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Buried

BBC Radio 4 LW

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Buried: Series 1: Series 1 - 7. How to Make a Mafia

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Factual: Life Stories

Factual: Crime & Justice: True Crime

Buried The Last Witness series image

Two reporters and a film star dig into a witness's lost files on a toxic chemical secret.

A husband and wife team up with the film star Michael Sheen to dig into a witness's lost files on a toxic chemical secret. What really happened to the witness?

From a deathbed tape to a witness in protection, Buried is the award-winning true-crime series digging into some of the most disturbing environmental stories in history.

"It's buried isn't it? But it's coming back." The haunting words of a witness who claimed he'd discovered a toxic chemical secret half a century ago that would affect us all. 

In this thrilling new investigation, Buried: The Last Witness, Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor team up with the film star Michael Sheen, who recorded the witness before he died. Together, they dig into the unseen files of a man who said he was beaten up and put under police protection, after alleging that a chemical had contaminated the food chain.


It is a story straight out of a Hollywood drama: an opera-loving British gentleman clashes with an American corporate giant, claiming there was a conspiracy to silence him. Was the witness right? Science and shadows collide in this true-crime epic, as the hosts search for the truth, testing soil, food and even their own blood - to uncover what one chemical can do at its worst.

Buried is a bingeable, fast-paced true-crime series exposing urgent environmental stories you've almost certainly never heard of. Husband-and-wife investigative duo Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor delve into thrilling mysteries - bringing to light never-before-heard recordings or boxes of explosive legal documents, inviting the audience to unpick crimes or scandals with them. 

Their stories throw them - and us - into secret worlds, be it the organised crime unfolding in our waste, or trails of toxic chemicals that go right to our plates.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Buried: Series 1

Series 1

A deathbed tape leads two reporters to one of the worst environment crimes in UK history.

A deathbed tape leads two reporters into one of the worst environment crimes in UK history: a secret one million tonne toxic dump near a city. What did the man in the tape know?

A trucker's deathbed tape plays out. It's urgent, desperate. "All you have to do... is dig it up." And so begins a deep-dive into one of the worst environment crimes in UK history: the secret dumping of a million tonnes of waste near a city. But when investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor uncover missing documents, fears of toxicity and allegations of organised crime, they realise they've stumbled into something much bigger. As they pick at the threads of one crime, they begin to see others. Could Britain be the home of a new mafia, getting rich on our waste? In this thrilling series, a husband-and-wife duo dive into a criminal underworld, all the time following clues left in a deathbed tape. They're driven by one question: what did the man in the tape know?

Series 1 - 7. How to Make a Mafia

BBC Radio 4 - Buried, Series 1, Series 1 - 7. How to Make a Mafia

In a violent mafia’s home town, we learn how the UK is playing a dangerous game.

In the Comorrah’s neighbourhood in Naples, Dan and Lucy learn how waste can fuel a mafia. They’re warned that the UK is playing a dangerous game.

In the Comorrah’s neighbourhood in Naples, Dan and Lucy learn how waste can fuel a mafia. They’re warned that the UK is playing a dangerous game.

"All you have to do... is dig it up." 

A trucker’s deathbed tape plays out. It’s urgent, desperate.
 
In this BBC Radio 4 podcast series, investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor deep-dive into one of the worst environment crimes in UK history - the secret dumping of a million tonnes of waste near a city. But when they uncover missing documents, fears of toxicity and allegations of organised crime, they realise they’ve stumbled into something much bigger. As they pick at the threads of one crime, they begin to see others. Could Britain be the home of a new mafia, getting rich on our waste?

In a thrilling ten-part investigation, the husband-and-wife duo dive into a criminal underworld, all the time following clues left in a deathbed tape. They’re driven by one question - what did the man in the tape know?

Presenters and Producers: Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor 
Assistant Producer: Tess Davidson
Original Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell
Sound Design and Series Mixing: Jarek Zaba
Executive Producers: Phil Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

A Smoke Trail production for BBC Radio 4

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Series 1 - 7. How to Make a Mafia

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