The 1st of July 1916 is still one of the deadliest days in the history of warfare. Nearly 20,000 men from the British Army and 6,000 German soldiers were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The World War One battle would last another four months and was one of the first examples of industrial warfare; three million men fought in it, over a-million soldiers were wounded, missing or killed. Jordan Dunbar investigates how, 110 years on, the battle still affects people and communities, and discovers new insights about its impact on his own family and on the history of Ireland.

Ed Butler investigates how one of Europe’s most wanted drug smugglers, Jos Leijdekkers, ended up in Sierra Leone while evading justice. He also explores reports linking Leijdekkers to the family of Sierra Leone’s president, including claims that he has married the president’s daughter.

for more programmes like this search Business Daily wherever you get your BBC Podcasts

Presenter/producer: Ed Butler

In Kenya, a young lawyer is bringing a legal case against the Kenyan government, regulator, and several multinational agrochemical companies. He’s working alongside activists and health practitioners, and they claim that hazardous pesticides and herbicides, designed to make farming for efficient, are damaging the health of farmers in Kenya. They are demanding changes to regulation, as well as increased education and compensation for people who they claim, have had their health severely affected by high exposure to these products. For Assignment, Josephine Casserly travels to Kenya to follow lawyers, health practitioners and scientists as they face the challenges of gathering evidence to support their case.

The American artist James Turrell is famous for his Skyspaces. A Skyspace is chamber with an opening to the sky. Turrell bathes the roof with light that subtly changes colour, which affects our perception of the colour of the sky itself. Julian May travels to ARoS, the Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark to meet James Turrell as he prepares his latest SkySpace, entitled As Seen Below – The Dome. It is a monumental work, which from the ground outside looks like tumulus, an ancient a grass covered burial mound. To experience the work Julian goes through an underground tunnel that brings him into the huge domed space flooded with changing coloured light. Through the opening the sky appears at once immensely deep, yet close. James Turrell tells Julian that while most artists depict light, light is his material; his work is light itself. He speaks about how flying (he gained a pilot’s licence at the age of sixteen), the changing colours of the sky and the disorientating experience of speeding between clouds and fog inspires him. How, too, his upbringing and life as a Quaker has a profound influence. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.