Watch out, Mr Palin! Sue Perkins is just the ticket as a travel guide
EVer since Michael Palin started the ball rolling 25 years ago, it’s become commonplace for TV companies to employ celebrity globe trotters. sometimes it works, with the star truly embracing the culture of the place they visit. At other times you’re left with the distinct impression that they headed straight to the nearest hilton for a delousing as soon as the cameras stopped rolling.
last night’s opening episode of
The Mekong River With Sue Perkins (BBC2) left us in no doubt which category she falls into.
her epic 3,000-mile journey took her from Vietnam to the source of the river in the Tibetan highlands. With 11 hydro- electronic dams planned for the Mekong in the next two years, it’s an uncertain time for the people living on its shores.
emerging from Communist rule, Vietnam now has one of the most booming economies in the world, but to rice farmers like Thuk and huang — who sue stayed with at the start of her journey — that didn’t mean a whole lot.
Their work may be back-breaking but at least it provided a guaranteed living since the government buys rice harvests from farmers at a set price. But sea levels are rising, salt water is seeping into the Delta and the future of the rice fields is a precarious one.
Thoughtful and respectful throughout, the programme really hammered home just how tough a life some people have compared to our own.
In the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, sue met an elderly survivor of
PROTEST OF THE WEEKEND: Fans of Strictly Come Dancing have started an online petition to get the programme’s producers to axe the tedious ‘comedy’ VTs they screen before every dance. Sign me up — with Brucie gone it’s the only part of the show that needs tweaking.
Pol Pot’s genocide who told how, after days of torture, he wrongly confessed to being a member of the CIA — even though he didn’t actually know what the CIA was. Today the s21 detention centre where he was held is a museum and he spends every day outside, talking to tourists about his ordeal.
Despite the hardship, the indomitable spirit of the people really shone through, thanks in no small part to Perkins’ sense of fun combined with an easy and relaxed manner around people.
I can’t imagine many celebrities would be quite so quick to laugh off capsizing into sewage-filled water.
‘God knows why they asked me. I guess Michael Palin was busy,’ quipped sue at one point. Well, lucky for us that he was. Just as compelling but much harder viewing was the special episode of
Police Under Pressure (BBC2), which for legal reasons could not be broadcast earlier in the year, along with the rest of the series.
hot on the heels of the rotherham child abuse scandal, the programme followed a beleaguered, demoralised and depleted south Yorkshire police force’s attempt to tackle further cases of child sexual exploitation.
last night’s episode told the tale of two vulnerable teenagers who both had a history of absconding from their homes with much older men. The first, ‘Marta’, was just 13 years old and traced to a hotel where she had been taken by five men.
‘Carolina’ was 15, but told investigators that she had been groomed, raped and plied with alcohol and drugs since the age of 12. As is so often the case, the girls were, at first, reluctant to testify against their groomers.
Marta genuinely believed that the men loved her, while Carolina was adamant that she had done nothing against her will.
however, thanks to the patient and meticulous work of the female police officers, the real — and sickening — stories were slowly drawn out of the girls. In the case of Marta, her evidence led to the conviction of five men on rape and trafficking charges who were given sentences ranging from three to 12 years.
There was no such outcome for Carolina, who braved the courtroom only to be discredited by the defence lawyers due to an inconsistency with her story.
Fifty to 60 officers were drafted in to work on each case at a time when the force is dealing with budget cuts of £33 million. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that thorough policing and a huge slashing of funds do not go hand in hand and, sadly, it will be the likes of Marta and Carolina who end up paying the price.
Christopher Stevens is away.