Why the new Bonnie Blue documentary may be the worst thing I've ever seen on Channel 4
Channel 4 has a rich history of making great documentaries. Dispatches is a strand of docs they have produced since 1987 and it has won a number of Baftas over the years. It was the channel which aired the Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland.
In 2022 it produced a detailed expose of the practices of The Jeremy Kyle Show. Jamie Oliver's school dinners campaign was made on Channel 4 via a documentary series in 2005.
And over the past 20 years I have written about dozens of the documentaries and their findings. It's an area of the job I love. Many have led to changes in business practice or even debates in parliament and nationwide talking points.
But the new Bonnie Blue documentary is not groundbreaking, and worse than that, it is not even a detailed film on the subject matter. I have to say it is one of the worst documentaries I have ever seen on Channel 4, and now I'll explain why I think it is so weak.
Observational documentaries are quite common at the moment and successful. You follow a celeb around, get them in their normal life, chat about their past exploits, successes and traumas and then add in archive footage. If they have home videos even better, especially if it is emotive.
David Beckham did one, Robbie Williams has filmed another, and in this genre the best doc I have seen relatively recently was with Sven Goran Eriksson filmed in the year before he died. Former England manager Sven trusted the director and I felt gave a lot of himself over to the project. It left me in tears by the end as Sven said goodbye to the world via the film.
By contrast, Bonnie Blue gives away very little. There are gaps of weeks between filming. Then the final scene shows her going off to see self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate. It's controversial and the interview between the pair could produce some explosive footage, but the director chooses to end filming before the meeting and does not travel with her.
On another day Bonnie is filming her most famous film to date, sleeping with over 1000 men, but the director admits she didn't stay too long so none of the details are verified. She then fails to meet up with her again for more than a week, so there is no real time reaction to the event.
It feels like Bonnie called the shots when it came to filming, and there are only a couple of occasions throughout the whole doc when I feel she isn't putting on a front or facade.
Bonnie says at one point she earns over a million pounds a month, but we don't see any examples on screen of her earning or what she pays her team who work with her. We have to take her word for it. It's another small detail which is not really proven or probed. What does she spend her money on? Does she have investments or a property portfolio which would show another side to her in terms of business acumen.
The director on the project admitted when speaking to the media the documentary wasn't her idea and she was asked to come on board. This is another red flag for me as a lot of the best docs are passion projects for the makers which means they go that extra mile and also in some cases have a long standing relationship with the subject or the insiders.
I appreciate that the rise of OnlyFans is an interesting topic and understand that some people including young girls and lads in this documentary see it as a way of avoiding boring 9-5 jobs.
And there have been interesting documentaries made on this type of subject. Olivia Attwood looked at the phenomenon of OnlyFans in her series Getting Filthy Rich on ITV in 2022.
She spoke to a variety of content providers and they spoke of the ranges of money they earned and how they earned it in detail. They also said speaking to men on the site had made them distrust men more.
But this new Channel 4 doc doesn't feel like an in-depth exploration into that world. Bonnie is allowed to say the same things over and over and many questions are left unanswered. As a viewer I still had lots of questions and that is why I feel it is such a weak documentary. A far cry from the best documentaries Channel 4 have made over the years.
For their part, Channel 4 obviously disagree. Asked for their reasoning to commission, make and screen the documentary in its current form, they said: "Tia Billinger, via her stage name Bonnie Blue, has gained worldwide attention and millions of pounds in the last year. 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story is an observational documentary in which director Victoria Silver follows Tia over the course of six months.
"The film questions Tia's methods and the divisive style of her social media and hears from colleagues and collaborators in order to understand her polarising business model. Part of Channel 4's remit is to reflect modern Britain and stimulate debate amongst viewers, and a film such as this, exploring changing attitudes to sex, success, porn, and feminism in an ever-evolving online world is an important addition to those conversations."
* 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story is on Channel 4 on Tuesday night at 10pm and available to stream online.
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