Just finished watching The Fallen, thanks to BBCi at:
BBC iPlayer - The Fallen
Long and haunting certainly, but it left me with an uncomfortable feeling also of voyeurism. Is the strained relationship between Bob Chapman's partner and his sister any of my business? Should a teenage girl who admits to finding it difficult talking of her loss to others but much easier talking to her brother at his graveside, then be filmed and recorded doing so? Chappie summed it up for me when she said that many in the media viewed talking to her as just "a job". Crafted though this programme was I felt that it too was "a job", lacking the simple empathy of Ross Kemp's Afghanistan for example. Am I alone in seeing a lot of exploitation of these bereft anguished Mums (and Dads, Sisters, Brothers, Daughters, Sons)? No doubt it will win awards at the Media Navel Contemplating End-of-Season do's. My awards would go for the families, whose courage, tenacity and shear daily coping with their grief is the real remembrance to The Fallen.