Immigration Nation, Netflix
THE British government may have called in the Royal Navy to patrol the Channel but it's got nothing like the fire-power of the US when it comes to enforcing immigration regulations.
Immigration has been an issue as long as there have been nation states but in the last decade it's moved itself close to the top of political priorities.
The disintegration of a number of north African and Middle Eastern countries following the Arab Spring has seen large inflows of migrants into Europe and this has had significant political consequences.
It had a direct effect on the Brexit vote and almost tossed the Germany chancellor out of power.
A number of former eastern-bloc countries have introduced immigration policies which have not found favour with their EU colleagues and Turkey has used the flow of migrants as a negotiation tactic with the EU.
Central American states have also halted and allowed migrants travel through their countries as a political tactic, but it is President Donald Trump who made halting illegal immigration and building an 'impregnable' wall along the Mexican border a central plank of his election strategy.
Britain is now discovering how difficult it is to stop people entering your country when they are willing to risk their lives to escape war or better their lives.
Immigration Nation was filmed between 2017 and 2020 as Trump came to power with the promise to get tough on illegal immigrants. In the US this responsibility falls to ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The objectives of ICE, a quasi-military force to European eyes, changed significantly from the Obama years.
Trump changed the strategy from one of deporting illegal immigrants who had criminal convictions to tracking down anyone undocumented, good citizen or not.
We followed the ICE agents through training and out into the cities where they tracked their targets.
Some of the cases were heart-breaking. One man answered his door after God knows how many years living in the US, quietly acknowledged he was undocumented and was given a couple of minutes to say goodbye to his young daughter and partner before he was led away in handcuffs.
Other encounters for the ICE agents were more dangerous for them but also more satisfying.
They tracked down a Romanian woman with child pornography convictions and other serious criminals.
All went into a system, seemingly without appeal, where they were deported to their countries of origin.
Sometimes it depended on which, heavily armed, ICE officer turned up at your door. Some officers were happy to pick up "collaterals" - undocumented migrants who happen to be at the address ICE have been given for a named individual - other officers thought this unfair.
The six-part Immigration Nation became available on Netflix UK last week and is a thought-provoking addition to an extremely complicated situation.
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Shameless, Channel 4, Tuesday at 9pm
Coronavirus has impacted almost every area of life and that includes almost halting TV production.
This has led to some creative solutions for returning to filming but another sliver lining has been a chance to see some classics once again.
Channel 4 this week restarted the brilliant Shameless series from the start. It was last shown more than 16 years ago so if you're under 30 or missed the original, this is a great opportunity.
The later series (it didn't finish until 2013) were poor but some of the early stuff is outrageously good.
It was a breakthrough role for the brilliant Anne-Marie Duff and also introduced us to James McAvoy, both of whom moved on after the first two series.
