
World Of Secrets
BBC - bbc.co.uk
Latest episode: Mon Oct 02 2023
Season 6: The Bad Guru. A yoga school in London. A guru running from the police. How did Miranda get sucked in?
Also: Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods. Women accuse Mohamed Al Fayed of rape. And: The Abercrombie Guys. Investigating sexual exploitation claims against the former CEO of fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch.
Delve into a World of Secrets: the global investigations podcast from the BBC. Uncovering stories around the world and telling them, episode by episode, with gripping storytelling.
Latest season: The Bad Guru. A yoga school in London. A guru running from the police. How did Miranda get sucked in? Journalist Cat McShane investigates the international yoga movement headed by Gregorian Bivolaru, the spiritual guide arrested by French police in November 2023and charged with human trafficking, organised kidnapping, rape and organised abuse of weakness by members of a sect.
“Nobody joins a cult. You just get sucked in,” says Penny, the mother of a university tutor from London.
In 2017,Penny’s daughter Miranda joins a yoga charity with studios in London and Oxford. The classes make Miranda feel amazing and the people make her feel loved. “There was this sense that these people cared,” says Miranda.
But as Miranda becomes more deeply involved with the international yoga movement that her group in London is part of, her mother Penny starts to worry. “When she rang us, she'd be speaking in very hushed tones,” says Penny.
Miranda has fallen under the spell of guru Gregorian Bivolaru. She joins thousands of his followers from around the world on a free holiday at a coastal resort in Romania. It’s part of a search for spiritual enlightenment which will see her driven through Paris blindfolded and doing sex work in Prague.
This series includes explicit sexual content and strong language.
Previous seasons of World of Secrets:
Season 5: Finding Mr Fox. Investigating a plot to smuggle around a hundred millions of dollars’ worth of drugs from Brazil to Europe and the miscarriage of justice that followed. But where is the man Brazilian police believe to be at the centre of it all?
Season 4: Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods. Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed – then owner of Harrods, one of the most famous shops in the world – is accused of rape and attempted rape by women who worked for him. Now they refuse to be silenced any longer.
Season 3: The Apartheid Killer. All the victims were black and the youngest was just 12 years old. Some relatives are still searching for the graves. They were killed during a three-year bloodbath in the 1980s, in the South African city of East London – by one person. He killed so many, he lost count. In piecing together this story, we expose the disturbed past and racial injustices of South Africa itself.
Season 2: The Disciples. The cult of Nigerian prophet TB Joshua. A story of miracles, faith and manipulation, told by people from around the world, who gave up everything for one of the most powerful religious figures of the century. Lured by TB Joshua’s claimed healing powers, they live as disciples in a guarded Lagos compound, cut off from family and friends.
Season 1: The Abercrombie Guys. An investigation into claims of sexual exploitation made against the former CEO of fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch. He and his British partner were accused by several men, recruited for sex events they hosted around the world.
- Oct2The Abercrombie Guys: The Trailer1min
- Oct2The Abercrombie Guys: 1. Silenced39mins
- Oct2The Abercrombie Guys: 2. Who is Mike Jeffries?34mins
- Oct2The Abercrombie Guys: 3. The Marine33mins
- Oct2The Abercrombie Guys: 4. The Mysterious Mr Smith35mins
- Oct2The Abercrombie Guys: 5. Midnight in Marrakesh41mins
- Oct2The Abercrombie Guys: 6. Inside the Operation27mins
- Oct2The Abercrombie Guys: 7. Do You Remember Me?33mins
- Nov21The Abercrombie Guys: 8. The Fallout29mins
- Sep13The Abercrombie Guys: 9. The FBI is at my door41mins
- Sep13The Abercrombie Guys: 10. Final Fantasy49mins
- Oct26The Abercrombie Guys: 11. Mike Jeffries Under Arrest25mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 1. Sin No More34mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 2. The Prophet37mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 3. The Compound34mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 4. Daddy’s Calling31mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 5. The Maze28mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 6. Miracle machine36mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 7. Beware of Blasphemers24mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 8. Collapse27mins
- Jan8The Disciples: 9. Man of God39mins
- May6Special: World of Secrets live43mins
- Jul17The Apartheid Killer: The Trailer4mins
- Jul22The Apartheid Killer: 1. Edward’s Ghost27mins
- Jul29The Apartheid Killer: 2. ‘We Love Louis’32mins
- Aug5The Apartheid Killer: 3. The Killing Machine24mins
- Aug12The Apartheid Killer: 4. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted33mins
- Aug19The Apartheid Killer: 5. The Trial37mins
- Aug26The Apartheid Killer: 6. Faces at the Window39mins
- Sep19Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods: 1. Golden opportunity29mins
- Sep19Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods: 2. Executive suite27mins
- Sep19Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods: 3. Paris29mins
- Sep19Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods: 4. Surveillance state29mins
- Sep19Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods: 5. Silenced no more26mins
- Oct24Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods: 6. The ripple effect25mins
- Oct29Finding Mr Fox: Trailer3mins
- Oct30Finding Mr Fox: 1. The adventure of a lifetime28mins
- Oct30Finding Mr Fox: 2. In the doldrums28mins
- Nov6Finding Mr Fox: 3. Highway 1026mins
- Nov13Finding Mr Fox: 4. A detective calls32mins
- Nov20Finding Mr Fox: 5. An unexpected meeting31mins
- Nov27Finding Mr Fox: 6. What does the Fox say?27mins
- Dec6The Bad Guru: The Trailer2mins
- Dec9The Bad Guru: 1. The Retreat29mins
- Dec16The Bad Guru: 2. The Technique29mins
- Dec23The Bad Guru: 3. The Transformation28mins
- Dec30The Bad Guru: 4. The Guru28mins
- Jan6The Bad Guru: 5. The Breakthrough28mins
- Jan13The Bad Guru: 6. The Return28mins