The Herald - The Herald Magazine
TV preview Found: room with a view that looks out on paradise
FEBRUARY is shaping up to be its usual bitterly cold self. The same rawness was in the air 12 years ago on the day a nine-year-old girl from West Yorkshire was reported missing by her mother.
Without hesitation, the community came out to help police search for her. They kept on looking, and holding marches to keep the case in the media spotlight, during what was shaping up to be the biggest police investigation since the Yorkshire Ripper. An answer eventually arrived as to what had happened to the child, and it was one beyond the imaginings of almost all.
The shocking story is told again in a new documentary,
The Disappearance of
Shannon Matthews (Channel 5, Wednesday-Thursday, 9pm). Like a previous Channel 5 film, The Vanishing of Suzy Lamplugh, this two-parter is a thoughtful, revealing look at a complex case.
It begins with the call Shannon’s mother, Karen, made to police after her daughter did not come home from school on February 19, 2008. From there the case progressed in a routine fashion with officers putting together a picture of Shannon’s life and launching searches. The deeper they dug into the family the more questions arose. Then there was the strange behaviour of Karen Matthews, who did not behave in a way any parent in that situation would. At times she and her boyfriend seemed to relish the publicity.
As you might expect given
ITN Productions are the documentary makers, the two hours are peppered with clips from news bulletins. This serves as a useful way of keeping track of a fast moving investigation, and lends a sense of immediacy. Interviews with police officers, reporters, Shannon’s best friend Megan, the neighbour who organised the community support campaign, Julie Bushby (played by Sheridan Smith in a 2017 TV mini-series), and others add to the weight of evidence. Footage of police interviews also feature, while dramatic reconstructions are kept to a minimum. The story hardly needs more drama. Even 12 years on the outcome will still chill you to the bone.
Even in this multi-channel, 24/7 streaming age it can sometimes feel as though there is little around that is genuinely innovative. If you have seen one interior design show/quirky family comedy/drugs drama you might as well have seen them all.
Here to buck that dreary trend is Ramy (Channel 4, Friday, and catch up on All 4).
Created by Ramy Youssef, who also stars, Ari Katcher, and Ryan Welch, it’s a comedy drama about a first generation EgyptianAmerican trying to be a good Muslim, and a regular millennial. Already a Golden Globe-winner for Ramy’s performance and nominated for Emmys, the show has been acclaimed for its clichebusting, assumptions-defying ways. More importantly, it is funny (and more than a little near the knuckle).
Ramy’s mother is played by Hiam Abbass (Logan
Roy’s effortlessly cool wife in Succession), and his father by Amr Waked (Syriana). May Calamawy is his fearlessly tell it like it is sister, Dena. Together with Ramy, his friends and relations, they present a picture of New Jersey life that’s on another planet from The Sopranos.
Let us face it. I’m going nowhere for the foreseeable. You’re going nowhere. So we might as well gaze upon the fabulousness on show in Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby (BBC2, Thursday, 9pm).
It has been a stop-start third series for the show in which the chef Monica Galetti, and the restaurant critic and columnist Giles Coren, stay at and work at luxury establishments. No sooner had it begun last March than “It” came along and the world shut up shop.
This new episode is shot at
Jade Mountain in St Lucia, an eco-conscious wonder that looks as if it has sprung naturally from the stunning landscape. Each of the 29 guest bedrooms are cleverly constructed to have no external walls – when this place says uninterrupted views they mean it – and come complete with private infinity pool and your own butler.
Jurassic Park, a lost city, Goldfinger’s lair; Coren is almost lost for comparisons, eventually settling on, “You feel like Tarzan, except with a mini bar and coffee machine.” It’s not cheap, coming in at £2,700 a night.
There’s some fun to be had as Coren tries his hand at being a butler under the watchful eye of a regular staff member. The first call that comes in, for drinks and a cheese plate, asks them to get a move on. Coren suggests they wait five minutes to teach the guest a lesson. He is overruled.
Every stop is pulled out to make sure the guests leave satisfied, from scrubbing every tile in every pool every day, to sweeping the beach. It says something that both presenters reckon this place is among the best they’ve encountered.