Rocket Man’s fast ascent
THE ELON MUSK SHOW (9pm, BBC2) does sound rather a strange idea for a TV programme.We know this guy is a genius.We know he has extraordinary ambitions. And, yes, we know he’s the richest man on the planet, or at least on this one – worth an estimated $232 billion at the time I’m writing this, but quite conceivably a few billion more by the time you read it – so I guess he can do what he jolly well likes.
But even so. Fronting his own light entertainment series – performing songs, chatting to guests, doing a bit of stand-up?
Really? No, not really. Of course not. What we’ve got here is actually a documentary series, just saddled with a slightly daft title; a threeparter that examines how this South African geek-turned-business-magnate came to be what he’s, er, come to be.
Musk himself isn’t even in it. Not as a contributor. Obviously we see an awful lot of him, in clips dating back to the mid-90s, when he barely looked old enough to shave but was already doing crazily ambitious things in Silicon Valley. But he himself is not here to tell his own story.
His mother Maye helps tell it, mind you, recalling how young Elon was when she first realised he wasn’t your average kid.
“I would say by the age of three, I thought he was a genius,” she tells the programme.
Also popping up is ex-wife Talulah Riley, recalling not just their marriage – which inevitably revolved around his crazily long working hours – but the night they met, when this “very sweet, quite shy” guy invited her back to his hotel room “so we can look at rocket videos”.
And what really happened when they got there? Tell all, Talulah!
“He did just show me rocket videos!” she chuckles.
Of course, it’s with his rockets, which he hopes one day will carry us to Mars, plus his pioneering battery-powered cars, which he hopes will be of some benefit to the human race’s current home, that everyone now associates Elon Musk.
Those, and possibly Twitter. But as this first episode reminds us, his early efforts in these mechanical fields were less than wholly successful, both technically and financially.
Indeed, that’s the underlying theme of this opening part – that this remarkable figure didn’t get where he is today, to paraphrase Reggie Perrin’s boss CJ, without suffering some setbacks and humiliations.
That, and ruffling feathers. Whoever happens to hold the title at any one time, there’ll always be a “world’s richest man”. Does Elon Musk’s vision make him more deserving than most? Perhaps it’s too early to say. For now, I can’t wait to hear his new album.