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  • - The Real Mr & Mrs Assad: Channel 4 Dispatches

    Channel 4, 8.00pm

    Channel 4 Dispatches reveals a portrait of a golden couple who have become global hate figures. The programme shows intimate footage of President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma as they've never been seen on British television before, and images that help explain why the West bought the idea they were true modernisers. When Bashar took the reins of power after his father's death in 2000, the West was drawn into a hope and belief that Syria would be a new force for change in the Middle East. The Assads were seen as a glamorous couple with modern Western morals and values; he was hailed a reformer, she was the 'Rose of the Desert'. Key leaders and figures in the West welcomed the young couple, convinced that the softly spoken London-trained ophthalmologist and his beautiful British-born former investment banker wife would bring reform and modernisation to a country that had been run by an iron-fisted dictator for nearly 30 years. But it seems the West was duped. Instead of a transparent and progressive leadership, what has emerged during a year-long bloody uprising is evidence of the regime's gross systematic human rights abuses, including widespread killings and torture, while the Assads look on. Channel 4 Dispatches investigates the extent of the Assad family's culpability and the chains of command that link the President and select inner circle to the brutal crackdown.

  • - Afghanistan: The Great Game - A Personal View By Rory Stewart

    BBC Two

    Afghanistan: one of the most isolated and barren landscapes on earth is a strange place for an empire or superpower to invade. But for three of the greatest powers the world has seen, it became an unlikely target and an enduring obsession. The 19th century British invasions into Afghanistan, immortalised by Rudyard Kipling as "The Great Game", ended in huge loss of life and British retreat, and set a template for the perils of incursion in this mountainous country. In this two-part series, author, journalist and former Deputy Governor during the coalition's occupation of Iraq, Rory Stewart MP travels to Afghanistan to uncover the fears, the paranoia and perceived threats that led three very different Ssperpowers: Britain, Russia and the United States into Afghanistan from the 19th century to the present day.

  • - 56 Up

    ITV, 9.00pm

    Michael Apted's landmark documentary series following the lives of ordinary British people from childhoiod to adulthood and old age continues. Over the past six decades, the series has documented the group as they have become adults and entered middle-age, dealing with everything life has thrown at them in between. The series is back to discover what has happened to the group over the last seven years. And one of the original characters has decided to re-join the series after leaving almost 30 years ago.