CUTTING EDGE CHANNEL FOUR 4 TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM SERIES TV REPORTING INVESTIGATING INJUSTICE CURRENT AFFAIRS

Cutting EdgeCutting Edge is a British TV documentary series that focuses on political and social issues. broadcast by Channel 4 since 1990.

Cutting Edge, Channel 4's flagship documentary series, returned Thursday 24 January 2008 with an extended run of distinctive, compelling films that offer a snapshot of modern life.

This run of 15 documentaries comes from some of the UK’s most influential directors as well as from the sharpest emerging talent.

Ian Hamilton (43) is a Captain of the Parachute Regiment and one of the most highly decorated officers in the British Army. He's served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

But in 2007 Ian became the first officer and the first paratrooper in the history of the Armed Forces to undergo a sex-change operation.

Film-maker Jane Preston documents Hamilton's transgender journey to become Jan, revealing an intimate and raw portrait of a remarkable year, as the alpha-male Para transforms into an ultra-feminine woman. The changes are physical but the emotional consequences are extensive as Jan has battled with an inner turmoil for years.

Ian had fought to suppress his feminine side, seeking out the toughest assignments to prove his manliness. In 1983, aged 18 he began his army career at Sandhurst and on a career-break from the army – he retrained as a cameraman in 1987 – his military background saw him dispatched to war zones covering the first Gulf War and the conflict in Bosnia. He then rejoined the Army as a Captain of the Parachute Regiment and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now he has stepped forward and acknowledged that he is more comfortable as a woman and the transformation begins. The muscles and the stubble will go to be replaced by a softer, more feminine face thanks to Facial Feminisation Surgery, breasts will replace pecs and finally Ian will have Sexual Reassignment Surgery to be a complete woman.

All the while Jan has more battles to face – to be accepted by her friends and family, as well as the Army. When Jan told her bosses she was trans-gendered and undergoing transition to be a woman, she was not allowed to take up a posting as an Army Media Liaison Officer in Gibraltar. She is now taking the Army to an industrial tribunal.

It is an extraordinary year for Jan, as she turns her back on the trappings of manliness she had clung to all her adult life to recognise that she, at heart and now in body, is a woman.

Highlights included

"Shops and Robbers", which received some of Channel 4's highest ratings.

"Graham Taylor: The Impossible Job", a documentary about the England national football team's unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. Manager Graham Taylor was harshly criticised by the tabloid press during these two years (1992-93), and the fly-on-the-wall documentary revealed a stressed team camp. It also gave birth to Taylor's catchphrase, "Do I not like that" (a statement rather than a question).

Cutting Edge returned in 2005, with the episodes "Anti-Social Old Buggers" (about elderly recipients of Asbos), "The Black Widow", "Gridlock" and "The House Clearers".

JK's CURRENT COLLECTION EARTH TO KING - PLEAD GUILTY

My life's in ruins, says teacher cleared of having hotel sex romps with 17-year-old pupil - 4th October 2007

Man freed after six years in jail for double rape because 'accuser was

a liar' - 16th October 2007

£20,000 payout for woman who falsely accused her father of rape after 'recovered memory' therapy - 19th October 2007