REVIEWS
Sam Wollaston – The Guardian 18/11/04 about ‘Paparazzi’
“In spite of it’s subject, this was a proper documentary, like an article in the Spectator about Heat magazine” Read whole review
Western Mail 19/5/01 about ‘A Plague on the Land’
“Some programmes tell such an important story that they are above critical judgement. This accomplished film should have been seen by everyone in Britain. They should have rescheduled Eastenders for it. ” Read whole review
Sam Woolaston - The Guardian about ‘Car Nation’
“Car Nation (BBC2, Sunday) was basically a portrait of Britain in its car. Lots of tiny little cameras were placed in a range of cars with a range of drivers in them, to record a nation at the wheel.”
Read whole review
The New York Post - about ‘Paparazzi’
“Watching the stealth, sneakiness and awful intrusions of their personal space by these shooters is absolutely riveting.” Read whole review
The Peoples Media Review - about ‘Paparazzi’
“BBC America now has a documentary about the life of Darryn Lyons and his Paparazzi business Big Pictures. ” Read whole review
Financial Times - about ‘Owen Wingrave’ Read review
The Times - about ‘Owen Wingrave’ Read review
FULL REVIEWS
Sam Woolaston - The Guardian - about ‘Paparazzi’
I don't know which are worse, dolphins or Paparazzi (BBC3). Dolphins I think. Paps also hunt in packs to track down their victims. But to photograph them, not to bludgeon them to death.
At the centre of this fabulous fly-up-a-step-ladder documentary is the boss of the Big Pictures agency. Darren Lyons, a flamboyant, no-nonsense Aussie. Lyons is colourful in every way - he may, for instance, have demanded of his hairdresser: “Make it look like a parrot's landed on my head will ya, mate”.
The London office is a joy. There's a skinned lion on the floor and celebs all over the wall, and Lyons rules over his empire from his red-and-gold-throne. An air-raid siren sounds for daily conference, a cocker spaniel runs out of the door and they all settle round the table to decide on the day's targets.
“Who's Meredith blah, blah, blah when she's at home?” asks the boss. “She's a nobody, Z-list.” It seems Meredith blah, blah, blah is going to escape a papping today. She needs to work her way up that list before Big Pictures bothers with her.
Others aren't so lucky. “Kate Winslet? Good one,” says Lyons. So Kate's not going to the park alone.
In spite of it's subject, this was a proper documentary - upmarket on downmarket, like an article in Spectator about Heat magazine. The film-makers had access to Lyons and his snappers over a year and I think it deserved a more prominent spot than 11pm on BBC3.
The Western Mail – Saturday 19th May 2001 Review of ‘A Plague on the Land’ Duncan Higgitt
The Samaritans are currently advertising their services with a harrowing advert depicting the human cost of foot-and-mouth.
Week In, Week Out (Tuesday BBC Wales 1) advertises with their slogan, “The Story behind the headline”.
The week the Welsh current affairs programme did just that, focusing on the small village of Churchstoke, near Welshpool, and showing how foot-and-mouth has wrecked the lives of farmers in this close community.
It focussed primarily on Winston and Jo Jones, featured in the Samaritans advert, whose recent past has more in common with lives in the Balkans than among the rolling hills of Montgomeryshire.
The couple lost their herd, their daughter was forced to move out, and they were left on an empty farm wondering what to do with the rest of their lives.
We were fortunate WIWO found in the Jones a couple that could articulate the devastation of their lives.
“The silence is deafening” said Jo and MAFF had come, shot and burnt their stock, the n buried and ploughed over the pyre. The couple still rise at the same time every morning and wander around the quiet cattle sheds.
At another nearby farm we saw neighbour Jean Jones break down and cry, as news of a further case was confirmed, “I know we breed them for slaughter, but the farm is not the place for them to die” she sobbed.
Meanwhile, up on the rain-lashed hills, her son fought and lost a desperate battle to save this year’s lambs, prevented from being moved by foot-and-mouth restrictions, and thus were starving to death as pasture turned to mud and mothers stopped feading their offspring.
Even the most hard-hearted animal militant would have been moved by the sight of this heartbroken man tenderly lifting the corpse of yet another dead lamb.
Often images can something so much better than words, and WIWO managed to successfully translate another aspect of terror for farmers as with Jean Jones (fortunately, her farm was declared clear) as the pyres moved ever closer to her land.
All too often, documentaries of this sort leave another story unanswered, but WIWO managed to encompass all the human tragedy of an industry already in crisis, suffering the final insult of having its spirit crushed in the most brutal way. The only angle WIWO was unable to cover – that of the long term mental effects of foot-and-mouth – will no doubt unfold in time.
Some programmes tell such an important story that they are above critical judgement. This accomplished film should have been seen by everyone in Britain. They should have rescheduled Eastenders for it.