Christmas

Wed Dec 30, 9-10.35pm, C4

This is the kind of documentary you dread watching, but you are glad you did. A horrifying yet somehow hopeful tribute to lives both lost and saved in the 2004 tsunami, it uses devastating home video footage and survivor interviews to piece together the events through the eyes of both holiday-makers and locals. The emphasis is on the former: Brits, Americans and Europeans who describe the details of their blissful family holidays, unaware of the devastation to come. These include a couple who went diving and returned to find bodies on the beach, their hotel obliterated and their children missing. Much like an effective horror movie, this establishes its characters carefully without foreshadowing the fates of their loved ones, sometimes lulling you into a false sense of security by capturing a rare moment of levity. It doesn’t feel manipulative, though; the intention is to recreate the uncertainty, the shock, the confusion and the guilt of the survivors. And it works. Feature continues