Banged Up Abroad

My favorite show on National Geographic Channel! It's nice to hear the stories about many interesting lives, you can always learn a new life lesson. Altough I like the show very much, I would definitely want to hear the pure truth, not the variation of the story with some changes.

They call it 'schadenfreude' - the dubious thrill of watching other people's misfortunes, sometimes spiced with a feeling that it could so easily have been you.

Banged Up Abroad touches this nerve every time, and brings it all close to home; you are watching people very like your own friends and neighbours, suddenly pitchforked into a shockingly unfamiliar jail environment among people quite unlike them.

The 'us and them' factor (or indeed the very word 'abroad') raises the spectre of racial imagistics, rather in the tradition of Bing and Bob in their Road films, though strictly it's cultural rather than racial. (As for how far culture is impacted by race, that is of course endlessly debatable.) But under the test, there is no doubt that a good-looking young white woman, however guilty, is always made unmistakeably aware of her high rank in this world.

The main theme, though, is the simple contest between goodies and baddies, the baddies being sharply divided between the chuckling drug-barons in their safe havens and the wretched mules, mostly little people who've been tempted by greed into situations they can't handle.

It is that slippery slope that creates the drama, part-tragic, part-comic. The false hopes raised by just one mention of a five-figure reward. The inducement of a tropical holiday break free on the house. The fleeting friendships between gang-members, that turn so easily to loathing and mutual recrimination. The bland assurances that nothing can go wrong...

Welcome to a world tour of luxury yachts, quayside cocktails, false-bottomed suitcases, money-laundering, murderous cartels, corrupt police, sniffer-dogs, dirty needles, lesbian rape, bed-bugs, the lot.

Five may not be the UK's most-watched terrestrial TV channel, but personally I think their programming is often far superior to either BBC1 or any of the ITV channels. They're particularly good at commissioning documentaries (which are a lot cheaper than drama, I guess), and have screened lively and informative docs covering everything from art, military history, engineering, medical issues to...well, you name it.

"Banged Up Abroad", produced by Raw TV, is a case in point. The reconstructions using actors are not cheesy (BBC, take note), the camera-work is not intrusive with faux-verite shakiness (everyone else, take note), it's well directed with the minimum of voice-over, and manages to extract heartfelt, and often very moving, narratives from the actual protagonists.

It also skillfully avoids falling into a trap of implicit racism concerning the foreign countries where people find themselves imprisoned. Very often conditions are shocking, and the prison system in question is failing miserably on inmates' rights, but the programme never lazily and simplistically portrays foreign nations as inherently corrupt and beyond-the-pale.

I've found every episode both gripping and illuminating from beginning to end. One can only imagine how hammy BBC1 would make it, with someone like Michael Burke doing the voice-over.

It's a shame that this series, currently airing, consists of only four episodes. This week they told the story of two American girls imprisoned in Peru, so perhaps they will continue to spread their net to relate the stories of other non-Brits. It would also be interesting to hear the stories of those not imprisoned for drug offences - how about the testimony of someone held at Guantanamo Bay?

Let's hope that this excellent programme has a third series.

This television series is about people that have traveled to foreign countries for various reasons, and have ended up in prison. Each episode generally starts off with an individual explaining how, and why they ended up going abroad. It has real people explaining real stories. The series has reenactments as the person is talking about the events. The way this series is put together really makes you feel like you were there. National Geographic does an amazing job of adding a human element to these narrative stories. It touches on subjects like drug smuggling, kidnapping, gun running, and even journalists at the wrong place at the wrong time. It gives insight to different countries, laws, or lack of laws, and paints a picture of both human endurance and suffering. Absolutely engaging.

Early seasons were edge of the seat, dramatic climax every time. Seems now that it's simply words at the bottom "so and so was freed. Now back home." Ok... It's not a difficult part to make exciting. Add some dramatic music and have the prisoner say they got a visit...didn't know what was gonna happen...

Still a solid show though.