Shadow Commander: Iran's Military Mastermind, BBC 2, Tuesday at 12.15am
THE killing of Qasem Soleimani is a bit like Brexit - we won't know the true cost for years.
Perhaps the US military has made a sound strategic decision (despite our obvious unease at a state taking the decision to kill 10 people in a missile strike in another country) in sending a bloody signal to Iran that its attempt to dominate the Middle East will be challenged.
Or maybe the decision to kill Soleimani, who has been on a US death list for years, was taken by a nihilistic president with an eye on the upcoming elections and no care for the consequences.
Geopolitics is shifting as Russia and China challenge the dominance of the US, and despite the attempt to shift away from fossil fuels, the world's most important oil and gas producing region remains one of the central battlegrounds.
Shadow Commander: Iran's Military Mastermind was the BBC's effort to explain the importance of Soleimani, albeit while he was still alive.
First broadcast in March, it tracked the career of Iran's most important general and revealed how the Americans almost got him in Iraq in 2006.
It was fascinating, in light of the conversations which must have taken place in the White House last week, to listen to a US general talk through his decision making as to whether to try and kill Soleimani. In the end he went for a hard stop and arrest and missed his target.
General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US special operations in Iraq from 2003-2006, told the BBC how they had information that Soleimani was in a convoy coming in from the north.
"So what do you do? Do you attack the convoy? Reinforce to embalm the convoy or do we do nothing? We weren't 100 per cent sure Soleimani was on the convoy and second, whether we had the authority, or good enough rationale, to go after Soleimani, particularly to kill him," he said.
"It was pretty dicey stuff, this wasn't like normal counter-terrorism ops where you land and have a fire fight on the ground. This was almost like police ops."
Shadow Commander was excellent, with access to senior generals in the US and UK and insight into Israeli thinking. Get it on the BBC iplayer for a calm and measured assessment of the situation.
**
Geraint Thomas: The Road Will Decide, BBC 2, Sunday at 10pm
Sports documentary has had a bad rap in recent years, with PR departments firmly in control and unguarded moments in short supply.
The Road Will Decide was the behind the scenes story of Geraint Thomas and his 2019 Tour de France.
After serving others for a decade, Thomas had broken through in 2018 and won the most important race in cycling.
But did he have the mind and body to match his team-mate Chris Froome and become a multiple tour winner this year?
In turned out to be one of the great tours, principally because of the flamboyance and joie de vivre of Julian Alaphilippe.
The 'road will decide' was the mantra of the uber successful Team Sky which selected two leaders and allowed the race to determine which was the stronger.
The road picked Thomas's teammate Egan Bernal and our cameras were following the wrong man.
If you're a cycling fan you'll enjoy The Road Will Decide but it's not going to excite the casual sports fan.
The documentary I want to see is the story of Alaphillippe's tour and inside the team bus of Deceuninck - Quick Step as a French man threatened to win the Tour for the first time in 32 years.
