Telly Today: Thursday May 30th highlights include the life and times of Sean Connery, the BBC heading back inside the Ambulance, a diversion to Hitler’s U-Boat and a visit to Afghanistan.
 One to Watch: Ambulance, BBC One, 9pm
The Bafta Award-winning series returns, following a new cast of characters drawn from the staff of North West Ambulance Service, in Greater Manchester. Call handler Laura gives lifesaving advice to a panicked relative through the necessary procedures to resuscitate her relative. She reveals that the call is uncomfortably close to home, and strikes at the heart of Laura’s personal reasons for wanting to be part of the service.
The episode joins the team on the busy weekend shift, when police make a call to the ambulance control room that a patient is trapped beneath a tram. The helicopter emergency crew, Matt and Andy, are immediately dispatched. When they arrive at scene it is clear all the emergency services must work together in difficult conditions to extract the patient.
Thirty miles away another 999 call is in progress and instantly prioritised as a Category One emergency. The nearest available crew – Jade and Jonny – are dispatched, and when they arrive they’re met by distressed husband Gordon. Jade admits that during some emergencies paramedics haven’t always got the answers and instead they need to just get his wife Shirley to hospital. Jade and Jonny manage to stabilise her enough to take her.
Six hours into the shift and crewmates, Paul and Adam are dispatched to their next job of the night, a 56 year-old male who has collapsed in the bathroom. They have to work fast to work out what has happened to patient Paul. With only three ambulances available in the Wigan and Bolton area, Jade and Jonny are sent to 88 year-old patient Jean who has fallen and banged her head.
With no signs that the pace of the night is slowing, Paul and Adam are dispatched to their next patient, a 79 year-old who has taken a tumble on the dance floor whilst celebrating at the annual butchers’ ball in Bolton. She has been kept waiting for an ambulance for over two hours.
It’s the start of the morning shift, with temperatures plummeting to -2 degrees, the team on duty is ready to deal with any fallout from the freezing conditions. Paul and Adam are dispatched to another elderly faller who is at home in supported living. Patient Mac is certain he wants to keep living independently and adamant he doesn’t want to be sent to go hospital.
Back in control, call handler Laura takes an urgent 999 call for a patient who has been found hanging. As she guides the caller through another CPR she’s overcome with emotion, but manages to continue giving the caller advice until the ambulance arrives.
As the shift continues Jade and Jonny head to treat 87 year-old patient Loretta who has been found on the floor by her daughter. Jade and Jonny successfully manage to right her get her and keep her settled enough to remain at home. As the shift draws to a close call handler Laura has returned to take her last 999 call before leaving for home. Laura decides that she wants to be at the other end of the calls and is going to train to become a paramedic.
The journey to the hospital, tonight at 9pm on BBC One.
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Discovering Film: Sean Connery, Sky Arts, 9pm
Perhaps the most memorable and iconic incarnation of James Bond, the Discovering Film team turn their gaze to the career of the on and only Sean Connery.
One of the few actors that could escape a role as career-defining as that of James Bond, Sean Connery would win an Academy Award for his supporting role in The Untouchables, alongside two
BAFTAs and thee Golden Globes, before calling time on his acting career in 2006.
Whilst the Bond films had made him a star, Connery reportedly grew weary of both the franchise and the character, which spurred him into acclaimed roles in Marnie, A Bridge Too Far, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Hunt for Red October. Not bad for someone who said he couldn’t do accents.
Hiltler’s U-Boat: Draining The Ocean, Channel 5, 9pm
This series pulls the plug on our major seas to reveal hidden secrets and lost worlds. Using ground-breaking technology, breath-taking photography and commentary from top marine archaeologists, this innovative series delivers penetrating new insights into the epic history of human civilization and the deep history of planet Earth itself, exposing sunken cities, shipwrecks, treasure and the amazing natural wonders of the deep.
We think we know Hitler’s plans to dominate the world. But there is an untold story of how the Nazis waged a secret war across the world’s oceans. In this episode, marine archaeologists and historians go in search of Hitler’s secrets, hidden deep underwater. Scientific data combines with computer graphics to drain the oceans to investigate the lost wrecks of World War II.
The Final Mission, Channel 4, 9pm
Former elite Special Forces soldier Jason Fox embarks on a highly personal journey back to Afghanistan, nearly a decade after he last set foot in the country where he endured harrowing combat experiences during multiple tours of duty. Afghanistan both defined Jason as a soldier and made him the man he is today. He spent more than three years fighting in a war that saw some of the fiercest battles in modern British military history.
He saw friends killed and seriously injured in combat, and narrowly escaped death multiple times. This left him with a punishing personal legacy: PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Because of this, Jason was discharged from the Special Forces and made to leave behind the life and job he loved. Now he’s attempting to understand this complex country and the people he was sent to help. He meets old friends and former enemies, and asks whether the sacrifices were worth the traumatic legacy that he, the Afghan people, and many of his fellow soldiers have been left to endure.
Sean Connery in ATV drama ‘The Pets’, Sky Arts celebrate his work tonight at 9pm
