Sunday 9 June On Thin Ice: Putin vs Greenpeace BBC Two, 9pm & 9.30pm In 2013, a Greenpeace ship called the Arctic Sunrise set sail for the Russian drilling platform of Prirazlomnaya, the world’s first offshore Arctic oil rig. The crew’s mission was to scale the platform and disrupt its operations, thus discouraging an Arctic oil rush.
In the words of team leader Frank Hewetson, however: “The plan, I think you could say, went to s--t.” This riveting six-part series (stripped across three nights) tells the story of how a peaceful protest ended up as an international incident, leading to all 30 of the Arctic Sunrise’s crew being detained in Russia. In tonight’s two-part premiere, we get an insight into the mission itself, which collapsed into chaos after the activists failed to gain a foothold on the rig.
What followed was a standoff between the Arctic Sunrise and the Russian coastguard, before the ship itself was dramatically boarded via helicopter by armed Russian troops. Interviewees such as Igor Volobuev, former head of communications for Russia’s state-owned oil company Gazprom, puts the response into a geopolitical context: oil is power – and nothing can quench Putin’s thirst for power. SK D-Day 80 at the Royal Albert Hall ITV1, 4pm Davina McCall hosts an afternoon of music to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Filmed earlier this week at the Royal Albert Hall, musical guests include Emeli Sandé, Lulu and Katherine Jenkins, who will be singing a.
