An Australian soldier during a mission in Uruzgan province, southern Afghanistan. Photo: Special Operations Task Group
Free to air
Afghanistan: Inside Australia’s War
ABC, 8.30pm
Candid interviews with former soldiers of low rank and high, amazing helmet-cam footage, and an informed narration, makes this a terrific look at Australia’s longest military campaign. The focus in this episode is on the period from 2005, of grandest ambition, when our military took part in efforts to ‘‘rebuild’’ the nation. But those efforts were doomed to failure, because Afghanistan isn’t a nation so much as a collection of tribal areas. The focus on building stuff – roads, schools, hospitals – left many soldiers confused (a theme familiar to anyone following the second season of the Serial podcast). But by 2008, the focus had shifted to more familiar terrain – shooting, blowing stuff up, training the local military so ours could get the hell out. Among the voices here are soldiers left shattered by what they had seen, done and been subjected to.
50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy
SBS2, 8.30pm
Irish comedian Baz Ashmawy won an international Emmy for this amiable piece of stuntery, in which he drags his 72-year-old mother Nancy around the world and forces her into ostensibly life-threatening situations. In truth, she’s rarely in much danger, though she might be at risk from hearing loss as her rather shouty son booms his gags into her ear. Nancy is clearly ‘‘up for it’’, as they say Dublin way, though her dowdy and downbeat demeanour – think Mrs Brown crossed with An Idiot Abroad’s Karl Pilkington – often suggests otherwise. This week she’s dancing with 700 inmates in a maximum security prison, flying in a seaplane to a remote island, and dangling off the side of a skyscraper as Baz drags her to the Philippines. But at least she gets to catch up with some old mates from her nursing days – good contacts to have in case Baz gets serious about his mission. Karl Quinn
Pay TV
Ross Kemp: Extreme World
BBC Knowledge, 9.30pm
Over the past decade, former EastEnders star Ross Kemp has become one of the most intrepid and enlightening documentary makers in the business. Whether he’s coming under fire with the British Army in Afghanistan, or sticking his neck out to make contact with murderous gangs in practically every corner of the globe, his programs have been compelling viewing. This episode of Extreme World, which was filmed in 2012, provides rare insight into the political and ethnic divides that perpetuate horrific violence across the Pakistani city of Karachi. Brad Newsome
Movie
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Part 1 (2009)
SBS, 10.30pm
After bravely confronting her gangster father, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) lies near dead in hospital. Meanwhile, Mikael Blomqvist (Michael Nyqvist) is finding support for exposing the Security Police’s decade-long victimisation of Lisbeth dissipating. A society in which men hate women continues unchecked.The most extraordinary scene in the hypnotic two-part The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest comes near the end, when Mikael and his lover are confronted by a hitman in a Stockholm restaurant. Mikael acts like an old-fashioned bloke, fearlessly defending himself and his partner, while she sits there doing absolutely nothing. Scott Murray
