Home truths about landlords you thought you could trust
DOCUMeNTARIeS can make for frustrating viewing. Often they’re tediously strung out when the information could have been conveyed in half the time.
New Landlords From Hell (C4) had the opposite problem. Made by the Dispatches team, it needed to be much longer than half an hour.
Reporter Datshiane Navanayagam investigated the appalling living conditions some tenants have to endure. The most shocking aspect was that the inhabitants weren’t at the mercy of greedy private landlords but living in housing association properties.
Sanctuary housing was the association in question and, despite being a registered charity, there seemed little goodwill to tenants.
In Devon, Amanda and Steve lived in a house riddled with toxic black rot. Their baby son, Jensen, suffered breathing problems that had seen him hospitalised 26 times in his short life.
exasperated by the lack of response from Sanctuary, they contacted environmental health who categorised the property as posing ‘serious health risks.’
Using data protection laws, Amanda also got hold of the file Sanctuary had on her. It showed the association had deliberately delayed fixing any problems in the hope the family would move out. It wasn’t as though a lack of funds was an issue. At the time of filming, Sanctuary had £198million in the coffers. And they had no problem meeting their chief executive’s £385,000 salary.
Navanayagam observed that there is still a stigma attached to living in social housing — with many people believing that those who do should be grateful to have a roof over their head, no matter how lousy their living conditions.
But as you listened to baby Jensen gasp for breath it was unthinkable that anybody should be grateful to live that way.
Sanctuary did, eventually, act — demonstrating why exposés like this are so important, even if it was over far too soon.
Another show that few want to finish is Fleabag (BBC1). The comedy regularly ‘ breaks the fourth wall’ — where a performer communicates directly with the audience, unnoticed by the other cast.
But to the surprise of Fleabag, a single late-20- something woman, the sexy priest she has the hots for has become the first character to notice her sarcastic asides and face-pulling to camera. Are we to take it as a sign that the two are kindred spirits?
In episode four we saw flashbacks to Fleabag’s mother’s funeral and how her awful godmother (played so deliciously by Olivia Colman) wasted no time in making a move on her widowed father. At the funeral service, Fleabag’s chief concern was that she looked too good. her skin was glowing, her hairstyle was perfect. ‘I woke up looking amazing and everyone is going to think I got a facial for my mother’s funeral,’ she wailed.
Seeking comfort, she went in search of the sexy priest who encouraged her to take confession. While in the box she admitted that she wanted to find someone to be with but was unable to confront her greatest sin — the betrayal of her best friend, the shocking twist at the end of series one.
The confession was enough to make the priest launch himself at her in an ardent embrace before divine intervention struck. A religious picture crashed to the floor, bringing him to his senses.
Oh dear! With two episodes to go, I dearly hope that creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge doesn’t jump the shark — as the saying is — by giving her character a totally unrealistic happy ever after.