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House of Saud

Season 1
Crown, kingdom, controversy. It’s all in a day’s work for Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s new Crown Prince. Since 1932, untold wealth has afforded Saudi princes total power at home – and relative impunity abroad. Now, with the country at the heart of the Middle East crisis, the young Crown Prince has pledged to tackle corruption and extremism, and bring about social reform. An impossible task?
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - Burying the Past
    January 8, 2018
    48min
    TV-14
    How did Saudi Arabia find itself at the heart of the escalating Middle East crisis? Traveling from eastern Europe to India via the bloody battlefields of Syria and Yemen, this program traces the impact that vast Saudi cash and weapons have had worldwide, and how the kingdom is now working with the West to return to moderate Islamism. Can it be a force for good – and with what consequences?
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  2. S1 E2 - Crackdown
    January 15, 2018
    49min
    TV-14
    Wholesale industrial corruption has long plagued Saudi Arabia and, when exposed, has caused huge embarrassment for foreign businesses and governments. In an attempt to crack down on these practices, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman imprisoned some of the state’s richest individuals in a luxury hotel. Are his actions economically driven or politically motivated?
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  3. S1 E3 - Stranglehold on Power
    January 22, 2018
    51min
    TV-14
    Their wealth has given them lives of privilege out of the spotlight. But the growth of social media has meant that Saudis are increasingly aware of the royal family’s behavior – and transgressions. A demographic time-bomb of a hugely young population and an economy beset by low oil prices has prompted a series of reforms, but will they be enough to enable the House of Saud to stay in power?
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Subtitles
None available
Directors
Mike Rudin
Producers
Mike Rudin
Cast
Saskia Reeves
Studio
BBC
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