Radar: To Catch a King, BBC Sounds
Updated: Sep 2
Subcribe to my monthly newsletter here for all my latest writing delivered straight to your inbox.
On holiday to the Opal Coast (north coast of France) recently, it was hard not to stand on one of its huge beaches, look out across the channel and put yourself in the shoes of one of the thousands of migrants who have or have yet to try and cross illegally on a small boat.
What must be going through the mind of a man, woman or child who stands there, on the sand, in the pitch black of midnight, awaiting the dinghy to take them on the 6-hour journey to Dover? Many, of course, don't make it. But many, many do, and go on to live in the UK, without a passport, and a life largely subsidised by the British taxpayer.
Other questions, though, come to mind: who benefits from stuffing these flimsy vessels with people who may or may not make the journey? And, what are the deeper geopolitical events which compel people to travel halfway around the world, from Afghanistan, through Turkey, and then making the final crossing from the Calais to Dover? How bad must their own country be? How great are the perceived benefits of moving to the UK they might imagine? To what extent have they been sold a lie?
Well, to listen to 'To Catch a King' on BBC Sounds is to get some responses to these questions. Indeed, Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie, it turns out, have been asking and investigating these questions for many years. It's a well narrated, balanced, fascinating podcast which really does cast light on the human beings on the vessels and the humans behind the figures that we're given. I defy anyone to listen to this podcast and not have an ounce of sympathy for some of these people making the crossings, particularly those who it turns out, for example, have sold their kidneys to pay for passage to the UK. It also does a great job in underlining the manipulative and money grabbing, ruthless intentions of the people smugglers/traffickers who treat the migrants, it seems, as nothing more than animals to be loaded onto vessels, with a price on each of their heads.
The BBC has quite rightly come in for much criticism in recent years for allegation of skewed reportage, and it's hard not to tire of its constant, unabashed socialist agenda, but a radio programme like this goes some way in redeeming its status as an impartial public broadcaster of the highest quality journalism.
