The week in TV: On Thin Ice: Putin v Greenpeace; Presumed

Docuseries meets eco-thriller as climate activists clash with Russia’s despot; Jake Gyllenhaal stars in an oddly flat legal drama rehash; Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart give us podcast TV; and the impish final episode of Inside No 9

On Thin Ice: Putin v Greenpeace (BBC Two) | iPlayer
Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+)
The Rest Is Politics: Election Special (Channel 4) | channel4.com
Inside No 9 (BBC Two) | iPlayer

Delivered in three half-hour double bills past week, On Thin Ice: Putin v Greenpeace (BBC Two) was a full-tilt docuseries rollercoaster. It’s about the multinational Greenpeace activists (the “Arctic 30”) who attempted to occupy the Russian oil rig Prirazlomnaya, run by Gazprom (mainly owned by the Kremlin), in the Arctic Ocean in 2013. The action was ethically justified (it only became possible to drill for oil because the climate crisis had melted the ice), but still, what a dangerous poking of the bear. Vladimir Putin went full strongman, sending in armed operatives and imprisoning the entire crew in the port of Murmansk.