Wars and conflicts now occur so frequently that, fairly soon, every week will mark the anniversary of some violent outburst or other. Most recently television has reminded us that it is the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. The legacies of both events are still with us, not least in the number of people still suffering traumatic effects.

Remember the Galahad (BBC2) was a Timewatch documentary retelling one event of the Falklands War, when the troopship Sir Galahad was bombed by Argentine aircraft. It was carrying members of the Welsh Guards, who were waiting to be put ashore but prevented by a number of bungling decisions. Fifty of them lost their lives - the commentary called it "the biggest disaster of the Falklands War" (ignoring the more than 300 Argentinians killed in the Belgrano). As so often, the Ministry of Defence was unhelpful to the survivors, providing little support for traumatised servicemen.

The Most Hated Family in America (BBC2) is a group of religious fanatics who actually rejoice when soldiers are killed in Iraq. They picket funerals, carrying placards with sensitive slogans like "Thank God For Dead Soldiers" and "God Hates Fags". Apparently they regard the deaths of American soldiers as God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality. Indeed, the group seems obsessed by fornication and especially anal intercourse. Louis Theroux spent some time with them, trying to detect signs of human sympathy, but their fundamentalist beliefs make them immune to anything as sensitive as love. They think that, if you don't believe in the Bible, you're going to hell - it's as simple as that. They may be a small group but their fanaticism is typical of many supposedly religious cults.

The inhuman treatment of African-Americans in the US is an example of the bigotry that has hung on there despite such noble pronouncements as the Declaration of Independence. In Big Ideas That Changed the World (Five), the Rev Jesse Jackson noted that Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech was given at a demonstration asking for the implementation of that Declaration, with its assertion that "All men are created equal".

Jackson surveyed the history of the notion of egalitarianism, especially in relation to the treatment of minorities in the US. He gave a rather elementary account of American history but provided some thought-provoking insights along the way. For example, he pointed out that most lynchings of blacks by whites "took place after church on Sunday". He recalled the bus boycott which was sparked by Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, but he also mentioned that she was motivated by the lesser-known murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi a few months earlier. People were galvanized into protest when Emmett's mutilated body was displayed by his grieving mother in Chicago in an open casket.