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Fiona Bruce: On the Money Programme tonight, we have exclusive access to Bill Gates.

"Nice to meet you."

Not just one of the richest people in the world, but a man who has changed the way we live and work.

Bill Gates: Our brilliance was to have a product that was explosively successful.

Fiona Bruce: Gates’ original dream was crazily ambitious.

Steve Ballmer: Bill said, “Steve you don’t get it. We’re going to put a computer on every desk and every home. Come on, you’ve got to stick with me.”

Fiona Bruce: Like most people, I spend hours every day in front of the computer. And for much of that time, I’m one of Bill Gates' customers because Microsoft provides so much of the software.

Alan Sugar: He has taken over the world – end of story – live with it.

Bill Gates: Hey this is software. We can do anything.

Fiona Bruce: But not according to the courts.

Fiona Bruce: Did you think they were right when they ruled that you’d behaved in this predatory, anti-competitive manner?

Bill Gates: No I didn’t, I didn't think that they were right in that but we did everything they asked us to…

Fiona Bruce: And in today’s internet world, Microsoft has powerful new rivals.

Charlene Li: They’ve been trying for years to compete against Google and they haven’t succeeded, in fact, their market share is dropping.

Fiona Bruce: From next week, Gates will be devoting himself to giving away his enormous pile of cash – through the charitable Foundation he runs with his wife Melinda, and his father.

William Gates Snr: And he said, "Well Dad I’ve just been thinking about it Melinda and I pretty sure that we’re gonna over the next year, year and a half, we'll put 24 billion in."

Bill Gates: This wealth, we’ve chosen not to pass it to our children, or buy all sorts of mansions or whatever. We’re getting it back to society in a way that can have the most positive impact.

Fiona Bruce: As Bill Gates prepares to step down from Microsoft, I’ll be finding out how he built his extraordinary money-making machine.

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Max Flint: Tonight on the Money Programme, gold, and lots of it. With the credit crunch biting, should we be putting our money into this?

We meet the miner whose made a fortune from it.

Pierre Lassonde: With one drill hole, you can create a billion dollars worth of wealth.

Max Flint: We take you from the gold mines of Nevada to the jewellers of Dubai.

Tawhid Abdullah: Gold in general, it's beautiful, it's a unique metal, that's why people do buy it.

Max Flint: And the king of bling, Bobby George, speaks about his solid gold love affair.

Bobby George: You know it's the sort of thing that you wear for show and it's an image, it sparkles, you know?

Max Flint: And we reveal the potential cost of Gordon Brown’s decision to sell off over half the UK’s gold reserves.

With uncertainty in the money markets and turmoil at the banks, could we all do with a dose of gold fever?

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Max Flint: Tonight on the Money Programme if you think we’re all in for a tough time as the economic slump deepens, then think again. Because for some things have never been better!

Mike O'Leary: I love recessions. Recessions are much more fun. Good times are a pain in the bum. Good times any idiot can make money.

Max Flint: Despite the credit crunch, increasing inflation and stagnant house prices, some businesses are reporting record profits.

Man (off camera): That retails at £78,000.

Max Flint: And as the high street reports a slump we visit the bargain basement shop that’s taking advantage of these cost conscious times.

Joe Morris: There's a lot of companies going going bust. So that'll be a good opportunity for us we see that as a a great opportunity.

Max Flint: If we stay in and save money, that’s great according to one man.

Chris Moore: We actually like a recessionary climate because people will tend to spend more money at home and that’s where our point of sale is.

Max Flint: Tonight we meet the people and businesses whose prosperity is linked to our financial difficulty as we uncover the profits of gloom.

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Max Flint: Tonight on the Money Programme are you on one of the millions of people affected by the biggest shake up in the mortgage market in a generation?

Hillary: We are very nervous about losing the house it’s the house of our dreams …would be heart wrenching.

Max Flint: The credit crunch has led to banks withdrawing thousands of mortgage deals leaving an increasing number of us high and dry.

Polly: I’m trying to manage on my own. Now I’m really feeling the pinch now. I’m not being dealt with appropriately because I work full time, earn a good salary, so I don't know what more I can actually do.

Max Flint: Our own survey shows that a shocking number of us believe we can’t afford the average rate rise. We ask just whose fault is it.

Jeremy Leaf: There is no question that mortgages just got to easy and 125 per cent, seven, eight times salary, just ridiculous, really, unsustainable in the longer term and it was inevitable that something was going to happen.

Max Flint: And what’s in store for us as first time buyers need bigger and bigger deposits just to get on the property ladder.

Doug: Well asking your mum and dad for a lot, for £12,000 wasn’t the easiest thing to do.

Max: We investigate the current state of the market and ask, "What’s happened to your mortgage?"