The Tip Off
Channel Details
The Tip Off
Welcome to The Tip Off- the podcast where we take you behind the scenes of some of the best investigative journalism from recent years. Each episode we’ll be digging into an investigative scoop- hearing from the journalists behind the work as they tell us about the leads, the dead-ends and of course...
Recent Episodes
76 episodes
Ep. 68 The deep blue
A tragedy in the English Channel got Aaron Walawalkar thinking. How could it be that people were dying, their boats sinking in one of the busiest stre...
Ep. 67 Moths to a flame
The horizon near Ali’s house is filled with flames. Owen Pinnell and Jess Kelly, from BBC Arabic, can't stop thinking of them.
And back in the...
Ep.66 What a scoop!
You will have heard about the BBC Newnight interview with Prince Andrew - it was a seismic scoop that reverberated around the world.
But how did...
Ep. 65 Closed ranks
Hannah Al-Othman sits in her car in front of a stranger’s house. Inside is a man who might be responsible for a woman’s death. A man whose name is kno...
Introducing... Silenced
We're between series of The Tip Off now - and planning lots more great episodes for you, but while we do, why not take a listen to Silenced.
A n...
Ep. 64 In the pipeline
Rob Cribb had an idea for an investigation, an idea so big it was almost impossible to envisage how the work could be done. But then, it came to him.....
Ep. 63 Listen
Who gets to tell the stories we hear? On this episode we hear from citizen journalists - two women with lived experience of homelessness and surroundi...
Ep. 62 Butternutters
How do you investigate a group that is shrouded in secrecy by its very nature?
This is the story of how two journalists - Patrick Lohmann and M...
Ep. 61 Beyond the Horizon
Where do you start in unravelling one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the UK system? For Nick Wallis it all began with a tweet.
This i...
Ep. 60 From the archive: Web of death - part 1
Hi Tip Off Listeners - We are working hard on new episodes for you, and have some more great stories coming up this series. But this week we are takin...
Ep. 59 Unidentified flying objects
One December day, Samira Shackle found herself in the midst of an unfolding, global story. Drones had been spotted flying around Gatwick Airport. But...
Ep. 58: Where justice ends
Annabel Hennessy was reporting on another case when she heard a name that would change everything. A lawyer, expert in First Nations’ rights, told her...
Ep. 57 Evicted in a pandemic
What do you do if the data you need doesn’t exist?
When the pandemic hit I couldn’t stop wondering about how the impact of lockdown, sickness o...
Ep. 56 Exposing Savile - Part Two
Liz MacKean and Meirion Jones think they have everything they need to finally expose Jimmy Savile’s abhorrent crimes. But as their transmission date g...
Ep. 55 Exposing Savile - Part One
Meirion Jones has had a strange feeling about Jimmy Savile for some time and he thinks he may have a way to probe further. When Savile dies, Meirion t...
Ep. 54 How it gets built
Zak Garner-Purkis is sat in a fastfood restaurant - his attention laser-focused on the men gathering across the road. He is trying to work out who the...
Coming soon - Series 9 of The Tip Off
Stay tuned - we will be back very soon with more stories behind the headlines.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
OUT NOW: Maeve's book - No Fixed Abode - in paperback
Creator and host of The Tip Off, Maeve McClenaghan has written a book, and it is now out in paperback.
No Fixed Abode: Life and Death Among the...
Introducing…Cheat!
Cheats: we love to hate them. But in this climate of fast news, short attention spans, 280 characters, do we ever get the full picture? Cheat!, a new...
Ep. 53 Black and white data
Sarah Turnnidge started her journalism career at local papers so it was there she first encountered press releases from police forces. But over time S...
Ep. 52 The Exorcist
Andrew Gold, a freelance journalist, is feeling out of his depth. He is in a church hall on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and the priest he is there...
Ep.51 Baby snatchers
Pete Murimi has stumbled upon a horrifying hypothesis - that people are snatching children from the streets of Nairobi, Kenya. Now he is working for B...
Ep. 50 What happened next?
To commemorate getting to our 50th episode we look back at what happened next after some big stories went out.
Jane Bradley, Samir Jeraj, Natal...
Ep.49 Making them count
In late winter 2017 I was struck with what I thought was a simple question… how many people were dying while homeless? It turned out nobody knew the a...
Ep. 48 Sharing data
Samir Jeraj and Natalie Bloomer have decided to team on to take on an investigation… they want to know if and how police forces are sharing informatio...
Ep. 47 Omar
Omar Radi is working in dangerous circumstances. His journalism is exposing how tribal lands are being snatched away from inhabitants in Morocco, only...
Ep. 46 Dark Money
Peter Geoghegan is standing on a train station platform when he sees it - a large advert in a free-sheet newspaper that will set him off on an investi...
Ep. 45 Strings attached
BBC journalist Ellie Flynn is nervous, she is about to go undercover to meet a man who is offering a bed in his flat, but there is a catch…
For...
Ep. 44 Under our noses
HuffPost UK's Nadine White is onto a story- following allegations of fraud and wrong-doing in a well-publicised British church. But why has no-one els...
Ep. 43 Canned tomatoes
Ayo Awokoya had an idea and she couldn’t let it go. This is how a talented and tenacious freelancer followed her instincts to uncover a shocking story...
Ep. 42 Justice served cold
For years Alon Aviram and Adam Cantwell-Corn followed a story - a story that took them to dingy warehouses, stake-outs in cars, and undercover work in...
Introducing: The Immaculate Deception
This week we offer you a taste of something new... enjoy an extract from new podcast series The Immaculate Deception.
Fertility doctor Jan Karba...
Ep. 41 Behind closed doors
Journalist Louise Tickle is one of a handful of reporters who covers a secretive and little known area of UK life… the family courts. In this episode...
Ep. 40 O Sister Where Art Thou?
While researching the effects of the One Child Policy in China, LA Times journalist Barbara Demick stumbles upon an extraordinary story: twin sisters,...
Ep.39 Fragments
Hundreds of miles apart, journalists Jessica Purkiss and JD are working to get answers. They are looking for accountability and justice for an Afghan...
Ep.38 Holding hands to jump
Jodi Kantor was given a beat and had been pointed at a tweet - a single tweet, without any names included that would set her on a months-long investig...
Ep. 37 Latitude Live - Anatomy of a conspiracy theory
In a crowded tent at Latitude Festival, journalist Charlie Mole explains how he tracked back how a conspiracy theory had grown and developed, finally...
Ep. 36 What does justice look like? Part 2
After working for years to put together the pieces of how a massacre had gone unsolved, Barry and his team publish their findings. But that is far fro...
Ep. 35 What does justice look like? Part 1
The violent, protracted conflict known as The Troubles claimed many innocent victims in Northern Ireland. But one atrocity stood out for journalist Ba...
Ep. 34 The start of a scandal
Amelia Gentleman’s work exposing the Windrush Scandal is some of the most impactful and well-renowned journalism of recent years. But where did it all...