Dateline NBC (1992– )

Three years ago, Travis Forbes murdered a young woman in Denver. After becoming the prime and indeed the only suspect and while under surveillance of sorts he attacked another one in Fort Collins. How Lydia Tillman survived after being raped, severely beaten and left for dead in a burning apartment remains to be seen, but she did, and made a miraculous recovery.

Forbes was eventually persuaded to confess to the murder of the diminutive Kenia Monge, leading the authorities to her grave; he received a life sentence in return. Disturbing and inspiring though this tale of depravity and survival may be, this programme could have been cut by at least half an hour because much of it is taken up with lengthy interviews that should have been severely edited if not excluded altogether.