BBC One

BBC One is a TV channel that started broadcasting on the 20th April 1964. It replaced BBC Television.

BBC 1

BBC1

BBC One Channel Islands

Emma Cooper

undefined Pulse Films

The Monkey Lab

Documentaries

Religion & Ethics

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

03/10/2017

BBC Three - The Monkey Lab

Documentary exploring the issues surrounding medical research on monkeys.

Documentary exploring the issues surrounding the use of monkeys in medical research, hearing from those carrying out the research and those protesting against it.

Documentary exploring one of the world's most heated and divisive debates: is it right to take monkeys' lives to try to improve the lives of humans? Who decides what is acceptable, and where do you draw the line?

Despite huge advances in medicine, scientists argue that the use of monkeys in medical testing is still crucial to cure certain diseases. However, anti-vivisection activists and three quarters of the British public disagree with testing on monkeys. In this documentary we visit the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands, where 200 rhesus macaque monkeys are used each year to help find cures to some of the world's most deadly diseases. We meet those on the front line of this work, from the deputy director of the lab, who believes their work is essential to help stop human suffering, to the animal trainers who get to know the monkeys well and have to wrestle with their emotions every day, knowing that the animals they work with will die in the research lab. We also speak to the activists who protest outside the facility daily in the hope that one day it will be shut down.

The film also hears from the people whose lives rely on this kind of research, including 27-year-old Rich, who recently contracted HIV. Thanks to the last 30 years of research, in which monkey testing played a crucial role, Rich's future looks very different to that of people diagnosed in the early 1980s.

Twenty-one-year-old Jordan is currently on a cocktail of drugs to help treat the symptoms of his young-onset Parkinson's. However, they have terrible side effects, and Jordan is desperate for new and improved drugs. Crucial to this is the research taking place at King's College London, where marmoset monkeys are given the symptoms of Parkinson's disease before being used to test new medicines.

In Oxford we meet leading neurosurgeon and advocate of animal testing Tipu Aziz, whose controversial use of monkeys 30 years ago lead to a non-drug-based treatment of Parkinson's symptoms using deep brain stimulation. 

What does the future have in store for the research monkeys? The film explores the work of Professor Paul Furlong at Aston University in Birmingham, who is using state-of-the-art computer imaging to find new ways to understand the human brain and is challenging the continued use of monkeys in research. We also return to the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands and spend time with the head of their Alternatives Department, whose job is to reduce the number of monkeys used in research with the hope of eventually not using monkeys at all.

BBC Three

A multi-platform service for 16-34s, featuring comedy, entertainment and factual content.

The BBC’s multi-platform service for 16 to 34s, innovating with breakthrough comedy, stand-out entertainment, brave documentary and intellectual factual content.

Simulcast of BBC One Scotland in high definition. From 14/01/2013

BBC One Scotland HD

Simulcast of network BBC One in high definition. From 03/11/2010

BBC One HD

Simulcast of BBC One Northern Ireland in high definition. From 24/10/2012

BBC One Northern Ireland HD

The BBC West region started on 1st September 1957 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One West.

BBC One West

Simulcast of BBC One Wales in high definition. From 29/01/2013

BBC One Wales HD

The BBC South West region started on 20th April 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South West.

BBC One South West

The BBC South region started on 5th January 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South.

BBC One South

BBC One London

London

BBC One West Midlands

BBC One region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

BBC One East Midlands

The BBC East region started on 1st May 1959 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One East.

BBC One East

BBC One North West

The BBC North East & Cumbria region started in 1959 (tbc) as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One North East & Cumbria.

BBC One North East & Cumbria

BBC One Yorkshire

BBC One Oxfordshire

Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region that included London and part of the South region. Separated from BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

BBC One South East

BBC One Cambridgeshire

BBC One Yorks & Lincs

BBC One Scotland

Scotland

BBC Northern Ireland region started on 19th April 1955 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One Northern Ireland.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Monkey Lab

Contributors

Genres

Formats

BBC One Channel Islands

About BBC One