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TV MAIL: HOW OTHER HALF DIE
by GRAHAM YOUNG MAIL TV EDITOR
Birmingham Evening Mail
May 27, 2004, Thursday
ONE DAY OF WAR: THIS WORLD (BBC2, 9pm) is a remarkable 90-minute
documentary filmed on one day in more than a dozen different battle
zones.
Most of it is subtitled, but the winning idea is to reflect how
millions live in far from peaceful times across the globe.
And to show how two people are killed in conflict every single minute
of every day.
All of the 16 subjects here were followed on March 22, 2004, enabling
the film to have a much greater depth than many technology-driven
live TV news reports.
The saddest story reflects Channel 4's brilliant Death in Gaza film
screened on Tuesday, in which the late cameraman James Miller had
been trying to make a difference by focusing on children.
Here, Huktar is just 14. A decade ago, he was found next to his dead
parents in bombed ruins.
Now, he's a 'gun for hire' on the streets of Mogadishu in Somalia,
where we see him carrying a rifle and earning protection money.
He looks a good kid in his combat uniform, but a sign of his tender
years are that his trousers keep falling down.
Four days after this film, he was shot dead after an argument with
a friend.
The others who take part include: Grace from the Philippines, who
joined the rebels because she couldn't afford to train as a teacher.
Chong, who has been fighting in the jungles of Laos since 1975. His
gun is his best friend. Housa, from the Sudan Liberation Army, who
has seen nine brothers killed.
Shushila, a Maoist rebel in Nepal whose rifle dates back to Napoleonic
times.
Armenian conscript Albert who's been fighting a trench war in Nagorno
Karabakh which has lasted three times longer than WWI;
Zaza, who who likes work, women and beer but is having trouble finding
food to eat on board a Georgian Navy ship in the Black Sea.
Jimmy, from the Ugandan Army effort to stop kids from being kidnapped
in the north.
Saw La from the Liberation Army which has spent 55 years fighting in
Southern Burma.
Eliaha, a 50-year-old granny who's the highest ranked woman of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia.
Luis, from the anti-terrorist unit in Bogota, Columbia, where seven
members of his elite squadhave just been killed by mistake by the army.
Other participants include: Akhmad, from the Afghan national army,
Hugo - a UN peacekeeper in the Congo and Juan, once jailed for drug
offences, but now a private in the US 2nd Battalion in Mosul, Iraq.
There's also Russian army sergeant Ivan, working in Grozny, Chechnya
and Nat, from the Israeli defence force in the Gaza Strip.
Omagh (Channel 4, 9pm) is a drama which recreates the dreadful bomb
attack and aftermath of August 15, 1998, when the Real IRA killed
29 men, women and children in a town where people from both sides of
the religious divide had lived peacefully.
Pete Travis's powerful and quietly moving film concentrates on the
victims' families attempting to win justice, with Gerard McSorley
playing Michael Gallagher becoming group spokesman after losing his
only son in the blast.
The bomb attack on innocent shoppers was chillingly recreated in
Navan near Dublin, the city where most of the other filming was done.
This is a Hell's Kitchen International Production - but it's nothing
to do with Gordon Ramsay.
Poor Little Rich Girls (Carlton, 10pm) plunged real-ity TV to new
depths on Tuesday, when it featured model Natalie Denning swapping
places with low-paid Scouse hairdresser Katie Wakefield... who was
then filmed going topless against her mother's wishes.
Tonight, she is devastated when she is rejected by a modelling agency.
by GRAHAM YOUNG MAIL TV EDITOR
Birmingham Evening Mail
May 27, 2004, Thursday
ONE DAY OF WAR: THIS WORLD (BBC2, 9pm) is a remarkable 90-minute
documentary filmed on one day in more than a dozen different battle
zones.
Most of it is subtitled, but the winning idea is to reflect how
millions live in far from peaceful times across the globe.
And to show how two people are killed in conflict every single minute
of every day.
All of the 16 subjects here were followed on March 22, 2004, enabling
the film to have a much greater depth than many technology-driven
live TV news reports.
The saddest story reflects Channel 4's brilliant Death in Gaza film
screened on Tuesday, in which the late cameraman James Miller had
been trying to make a difference by focusing on children.
Here, Huktar is just 14. A decade ago, he was found next to his dead
parents in bombed ruins.
Now, he's a 'gun for hire' on the streets of Mogadishu in Somalia,
where we see him carrying a rifle and earning protection money.
He looks a good kid in his combat uniform, but a sign of his tender
years are that his trousers keep falling down.
Four days after this film, he was shot dead after an argument with
a friend.
The others who take part include: Grace from the Philippines, who
joined the rebels because she couldn't afford to train as a teacher.
Chong, who has been fighting in the jungles of Laos since 1975. His
gun is his best friend. Housa, from the Sudan Liberation Army, who
has seen nine brothers killed.
Shushila, a Maoist rebel in Nepal whose rifle dates back to Napoleonic
times.
Armenian conscript Albert who's been fighting a trench war in Nagorno
Karabakh which has lasted three times longer than WWI;
Zaza, who who likes work, women and beer but is having trouble finding
food to eat on board a Georgian Navy ship in the Black Sea.
Jimmy, from the Ugandan Army effort to stop kids from being kidnapped
in the north.
Saw La from the Liberation Army which has spent 55 years fighting in
Southern Burma.
Eliaha, a 50-year-old granny who's the highest ranked woman of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia.
Luis, from the anti-terrorist unit in Bogota, Columbia, where seven
members of his elite squadhave just been killed by mistake by the army.
Other participants include: Akhmad, from the Afghan national army,
Hugo - a UN peacekeeper in the Congo and Juan, once jailed for drug
offences, but now a private in the US 2nd Battalion in Mosul, Iraq.
There's also Russian army sergeant Ivan, working in Grozny, Chechnya
and Nat, from the Israeli defence force in the Gaza Strip.
Omagh (Channel 4, 9pm) is a drama which recreates the dreadful bomb
attack and aftermath of August 15, 1998, when the Real IRA killed
29 men, women and children in a town where people from both sides of
the religious divide had lived peacefully.
Pete Travis's powerful and quietly moving film concentrates on the
victims' families attempting to win justice, with Gerard McSorley
playing Michael Gallagher becoming group spokesman after losing his
only son in the blast.
The bomb attack on innocent shoppers was chillingly recreated in
Navan near Dublin, the city where most of the other filming was done.
This is a Hell's Kitchen International Production - but it's nothing
to do with Gordon Ramsay.
Poor Little Rich Girls (Carlton, 10pm) plunged real-ity TV to new
depths on Tuesday, when it featured model Natalie Denning swapping
places with low-paid Scouse hairdresser Katie Wakefield... who was
then filmed going topless against her mother's wishes.
Tonight, she is devastated when she is rejected by a modelling agency.