Compulsion (BBC2); Hunt For The Killer Croc (five): THE Trouble With Jonny, the latest instalment in the Compulsion series, began with a father reading out his son's suicide note which concluded "Yours for the last time..."

Film of a happy 14-year-old Jonny was followed by the information that, four years later, he first attended Gamblers Anonymous and that he was visiting Alcoholics Anonymous by his twenties.

We were left in no doubt that this documentary was going to be as uncomfortable for the viewer as for the participants. Then, just when you thought you'd got a grip of the situation, it was revealed that his father was an Anglican priest, putting a whole new slant on the situation.

A little later still, when we were told that his father was working through his own problems of feeling abandoned by the early death of his parents, you wondered how much many more dilemmas could be crammed into the programme. It took up the story of Jonny - who has drink, drugs and gambling habits - as he chose between moving to a therapeutic community or a course of powerful mood-stabilising drugs. He opted for the former. As the community is church-based, although residents don't have to attend, this seemed as though it might throw up even more problems considering his own family background.

He blamed his father embracing Christianity for much of the pain and problems between them. His parting shot to his father was, "I just want to go to sleep and not wake up." There was talk of having to "form your own pilgrimage" and "take your own journey" but Jonny wasn't listening. He proved a disruptive force within the community, drinking and gambling daily and hitting on women (the only part of his behaviour not captured on film). Even the film-maker started to doubt Jonny's motives, saying "I worry he's here to avoid lithium or be part of the filming".

You couldn't help but feel like a voyeur as Jonny's crisis deepened with a car crash and another suicide attempt. You wondered if playing out life-or-death situations in front of the cameras was a good thing in the end. Would it have turned out any differently without their presence?

Hunt For The Killer Croc also made you fear for people's lives as reptile expert Dr Brady Barr hunted down a man-eating giant crocodile terrorising a small fishing village in Lubango in Uganda. The creature had killed ten people and maimed many others. He trained two local wildlife rangers, Peter and Robert, to capture crocodiles. This involved hooking a snare round their mouth, sitting on the squirming creatures and taping shut their jaws. His comments that "it's very dangerous" seemed redundant. Brady Barr's name makes him sound like he comes out of an adventure novel and there was something gung-ho about his cry of "Come and get it" as he instructed his pupils to leap on the back of a captured croc as if they were riding a mechanical bull.

Published: 26/05/2005