ALIENS AND MEGA DISASTERS S04E09

THE HISTORY CHANNEL

SEASON 4 EPISODE 9

This episode of the popular Ancient Aliens examines whether aliens have intervened in

mankind's development and if they are responsible for some "natural" disasters.

The program looks at disasters such as the Japanese Tsunami, the biblical flood and even

meteor strikes as possibly being under alien control. According to the Kyoto News Agency

there was increased UFO activity just after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit

Japan. David Childress, a show regular posed the question: are aliens interested in how we

handle life changing events or, rather, do they cause them?

The discourse turns to using the weather as a weapon. The Haiti earthquake was given as a

possible example. It was the worst earthquake to hit the country in 200 years. Strange balls

of light were reported here as well prior to the quake. Were these balls of light, asks the

narrator alien craft, there to cause something to happen, or gasses escaping from the

ground?

Next, cloud seeding is touched upon and shown to be weather control that has been verified,

with evidence of its use in Vietnam provided. (I once remember reading that the Russian

authorities sanctioned its use to ensure that there was no rain during a scheduled open air

concert by Paul Mc Cartney!) A USAF report, entitled "Owning the Weather" looks at ways to

control the weather and even amplify it and turn it into a weapon.

Finally the program examines the worldwide legends of a global flood and asks if it was the

work of aliens who had tired of humans and damned them to a watery grave. The theory is that

in the past earth was visited by extra-terrestrials who genetically modified one of our

ape-like ancestors and created us as a slave race to work for them. Essentially the program

is an exploration of the work of Zecharia Sitchen, one of the few people that could

interpret Sumerian cuneiform and wrote of our beginnings according to the translations he had

made from clay tablets. The story goes that humans became more self aware and didn't much

like being slaves. It is said that our creators were struck by the beauty of earth women,

who they took as partners and created a half breed known as the Nephilim. The Nephilim were

giants and said to be depraved so the Annunaki decided that they had to go.

Although there is footage of disaster damage  shown  there is little evidence available of UFO's at the

scene. The lights could equally be something natural but as yet not understood. The evidence

appears stronger concerning a great flood. There is growing evidence presented by such

people as Cremo and Thompson that such an event took place. When looking at the facts as

interpreted by Sitchen, however, it has to be remembered that by his own admission the

account that he gives is based on the literal interpretation of myths: he does not see them

as fables passed down verbally through generations but as historical facts. This means that

to accept what he says requires a leap of faith, as with religions he has no solid proof.

As an aside, I would just like to mention that in his last taped lecture Zecharia Sitchen

discussed Niburu, (or Planet X if you prefer), and stated quite emphatically that the time

scale involved makes it impossible for Niburu to be returning into our space in 2012 and was

at pains to point out that there is absolutely no connection between Niburu and the Mayan

Calender. See it for yourself (I hour and 32minutes in).

  SITCHEN

I was disappointed, however with the way that using the weather as a weapon was handled. How

can any discussion about weather manipulation fail to mention HAARP? Or, for that matter

Chemtrails? Both of these are shrouded in mystery and are linked with weather manipulation.

Surely the program should have been ready to ask: are these also tools of an extra -

terrestrial race? Perhaps western governments would like us to believe they are the work of

aliens, because they are not exactly forthcoming with any information telling us what is

going on.

Despite my reservations about the above omission I still enjoyed the show, and consider it

to be one of the History Channels best offerings. It has great entertainment value and some

controversy and always has good footage of the worlds ancient sites. Good stuff!

BEDLAM SEASON TWO

SKY ATLANTIC

SIX PART DRAMA SERIES

FEATURING Jack Roth as Max
      Hugo Speer as Warren Bettany
      Lacey Turner as Ellie
      Gemma Chan as Kiera
      Nikesh Patel as Dan


Season two begins with Bedlam reopening as a block of apartments. It is owned and run by Warren

Bettany and managed by Dan. Max and Mollie are tenants. Keira becomes Warrens girlfriend. Ellie,

played by Lacey Turner of East Enders fame also moves in to Bedlam. She is questioning her own sanity

as she is seeing apparitions and has moved in to Bedlam because she thinks that her visions are

connected with the place. Her belief in ghosts leads to the breakdown of her relationship with her

boyfriend.

Each week a different ghost (or revenant, as Max refers to them) causes havoc for a tenant of the ex

Asylum. Ellie gets flash forwards that show her what is about to happen and she and Jack do their

best to prevent it. They are not always very successful at this which means there is death and

despair in abundance. Meanwhile Warren is also having visions and thinks that someone is trying to

make him lose his mind. To comfort himself he has a relationship with the much younger Keira, a

friend of his daughters, until his paranoia pushes her away. Dan, whose main aim seems to be to sleep

with every woman in the building turns out to be Warrens illegitimate son.

Max, played by Jack Roth, son of Tim, is so pallid looking that you could mistake him for a ghost. He

secretly runs a website about the activities occurring at Bedlam and Dan and Warren are determined to

shut it down due to bad publicity preventing the sale of the remaining flats. As for Ellie, at times

I thought I was watching East Enders as Lacey displays the same whining, moody characteristics that

she did in her previous incarnation. At times her voice felt like a drill in my head and her face,

as they say, was like a wet weekend. I found her character very annoying: she rejects Max's help

every episode, usually with some rudeness and offhandedness and then has to ask for his help later

on. Like a lovesick puppy Max goes running to her every time.

As the series progresses it becomes apparent that there is a powerful "revenant" that is behind it

all and Ellie is determined to find out what it is all about. She keeps seeing the spirit of a young

girl called eve who is afraid of the Bedlam bogey man. It turns out that the little girl was taken by

a former worker at the Asylum called Joseph. In a further twist it turns out that eve is actually

Ellie. What? She was seeing visions of herself as a child and Joseph turns out to be her father. He

kept her caged like an animal and conducted electro-therapy beyond safe levels on patients as well as

other sadistic and murderous acts.

In another twist in the finale it turns out that Warren was the one that saved Eve from her father,

who appears in the final episode and is confronted again by Warren who again saves Ellie/eve. In what

is a hurried and messy ending Joseph kills Max, Dan inherits Bedlam and Ellie decides it is time to

deal with Joseph. The final episode ends with her asking Max if he is coming with her which suggests

there could be a series three. That is, if they can stretch the story for another six episodes

without being too repetitive.

In the final analysis it has to be said that Bedlam is not exactly ground breaking drama, merely a

run of the mill tale of haunting. If another series is forthcoming it will have to offer more scares,

a new angle and a better resolution to the story. If there is no new series it won't be too much of a

loss.

CHASING UFOS

When I saw this program in the listings I thought it would be another compilation of dodgy phone cam images and grainy film with the usual "experts" and ex USAF employees brought in to give their account of events. This show is a little different, however.

I may not have paid any attention had I not read a very amusing comment in an RSS feed from Paranormal magazine. The headline read "Professional UFO Hunters Won't be watching Chasing UFO's".
A Mr. Robert Hastings is quoted as saying the show is like "Blair Witch Project meets Inspector Clouseau".

In fact the show has generally been slated by all the reviewers who have watched it. To quote the same article as above:

"Most reviews trashed the show, including its format, character antics, handling of evidence, lack of actual investigation tactics and overall lack of anything related to actual UFO investigations."

Within a minute of watching it I thought that it was trying to mimic the format and feel of "Fact or Faked: Paranormal files". It doesn't succeed in producing the atmosphere or providing the camaraderie of FOF.

The team is made up of three people, James Fox, Ben McGee and Erin Ryder who essentially run around in the dark scaring themselves and each other. I watched episode two which was set in Fresno where, it is rumored, the USAF are experimenting with Alien technology. They talk to some eye witnesses and look at some phone-cam footage (apparently not so original then) and then go to sites of interest and "investigate". The viewer is expected to believe that the action is spontaneous but it is so obvious, as when Erin Ryder climbs a fence at the airport that there is already a camera crew over the fence filming her climbing it!

Similarly, when one of the team and guest Ufologist Jeffrey Gonzalez find a concrete ramp with a steel door at the top they get spooked completely by a low pitched groaning noise. Our friends on the Fact or Faked team would have been trying to get behind the door, the Chasing UFOs team ran away!
I have the feeling that the noise they heard may have had some post production help: It sounded like they had Nessie trapped behind that door!

Its also a scream watching them run about. They have helmet mounted lights and cameras trained on their own faces which, when they run makes them look like little noddy dolls. It is impossible to take anything seriously and I cant really add to the earlier quoted reviews.

I am not surprised that the serious Ufologists are annoyed by this program. To me it is further evidence to add to what I have previously blogged concerning the sliding standards of the National Geographic channel. It is content nowadays to air scare stories and pseudo science. Hopefully discerning viewers will put an end to programs like these by watching something else. One can only hope.

ANCIENT X-FILES

SEASON 2 EPISODE 10: THE MARY MAGDALENE MYSTERY

Ancient X Files is similar in content to Ancient Aliens although it covers wider ground that merely aliens, examining ancient mysteries which may uncover hidden or suppressed history. The Mary Magdalene story is one such case.

Mary Magdalene has been the subject of new speculation since Dan Brown released "The DaVince code". The program examines evidence from across the globe, from France, Israel and the USA. The basic questions raised are: Mary Magdalene, Saint or Whore? And has the Vatican been guilty of a cover up?

The program begins in St. Maximin in the south of France. Every year there is a ceremony in honor of St. Mary who was said to have fled to France to avoid the persecution of Christians. She is venerated by the Cathars, a fringe Christian group whose teachings are not accepted by the Vatican. They believed that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Christ and that the couple had a child.They also believed that there were two creators, one good and one evil In the past they were the victims of a crusade authorized by Pope Innocent the third. Their Churches were destroyed and followers killed.

The documentary follows the investigation of writer Margaret Starbird, who has traced the history of the Coptic sect and is an expert in medieval church art.She meets a priest from the order who is not very forthcoming with details but does allow her to attend a service. As the service gets underway the priest reads from texts that are not approved by the Vatican. The priest's coat has the all seeing eye on the back of it which I found interesting but no mention was made of it.As the ceremony reached its climax the priest asked the author and camera crew to leave.

The next stop on the journey was the middle east. In 1945 a pot was found in the desert that contained fifty gnostic gospels which indicated that there was an intimate link between Jesus and Mary. The origins of the church were examined and a visit was made to Megido in Israel where there is an ancient floor mosaic. An inscription on the mosaic tells that it was paid for by a Roman Centurion. From here the link between Christianity and the worship of a Roman god Mythra were examined and it was suggested that the Roman Legionnaires found it easy to convert to Christianity because of the similarity between the story of Mythra and Jesus Christ. In fact, it is suggested that there are similarities between many pagan beliefs and Christianity, which helped the spread of early Christianity.

Starbird then looks at how the decision was made as to what went in to the bible and what was left out. The 27 New Testament books were chosen by Archbishop Athenatius. No gospels written after the resurrection were included it is claimed. It is back to France next, to the church of St. Victors in Marseilles. It was built in the 12th century atop of an older church. Starbird goes down in to the crypt of the church to look at a wall relief of a heavily pregnant Mary Magdalene kneeling before the crucified Christ. She next visits the USA where a collector has scraps of a rug said to be circa 2nd century which shows, allegedly, both Buddhist and Christian symbols and is said to have originated in Egypt. It shows four figures with Halos and it is said to show Jesus, Mary and their child. The documentary finishes back in France at St. Balbe where it is claimed Mary lived until death.

There is no historic evidence to back the claim that Mary went to France but this does not mean the documentary isn't interesting or thought provoking. Religion is a matter of belief rather than proof so I doubt it matters to the church members.

To accept that Jesus and Mary existed does mean that you have to believe that Christ rose from the dead and was the son of god. Alternately it could mean that Christ the man, the preacher did exist. His message was at odds with the established church which he saw as greedy and out of touch with the congregation and that led to his death. It is possible to accept that Jesus existed and was married to Mary and that this became known much later than the New Testament was assembled as Starbird suggests.

This is the first of this series I have watched and it has made me want to watch more. An interesting show that is well put together.

EUREKA: THE FINAL SERIES

SY-FY

It is curtains for Eureka. The fifth series, currently showing in the UK is the final series.

The series started with a different feel to the others: a little darker. Eureka is very much a show that uses comedy, but the start of season five saw the main characters of Eureka abducted and hooked up to a VR machine, trapped in a world that they thought was real. An evil Senator was behind a plot to reap the benefits of their findings in the make believe world they were trapped in. Meanwhile, the characters left behind thought that the others were on a failed mission to Mars and were missing. Just as I was getting in to this storyline it was suddenly resolved: Sheriff Carter to the rescue as usual (another key plot detail in the show is that despite the town being populated by the brainiest scientists in the country the dumb old sheriff always comes up with the answers) and we are back to the normal format. Well, almost.

After the escape from VR world, Holly, girlfriend of Fargo gets stuck there. So for the next few weeks a sub plot runs in which Holly is about to be erased until a eureka moment is arrived at to save the flame haired damsel. That's as it should be in eureka but that aside the program seems to be turning into a love story, or worse, a rom-com. There has always been the will they/ wont they plot involving sheriff Carter and Allison. This was then added to with an on/off relationship between Jo and Zane and the love interest of Henry and Grace. Now we have Fargo and Holly, an unlikely couple if ever there was one. This one was put together for the nerds in the audience, you know, the type that get turned on by films like weird science, where the nerd gets the babe he never would in reality.

The romance is beginning to get in the way of the storyline. It seems that the director can't go five minutes without slipping in a smoochy moment or one of those "we have to talk" moments. You know the ones: there is something that has to be said but before it is said the phone interrupts. Next attempt will be foiled by someone coming in to the room, and so on until you feel like screaming at the screen " for ***** sake , spit it out!" and pointing out to anyone watching with you that it is just one sentence, they could have said it ten times over by now.

As you can probably tell, this is beginning to get on my nerves. I watch to see crazy capers backed up with great CGI and a laugh or two all wrapped up in just under an hour. I don't know where the program is going with all this kissy kissy stuff. When series five aired I thought as I watched the first few weeks that it would build up in to an exiting climax (It's too much to hope that it will end with a major accident that will blow them to smithereens). Now I am worried that it will end with them all taking a hallucinogenic drug, denouncing warfare and turning the town in to a nude peace haven.

This series has been very disappointing. I don't know how it will end but I know it is likely to be soaked in smooch and sentimentality. A lot of programs get pulled without reaching the end of the run: this should have been one of them.

GORDON RAMSAY MUST BE RAKING IT IN

Cooking programs have always been popular with the viewing public, as are reality shows. Some time ago someone came up with the idea of combining the two and shows like Hells Kitchen were born. In the battle of the cooks, none have been as victorious as Gordon Ramsay: the chef with the Midas touch.

The Masterchef US team

At the moment Gordon has programs airing on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US season 10 of Hells Kitchen is underway and is followed immediately on the schedule by Masterchef USA. For two nights in a row he dominates peak viewing time. In the UK Gordon's latest offering Gordon Ramsay Behind Bars is airing on channel four. The Ramsay bank balance must be doing pretty well at the moment.

The Ram with a Lamb

Hells kitchen features a team of men and a team of women that each run a kitchen at the Hells Kitchen Restaurant. In the show there will be in-fighting in the teams, individuals at odds with the Ram ,and participants, sometimes whole teams are thrown out of the kitchen by Chef Ramsay once he has finished insulting and humiliating them. Someone is eliminated each week until the top chef is crowned. Masterchef is part of a franchise that has been sold around the world. Gordon behaves better when dealing with amateur cooks but is only one of three judges on the show. The other two are Graham Eliot and Joe Bastianich (who can be as fierce as Gordon Ramsay). The show has the same format as season one of Masterchef Australia. It is a knockout show with an elimination every week.

The new show, Behind Bars is a diversion from the other two shows. The great Ram, it appears, is concerned about all the people in prison just, in his words "sitting around on their asses" giving nothing back. So his idea to change this "awful" situation is to teach them to cook, start a business and sell the product in the outside world. He assembles a brigade of twelve inmates for his kitchen. The guards that are spoken to by the TV crew are skeptical regarding the Rams chances of success: some of the guards write the prisoners off as incapable of change whereas others feel it is up to them to try and make a difference.

Unique problems are thrown up for the Ram to deal with: each corridor is locked so it takes an age to get from A to B. Knives and other potentially dangerous equipment are kept under lock and key which again slows things down and members of his kitchen can be taken away without notice leaving him short staffed. Naturally there are problems with the inmates, one of whom has to leave the team because of his aggressive attitude. He wasn't a team player.

One poor guy called Jerome (episode 2) kept getting put on report because of his attitude: he kept answering back and not "showing respect" to officers. It seemed to me that the prison was more bothered about getting a bit of backchat than they were with potential violent flare ups. They made a big deal  about Jerome's "disrespect" and it did seem that there were officers who had a grudge against the lad. He was removed from the kitchen despite showing promise and working hard.

There was also a big fuss made over a missing potato peeler. The kitchen was locked down and everybody got searched but it didn't turn up. THEN someone checks the inventory and discovers there is nothing missing: they had miscounted the number of peelers to start with. This incident had the feel of being contrived for the cameras to provide a little drama for the audience. The inmates reaction to this search was hilarious: they were quite indignant and one of them even said " We're supposed to be trainee chefs and we were treated like criminals". That gave me a laugh!

This is quite a good show, although I do want to raise a few points. Gordon: if someone breaks the law they go to prison. By doing so they are repaying society by losing their freedom and individual rights. They don't have to pay back more by making profit for a private enterprise. Secondly, why give jobs to criminals when there are plenty of law abiding citizens unemployed? Answer: because you wouldn't get a new angle for a TV show from that.

The Ram says he wants to do something for these people because he has a junkie brother who has been in and out of jail all of his life. Very commendable I'm sure, but perhaps he also has an eye on the Queens honors list.

Arise, sir Gordon - if you can stand up with that wallet!

ANCIENT ALIENS

THE HISTORY CHANNEL

Ancient aliens is now in to its fourth season. This is a testament to the strength of belief people have in the existence of aliens and the possibility that they have been instrumental in the past in the development of humankind. Basically Ancient Aliens is an examination of the views held by Zecharia Sitchen, Velikovsky, Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson and the like. Sitchen Believed that Earth was visited in the past by Aliens known as the Annunaki, Velikovsky theorized that there was an ancient cataclysm which wiped out advanced civilizations and Cremo and Thompson have gathered together masses of evidence that indicates that modern humans are a lot older than established academia suggests.

Each episode is based on an individual aspect and each season has a theme. Season one was introductory in nature with programs entitled “The Evidence”, “The Mission” and “The Return”. Season two  began to look at the evidence for visitations with shows entitled “Mysterious Places”, “Underwater Worlds”, and “Underground Aliens”. Season three turns as bit more grisly with titles such as “Aliens and Monsters”, “Aliens and Mysterious Rituals”, “Aliens, Plagues and Epidemics” and “Aliens and Deadly Weapons”. Finally season four goes conspiracy with “The Mayan Conspiracy”, “The Doomsday Prophesy”, “Aliens and Mega-disasters” and “The Da Vince Conspiracy”.

David Childress

Each episode has experts with knowledge of the particular subject and  also has regulars such as David Childress, author of Technology of the gods, Philip Coppens, author of The Ancient Alien Question, Jason Martel (the pin-up boy) author of Knowledge Apocalypse,  and my particular favourite Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, publisher of Legendary Times. From the first to the third series Giorgio’s hair appeared to be getting higher and higher! It seems to have settled down again in season four. Perhaps he is an abductee and the hairstyle was due to fright! (If you’re reading this Giorgio, which I doubt, I’m only teasing). He is a great presenter. He speaks with clarity and enthusiasm because he is in to his subject.

Giorgio with fairly calm hair

What I like about the program is that it looks at a lot of  myths, folklore and ancient sites, which I am very interested in and the concept of alien intervention in human history and development, which I think is a very plausible alternative to science and its inability to find a missing link, and of course religion, none of which in my opinion stand up to close scrutiny. That is not to say that the great religious works of the world have nothing to offer me, it just means that I interpret what I have read in a much different way than the followers of those religions. The bible flood story is an example of ancient historical fact, a fact that science has been in denial about since the Victorian era due to the eagerness of leading scientists of the time trying to distance science from religion.

What I don’t like about the program is the narrators annoying habit of saying “....according to ancient astronaut theorists” every five minutes. There is also no balance: there is no one to say “It’s not aliens it is.....”. There are no competing theories explored. I fear, therefore, that the show preaches only to the converted: this is most definitely a program for believers which I feel may not create many more converts. I hope, however that it does make some, because whether or not there have been aliens in our past, there is certainly a case to re-evaluate our knowledge of ancient times and give serious consideration to the possibility that humankind has been as or more civilized than we are now. There are sites such as Gobekli Tepe that are earlier than the accepted date for the establishment of civilization and there are many examples of artifacts that challenge the accepted dating system.

I find Ancient Aliens to be interesting, thought provoking and entertaining. It always has good footage and material  and is well produced. I don’t necessarily accept a lot of what is said, nonetheless I find enough of interest to keep me watching and it helps me work out my own theories to challenge what is blindly accepted by the establishment. If you are open minded and like to explore alternative theories you will probably like Ancient Aliens.

CONTINUUM

 SHOWCASE

Continuum is a new sci-fi series from the company that has brought us, amongst other things Dexter, and like Dexter it is original and highly watchable. The story revolves around a police officer from the future (known as a protector) and a gang of eco- terrorists who were about to be executed. However a terrorist attack of some sort hurls them all back from the year 2077 to 2012. Once there the terrorists see a golden opportunity to change the future and the protector does her best to prevent them.

The cast features Rachel Nicholls as Kiera Cameron, who played agent Rebecca locke in The Inside and Rachel Gibson in Alias) Victor Webster (Caleb Brewer in Melrose Place) as Carlos Fonnegra, Eric Knudsen ( Dale Turner in Jericho) plays Alec Sadler and Stephen Lobo as Matthew Kellog ( Randall Brady in Smallville). With an excellent supporting cast this series is well played out.

The basic story is centred on Cameron’s attempts to thwart the intentions of the gang, who see a chance to save the future. In the future people live in mega cities and everything is controlled by technology. The protector’s suit is completely technological and enhances all her senses as well as providing extras such as facial recognition software linked to a population database. The population do not see countryside and their roles are determined by the state. The state is run by large corporations. This gave rise to a group of eco-terrorists called Liberate who fight for “freedom”. Cameron has to learn to adapt to life without her technology. 

As luck would have it she makes an ally of Alec Sandler who just happens to be a tech wizard that has developed a surveillance system that is hacked in to the Homeland Security system (or some such). He picks up Cameron’s signal and acts as her high tech eyes and ears.

She also enlists the help of one of the terrorists, Kellog, who goes solo and decides to make himself rich and enjoy what 2012 has to offer (fresh produce, for example). The only slight flaw to the plot is the ease in which she assimilates herself in to the contemporary police. She bluffs that she was from a different state’s task force and there is a lag between being confronted and Alec Sadler creating the appropriate data records for her. Still, it is a small thing and I am maybe being overcritical. According to details on IMDB there are ten scheduled episodes, all with the word time in the title, a similar touch to The Mentalist, which always has the word red (for red john) in the title. 

I have found that I have been drawn in to the unfolding story and sympathise with the characters. There is plenty of action which is interspersed with “flash forwards” to Cameron’s future (or present from her perspective) that show her work and family life and there are elements of humour. I don’t want to get in to the storyline too much because I am not sure when Continuum is due to air in the UK. I don’t want to spoil things for Sci-Fi fans there. This most certainly deserves a thumbs up and is recommended viewing. Watch out for it.

CAN WE TRUST THE POLICE?

BBC3

The title of this documentary may seem controversial and the fact that independent film maker and rapper Adam Deacon directed and fronted it gave the impression that it would be a hard hitting exposé of what goes on in the modern police force. Let us remember, however, that it is on the BBC, who are not exactly unbiased and ground breaking any more: not since they started receiving money from the EU. So as I sat down to watch the video I was wondering which will it be – safe or controversial?

It begins with Deacon attending firearms training. He relates to the camera that recent polls in the Hackney area show that one in three think that the police are corrupt and one in five think the police cannot be trusted. Deacon interviewed some of the armed police. One marksman told him that although he hopes to go through his career without having to draw his weapon he did not feel safe without a gun. Mr. Deacon then asked the trainer if marksmen were told to shoot for the arms or other non vital areas first but the trainer confirmed that they are taught to aim at the largest body mass (the torso). Another said that the officer at an incident that involves weapons may have only a split second within which to decide whether to fire on an assailant.

Next we are told of a case of mistaken identity. A man called “David” was accused of kidnap and rushed and pinned down with no warning. The video footage taken by the police was shown, and it was quite scary. They gave no warning as they approached their suspect who was looking in the boot of his car. He was forced to the ground and had a police officer standing on his head. It took twelve hours for them to realise that they had the wrong man. The officers involved were not identified and to this day David has not had an apology.

Deacon then travels to Derbyshire to bring us a tale of police neglect. He speaks to a mother of a 21 year old girl that was shot by her ex-boyfriend. For months the girl and her family told the police of attacks he had carried out, that he had a criminal record for assaulting his ex-wife and that he had a gun and had threatened to kill the girl. This he did and her poor mother found out when she went to look for her daughter who had been expected home earlier and was stopped at a police road block which turned out to be the crime scene of her daughters murder. Police blamed “systemic failures and overwork” for the tragedy.

About half way through the documentary Mr Deacon poses the usual question – is it a few rotten apples, etc. He visits his barber shop where customers are saying that youngsters don’t help themselves, that they are aggressive and disrespectful to the police.

He visits Scotland to look at rural police and discovers that people are much friendlier towards their local PC’s and see them as a valuable part of the community. The best part of this section, however was watching Adam Deacon walking across a very muddy farm yard in his ever so expensive bright white trainers. I got quite a chuckle out of that, so did the farm workers! He asked the rural officer what he thought when he heard stories of police brutality. He replied that it was disappointing when someone let the side down.

From Scotland it was back to the capital and a Tottenham vs. Chelsea football match. The policing of the match was shown as being hands off. The police maintain a presence at a low profile but watch for trouble starting. However a father and son who are Chelsea fans tell of an event away from the ground. When trouble flared at a pub the police blocked the area off. The duo and the son of a friend were not allowed to leave until the situation was dealt with. The two boys were 13 at the time and one of them was accused by an officer of “giving him the eyeball” then hit him with his baton and pinned him to the ground. The father tried to intervene and was treated in a similar manner. This also was filmed but despite this no officers could be identified and no charges were brought against any of them.

The documentary finishes with a visit to Northampton to see cadets training. The cadets give a lot of feedback to superiors and the hope is that this will improve policing. One cadet tells how he passed on that an officer training him was homophobic. The officer was dismissed.

My first thought at the conclusion was: is this the BBC being pro-establishment, pushing authoritarian values? By commissioning a film made by a Black film maker that is popular with youth they look like they are providing an alternative view but what we get is the same old thing: the police are ok really, they are only human, etc. It is refreshing in a way to see that they are human, because perhaps the unsuitable officers can be identified and removed from the force. It also shows that our police force as a whole is not brainwashed in to being exactly the same. They need the personal touch to prevent them from becoming unthinking automatons of the state. Obviously the rural PC and the urban armed officers do not face the same problems, so why should they behave in the same way?

There is one thing that I would like to comment on. Several incidents were related that revealed that the police could not be identified.This shouldn't be allowed. A rogue officer has to be identified and disciplined for the good of the rest of the force. There is never a case in a free society for police identity to be withheld. Having said that I conclude that Adam Deacon did a good job of being balanced and provided the viewer with an interesting insight in to the workings of the modern police