This Week

"Death on the Rock," April 28, 1988 Thames Television's program, presented by Jonathan Dimbleby, investigated the SAS shooting of three unarmed IRA members in Gibraltar weeks earlier, finding witnesses whose accounts sat uneasily with the official version of events. The government objected fiercely, and Thames commissioned an independent inquiry into how the program was made, the first ever held into a single documentary. It largely vindicated the journalism, finding that the program raised questions rather than reaching a verdict. That restraint is why it still rewards viewing: it is a model of putting evidence in front of the audience under intense political pressure, without overclaiming.