he real eye-opener in this hefty slab of a documentary is the people involved. You won?t be surprised that the US counter-terrorist types who line up to recall their part in pursuing al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden bear very little resemblance to the characters in Homeland. They?re a type we?re used to in this kind of doc: male, clean-cut and inclined to macho turns of phrase. Whoever?s fault it was it took so long to catch America?s standout enemy, they suggest, it wasn?t theirs, no way. Blame the politicians. And it certainly did take a long time: Bin Laden was a key target long before 9/11, with several chances to capture him being bungled or missed (?Keystone Cops operations,? mutters one contributor) before US special forces killed him on their raid a year ago today, 1 May 2011. The programme doubles as a primer on al-Qaeda?s evolution and a profile of Bin Laden himself: the 17th child of a Saudi billionaire, he was, we?re told, hypochondriacal, obsessively organised and very calm.

Starring:

Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, George W Bush, James Jones, Madeleine Albright, Osama Bin Laden, Rupert Graves

Genre:

Documentary