The first of four newly commissioned documentaries in this season marking 25 years of the Troubles observes them through the eyes of serving British soldiers.
Originally seen (as intended) as protectors of the Catholic minority, the soldiers' relationship with that community turned irreparably sour in 1971, when a military curfew was imposed on the Lower Falls. "I didn't consider myself a foreign invader in a foreign country - nor did they until the curfew," says one soldier.
"Then the tea stopped. That was the weekend the IRA went to war."
Soldiers speak with unprecedented frankness to journalist Peter Taylor , an experienced observer of the Troubles, about a world where provocation and frustration can lead to a bitter and brutal reaction: "If it'safter dark and he's a known IRA 'player', he's gonna get a serious kicking."
Fear of death is a daily emotion: nearly 650 soldiers have been killed in a quarter of a century. But one soldier sums up their shared attitude: "Everything you do that stops the terrorists is worth it. If we save one life, we've achieved something." Producer Ken Kirby
Executive producerSteve Hewlett