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A shocking documentary will reveal the brutality of life in Saudi Arabia - where a woman is beheaded in the street and five bodies are strung up in a public display.

Saudi Arabia Uncovered aims to reveal the hidden reality inside one of the world's most secretive and strict Islamic regimes and questions Britain's relationship with the country.

In one particularly shocking scene in ITV's Exposure documentary, a woman is pinned down at the side of a public road by four Saudi officers and executed after she has been convicted of killing her stepdaughter.

The policeman pins her down and decapitates her with a sword after she screams, 'I did not do it'.

In another beheading scene the executioner, dressed in white robes, raises the sword above his head and brings it down in just one sweep.

So far this year the country has been executing people at a rate of one per day.

(Image: CNN)

In the Saudi capital of Riyadh, viewers are introduced to a large public space nicknamed Chop Chop Square because so many people are executed there.

The drainage system is stained red from the blood spilt in the square.

Saudi Arabia is a key ally of the West, but with unprecedented access to an underground network of young activists, the film uncovers a society where opposition is beginning to find its voice.

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(Image: Liveleak)

Covertly-shot footage sheds a light on largely unseen corners of life in the Kingdom, where media access is very strictly controlled. Revealed in the footage are prisons in chaos, poverty on the streets, and religious police enforcing fundamentalism.

Read more:Ministers block Saudi arms ban despite reports UK weapons are being used in Yemen war

This undercover footage is combined with personal stories of those inside the kingdom, including activists for women's rights, and exclusive new interviews from senior British and American figures, to ask if it is time to reassess our relationship with Saudi Arabia.

The documentary was filmed for six months undercover and also exposes the extremes of wealth and poverty in Saudi Arabia.

(Image: Youtube/alweeam com)

Women are considered to be second-class citizens and police beating women is the norm.

In one scene a male supermarket customer violently pushes a woman to the floor for no reason and walks past her.

Another gruesome scene shows five bodies hanging from a pole that is suspended between two cranes.

It serves as a public reminder to those who might consider turning to crime.

The gang of five robbers were publicly beheaded before their corpses were strung up in public for days.

Read more:Britain revealed to have been training police officers for brutal Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, blasphemy is punishable by stoning or execution and theft by amputation.

If anyone is found guilty of insulting Islam they face 10 years in prison or 1,000 lashes.

The documentary tells the story of the brave men and women who dared to speak out against the Saudi regime.

Saudi Arabia Uncovered, produced by Hardcash Productions, airs on ITV on Tuesday March 22 at 10.40pm.