The TA and the Taliban
Watch, Thursday 04 August
9:00pm - 10:00pm 1/6
It would be a huge shame if people saw the title and mentally dismissed this as another numbing blitz of helmet-cam footage. This six-part series about the Territorial Army in Afghanistan exerts a more emotional tug than the average war-doc, focusing on ordinary people and relaying their experiences, both mundane and life-changing. We see the home lives of electrician George and PE teacher Daniel before they're thrown into the exhausting unpredictability of Helmand Province. George is crumpled with guilt at leaving two young sons behind, while sports-mad Daniel, shockingly, is soon forced to revisit his prediction of what he would do if he were injured: just 400m from his headquarters, his arm is shattered by an IED exploding. The extraordinary drama of the documentary - compounded by the director being shot in the leg - is balanced by relatably workaday misfortunes suffered by the soldiers, and by the simple yearning of a boy for his absent dad. It's also a stirring statement about human powers of recovery.
Radio Times reviewer - Mark Braxton
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Subtitled, Widescreen, Audio-describedRadiotimes
