Madeleine McCann: Rob Blackhurst’s Maddy Theme Holiday, BBC Apologises And If Cars Could Talk
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE BBC have apologised to the McCann family for scheduling a film about a runaway girl called Madeleine on the anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance…
But bungling Beeb chiefs scheduled the 1998 children’s film Madeleine for the weekend of the first anniversary of the youngster’s disappearance.
Can you separate fact from fiction? Call 0800 HELPMEIMMAD and our team of trained TV watchers will talk you through the plot.
The movie, starring Nigel Hawthorne, is about an orphan who runs away and manages to foil a kidnap plot. The blunder was only spotted at the last minute and the BBC hastily replaced the film with the 2005 Lindsay Lohan movie Herbie Fully Loaded.
You know, the one about the car with the big secret.
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “BBC apologises to Madeleine McCann’s parents”
Says a source close to the McCanns:
“It is disgraceful that the BBC of all people should be so insensitive and not spot this was going to happen,” they said. “Surely with everything that has happened this year, any executive would notice if their station broadcast a film called Madeline involving a kidnapped child? Would that not ring alarm bells?
“It’s not that they should never show the film but someone must have checked it was appropriate and checked the dates it was being aired. It’s things like that which must be upsetting to Kate and Gerry.”
Do the McCanns set the TV schedules. If so, can we please, please have the A-Team back? And ever since he tripped on cobble stone, Old Mr Anorak has not been able to watch Coronation Street without feeling sick. Can the show be scrapped or moved to 6am, when he is having his rub?
NEW STATESMAN: “Rob Blackhurst books a family break at a Portuguese resort – and finds himself babysitting in Praia da Luz”
My girlfriend and I had planned a quick week away with Kitty, her four-year-old. Cash-strapped after moving house, we’d heard of the travel company Mark Warner’s middle-class holiday camp regime: sun, sailing, tennis, good food, children’s meals and a well-staffed kids’ club that lasted all morning.
It was only when we googled the “Upscale Ocean Club” in Portugal that it dawned on us: we were taking a four-year-old to the same complex, with the same company, as the McCanns had visited a year ago. This took some finding, as there was scarcely any mention of Praia da Luz on its website.
Shock, and horror:
Reactions of families and friends varied from the gut response “You are sick” to (more commonly) a philosophical “These things can happen anywhere”. From our parents, there was just a tight-lipped “Be careful”…
When we took Kitty to her kids’ club, we shivered when we realised that it was the same bright room – with buggies and dolls, mini-furniture and finger paintings – in which Madeleine spent that last afternoon…
Another Maddy?
But although it felt like a taboo to discuss Madeleine, every parent shared their own heart-stopping moment after a few glasses of wine. Ours came in the village supermarket when Kitty disappeared behind a stand of beach balls and we lost her for 15 seconds.
Tell Tony Parsons. He hears you.
Madeleine McCann and me: Making copy while the sun shines.
Posted: 9th, May 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (481) | TrackBack | Permalink
