Channel 4’s documentary on Bonnie Blue would be the worst I’ve ever seen on the channel, however that has nothing to do with all of the intercourse on display.
Mark Jefferies is the Showbiz Editor on the Day by day Mirror, writing about tv and interviewing celebrities for the paper for over 15 years. Mark covers the most recent showbiz information and enjoys watching and writing about new documentaries, police dramas and actuality TV reveals. He has additionally been to Australia a variety of occasions to cowl ITV sequence I am A Superstar…Get Me Out Of Right here! for the Mirror, Day by day Specific and Day by day Star.
Channel 4 has a wealthy historical past of creating nice documentaries. Dispatches is a strand of docs they’ve produced since 1987 and it has gained a variety of Baftas over time. It was the channel which aired the Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland.
In 2022 it produced an in depth expose of the practices of The Jeremy Kyle Present. Jamie Oliver’s faculty dinners marketing campaign was made on Channel 4 through a documentary sequence in 2005.
And over the previous 20 years I’ve written about dozens of the documentaries and their findings. It’s an space of the job I really like. Many have led to adjustments in enterprise apply and even debates in parliament and nationwide speaking factors.
However the brand new Bonnie Blue documentary will not be groundbreaking, and worse than that, it isn’t even an in depth movie on the subject material. I’ve to say it is likely one of the worst documentaries I’ve ever seen on Channel 4, and now I’ll clarify why I believe it’s so weak.
READ MORE: Bonnie Blue’s doomed marriage to childhood boyfriend who began her intercourse profession
Observational documentaries are fairly frequent in the meanwhile and profitable. You comply with a celeb round, get them of their regular life, chat about their previous exploits, successes and traumas after which add in archive footage. If they’ve residence movies even higher, particularly whether it is emotive.
David Beckham did one, Robbie Williams has filmed one other, and on this style one of the best doc I’ve seen comparatively lately was with Sven Goran Eriksson filmed within the 12 months earlier than he died. Former England supervisor Sven trusted the director and I felt gave numerous himself over to the mission. It left me in tears by the tip as Sven mentioned goodbye to the world through the movie.
In contrast, Bonnie Blue provides away little or no. There are gaps of weeks between filming. Then the ultimate scene reveals her going off to see self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate. It’s controversial and the interview between the pair may produce some explosive footage, however the director chooses to finish filming earlier than the assembly and doesn’t journey together with her.
On one other day Bonnie is filming her most well-known movie to this point, sleeping with over 1000 males, however the director admits she didn’t keep too lengthy so not one of the particulars are verified. She then fails to satisfy up together with her once more for greater than every week, so there isn’t a actual time response to the occasion.
It appears like Bonnie referred to as the pictures when it got here to filming, and there are solely a few events all through the entire doc after I really feel she isn’t placing on a entrance or facade.
Bonnie says at one level she earns over 1,000,000 kilos a month, however we don’t see any examples on display of her incomes or what she pays her workforce who work together with her. We now have to take her phrase for it. It’s one other small element which isn’t actually confirmed or probed. What does she spend her cash on? Does she have investments or a property portfolio which might present one other aspect to her by way of enterprise acumen.
The director on the mission admitted when talking to the media the documentary wasn’t her concept and she or he was requested to come back on board. That is one other crimson flag for me as numerous one of the best docs are ardour tasks for the makers which implies they go that further mile and likewise in some instances have a protracted standing relationship with the topic or the insiders.
I admire that the rise of OnlyFans is an fascinating matter and perceive that some folks together with younger ladies and lads on this documentary see it as a manner of avoiding boring 9-5 jobs.
And there have been fascinating documentaries made on one of these topic. Olivia Attwood appeared on the phenomenon of OnlyFans in her sequence Getting Filthy Wealthy on ITV in 2022.
She spoke to a wide range of content material suppliers they usually spoke of the ranges of cash they earned and the way they earned it intimately. In addition they mentioned talking to males on the positioning had made them mistrust males extra.
However this new Channel 4 doc doesn’t really feel like an in-depth exploration into that world. Bonnie is allowed to say the identical issues time and again and plenty of questions are left unanswered. As a viewer I nonetheless had a lot of questions and that’s the reason I really feel it’s such a weak documentary. A far cry from one of the best documentaries Channel 4 have made over time.
For his or her half, Channel 4 clearly disagree. Requested for his or her reasoning to fee, make and display the documentary in its present kind, they mentioned: “Tia Billinger, through her stage title Bonnie Blue, has gained worldwide consideration and thousands and thousands of kilos within the final 12 months. 1000 Males and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story is an observational documentary during which director Victoria Silver follows Tia over the course of six months.
“The movie questions Tia’s strategies and the divisive model of her social media and hears from colleagues and collaborators with a purpose to perceive her polarising enterprise mannequin. A part of Channel 4’s remit is to replicate trendy Britain and stimulate debate amongst viewers, and a movie akin to this, exploring altering attitudes to intercourse, success, porn, and feminism in an ever-evolving on-line world is a crucial addition to these conversations.”
* 1000 Males and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story is on Channel 4 on Tuesday night time at 10pm and accessible to stream on-line.
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