Chris Curtis: Hell Jumper (Expectation for BBC2)

War and love, heroism and foolhardiness, beautiful countryside and war-torn cities – Hell Jumper is an extraordinary celebration of vitality in one of the deadliest places on earth.  

These contrasts are embodied in Chris Parry, a 28-year-old Brit who feels compelled to head to Ukraine as an evacuation volunteer. There, he manages to perform outstanding acts of bravery, develop a social media following and fall in love. He is also killed.  

The backbone of the film is his emerging relationship with Olya, captured via WhatsApps, voice notes and videos, and the thrilling, terrifying Go-Pro footage of Parry “running the gauntlet” to rescue a series of grateful (and sometimes irritable) Babushkas.  

This is complemented by director Paddy Wivell’s outstanding retrospective interviews with other volunteers, Parry’s friends and family, and Olya, which paint a picture of him as thrill-seeking “force of nature”.  

He has a compelling, almost magnetic personality, but is himself drawn to danger. Life back in Britain starts to hold little appeal for Parry, and he cannot bring himself to listen to Olya’s pleas to tone down his increasingly dangerous missions. 

The film shifts between the tranquillity of the Swiss Alps and rural Cornwall to the maze of half-destroyed tower blocks that Parry has to navigate, and between the two sides of Parry – the egotist who willingly places himself in danger and the straight-up hero that rescues more than 400 civilians.  

But while Hell Jumper is desperately sad, it is also strangely upbeat. Parry’s actions are proof of the good in humanity for his grief-stricken parents, and his love is an “island of calmness” for Olya, as her world literally collapses around her. 

Parry’s was a life less ordinary, and Hell Jumper is no ordinary doc.  

• Chris Curtis is the editor in chief of Broadcast