ONE way or another, 9/11 has never left the news schedule. What is happening now in Afghanistan has brought the subject new prominence, as has the approaching 20th anniversary of the tragedy. Can it really have been two decades since the world watched on television as the deadliest terrorist attack in American history unfolded?

With so many documentaries, plays, feature films and books already out there, anyone revisiting the subject in this, the anniversary year, is under added pressure to produce something remarkable. Surviving 9/11 (BBC2, Monday, 9pm) fits that bill.

A feature-length documentary by award-winning director Arthur Cary (War in the Blood, Grayson Perry: All Man), the film spans the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and the downing of Flight 93, in sequence. The viewer is taken back to that dreadful day through the recollections of some of those who did make it home.

The film opens not in New York but on a beach in Ayrshire where Vanessa Lawrence is running through the chilly morning gloom. Lawrence had been awarded the artist-in-residency position in the Twin Towers. With the title came 30,000 square feet of space on the 91st floor of the North Tower. It was quite some studio, affording views across Manhattan like no other. The then 26-year-old could scarcely believe her luck.

That Tuesday 20 years ago, Lawrence had arrived at the towers for 6am to catch the sunrise. After working for a few hours she decided to pop out for a drink. This small everyday act was to save her life. It was when she just arrived back on the 91st floor that the first plane hit the building. Had Lawrence been standing in the spot she occupied shortly before she would have died instantly.

From a firefighter and a firefighter’s widow, to the father of a British victim and a television reporter, the film takes us through some of the sights and sounds of the day, among them people jumping from the towers. One witness recalls a man and woman leaping together, their arms around each other right to the end.

“It has been a strange and difficult 20 years,” says one interviewee. Everyone featured here is still living with trauma, mental and physical. The passage of time has not brought much in the way of peace. The grief changes but it never leaves them. The widow of a firefighter who was left with a baby daughter to bring up on her own, says: “It feels disloyal to not be in excruciating pain every day like you were. It hurt to breathe.”

Also showing next week is the documentary, 9/11 Inside the President’s War Room (BBC1, Tuesday). As the title suggests, the focus here is on the main political players, with George W Bush among those interviewed.

Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (BBC2, Sunday, 8pm) makes a welcome return. The two pals open the fourth series in spectacular style with a visit to North Uist.

This programme has come such a long way from ostensibly humble beginnings. Two comedians, both of whom had suffered heart problems, chatting away about anything and everything as they fished their way around Britain. Between the sounds of the river, the beauty of the places visited, and the sheer daftness of the duo, the half hour flies by.

As ever, Bob’s contribution will be finding a place to stay and cooking some heart-healthy supper (yes, they still manage to slip good advice into the mix). Can’t wait to see where they rock up on North Uist, or if Bob continues his proud tradition of falling in every episode. Mind how you go, mate.

Talk about setting yourself a comedy challenge. In the case of Back to Life (BBC1, Tuesday, 10.35pm), viewers are asked to be on the side of a central character who is just out of prison after serving 18 years for murder.

As anyone who caught the first series knows, creator and star Daisy Haggard manages the task with grace and ease. Haggard plays Miri Matteson, recently returned to live with her parents (Geraldine James and Richard Durden) in the seaside town of Hythe. Finding every step back to normality a painful one, Miri does her best to navigate the glares and whispers, and worse, that her reappearance has sparked.

Haggard and co-writer Laura Solon took things gently in the first series. In the second they are bolder, bringing the victim’s parents (played by Ade Edmondson and Lizzy McInnery) into the frame. The blend still works, though the first episode could have done with more of a catch-up. This is one comedy where it pays to begin at the start. Fortunately the first series is still on iPlayer. The second joins it on the morning of transmission.