Tyrants and Dictators

They are the power-hungry men who maintained an iron-clad grip over the respective nations they ruled. Under their leadership thousands of innocent civilians lost their lives as a result of their murderous regimes. These are the world’s most notorious Tyrants and Dictators.

The 20th century witnessed the tyranny of a collection of men who ruled over people living in a constant state of fear and terror. From Manuel Noriega, Panama's strongman and dictator for nearly a decade, who dangled the power of life and death over his fellow countrymen – a power which he wielded freely, torturing and murdering anyone that stood in his way – to Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania's Communist dictator for 24 years, who turned from loved and respected leader to hated and despised despot,
'Biography Channel' portrays the tyrants who showed a scant disregard for human life.

Also included in this six-disc set are profiles of Pol Pot, the leader of the terrifying Khmer Rouge, who was implicated as the sole perpetrator of the genocide of thousands of Cambodians; the Ayatollah Khomeini, who introduced the world to a new kind of radical religious warrior; Slobodan Milosevic, the dictator whose seemingly unstoppable ethnic cleansing of the Yugoslav province of Kosovo forcibly ejected hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Albanian Kosovars from their homes; and Saddam Hussein, who ruled Iraq with an iron fist, crushing any hint of dissent. His soldiers carried out tortures in his name, videotaping them so they could be shown as warnings to others who might get out of line.

Between them, they were responsible for countless atrocities and deaths. Join 'Biography Channel' for a series of programmes examining the story of the world’s most infamous 'Tyrants and Dictators'