The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E16: Hélène Outwits the Nazis

Germany. Spring 1945. The writing is on the wall for the Nazis. And thousands of women are marching along dirt roads. If they stop walking, they’ll be shot. Their route is lined with piles of corpses. It’s a death march. Among these women are The Nine. Nine young women, all members of the French r…

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E15: Jacquie Saves a Hostage

Jacquie Davis joined the police when she was just 18 years old. She was fearless and ambitious, but she quickly realised her career progression was limited by her gender and education. Everything changed when she was recruited into The Circuit - a secretive network of freelance security professiona…

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E14: Visaka Sparks a Ceasefire

When Visaka Dharmadasa’s soldier son was kidnapped by the fearsome Tamil Tigers in the midst of Sri Lanka’s bitter civil war, she couldn’t find anyone who could help find him - or the 608 other soldiers who had been taken the same night. So Visaka transformed herself, first into a fighter against t…

The Girlfriends: Spotlight Is Back...

The number 1 hit true crime series is back with more women fighting crime, battling injustice and seriously kicking ass. In Season 1 of The Girlfriends: Spotlight, our global gang of girlfriends grew to include Pussy Riot’s punk icon and political prisoner Nadya Tolokonnikova, British Nigerian bea…

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E13: Silvia Climbs to the Top of the World

When you’ve suffered childhood trauma, endured alcohol abuse, been through awful bereavements, how can you heal? For Silvia Vasquez-Lavado the answer was to climb to the top of the world - and then take other traumatised women and girls with her. Silvia is the first Peruvian woman to summit Mount …

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E12: Lois Captures Criminals

Lois Gibson has a rare gift: A gift for accurately drawing people she’s never seen before, from fragmented descriptions from traumatised witnesses. And that gift is incredibly useful to the Houston Police Department.  Lois is the world’s most successful forensic artist. Over 40 years, on more than…

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E11: Miss saHHara Crowns Queens

Miss saHHara was born to be a beauty pageant queen. As a child at home in Nigeria she would wrap herself in a mosquito net and sashay along a make-believe cat walk, delivering inspirational speeches to an imagined audience.  But when she grew up and started to compete, she found that not only was …

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E10: Phyllis Saves the People from Poisoning

Phyllis Omido is just a few months into a new job, when her infant son starts to get sick. Fevers, dehydration, hospitalisation - Phyllis is scared. Then the doctors give her some shocking news: Her son has lead poisoning. The metal smelting plant where Phyllis works, just outside Mombassa, Kenya, …

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E9: Jasvinder Redefines Honour

When Jasvinder Sanghera was just 15 years old, her mum told her that she was going to be married to a man she had never met. Jasvinder’s older sisters had been through similar things. But instead of going along with the way things had always been in her family and community, Jasvinder escaped. And…

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E8: Nadya & Pussy Riot Punk the President

When Nadya Tolokonnikova saw her country Russia change under President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime, she knew she had to do something.  She started the iconic ski-mask-wearing art protest collective Pussy Riot. On February 21st, 2012, they performed their anti-Putin protest song, Punk Pra…