The documentary is okay but it perpetuates most of the nonsense that has surrounded the TSR2 story for half a century. The comments from people there on Youtube illustrate how the story has become a myth.
Yes, TSR2 was an outstanding design for the time but it was far from perfect. From an aerodynamic perspective it showed great promise but there were no guarantees that its systems would have been quite so good. They may well have taken many years to develop. For example, as it was, TSR2 was going to rely on a bizarre wet film radar readout for "pinpoint" navigation, even though the readout would obviously have lagged behind the real-time position of the aircraft. A bonkers idea by any standards. There were other aspects of the design that were just as bizarre.
The big problem with the story is that almost everything written about TSR2 stems from a very early book produced by Stephen Hastings - an author with a very clear political agenda. Everything written subsequently was largely just a regurgitation of the Hastings book.
Truth of the matter is that the Labour Government didn't "kill off" TSR2. It was already effectively dead but the previous government hadn't got the will to end it, even though it was they who had perpetuated the ludicrous committee structure that had largely created the monster. By 1965 TSR2 had become a hopelessly over-priced aircraft designed for a role (East of Suez) that was about to disappear. There was no control on its wild spending and endless delays and even when BAC (created by a grudging merger simply in order to get the TSR2 contract) was pressured into settling on a fixed price for getting the aircraft into the air, they refused.
Healey, far from being the evil axe murderer, was firmly on the RAF's side (as the RAF will testify). He asked what the RAF wanted and asked if there was any cheaper alternative. F-111 came along at just the right time (or so it seemed). The RAF abandoned TSR2 before the Labour Party cancelled it - this is a recorded fact, even though nobody ever cares to mention it, as it spoils the drama of the story.
Even more absurd is the endless repetition of the post-cancellation saga when the government supposedly ordered destruction of all the TSR2 jigs to ensure that the aircraft could never be resurrected. In reality no such order was ever given. BAC simply destroyed them as they would have for any other redundant project. In actual fact, Healey and Jenkins offered the two flyable TSR2 airframes to BAC for use as flying research aircraft, provided that BAC paid for them. BAC politely declined.
But facts are never permitted to get in the way of a good story
It's fair to say that TSR2 (or rather the Vickers-Supermarine Type 571 to be more accurate) showed great promise, but it was an aircraft designed by committee, and one that was hopelessly over-specified just for the sake of it, largely because the RAF was desperate to maintain a clear performance advantage over the Buccaneer that Mountbatten was trying to impose on the RAF so that funds could be saved for his romantic super carrier ambitions. But most importantly, the aircraft was designed for East of Suez and by the end of the 1960s the RAF needed a European theatre strike/attack platform. Thankfully, they finally got it a decade later when Tornado arrived.
F-111 failed to live up to its promise, as did AFVG, but there's no doubt that at least on paper the F-111 was just as suitable for the RAF as TSR2 was. But more importantly it was to have been cheaper, even though cost rises and exchange rates eventually conspired against it. Fundamentally, it was a bargain offer, particularly because the UK was to have bought it on credit... bear in mind the UK was financially crippled at the time.
In fact, Buccaneer would have been the logical choice all along and Healey admits that his only regret is not persuading the RAF to adopt the Buccaneer at the time. It was inter-service rivalry and Mountbatten's stifling ambitions that encouraged the RAF to pursue TSR2 in defiance of Buccaneer, and led to the seemingly endless quests to make TSR2 more and more complex, thereby leading to its eventual demise.
TSR2 was a classic tale of how not to design a warplane even though, rather ironically, the result was an aircraft that might well have eventually become a truly magnificent machine, given enough patience, time and money. But the really sad part of TSR2's story is the endless repetition of the fifty-year old story of how a wicked government wilfully destroyed what was to have been Britain's greatest aeronautical achievement. The saga is utter nonsense and I hope that one day we'll put the silly tale to rest!