On Assignment

Fronted by Rageh Omaar, ITV News's award-winning team of specialist journalists contribute in-depth reports from around the world and the stories behind the headlines.

The following reports will air in this programme:

TURKEY – PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN: THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT? - RAGEH OMAAR

Rageh Omaar travels to Turkey to gain a deeper understanding of the man some call the world's most successful democratic politician – President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A successfully fought referendum recently gave him sweeping new powers, potentially extending his Presidency until 2029. For decades Turkey has been seen as the bridge between Europe and the Middle East, but Erdoğan's expanded powers, which include the ability to bring back the death penalty, suggest that that gap between the continents is widening even further. Almost a year on from the failed coup to topple him, Rageh visits Istanbul, a divided city, to discover how President Erdoğan has gone from overcoming a hostile takeover to convince an entire nation to hand him even more authority.

BALI – THE SHACKLING OF MENTAL HEALTH PATIENTS - DEBI EDWARD

In Indonesia, severely mentally ill people are shackled by their families in sheds, small rooms and back yards, sometimes for years on end. A lack of accessible and affordable mental health services, and a high level of superstition in the country, has resulted in up to 18,000 individuals being subjected to this treatment, say Human Rights Watch. Debi Edward travels to the Indonesian island of Bali, where she meets some of the patients who have been locked up and tethered, including one man chained by his leg in a dark room and kept completely naked for his own safety. Debi discovers why many families resort to shackling, and what is being done to help stop this archaic practice.

POLAND – 35 YEARS ON FROM THE RISE OF SOLIDARITY – TIM EWART

Thirty-five years since he was ITN's Warsaw Correspondent, Tim Ewart returns to Poland on his final assignment before he retires, to discover how the country has changed since he last set foot on Polish soil. In 1982 Tim covered the rise of the anti-Communist trade union group Solidarity which helped bring an end to the Communist control of Eastern Europe. He retraces the steps he made three decades ago, and travels to Gdansk to meet Lech Wałęsa, Solidarity's leader and former President of Poland. Tim reunites with his old team – his own translators, cameraman and soundman – in the old Communist restaurant they used to go to, and tracks down some of the Solidarity supporters he interviewed in the '80s. Yet, as Tim discovers, Poland is still a country of protest. This time however, it is the right-wing reforms of the ruling Law and Justice Party, which are sparking demonstrations throughout the country. As Tim discovers, history has a habit of repeating itself.

Just days after his inauguration, President Trump asked what the hell is going on in in Chicago? In the windy city, the murder rate has surged in the past few years. Penny Marshall discovers that solving Chicago's gun crime problem is a complex and highly divisive issue. Steve Scott is in Berlin to meet former East German athletes who were subjected to state-sponsored doping in the 1970s and 80s, and hears how the drugs they took, often without their knowledge, have had chronic life-changing effects. Nina Nannar travels to the Moroccan desert city of Ouarzazate - which has had a starring role in hundreds of movies and TV series from Gladiator to Game of Thrones - to find out what life is like living on a real-life film set.

Geraint Vincent travels to Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine, which three years ago was taken over by Russian-backed separatists and is now an illegal quasi-Russian state, self-proclaimed as the 'Donetsk People's Republic'. Penny Marshall visits the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec, one of the most dangerous places on earth to be a woman, to meet those who live with the threat of violence on a daily basis. Nearly a year on from the failed Turkish coup, Rageh Omaar travels to Istanbul to find out how President Erdogan has gone from avoiding a hostile takeover to persuading voters to grant him sweeping new powers.

John Ray is in Malawi where physical assaults against people with albinism have increased rapidly in recent years, and he meets those who have survived some of the most savage attacks. Dan Rivers travels to the lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea, which is rapidly shrinking, causing sinkholes and disastrous effects for the area's tourism and natural environment. Juliet Bremner visits the former Soviet republic of Armenia, a small country with a big claim to fame - it dominates the world at chess.

Rageh Omaar presents more fascinating and revealing stories from around the world. Neil Connery visits the Champagne region of France to find out what the future holds for the country and its new president Emmanuel Macron, the youngest French head of state since Napoleon. Dan Rivers spends time on the set of a popular Middle Eastern drama made in Syria, to find out how the TV industry is alive and thriving despite the war. John Irvine travels to the Holy City of Jerusalem to see if restorations on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre have helped restore relations between the Christian denominations that run the Church.

CATALONIA – JAMES MATES

After recent turmoil in Catalonia revealed the depth of divisions between the Catalan government in Barcelona and the Spanish authorities in Madrid, Europe Editor James Mates asks whether there really is a desire for independence in the majority of Catalan homes. He also investigates whether the recent actions of the national government have pushed the pressure for an independence vote to critical, and looks into the history behind the movement that could reshape Spain as we know it.

SATIRE AND TRUMP – MARTIN GEISSLER

What happens when reality is too surreal for satire? One year on from the US election, correspondent Martin Geissler travels to New York to explore how American satirists and comedians have dealt with the Trump administration. Martin meets Trump impersonators, political cartoonists and satirists to ask whether we are living in the golden age of political comedy.

THE RAREST PASTA IN THE WORLD – MARY NIGHTINGALE

Mary Nightingale travels to a tiny village in Sardinia to meet Paola Abriani, a 62 year old grandmother who can make su filindeu (‘threads of God') – the rarest pasta in the world. It's a family tradition. Paola is one of only three women who can make it - the other two are her niece and sister-in-law. Last year, a team of engineers from Barilla pasta came to see if they could reproduce her technique with a machine, but they couldn't. The sacred dish has only been served to the faithful who complete a 20-mile pilgrimage on foot or horseback from Nuoro to the village of Lula for the biannual Feast of San Francesco. Mary follows the 1,500 pilgrims as they descend on Lula, to discovers what makes this delicate pasta so special.

Juliet Bremner examines a battle over the diagnosis and treatment of lyme disease in New York state, and Chris Ship explores how Canadians view themselves.

Rageh Omaar presents the current affairs series featuring in-depth reports from around the world. Alok Jha visits the forests and parks of Wyoming to explore the science behind the many wild fires that have raged across the western United States this past summer. Julie Etchingham returns to the city of Mostar, twenty years after reporting from there during the Bosnian war, to discover how the city has tried to heal the ethnic divisions brought to the fore by the conflict. Emma Murphy investigates Moldova to see the central role that the country's wine is playing in a complex geo-political game between Russia and the West.

Rageh Omaar presents the current affairs series. John Ray revisits Sierra Leone, three months after torrential rains triggered a devastating mudslide that claimed over 1,000 lives. John Irvine investigates a local controversy surrounding India's famous monument to love, the Taj Mahal. Critics believe the row has become emblematic of growing Hindu nationalism encouraged by the government to the detriment of Muslims in India. Debi Edward meets the Mongolians conquering Japan's most traditional sport - sumo.

Three months ago, the British Virgin Islands were devastated when Hurricane Irma ripped through the Caribbean. Penny Marshall was one of the first journalists to report from the archipelago, and she returns to see how the islanders are trying to rebuild their wrecked communities and vital tourist industry. Joel Hills is given rare access to Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit in Seattle, to ask who is responsible for preventing cyber-attacks and to explore the issue of state-sponsored hacking. Rageh Omaar travels to his family's home country, Somaliland, which could become the first state in Africa to eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation.