Jon Snow’s departure from Channel 4 News last December after 32 years as anchor was a rushed occasion. Typically, he put in a full shift to the end, said a quick goodbye to viewers, and was filmed exiting the office, handshakes all round, while the credits were still rolling. Not a drop of the experience or a moment wasted.

Even though he was soon back on Channel 4 with a documentary on ageing, there was a sense the man and his career merited closer consideration.

Jon Snow: A Witness to History (Channel 4, Sunday, 10pm) makes good on both fronts. Directed by Johnny Burke and edited by Paul Dosaj, this compelling hour-long documentary shows why Snow, now 75, has been a hero to generations of young journalists, though he would not thank you for such a title.

His critics, as he acknowledges in the film, accuse him of being “an old leftie”.

To both sides he says: “I had a simple rule. Go somewhere, report faithfully on what I find.”

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Snow started his career on radio, though he was not sure if journalism was what he wanted to do. Reporting on the Balcombe Street siege in 1975, where he was first on the scene thanks to his trusty bike cutting through the London traffic, sealed the deal on his career choice. He was “hooked” and spent the next 50 years visiting war zones and troublespots and anchoring Channel 4 News.

Whether reporting on the death squads of El Salvador, the Iran-Iraq war, 9/11, or Grenfell, Snow brings humanity to the job and his own distinctive style. One cameraman who worked with him says Snow is “part journalist, part showman”. Whatever, it worked.

Another big personality is the subject of McEnroe (Sky Documentaries, Saturday, 9pm, or catch up on Now). Written and directed by Barney Douglas, the film follows the former player turned pundit as he walks through the New York streets at night, the trek symbolising his restlessness and the path he has followed in life.

To see McEnroe at Wimbledon, as we will for the next fortnight, it is hard to connect this thoughtful, quietly amused chap with the “superbrat” of old, as the newspapers dubbed him.

But the evidence is all here, set out in footage and interviews from then and now. The kid from New York had a ferocious temper that he would unleash on umpires and racquets alike, shouting “You cannot be serious!” if he thought a call was wrong. Wimbledon had never seen his like before (or since, despite the best efforts of some).

Mac the Mouth did not just talk big; he was a giant of the game, a brilliant, inspired champion. But as he admits here, he wasn’t happy. “I felt like I was doomed.”

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The why and the how of that are explored over the next two hours, with McEnroe providing the lion’s share of analysis, with fellow players and family chipping in.

McEnroe makes for a cool, witty, narrator of his own story. He’s quite happy to tell you how Jimmy Connors treated him when they first met (spoiler: they did not hit it off), what he thought of his father as his manager, how he hated Wimbledon and swore he would never come back once he had won, plus the inside story on some wild times on the town. He talks about his first marriage to Tatum O’Neal, with their children, now adults, having their say, as does McEnroe’s wife, Patty Smyth.

It’s a revealing, honest, fascinating look at a complex individual, and not just McEnroe. Bjorn Borg, his great rival turned friend, gets a look in as well.

Another sporting and broadcasting legend rocks up in Icons of Football: Archie Macpherson (BBC Scotland, Friday, 9.30pm). The man dubbed the voice of Scottish football by no less than Jonathan Watson, put in a 60 year shift in the job.

All his yesterdays are our yesterdays, and the best of them are recalled here by Archie and other commentators. He made his debut on October 27, 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. “Armageddon was hanging over our heads,” he says. “What did I have to console myself with? Hamilton Accies against Stenhousemuir.”

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The Shettleston boy was and remains much more than a commentator. Like other giants of the Scottish game, he has a hinterland he can draw on. Nor was he afraid of speaking truth to footballing power, and his friendships made (Jock Stein) and lost (Sir Alex Ferguson) were testament to that.

Here’s a treat to round off this or any other week. Wham! (Netlix, from Wednesday) tells the story of one of pop’s greatest friendships. Pals from childhood, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were only together as a band for four years, but the hits they made will last as long as pop does. Directed by Chris Smith, the feature length doc boasts all the usual bells and whistles - never seen before footage, previously unheard interviews - but it’s the sheer sense of joy, of two mates having the greatest time of their young lives, than make this a must-see.