The BBC have pulled the plug on a documentary about the sexual exploitation of teenage models as they deemed it insensitive in light of the recent Jimmy Savile allegations, and are planning instead to show a Panorama investigation into the late TV presenter highlighting the current scandal surrounding him.

As everyone is now aware, Jimmy Savile has been accused of the sexual abuse of up to 120 boys and girls spanning almost six decades of his TV career after ITV showed an Exposure documentary featuring the statements of witnesses and victims of this abuse.
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Hannah Rothschild made this film which amounted to following Nicky Haslam around for a year. Why? I don’t know. And having watched it, I still don’t know.

If I were in a generous mood, I might presuppose she made it to dig deeper than the very shallow level on which Mr Haslam lives – to reveal a ‘different’ side to him – but frankly, he’s a shallow swimmer in a shallow pool full of shallow sharks.

But they’re rich and famous these swimmers and if they’re not, they’re not in sight. So if you, like me, can’t air-kiss, can’t say “darling” every two seconds and don’t have a propensity to drink only the most expensive champagne – then eat a blini before throwing it up – you and I are not welcome in Haslam’s circles.

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This amazing documentary was set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, and the equally breathtaking adventure that six blind Tibetan teenagers undertook; to climb the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri which is on the north side of Everest.

It was a story of achieving the seemingly impossible against all the odds, and the film was made especially poignant when we learned that in Tibet, blind people are considered to be possessed by demons or to have been sinners in a previous life. Therefore, the children featured had been through all kinds of torment with many having been shunned by their parents, scorned by their villages and rejected by Tibetan society in general.

Their lives were dark in every sense until Sabriye Tenberken – pictured above in the orange jacket – a blind educator and adventurer established the first school for the blind in Lhasa and effectively rescued these children… Read more & comment »

Now, I have to say, ordinarily, whenever there’s anything football related on TV, I’m offski. I’ll go and do something infinitely more interesting such as watching wood warp or maybe even cleaning out the kitchen cupboards and finding rice that’s been there since 1970… you get the gist; I’m not digging football at all. Imagine my surprise then when I stumbled upon Maradona: In the Hands of the Gods on BBC4 last night and actually enjoyed it!

Had it not been for the fact that – just as the programme began – my remote chose that moment to finally stop giving me warnings about needing to replace my batteries and actually died, I would’ve whizzed on past it. But die it did so while it stubbornly refused to flick channels, I sent my beloved on a hunt for a battery to two which may not have been drained by our kids’ MP3 players, and slowly but surely got sucked into the story… Read more & comment »