The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
THE KINGMAKER
Sky Documentaries/NOW TV, 9.00pm
Like many leaders around the globe, Imelda Marcos managed for some time to cover up her titanic political and personal deficiencies by creating a superficially ridiculous persona. But there was always more to the former first lady of the Philippines than her notoriously enormous collection of shoes (3,000 pairs, reportedly) and that infamous encounter with Ruby Wax in 1996. Marcos and her husband, Ferdinand, reportedly embezzled many millions intended for their compatriots in need, had rivals and dissidents tortured and murdered, and were eventually exiled. Now widowed, she has returned to the
Philippines where she lives lavishly and empathises implausibly with the population’s widespread poverty and ruinous drug problems.
Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary The Queen of Versailles was a searing and darkly funny exposé of corruption, wealth and entitlement. The Kingmaker is, if anything, even more effective with its broader canvas: the tragedy here is not just personal but national. The repellent Marcos demonstrates occasional shards of self-awareness, but of infinitely greater weight are the interviews with some of the families of her many victims. Gabriel Tate
pm Live Snooker: The World Championship Coverage of the evening session on day nine at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield (S)
The drone launch appears to have been successful, but just as life in Brizan is beginning to return to a sense of normality, Thomas spots the cloud again. In French See What to watch
The authorities put Brizan into quarantine, then Ben works out that the solution to the crisis must come from the surfers themselves. In French. Last in the series See What to watch
The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse (S) am Everything: The Real Thing Story (S)
Top of the Pops: 1986 Biggest Hits (S)
- 3.45am Billy Connolly: Portrait of a Lifetime (AD) (S) (SL)