Thoroughly researched and scrupulously balanced, this documentary, written, directed and presented by television producer Gillian Mosely (Tony Robinson’s World War 1), excavates the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and attempts to engage with both sides of a seemingly unbridgeable divide. It is sober, thought-provoking stuff which, while it relies on some fairly hackneyed soundtrack choices (Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and other classical greatest hits), surprises and illuminates elsewhere.

The fingerprints of Britain, with colonial policies that ignored common sense and human rights, can be found on a timebomb that dates back to the first world war. It is fascinating, if rather bleak, but does seem better suited to television than to a cinema release.

• The Tinderbox is in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema