Banged Up review: This prison 'experiment' is just a shabby excuse to torment celebs, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS

Banged Up

Rating:

Rolf Harris: Hiding In Plain Sight

Rating:

Ban nan E-word. We person to put a extremity to shows being billed arsenic 'experiments', giving them a spurious justification erstwhile really they are devised solely to torment celebrities.

Banged Up (Ch4) is not a sociological experiment, it's not a psychological investigation, and it's not immoderate benignant of technological trial. 

It's nan tv balanced of sadistic children pulling nan wings disconnected flies and nan legs disconnected spiders... and calling it a 'biology lesson'.

There's thing to beryllium learned from watching 3 men who are vaguely familiar, but not famous, spending a week successful a erstwhile situation pinch a bunch of ex-cons pretending to beryllium inmates, watched complete by a fistful of retired screws. 

The full point was a shabby excuse for displays of violence, intimidation, machismo and toilet humour.

It was filmed astatine nan decommissioned HMP Shrewsbury. Actors and extras were crammed into cells on 1 landing and encouraged to swagger and misbehave but extremity short of existent riot.

Sid Owen, an character who played Rick-ehh! connected EastEnders galore years ago, astatine slightest had nan excuse that his dada and brothers had each done time. The aged man was a slope robber, and 1 of nan brothers was a supplier trafficker. Sid knew he could person gone down nan aforesaid way himself.

But immoderate pretence of honorable enquiry vanished when, successful an evidently scripted moment, Sid suffered a unreserved of humor to nan caput and attempted to break out.

He didn't request to knot his bedsheets and climb retired of a window, of course. He could person conscionable buttonholed a warder and said, 'Call my agent, luvvie, and show her I've decided to do panto instead.'

Since this was each a set-up, Sid discovered a doorway had been near unlocked, and escaped into nan situation yard... earlier being recaptured and sent to 'seg' aliases solitary confinement. Oh no! How will he cope?

MP Johnny Mercer, now successful authorities arsenic nan Minister for Veterans' Affairs, recovered himself sharing a compartment pinch a situation documentary regular, Kevin Lane.

Lane spent 18 years successful situation for a execution he claims he didn't commit, though he couldn't extremity talking astir his criminal life arsenic a kidnapper and an enforcer. Mercer's domiciled was to inquire probing questions but he hardly managed to get a connection in.

Producing 2 tins of contraband tuna and mackerel, and immoderate lettuce, Lane prepared a ray luncheon successful their cell. He besides demonstrated a jailbird's instrumentality truthful disgusting and unhygienic, I will ne'er beryllium capable to look astatine a food crockery again.

Gogglebox prima Marcus Luther, who runs a boxing gym and has nan heavyweight build to match, was group upon by a pack arsenic soon arsenic he arrived. He kept his cool but wore nan bemused look of a mastiff that finds itself surrounded by yapping puppies successful nan park.

We learned small astir Rolf Harris's years successful situation connected nan first portion of Hiding In Plain Sight (ITV1). This documentary, which was made earlier his decease aged 93 earlier this year, included vivid and distressing accounts of really he utilized his powerfulness arsenic a TV prima to get distant pinch assaulting children and young women for decades.

But for illustration nan BBC's Jimmy Savile drama, The Reckoning, it grounded to analyse nan grade to which different group successful nan manufacture knew astir his behaviour, condoned it aliases were moreover complicit successful it.

There's immoderate restitution successful knowing Harris was caught, that he was disgraced and that he served a partial punishment. His estimation has been destroyed. That astatine slightest provides a grade of justness for his victims, whose voices were heard intelligibly here.

Horror communicative of nan night: Blood and blonde hairs connected a saw leaf proved to beryllium nan grounds that turned nan hunt for a missing woman, 20-year-old Agnes, into a execution hunt, connected The Met (BBC1). 

Such a gory decease is nan worst Halloween nightmare imaginable.