The Secret Millionaire, Tuesday 9pm, Channel 4
Posted by Stewart Turner
Our rating: 
Meet James Benamor, a hard-nosed businessman worth a cool 77 million quid.
After a rough and ready upbringing and a few scrapes with the law, our James managed to amass his fortune by dishing out credit to those poor unfortunates the high-street banks aren’t keen on lending money to.
A “self-confessed nightmare”, James kicks off by telling us he wants to be the best at everything he does – and that includes dishing out money to charity.
If you missed the first two series of The Secret Millionaire, each episode sees Channel 4 pack off a would-be philanthropist to hang out with some charities and decide which are most deserving of the loose change from their infinitely deep pockets - but not before disguising their identity, of course.
So poor James’s ludicrous yellow sports car is traded for a battered and bruised Nissan Sunny and he’s dispatched to Manchester’s notorious Moss Side to pose as an eager volunteer. After realising that shoving a video camera into the faces of a few loitering youths and asking them for directions to the nearest charitable cause doesn’t quite do the trick, we're eventually introduced to some utterly inspiring organisations and people.
There’s the Manchester Settlement, which schools kids who don't fit into mainstream education; the elderly couple behind The Copperfield Project, who house up to eight young scallywags at a time; and Mothers Against Violence, a support group formed by Manchester mums who've lost their sons to the city’s notorious gun crime.
So who does James splash the cash to? Well, luckily we don’t end up with a public text vote or anything like that: everyone’s a winner with The Secret Millionaire. After all, the guy’s got £70m in the bank. In spite of the mawkishly contrived teary-eyed heart-tugging moments at the finale when the tinkling, poignant piano music’s trotted out, this is genuinely affecting and life-affirming telly.
It's great to see the gogglebox doing a bit of good for a change.
SEE ALSO:
why didn't James Benamor go to the pub to meetreal people...I have live in this area most of my life and have noticed a change..in community spirit, not just in moss-side but in manchester as a whole. why doesn't James Benamor start a new project that he can take on a challenge that competes as he said himself he is only working through the competative nature of his business.. that is profit making although the profits are disperced through other project and so non-profit. The business or organisation could also employ local people...and in effect have long term goals and targets that exceed there financial benefit to the local community.
Although any contrebution to a good cause is apresiated and welcome...I feel that empowerment and education, bring pride and self worth. James Benamor I do thank you for your handouts and your empathy to my community. I only wish you and the channel 4 community had a real community base to work from. The programme was positive although not as thought prevolking as I expected.
Again thank you for starting the ball rolling and highlighting,although selective segments of the continuing stuggles of less advantaged communities, without demining them.
Posted by: keop082 | 05 August 2008 at 22:50