It's two and a half years since Grant Mitchell – sorry, Ross Kemp – was last in Afghanistan, and times have changed. The situation is more complicated and the Royal Marines have had to change their tactics to keep up with a state of affairs that seems to be forever threatening to boil over into violence. It is an atmosphere that calls for a more subtle and insightful style of journalism and Kemp certainly steps up to the mark.

Watching Kemp is quite an emasculating experience as a fellow adult male. When he takes part in the gruelling training regimes practised by the military we look on as he half-heartedly complains about his age while sprinting about with a log twice his size balanced lazily on his shoulder. Early on in the documentary he talks of his “apprehension and excitement” while rigorously strapping his bullet proof vest on without hesitation, then proceeding to stride out into imminent danger.

On the other hand, this also makes him extremely impressive as an investigative journalist. He wastes no time in getting to the heat of the action, putting himself in very real danger to experience life on the frontline. While others would be quaking in the background and making frequent trips to the bathroom out of fear, he is right in there, asking awkward questions and tearing out the bloody, beating heart of the story.

There is also a disarming, refreshing honesty and bluntness to his reporting style. At one point he tells us: “The biggest fear for the lads is losing their limbs – or worse, their balls”. Later on he hammers home the point by demonstrating an armoured nappy worn to protect the genital area. In another example he bluntly asks a group of soldiers how they would feel if their friend, sitting next to Kemp, were to die in combat. Whereas others would tiptoe around the point, Kemp just says it like it is and is all the better for it.

Ross Kemp: Back on the Frontline is vital television, telling a story that needs to be told from the point of view of those soldiers on the ground, putting their lives at risk in an often thankless job. And Kemp, whose transformation from mouthy soap actor to award-winning journalist no-one foresaw, is the perfect man for the job: grounded, intelligent and humane.