The Protectors

9pm, BBC1

Prepare to be disturbed, and even shocked, by this film featuring Adrian, a paedophile who has been released back into the community. "When I think about sexually abusing children now, I don't see the harm it causes. To me, it is showing them love," he says.

This is the first half of a two-part documentary, by award-winning producer Roger Graef, which addresses a tough question: what can society do with dangerous offenders once they have served their time in prison? The problem of releasing paedophiles has provoked much hysteria, but this is a serious and revealing account, which follows police and probation officers as they try to ease Adrian back into a normal life.

What will stick in many viewers' minds are the dreadful confessions of a man who was caught in bed with a three-year-old on his wedding day and who admits: "The only reason I got married was that my wife wanted children ... Back then I believed I could have sex with my sons without concern from the authorities, that it would be normal." But the real stars of the programme are the officers, such as probation worker Louise (left), who put aside any revulsion for Adrian and try to help him, despite his manipulative and unlikeable personality. Psychiatric nurse Ian says: "He would certainly be considered evil by a lot of people ... I am sure there are even people who would like to see him put up against a wall and shot. But at the end of the day, he has served his time. Adrian has been to prison, he's come out of prison. He hasn't committed an offence, as far as we know, for a year or so now. And, therefore, shouldn't he be given a chance like anybody else?"