THE DEADLIEST PLACE TO DEAL, BBC3, online from 10am
WE’RE used to politicians making big promises and then failing to deliver, so I wonder how the people of the Philippines react when their troubling president Rodrigo Duterte makes his latest wild claims ... because the chances are that he’ll stick to them.
Among his various statements was a determination to kill anyone caught dealing drugs. In fact, he said he would start “slaughtering” them and he’s stuck to this policy, with 7000 people killed in the past eight months.
In this astonishing programme, Livvy Haydock visits the capital Manila to see what this violent campaign against drugs is really like. She accompanies the police on raids and also meets drug dealers and bereaved families. Are the police really tackling crime, or are they trigger-happy and planting evidence? She also investigates whether the police are encouraging, and even actively assisting, vigilantes who will gladly kill drug pushers.
INCREDIBLE MEDICINE: DR WESTON’S CASEBOOK, BBC2, 9pm
THERE is a noble aim to this series: showing how changes and oddities in the human body can be used to suggest cures, but there is undeniably an element of the freak show, albeit a tasteful and educational one.
We meet 10-year old Ceniya who has sickle cell disease. This can be fatal and causes pain, strokes and infections, but Ceniya refuses to get ill, and keeps on running, jumping and playing.
Leah has a strange condition where her arm grows at a different rate from the rest of her body: her right arm is long, puffy and bulbous and simply will not stop growing, and Tim has a disease which makes his bones heavier than granite.
All are united by optimism and courage, and are often able to laugh at their strange conditions.
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