TRUE CRIME NIGHT

Zara Whittaker, from a poverty-ridden housing project in South London, left behind her 8 month old baby, to go to Barbados and smuggle cocaine back. She never thought anything could go wrong - her partner in crime had done it 12 times before. Three days before the run, she found out she was pregnant, but she'd already spent too much of the drug dealers' money to pull out. Stopped by the police at the airport, Zara was given a five year prison sentence - she gave birth in Barbados, and, after three heartbreaking months, had to give the baby up.

On February 28th, 1997, LAPD officers spot a robbery in progress while on routine patrol. But the situation that follows is about to turn Hollywood movie-nasty. For 40 minutes, the robbers easily outgun the LAPD in one of the most violent shootouts in US history. Squad cars are destroyed and nine officers and two civilians are shot in a hail of more than 1,100 rounds. But, miraculously, only the perpetrators die. How did two men keep dozens of fully armed police officers at bay? How did police keep themselves and many civilians from being fatally shot? How were the two criminals finally subdued?

In 1985 Australian businessman Chris Parnell was arrested and accused of smuggling twelve kilos of hashish in Bali , Indonesia. To avoid going to court and a possible death sentence, he feigned madness, and was locked up in a mental hospital. An early escape attempt ended in disaster when he crashed through a roof into a secure lunatic asylum. After this he stood trail and was sentenced to life in prison. Determined to prove his innocence, he made a further daring escape attempt disguised as a woman, but was recaptured. He spent the next eleven years in a spiraling prison nightmare which in culminated in him being declared dead in a prison mortuary. Following pressure from the Australian government, Chris was granted a Presidential pardon and was released on 26th September 1996.

What really happens to human beings in isolation? Is there a difference in the effects of solitude by chance, by choice, or, as is the case in some prisons, by force?

A fleet of 115 yachts sets off on the gruelling 630-mile course of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Twenty-six hours into the race and every competitors fear becomes a reality - a weather bomb explodes in the treacherous waters of Bass Strait. Even the sturdiest of yachts are hammered by 70-knot winds and 100-foot waves, as one of the greatest ocean challenges becomes a desperate race for survival. Countless racing yachts are capsized, sunk or simply left stranded. Australian authorities must now launch one of the largest peacetime rescue operation the world has ever seen.

Jake Stanford attempted to supply another American with two kilos of Marijuana. A resulting drugs bust would see him witness two policemen shot point blank as well as being gunshot himself.

Prisons across Russia unlock their doors. Go inside a top security facility where cannibals, terrorists and killers live out the rest of their days

On Friday, June 2nd 1995, Captain Scott O'Grady is patrolling a NATO no-fly zone over Bosnia when his F-16 aircraft bursts into flames after being hit by a Bosnian Serb missile. The fighter pilot ejects from his disintegrating plane and parachutes to earth, landing deep in hostile territory. With armed militia hot on his heels, OGrady dives into the undergrowth. Moments later his pursuers pass five feet from his head. For six days, OGrady evades capture, moving only by night, desperately trying to establish radio contact with his comrades. On the sixth night, a pilot from OGradys air base finally hears his radio call, setting into motion a daring, daylight rescue mission by U.S. Marines.

In 2003, Zoe McGarry's life changed forever after a chance encounter with a man called Tony. She met him in Nigeria while visiting the country with her Nigerian husband Olu, and they soon all became close friends. Tony had family in London and Zoe and Olu invited him to stay in their house. But within months his personality started to change, he was no longer the happy, warm person they once knew. And then, one day, he just disappeared. A few months later, he called Zoe from Ecuador begging her for help to re-new his visa so he could return to the UK and make a fresh start. Eventually, Tony persuaded Zoe to visit him to help with his paperwork. But once there, Tony's behaviour proved untrustworthy. He avoided visiting the embassy every time she brought the subject up. They visited a local tourist market where Zoe bought several souvenirs. Tony gave her a rucksack to carry them home in. Eventually after 4 days, Zoe decided to return to London, but never made it. As she boarded the flight home, police arrested her and discovered 2.6 kilogram's of cocaine in the lining of the rucksack that Tony had given her. She was locked up and despite protesting her innocence was given a 16 year jail term in a Quito jail. After serving 4 she was released on parole and finally returned home to her native Ireland. Tony was never caught or brought to trial.

Japan's infamous organized crime syndicates known as the yakuza.

Elite British soldiers mount a daring rescue in a diamond-rich African trouble-spot. Eleven British peacekeepers and a Sierra Leone Army officer have been kidnapped by a notorious rebel gang, the so-called West Side Boys. High on drink and drugs and armed to the teeth, these guys are no pushovers. UK special forces, the SAS, have a motto, Who Dares Wins. How appropriate for an audacious operation that would set the standard for 21st century military raids. How did the rebels capture and keep British hostages for more than two weeks? And how did the British assault force mount such a successful attack on an unpredictable and heavily-armed rebel group?

April 2006: Atlanta musician David Evans loves his girfriend Julie Goldstein but they're always broke. In a rash attempt to prove he could make some cash, he agrees to act as a drug mule. He deceives Julie by telling her he is going to Europe when actually he flies to Caracas Venezuela. There he picks up 7 pounds (3.2 kilos) of cocaine carried in cans of hairspray. Despite believing that 'everyone is paid off' at Caracas airport, he is caught and arrested. Julie meanwhile has gone to meet him in Amsterdam. She has no idea why he is not there to meet her - until he calls. Over the ensuing months he sinks deeper into the hell of the Venezuelan penal system and Julie has to take care of herself. Their lives drift apart. October 2008: After 27 months David is finally free and they arrange to meet. Is there a chance they will get back together? We end the film with David and Julie's actual reunion in Atlanta - and David pays the price for his deception.

Many, like ex-punk rocker and special Explorer correspondent Henry Rollins, have struggled with feelings of aggression their entire lives, and NGC is on a mission to figure out why.

In 1993 Brendan Cosso was partying and mixing with celebrities in Hollywood. He didn't need the money. But when the offer came to smuggle cocaine out of Brazil for $50,000, he took it. He was arrested with three friends at Sao Paulo airport. Thanks to the efforts of his father in securing a top criminal lawyer, Brendan received a sentence of four years rather than the 25 demanded by the prosecution. But he was sent to Carandiru prison, the most violent prison in South America, where a year previously 111 prisoners had been massacred.

In the cocaine capital of the world, violence is the law. One man, more than any other, holds the country in a bloody death grip Pablo Escobar, the worlds most notorious drug-baron. With US support Colombias President fights back, but Escobar is too strong. In a desperate bid to bring peace, the President resorts to offering a tempting deal if the drug-lord serves just a few years, hell emerge with a clean slate. Escobar surrenders, but his luxurious prison offers him a safe place to keep running his business as usual, and even commit murder. When the government decides to act, after a year of humiliation, Escobar simply walks past the guards and disappears. An elite Colombian force, backed by top-secret US military technology, finally get their man following one of the biggest manhunts in history.

On July 2nd, 2008 a new page was written in the history of military hostage rescues. On that day, a Colombian military intelligence force, using a strategy of deceit, rescued 15 hostages from the jungles of Colombia. The hostages where being held by dozens of armed guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. Throughout the rescue operation, not a single shot was fired, no one was killed and no one was harmed. Through never before seen footage of the planning and execution of the operation, a video taken by the duped guerillas, firsthand accounts of the rescued hostages and for the first time, the testimonies of the intelligence commandoes who executed the mission, this documentary presents the dramatic, real story of one of the most successful rescue operations in history.

October 23rd, 2002, In the centre of Moscow, just a few miles from the Kremlin, over 50 Chechen terrorists storm the Dubrovka Theatre, home to Russia's first broad-way style musical 'Nord-Ost' and take all of the 900-strong audience hostage. Led by the notorious rebel Movsar Barayev, the terrorists rig the theatre with explosives as the audience are surrounded by female suicide bombers known as the 'black widows'. The terrorists demands? An end to Russia's long and brutal war with Chechnya. If these conditions are not met, everyone inside will die. Over the next three days President Putin refuses to negotiate with the Chechens and a plan is hatched to use a top-secret 'knock-out' gas which will immobilize both rebel and hostage alike. Initially a success, victory turns to disaster for Russia as hostages start to die in their dozens due to the effects of the gas. What exactly went wrong during the siege of the Dubrovka theatre, why did so many die and why does Russia still, to this day refuse to reveal exactly what the gas was?

El Paso, 1989: Alex Silva is a bored and disaffected teenager, whose life is going nowhere fast. Worried he'll end up on the streets, Alex's uncle gets him a job in a tire shop. But instead of keeping his head down, Alex is distracted by some wealthy Mexican customers. Chasing the scent of money, he discovers that they are drug smugglers, who bring marijuana into the US from Mexico. Alex begs to be let in on the action and finds himself driving marijuana-laden cars across the border from Juarez into El Paso. Thinking this is easy money, he asks for a bigger job. For the next task, Alex, who has never been south of Juarez, will have to drive deep into unfamiliar territory and get the drugs past further checkpoints in the US. Dumb luck is on his side, and he gets away with it. By the second run he's cocky - an attitude which is paid off by his arrest in Mexico. What follows is a coming-of-age story, as torture, imprisonment, falling in love, and a jail break conspire to finally make Alex a man.

Johnny Fratto, son of onetime Al Capone-associate Louis "Lew" Fratto, back to Chicago, where he uncovers massacre myths of the bloody day in Chicago.

On 24 July 2002, eighteen miners descend into the Black Wolf mine in Quecreek, Pennsylvania. A few hours later, their lives are plunged into peril when one of the miners accidentally breaks through into a long abandoned mine - unleashing 60 million gallons of stagnant groundwater. Nine of the miners manage to fight their way through the raging torrent and escape. The other nine retreat to the highest section of the mine, where they sit and wait to be drowned by the rising floodwater. Their only hope is that the feverish rescue operation underway 240 feet above their heads will reach them before the water does. 77 hours later, the miners are plucked to safety through a 30-inch wide rescue shaft, drilled by their heroic team of rescuers.

When Kahlilah meets music producer Roy, her life is completely transformed. But Roy abandons her in Panama with a bag stuffed with cocaine. She gets caught & spends 6 yrs in a prison in Cuba.

May 30th, 2002. A single missed step by a climber on Mount Hood, Oregon, leads to one of America's worst ever climbing disasters. Icy conditions mean that as one man tumbles into another on the crowded slopes, none are able to self arrest. Nine climbers tumble into a gaping crevasse known as the Bergshrund- three are killed instantly. But for the six survivors, some badly injured, the fight is now to escape the crevasse. Fellow climbers group together to lift them for safety, but as one of their rescue helicopters approaches a fresh disaster looms… with TV cameras running, the state of the art Pave Hawk helicopter loses power in the thin mountain air, and crashes to the ground with five crewmembers inside. Now both climbers and rescuers are in need of help….

A Russian Navy submarine on a secret mission gets entangled in fishing nets and is trapped underwater with limited oxygen. Who can save the crew from the icy depths?

On February 28th, 1997, LAPD officers spot a robbery in progress while on routine patrol. But the situation that follows is about to turn Hollywood movie-nasty. For 40 minutes, the robbers easily outgun the LAPD in one of the most violent shootouts in US history. Squad cars are destroyed and nine officers and two civilians are shot in a hail of more than 1,100 rounds. But, miraculously, only the perpetrators die. How did two men keep dozens of fully armed police officers at bay? How did police keep themselves and many civilians from being fatally shot? How were the two criminals finally subdued?

Zara Whittaker knew she was smuggling drugs but what she didn't know was that she was carrying a baby too.