Reviewed: Until I Kill You, Asia, The Day of the Jackal, Hollywoodgate

I don’t think much of this new series of The Handmaid’s Tale. Are we seriously meant to believe that a people who had freed themselves from the rule of a misogynist, morally bankrupt convicted felon would vote the tiny-handed bully straight back in? Come on writers, try to keep it credible here.

In uncertain times there is comfort to be had from a new David Attenborough-led extravaganza and Asia (BBC1, Sunday) ticks all the usual boxes: awesome settings, magnificent creatures great and small, not a human in sight till we get to the end and the “how we made it” sequence. In the first episode, we watched a diver try to film in the middle of a whirlpool. Completely nuts, but the results were breathtaking.

Until I Kill You (STV, Sun-Weds) was one to approach with caution, despite the obvious quality of the cast and the “this is a true story” billing (with the usual qualifications). Another story of women being terrorised by a man? Seen plenty of those, and no matter how well-intentioned they often come across as exploitative.

Anna Maxwell Martin played Delia Balmer, a nurse living in London who meets a man called John Sweeney in a bar. They click, she eventually invites him to move in, but his violent and controlling nature soon becomes obvious and she wants rid. But Sweeney (Shaun Evans) won’t budge.

The tale winds back and forth from London to Amsterdam, where a father has reported his daughter missing. The police don’t seem interested, or are quick to make assumptions about the possible victim. It’s a pattern that would play out over and over in Amsterdam and London.

Based on Ms Bulmer’s book, Until I Kill You was a horrifying look at the system’s failure to listen to and protect victims of domestic violence, in this case women. It could have been sensationalist, but director Julia Ford made sure not to show the worst of the abuse unless it was essential to the story. Maxwell Martin stayed true to Bulmer’s spiky nature and her refusal to be a people pleaser (we met the real Delia in a follow-up documentary), while Evans made a horribly convincing common or garden monster.

Told over four nights, Until I Kill You was enraging and inspiring in equal measure. Depressing, too, knowing the Met did not learn from their worst mistakes.

The Day of the Jackal (Sky Atlantic, Thursday) rocked up with a lot to live up to in the book and the film. The movie was a lean, mean, thrilling machine that built up to a failed assassination atttempt on General de Gaulle.

In this made-for-television series, the Jackal is played by Eddie Redmayne. When we meet him he is making himself look like the office cleaner. Not just any cleaner - the actual cleaner. Having gone to all this bother he gets into the target’s offices, and at the first sign of trouble starts spraying bullets around. Isn’t the point of an assassin that they get in and out with minimum fuss?

But the Jackal is not your average gun for hire. His multi-million pound fees go to fund his passion for, wait for it, antique chess sets. Nothing like the lure of a dusty board game to turn a man into a stone cold killer.

Every Moriarty must have his Holmes, and in Redmayne’s case that’s Bianca (the excellent Lashana Lynch), MI6 weapons expert by day, wife and mum by night. Can Bianca find the Jackal before he finds his next target?

This Day of the Jackal is a lot like war, long periods of boredom punctuated by intense thrills every now and then. The viewer is made to work hard for these, hacking their way through thickets of European accents and creaky dialogue. It looks marvellous, like a watch advert, but man is it slow. As for Redmayne as a jackal, can I think about it? He’s more of a King Charles spaniel.

Tip of the hat and more to the Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at, who somehow persuaded a group of Taliban to let him follow them around with a camera. The result was the astonishing Hollywoodgate (BBC4, Tuesday).

Filming began shortly after the chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. We watched as a local commander and his entourage rummaged around a US airbase, looking for goods to salvage. In all, some $7 billion of material was left behind.

At times the fighters would come across as almost comical, as when they discovered a gym at the base and the commander had a go on the treadmill. “That was fun,” he said. But their sinister side was never far from the surface. Some took exception to Nash’at. “If his intentions are bad he will die soon,” the commander reassured one of the complainers.

How Nash’at managed to get himself and his film out is another story, one that presumably could not be told here for safety reasons. Still, an amazing piece of work and an example of true journalistic bravery.