Panorama

With exclusive access to Alan Johnston, his family and the behind-the-scenes hostage negotiators, a Panorama special on BBC One tells the extraordinary story of the BBC correspondent's 114 days held in captivity by the Army of Islam, a fanatical jihadist group in Gaza.

In a revealing interview with Jeremy Vine, Alan recalls the moments he feared he would be executed and explains how he composed himself in the face of death threats from his captors.

He tells of how his car was ambushed on the day of his kidnapping: "Very quickly he was alongside me pointing the gun through the door. I was vaguely aware of another gunman coming out of the other side of the kidnappers' car and I knew immediately what was happening."

When he was taken to a room in an apartment in Gaza: "The handcuffs were uncomfortably biting into my wrists and I felt I might ease that by-by sitting up, and it was this moment, I just had ... an image of myself sitting there in that dingy room, handcuffed, a hood over my head and this profound feeling that I was at the lowest, lowest ebb of my life, in real danger, frightened."

Panorama's return to peak time on BBC One is reaching not just bigger, but younger audiences – compared to its previous Sunday night slot.

The programme is reaching a significantly younger audience in its new Monday evening slot - with the first three programmes of Panorama's new run adding one million viewers under the age of 55, when compared with the age profile of those watching in 2006.

Panorama's new audience profile has 28% of viewers in the 16 to 34 age group, compared with 12% in this category on average in 2006.

Almost 20% of Panorama's audience comprises viewers aged 25 to 34. In 2006, the programme's audience was made up of less than 10% of viewers in this age group.

The audience profile for the first three programmes in the new run of Panorama is also considerably younger than the 2006 average for the 8.30 to 9pm slot on BBC Onr.

The programme is currently attracting an audience with an average age of 46. This compares to an average age for Panorama of 56 in 2006.

Panorama - on BBC One tonight at 8.30pm - has found evidence that the man named as Britain's most successful test-tube baby doctor has been offering unnecessary and unproven therapies to women seeking fertility treatment, potentially risking their health by offering unproven treatments.

Mr Mohamed Taranissi, whose wealth is calculated by Sunday Times Rich List researchers to be £38million, has produced 2,300 babies in the past seven years for clients who regard him as a miracle maker.

But, although he is renowned for his personal dedication to his patients, his critics question the reliability of some of his statistics and some of his controversial treatments.

Mr Taranissi, who is interviewed in the programme, says he is a victim of red tape and angrily rejects allegations against him.

He is currently the subject of an investigation by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) whose spokeswoman tells Panorama: "We've had unique problems in the regulation of these clinics. We have struggled to gain the information that we've wanted ... we have struggled to gain access to carry out even routine inspections ... we've been challenged at every step of the way."