I think the thing that puts me off most about organised crime documentaries on TV is that they usually climax in tightly choreographed sting operations, but no one ever really gets stung. I tune in, hoping for a swarm of angry honey bees - or even killer bees, I don't mind - buzzing about and hurting the nasty criminals in even nastier places. But there never is.

Sometimes there are some big, butch-looking policemen with battering rams, but mainly it's a just one pseudo-butch, big-egoed journalist saying, "But if you're so innocent why won't you talk to us on camera, Mr Robson?!". Unless his name is something other than Robson. The rest of the script is generally the same. Lots of men, lots of battering rams, lots of probing-sounding questions and lots and lots and lots of shouting.

And absolutely no people in big, round bumblebee outfits with cute little deelyboppers topping them off. Which I think is a shame. Not even any dogs in bee costumes. Which is bordering on criminal in itself.

So unless the eponymous hero is planning on breaking with tradition this evening, and actually putting on the beewear for Donal MacIntyre's Big Sting: Car Theft, I don't think I shall tune in. I shall simply surf the channels, looking for other programmes which possibly feature bee suits instead. I'll probably stop and watch the other programmes listing in our picks of the day, though (as taken from this week's Guide). Some of them look reet good. See for yourself...

MacIntyre's Big Sting: Car Theft
8pm, Five
You've got to hand it to Donal, no matter how harsh the ridicule levelled at his gung-ho style, the boy just keeps on rolling. A quarter of a million cars are stolen in the UK each year, by "sophisticated, organised criminal networks" who rake in over a billion in profits by ringing and breaking their big-badged haul. Donal dives head-first into their world of "sponge monkeys", fake licences and fishermen who literally lift the keys straight off your hall table.
Joss Hutton

.....

By Anna Pickard / TV & Radio 05:25pm

Comments:

I have my doubts about Donal McIntyre, you know. A while back, I got his email address through a mutual friend and sent him an idea for a really interesting programme. It was for a film re-tracing the steps of JB Priestley's English Journey from the 1930s. I thought the comparison between the 30s and current times would make for stimulating and lively TV, but obviously not. What do we get instead? Britain's Toughest Traffic Warden and stuff like that. Unbelieveable, isn't it? I don't know why I watch it sometimes. Well, apart from the violence obviously....

Anyway, there you go - what might have been, eh?

Cheers,
Bob
Posted by Bob Swipe on October 26, 2005 02:42 PM.

Donal MacIntyre - very interesting man. Ilike him and his work. His first work in television was for the award winning BBC investigative sports strand On-The-Line in 1993. At one stage, for this programme he went undercover as an Adventure Sports Instructor to expose the lack of employment standards in the industry. This was in the wake of the Lyme Regis canoeing disaster in which four people drowned. His canoeing experience got him his first work undercover.

Posted by Steph_B on October 27, 2005 07:41 PM.

Shameless plug:
for all things Donal MacIntyre, resource and discussion, join http://www.macnews.co.uk/ :)

Posted by Captain on October 30, 2005 11:58 PM.

Tuesday October 25 2005
Guardian CultureVultureBlog
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2005/10/25/why_go_out.html