Kate And Gerry McCann: Amber Alert, Spotted in Belgium And No More Foreign Holidays
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS (front page): “MADELEINE – Kate and Gerry McCann set off on new mission”
Having donated considerable monies to the fund to find Madeleine McCann, Express Newspapers will not now abandon the McCanns. The Express is “The world’s greatest newspaper”.
The only tabloid to feature the story on its front page, the Express says: “Kate finds courage”.
“Kate McCann put on her bravest fact yesterday as she travelled to Brussels to highlight the plight of missing children.”
Madeleine McCann was, of course, spotted in Belgium, of which Brussels is the capital city. Katleen Sampermans is the “child therapist” who saw Madeleine McCann dining in a Belgian restaurant with two adults. Ms Sampermans was “100 per cent sure”. She spoke to the Express.
Kate McCann is brave in the Daily Express. The “40-year-old GP smiled as she waited with husband Gerry, 39, for a train”.
Gerry and Kate McCann have travelled to Brussels to make the case for an EU-wide alert system for missing children. A child goes missing and police, media, border controls are alerted. A warning is flashed on motorway gantries.
Could an immediate pan-European response have made a difference in their case?
“Kate finds new courage” appears on page 7, one page on from: “Sterling’s collapse sends your holiday bills soaring”.
The paper’s front page features the McCanns and the headline “SHOCK £700 INCREASE ON FAMILY HOLIDAYS”.
Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal. The message seems clear.
THE GUARDIAN: “Kate and Gerry McCann”
The paper looks at the facts. It’s been a year since Madeleine McCann went missing. The Guardian has been investigating:
Gerry McCann is a “£75,000-a-year heart specialist at Glenfield hospital in Leicester”
Kate McCann: “Kate, 40, originally from Liverpool, worked as a GP at Latham House Surgery in Leicestershire, but has said she does not plan to return to work now.”
Any other facts?
“Her face, tired and strained, reflects not only the tragic incident but the sudden weight of world publicity and criticism over her actions on the night Madeleine went missing.”
THE SCOTSMAN: “Bremner unplugged”
Rory Bremner has a new TV show to plug. Alison Roberts finds out more.
When I ask him whether anything can be turned into comic material, the grim subject of Madeleine McCann naturally comes up. Bremner got into hot water last year for including a joke about her in the last series of Bremner, Bird and Fortune in which John Fortune’s character mused on Gordon Brown’s desire to get re-elected: “I wouldn’t be surprised if the night before the election he went on television and said, ‘Look what I found…’ and held up Madeleine McCann.
Says Bremner: “That was complete bollocks.”
…”Firstly, it was in a sketch that John Bird and John Fortune did, and they were in character. They were playing these particular men who were cynical about politics, so straight away that joke is in a context … ”
He pauses for a second, then says, a little desperately: “There is a difference between the real-life Madeleine McCann tragedy and a reference in a comedy programme to her. You know? You’re not actually in Portugal abducting her. It’s a reference…
It’s up to the viewer, he implies, to make a judgment on the McCann reference. Dozens of people are said to have complained to Channel 4.
Yet you can’t be an impressionist and worry too much about the sensitivities of others. Heather Mills once sent him “a very stroppy e-mail” after he adapted an old joke about the Beatles “dying in the wrong order”…
Heather Mills and Madeleine McCann. Now that’s entertainment…
Madeleine McCann: Watching the parents
Posted: 10th, April 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,359) | TrackBack | Permalink
