Abused but not heard: the real story of Rochdale's Knowl View school

It was a programme I wasn't sure I wanted to make: the abuse of boys at the school Cyril Smith started in Rochdale in 1969. He wasn't the only one to abuse boys there - so did some teachers. So did a local paedophile who gained entry to the dormitory at night.

And meeting the men whose lives effectively were over when their childhoods were ruined aged 10 or 11 has been heartbreaking. I learned the abuse went on from the 70s, into the 80s and right up to the mid-90s - the era of social workers and child protection. 

Only a few years later girls were being abused by gangs who groomed them in the takeaways of Rochdale. 

The big question is whether the silence and inaction over Knowl View set the scene for the silence and inaction for many years over the sexual exploitation of girls in the town.

One family discovered it is linked to both child abuse scandals - not from the council or police - but from our BBC investigation. That can't be right can it?

Double child abuse agony for Rochdale family. 

You can hear the File on 4 documentary at 8pm on BBC Radio 4, Tuesday 16th September.

New Rana Plaza documentary - a must watch

A year has passed since the collapse of the Rana Plaza clothing factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I went to the factory site in August last year for File on 4, and saw for myself the dust and debris, the cheap jeans hanging from rusty wire, the men and women who come every day clutching laminated information sheets about their missing sons, daughters, wives and husbands. 

This week a new documentary about the disaster was broadcast on BBC 2.

This World: Clothes to die for

Many documentaries have been before, but this one benefits from the time taken to think about why the building came down. It's about the structures of Bangladeshi politics and business, as well as the woeful structure of the building. 

The workers' accounts of how they survived while trapped in the wrecked building are just shocking. Some had to drink their blood, I won't say how - watch the film.

My own radio documentary asked whether the promised factory safety improvements can be achieved. You can listen to it here: File on 4: What price cheap clothes?

Childhood cancer: is red tape stopping the development of new drugs?

This month I've been investigating childhood cancer and the fact despite there being many exciting new drugs, we'll never know whether some of them could have helped cure children with cancer. This is sometimes down to a system of 'waivers' within EU rules on drug trials; sometimes down to trials failing in adults and being pulled in children too. 

Anyway, the programme, File on 4, went out last night. Many thanks to the parents who told me their children's stories. Thanks also to the experts who made the complex comprehensible and guided me, and I hope you, through the issues - namely Professor Richard Sullivan and Professor Pam Kearns. Click on the link below to listen to the programme.

Childhood cancer, File on 4