Examining two milestones of the atomic age: nuclear fission and the disaster at Chernobyl. (AD)

international news.
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6/10
Miriam Margolyes meets a pistol-toting Christian minister and prison inmates in Washington DC, "the headquarters of tobacco-tinctured saliva", according to Charles Dickens. There's also a tour of Virginia's tobacco factories. (AD)

Rich oil deposits mean this densely populated part of Africa should be a superpower of the developing world - instead, the country has been torn apart by civil war and brutal dictatorships. This film, with contributions from Afrobeat star Femi Kuti and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Wole Soyinka , charts Nigeria's bloody and turbulent history.

Tyler Brûlé on the global media landscape.

3/6. Maoist insurgents almost spoil
Palin's outing with the annual Gurkha recruitment drive. The suffering starts, though, when he ascends 15.000 feet to witness the majesty of Annapurna. Next, he's blessed by the King of Nepal and visits the world's highest monastery, before heading for Everest.

a History of Jazz: animation set to April in Paris, as played by the Count Basie Orchestra

beyond Get Carter: the lowdown on Hodges's crime drama I'll Sleep When I'm Dead