Series
BBC Money Programme, the world's longest running business affairs programme, debuted on 5 April 1966.
The series featured interviews with the most influential names in business, including Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Alexander McQueen, Michael Eisner, Philip Green and Michael Bloomberg. It made headlines in 1977 when the controversial businessman Sir James Goldsmith objected to a line of questioning about his company Cavenham Ltd, hijacked and then stormed out of an interview.
TMP was widely respected for 'punching above its weight.'
In 2001 it investigated the abduction of British telecoms engineers in Chechnya to reveal they had been executed as part of a jihad by an Islamist group with links to Bin Laden. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_money_programme/1665156.stm>
And in 2004, it lifted the lid on the now infamous BAe Systems (the former British Aerospace) 'Al-Yamamah' Saudi secret slush fund scandal. <https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/10_october/04/money.shtml>
The programme partnered with Open University in 2005 and made history two years later, when a whole episode was broadcast in the virtual online world of "Second Life" - whatever that was.
The Money Programme was taken off air by BBC Management in 2010, two years after the biggest financial crisis and global recession in living memory. ... er, what - say again? [Ed.]
