Background Briefing

Epizody

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  03 Dark Menace | Operation Queenstown 16.10.2026 39min

  Before police raided Mark Dennis’s Sydney terrace, two tradies saw something inside that left them rattled. At the front door, a doormat told visitors to “come back with a warrant”. But it was what covered the interior walls that stayed with them for years. 
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  02 Dark Menace | What Happened At Sunrise 09.10.2026 38min

  As the founder of a famous Cambodian orphanage rubbed shoulders with Hollywood stars, like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, a Sydney barrister was quietly becoming one of the charity's most powerful backers. To staff, Mark Dennis SC was “the big boss”. Few dared to question him. Even when he made them feel afraid. 
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  01 Dark Menace | The Chairman's Secrets 02.10.2026 41min

  He was a silk at Sydney's most prestigious criminal defence chambers. And the former chairman of a celebrated charity protecting vulnerable children, where some called him "godfather". But he went by the alias of "Dark Menace" — and was allegedly hiding a sinister double life. Within weeks of that becoming known, he was dead.  
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  INTRODUCING — Dark Menace 30.09.2026 1min

  When police raided a terrace in Sydney's inner west, they found an iPad with a note: if this device connects to the internet, its contents will delete. That house belonged to one of Sydney's top criminal barristers.  A driven man who moved through courtrooms and corridors of power with ease.  But the man had dark secrets too.  And so, when the truth about him surfaces, it sets off a reckoning that stretches from Sydney’s most prestigious criminal defence chambers to the neon-lit bars of Phnom Penh. alleged crimes were hidden for so long. 
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  03 'This Bloody Machine' | The Empty Chapel 11.09.2026 31min

  It would be a game changer if it happened. But the challenges facing a proposed proton cancer treatment centre in Sydney are stacking up. It begs the question: why are an unpaid volunteer and private developer stepping in to provide a life-saving cancer treatment that Australian families have been demanding for years? 
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  02 'This Bloody Machine' | The Other Plan 04.09.2026 32min

  The public plans for a half-a-billion-dollar Sydney development have proton therapy all over them. But they're not the only set. As Australian families continue to fly overseas to get the life-saving treatment their children need, new questions arise about whether it's going to be possible for Sue Bleasel to pull off her plan. And now, they're coming from people inside the bigger project. When an insider speaks out for the first time, it becomes clear Sue isn't being kept in the loop on all the developer's plans. 
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  01 'This Bloody Machine' | Jewel in the Crown 28.08.2026 31min

  Sue Bleasel is running out of time. Her life's work has been to bring a life-saving proton therapy machine to Australia. But with construction about to start, big questions remain.
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  TRAILER – Introducing 'This Bloody Machine' 14.08.2026 1min

  It's a plan so good that everyone wants to believe it. Bring a life-saving cancer machine to Australia so desperate families don't have to travel overseas for treatment. But the plan keeps failing. The latest idea is to build a half-billion-dollar health science precinct in the heart of Sydney to house Australia's first proton therapy machine. It's got some big names backing it, support from a federal politician, and the green light from state government and local council. So why, when reporters Julia Bergin and Loretta Florance take a closer look, is it so hard to get a clear answer about what's going on? Is it happening? And what will it take to bring this machine to Australia? This Bloody Machine is a three-part Background Briefing investigation that follows a trail of money, egos, secret plans and changing stories to find out if the proton therapy dream is too good to be true.
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  Long Read | The Girl Who Vanished From Her Bed: Part Two 24.07.2026 15min

  A missing child, the botched police investigation case, and the aunt who never stopped asking why — this is part two of Maddison Connaughton's long read investigation into the disappearance of schoolgirl Eloise Worledge.  
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  Long Read | The Girl Who Vanished From Her Bed: Part One 17.07.2026 21min

  Could new leads solve one of Australia’s most haunting cold cases, the disappearance of Eloise Worledge? This is part one of Maddison Connaughton's investigation, a collaboration with ABC Long Read.
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  Beef | Battle for the Blue Zones 2 03.07.2026 34min

  You may have heard the strange story about the man who cheated death. Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and given just months to live, he moved home to die in peace on the idyllic Greek island of Ikaria. But he didn't die. He lived for decades, and his miraculous recovery became one of the most shared stories of the Blue Zones movement, a prime example of the island's rare power to keep death at bay. There's just one problem. How much is actually known about this mysterious death-defying man? 
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  Beef | Battle for the Blue Zones 26.06.2026 33min

  You've heard there are these enchanted places around the world where people often live past 100, thanks to lifestyles the rest of us envy. They're called Blue Zones, and over two decades the idea has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry that sells you their secrets of longevity. But then an Australian scientist started digging into the data behind the legend, and decided something didn't add up.  
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  The dark reality of Australia's AI dream factory 19.06.2026 33min

  It’s been billed “the Netflix of AI.” A little-known Australian startup running an online service, boasting more than 20 million users worldwide. It promises to bring your fantasies to life with realistic AI companions you design and control. What reporter Josh Robertson discovered was something more disturbing: characters that appear as young as 14 and 15 years old, presented for adult role-play, and a company unable to stop them appearing. 
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  03 Tammy's Story | New Asylums 12.06.2026 32min

  For a while, Tammy's death looks like a one-off. Then an email lands in Kirstie Wellauer's inbox that changes everything. 
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  02 Tammy's Story | Searching for Safety 03.06.2026 32min

  Tammy Shipley walked into a police station and asked to be locked up. She just wanted to be safe. 
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  01 Tammy's Story | The Red Cup 27.05.2026 30min

  Tammy's under 24-hour surveillance. Her family can't reach her. Then she starts drinking water from a red cup — and nobody understands what they're watching until it's too late.
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  Introducing | Tammy's Story 15.05.2026 1min

  Tammy Shipley asked to be arrested so she could feel safe. After she was placed under 24-hour surveillance, something terrible took place.  A new three-part series by Kirstie Wellauer and Joanna McCarthy investigates how it unfolded. A loving mother of five, Tammy could really make her kids laugh.   But she'd started to believe she was in danger — that someone was out to get her.   A couple of weeks before Christmas, she walked into a Sydney police station looking for protection. She asked to be arrested and just wanted to feel safe.  She was put under 24-hour surveillance.  Then, over the course of several hours, something terrible took place. Something no one noticed.  Tammy's Story is a three-part investigation into how this could have happened.
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  03 In Search of the Missing Artist | The Name 25.04.2026 32min

  Jean Paul Mangin is a nom de plume, an alias, a fake name. But no one seems to know that.  So why would a commercial gallery – a family-run business – go to such extreme lengths to protect the identity of its artist?      
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  02 In Search of the Missing Artist | The Plastic 18.04.2026 34min

  The only clue to Jean Paul Mangin's true identity is hiding in his art. Unlike everything else about the elusive French sculptor, the material he works with is right there for anyone to see — giant, flat sheets of plastic, in vivid colours and glossy finishes.  Perhaps if reporter Julia Bergin can find out where they're coming from, she can find him too. And it’s that trail that leads her to a noisy factory floor, where another artist has been making strikingly similar work for years. 
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  01 In Search of the Missing Artist | The Sculptor 12.04.2026 40min

  The sales pitch goes that Jean Paul Mangin is a reclusive Parisian sculptor whose works are internationally acclaimed. His pieces sell quickly through one particular Australian gallery, sought after by trendy interior designers. But gallery staff are starting to ask questions. Why is Jean Paul Mangin uncontactable? Why can’t they find any evidence of his international credentials? And why do his works show up - sometimes in a single layer of bubble-wrap - within days of being commissioned?