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Radio review: Murder in Mayfair, and Uncanny

28 April 2023

BBC/Needtoknow Productions/Bard Gundersen

In Murder in Mayfair (World Service podcast), Nawal Al-Maghafi tells the story of a “billionaire playboy” on the run

In Murder in Mayfair (World Service podcast), Nawal Al-Maghafi tells the story of a “billionaire playboy” on the run

THE documentary genre is as prone to stylistic habit and cliché as any other form of broadcast medium. One such is the practice of including snippets from before the start of any formal interview. So we might see the person interviewed put on a lapel mic; or the interviewer ask whether the subject is comfortable.

All this is thoughtfully choreographed, and is included as a means of satisfying some anxiety on the part of the producer that we, the audience, might not otherwise believe the interview to be an authentic encounter. In an era of fabrication, it also reassures us that there is a real, curatorial voice organising all this material, rather than some AI bot splicing together footage harvested from the internet.

In Murder in Mayfair (World Service podcast: whole series now available on BBC Sounds), the presenter, Nawal Al-Maghafi, goes a step further. Before a crucial interview, she ponders out loud how she is going to start. The story that she is telling is of a “billionaire playboy”, Farouk Abdulhak, who is on the run, having become the chief suspect in the killing of a Norwegian student in London in 2008. He now lives in Yemen. Al-Maghafi is a Yemeni reporter for the BBC who has determined to use her personal contacts and not inconsiderable charm to lure Abdulhak out into the open.

In the post-Martin Bashir era, there is a lot of soul-searching to be done before pursuing such a strategy. We hear discussions between the presenter and BBC managers about how to stay on the right side of the Corporation’s ethics policies. As the online relationship between reporter and subject becomes closer, we are reminded of the fine line between investigation and entrapment: “I have to remind myself,” Al-Maghafi confesses, after one particularly warm encounter, “he is a suspect in a murder investigation.”

And yet, for all the self-reflection, one cannot but feel squeamish about a documentary in which presenter and subject are so entangled, and we get to know as much about the former as the latter. Indeed, one is almost tempted to feel sorry for a man living alone, far from his creature comforts, who is prepared “spill his guts” to somebody whom he meets on social media.

“My greatest fear,” he writes at the breakthrough moment in their relationship, “is that I tell you [my dark secrets] and you will disappear.” Little does he know that the effect on his correspondent will be precisely the opposite.

All of this made adjudicating between fact and fiction in a story of poltergeists (Uncanny, Radio 4, Saturday) a happy relief. James’s house in Stratford-upon-Avon has played host to some weird goings on. Is it the paranormal? That would have been the happier explanation; the reality lies in a situation that is more banal and a great deal sadder. As a wise old priest once said, “Places cannot be haunted, but people certainly can.”

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