Travels In Trumpland With Ed Balls

BBC2, Sundays, 10pm

Donald Trump once joked that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. As if to test this theory, former Mp-turned-strictly Gangnam Style maverick Ed Balls has made his own threepart documentary series, in which he meets all kinds of Trump supporters across America to try to find out if there are limits to their love for the orange Commander In Chief. Ed started off at something called “Rednecks With Paychecks”, a kind of Glastonbury for rural dudes involving monster trucks, where he chatted to a Mexican immigrant woman who supported the idea of Trump’s famous giant “wall” to keep out… Mexican immigrants. Yes, she acknowledged the inherent selfishness of her position, but proudly stood by her right to stop future migrants attaining the kind of lifestyle she now enjoys. He also met army veterans who spoke movingly about their mental health issues, and explained how Trump seems to have prioritised them and their needs. At the end of the opener, things took a more comedic and visually bold turn as Ed donned a Lycra leotard to join in some wrestling, but this slightly cheesy climax also yielded the show’s most important insight, when one of the wrestlers admitted that Trump was doing some terrible things, but that he’d still vote for him. Like all the people Balls interviewed, he felt let down or ignored by previous administrations, but somehow Trump spoke to him directly. Maybe Trump could indeed kill someone and not lose his voting base. At least Ed is trying to get to the bottom of why, while entertaining us in the process.