Last night on television Reality television that puts a soppy grin on your face
Where on earth did they find another 4,000 people prepared to get hitched to a total stranger on Married at First Sight (Channel 4)? Fed up of swiping right and disastrous dates, these singletons volunteered to marry someone they’d meet for the first time on their wedding day. Brave, desperate or foolhardy? Very possibly all three but it made for fascinating viewing.
The matchmaking experiment, which returned for a second series, saw a panel of experts whittle down 4,000 hopefuls to three scientifically compatible couples. Would they have that elusive spark?
Well, one of the pairs certainly didn’t. Risk-averse insurance broker Wayne broke off his engagement to Carrie before they’d even met, which might leave this four-part series a little threadbare. Tracking just two couples could prove too much of a stretch.
Still, this opening episode focused on police officer Stephanie and quantity surveyor Ben. After six long-term relationships that didn’t last the course, Stephanie called herself “the training bra for men” because she “brings them on, then off they go”. Ben’s parents disapproved of the whole shebang. “I don’t think it’s right,” grumped his father Graham, not unreasonably.
She was lovely. He was annoying – all lad-about-town banter, naff footballer tattoos and sockless “mankles”. At one point, he referred to himself in the third person as “Funtime Benny Boy”, which should disqualify him from the human race, let alone reality television.
When the couple finally met, though, there was palpable chemistry. He winked. She giggled coquettishly. Clearly smitten, they kept finding excuses to kiss. “Don’t worry,” she told him. “I can teach you how to wear socks.”
Perhaps it was St Valentine’s fault but Love at First Sight left me with a soppy grin on my face. It’s followed on Friday night by the irresistible First Dates Valentine’s Special. Channel 4 isn’t all property programmes and “yoof ” dramas. It’s the home of romance too. Michael Hogan
‘Historic” is a troubling term under many circumstances, implying a sense of closure, a feeling that, whatever it might be, we don’t need to worry about it anymore. It’s particularly problematic when applied to sexual abuse of the sort suffered by Barry Bennell’s young footballers, many of whom were interviewed by Deborah Davies – who had first covered Bennell’s crimes 20 years ago – in a shattering Dispatches: Football’s Wall of Silence on Channel 4 last night.
The coach was convicted of 43 counts of child sexual assault against 11 victims. Bennell had run feeder clubs for Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra. His victims included Andy Woodward, the first of many to come forward last year; former England player Paul Stewart; and, it was alleged by one witness and victim with “99.9 per cent” certainty last night, Gary Speed, the former Wales manager who committed suicide in 2011.
Football’s Wall of Silence laid the full story out in all its horror. It was a harrowing hour, unflinching in its detail and unforgiving in its lucid anger at the continuing failure of football authorities and clubs to accept their share of responsibility, and their failure to put in place serious safeguards to stop it happening again.
Much of the story had been told before, but never on film in such grim, necessary detail. The new claims were shocking indeed. During his time working with Manchester City’s feeder teams, Bennell abused children on the Maine Road pitch. Worse still, according to former Crewe director Hamilton Smith – shaking with anger during his account – Crewe’s muchadmired former manager Dario Gradi stonewalled his attempts to stop youth footballers staying at Bennell’s house. Smith’s fellow directors first ignored the problem and later denied they had even met to discuss it, and Crewe once again issued a statement yesterday denying having received any complaints.
As with the recent documentaries about the murder of James Bulger, hearing the culprit himself, unremorseful and self-pitying, was chilling. “I’ve done my time,” he complained to a journalist in 2012. “It was a lot of hassle. All I’ve done is help and help.”
This was an important film, laying out the facts while honouring the unfathomably courageous survivors and their families still wrestling with the fallout, without getting weighed down by the high emotions. With Bennell to serve his fourth – and surely final – jail sentence for abusing boys, the ball is now in the courts of the clubs and the Football Association. Historic form doesn’t inspire much optimism.