Amy Winehouse: What Really Happened, Tuesday 10pm, Channel 4

Posted by Stewart Turner

After taking a look at the colourful lives of Heather Mills and Michael Barrymore over the past couple of weeks, journalist Jacques Peretti finished up his What Really Happened series with a look at Amy Winehouse. Hmm… almost sounds like the perfect dinner party guestlist, I reckon.

The film set out to identify where it all went so horribly wrong for our Amy. Did it go pear-shaped relatively recently, around the time she ran into a certain Mr Fielder-Civil - he of the annoying trilby and a bigger vest collection than old man Steptoe? Or does Wino perhaps have an in-built self-destruct button she’s been hovering her finger over since a very tender age?

So, the usual suspects were duly trotted out. Journalist Joe Mott - who Amy worked for aged 16 as a hack churning out showbiz tittle-tattle (oh, the irony!) - tells us she was vehemently anti-drugs and talked about shagging a lot. Then there’s a chat with the one and only Sylvia Young, a frightening battleaxe of a woman who looks like she could probably scare a mute chimpanzee into belting out an old jazz standard if she put her mind to it.

The whole film seemed to be written to shore up Peretti’s half-baked theory that Amy “needs to live the pain to write her songs” It's a world where just listening to a few of your dad's old Carole King and Frank Sinatra records in your teens is actually being “schooled in the damaged chanson”, and a liking for an old Crystals song is the most poignant thing on earth. It’s not a particularly persuasive idea – doesn’t every songwriter write about their personal experiences?

What resonates most is the co-dependent nature of the Winehouse story. Witness a tabloid journalist tut-tutting and shaking his head about Amy not having even touched crack cocaine until she met Blake, when picture after picture of a wasted Winehouse regularly bursts from his pages in order to shift a shed-load of newspapers. Similarly, Amy seems to need the tabloids just as much as they need her: handing out tea and Jaffa Cakes to the braying paparazzi pack that camps on her doorstep 24/7 is a case in point, rather than, I dunno… just moving to a cottage in the country or something.

Of course, the film is spot-on when it concludes that our fascination is no longer with Amy’s talent but with her downfall. The reels of fascinating car-crash footage of Winehouse staggering wild-eyed from corner shop to chip shop to Pentonville prison proves it, since it stays with you a whole lot longer than any of the 'insights' this documentary purported to raise.

SEE ALSO:

Amy is the 'ultimate heroine' >>
Amy goes to rehab >>
Amy's dress fetches £2000 >>

TV home >>

Comments

[me]

yawn sure we`ve seen all this before if they did`nt do drugs n rock n roll they would`nt be interesting would they and un interesting things don`t sell do they

[Septimus]

Let her get on with her path of self destruction, it will give someone with real talent and passion for music a chance to entertain people!...

[leon]

She has done drugs and has a bad rep, nut she has a good career and still earns millions, cos everyone buys her albums regardless of her behaviour. To be honest i dont give a toss about her!

[Keith Martin]

You are all talking Complete ...., like let's jump on the .... off Amy as a druggie bandwagon - you morons.

I accidentally met Amy Winehouse in Cornwall before 2007 Eden Sessions, as a Night Porter in Charlestown , I escorted her to bars etc, in the Hotel Trade, and she wasn't drunk, stoned or anything else at the time, so you can all talk .... amongst yourselves - isnt that what it's all about - and making money from your bull.... reports about nothing

[pogostemon]

Motley Crue - mediocre muso's at best - drugged, drank & hospitalised themselves across the world abusing groupies along the way and hey! they get a bestselling book out of it. Amy's troubles are sad & worrying but her music is outstanding - a case of double standards when it comes to the behaviour of our male & female musicians

[Coops]

And did we really learn anything we didn't know already? No of course we didn't. It was just another way of selling us the stuff we already bought in the tabliods but in a different wrapper: Daz, Persil, Ariel...its' all the same stuff in a different box. How many Eric Clapton greatest hits compilations have you bought in the last 15 years ey? ey? They're just packaging and selling a product, this week disguised as pity, next as condemnation. It's the same with any top product and Amy is a top product for the press, even when she's not producing anything.

[Tony]

The fact is that the world has always secretly demanded 'bad' behaviour from artists. It's what we want. Whether it's Van Gogh cutting off his ear, Dylan Thomas destroying himself with drink or, at a different level, Amy Winehouse, it goes with the job and our expectations.

[stella]

I think she should sort herself out. I was heavely addicted to cocaine then codiene and it was very hard and alot of painful work getting clean but i did it. I didnt have her money to go private so i had it harder. She doesnt care one bit about anyone but herself and looks disgusting.

[Mack]

I like Amy. I think it's wrong how she is hounded all the time. Ok, sometimes she doesn't help the situation, but, does she really deserve being harassed by photographers and the media constantly? What do they want? It's just a way to sell papers and magazines. Leeches.