cemeteries - and rebury them in new graves. He was the man tasked with the exhumation of 15,000 bodies from the ground beneath St Pancras station to make way for the cross channel rail link, and he's moved countless other bodies at the request of relatives. Digging up the dead raises profound ethical and religious questions, and taps into our very sense of ourselves. Whether you are in favour or against it, it provokes strong emotions. With over 25 years experience in 'bereavement services', including cemetery management and cremation, Mitchell is well-established as one the UK's leading exhumation consultants. But you can't just go around digging people up - you need a good reason, and permission from the relevant authorities - often the Church of England. We follow Peter over several months as he supervises the controversial exhumation of a Christian cemetery in Egypt - where some of the bodies have been buried for as little as just a few months - and oversees a mass exhumation job at an old churchyard in Scotland.
Episode 1921
Commando Chaplains
aired: Sun, Jul 12, 2009
The last place you might expect to find a chaplain is on the frontline with the Royal Marines, dodging bullets in Afghanistan. And yet chaplains have served in the British Armed forces since the Middle Ages. Their job is a vital one: administering to the wounded, listening to the fearful, and offering spiritual guidance in the heart of war. As religion is dragged into conflicts, by the rhetoric of jihad and crusade, the military chaplain is increasingly coming under the spotlight. Filmed earlier this year, this programme follows two Royal Marine chaplains, Nigel Beardsley and William Gates, as they travel around 'their parish' in Afghanistan, bringing faith to the frontline. Unlike the other armed services, they go whereever their parishioners need them and that often means putting themselves in the line of fire with nothing but their faith to protect them. It is a story not just of belief, but of heroism, human grit and the role of religion on the modern battlefield.
Episode 1851
Muslim School
aired: Sun, Jul 5, 2009
Muslim School traces the lives of two girls from very different backgrounds in their first year at a Muslim faith school. The Nottingham Islamia has opened its doors to cameras, giving a rare insight, through the eyes of two children, into what it means to have a Muslim education in Britain today. Seven-year-old Zara is third generation Pakistani, and Aysha, 12, is a white girl from a mixed English/Pakistani family. Both have transferred from regular state schools to the Nottingham Islamia: one of some 130 Muslim faith schools in Britain. Inside the school, boys and girls line up separately at the start of each day for a timetable of Arabic lessons, Islamic studies, prayers, and a basic national curriculum. At lunch time, the school stage in the assembly hall doubles up as a mosque, where staff and students pray together. Filmed over one year, the film captures Zara and Aysha's lives both at school and at home as they make choices about their identity and beliefs.
