The Age of Terror: The Paris Plot

Did you know this? Did you know that Algerian Islamists planned and set out on a 9/11-style attack on Paris in 1994? Did you know that the plane actually made it into French aerospace and onto French soil? Did you know that the terrorists shot and killed three passengers and were subsequently killed themselves when the plane was raided?

This is a terrific documentary which starts out on the classical model with talking heads, library footage, and crackly cockpit recordings and then piles on the drama with Hollywood-grade re-enactments and a tense orchestral score. Peter Taylor, who practically invented the study of terrorism thirty years ago tells this tense tale. The final scene is so like an action movie that it requires a stunt coordinator. Bleak and gripping stuff.

Here’s a long article about the series by Peter Taylor himself.