We’ve discussed it many times: the reasons why the UK produces so many great actors (and compelling pop stars, I might add). I mean, beyond its training methods and a fertile work microsystem. There we enter the elusive field of the British character, which is supposed to prioritize the suppression of emotions and, hence, tolerance towards other people’s fictions. This perhaps also explains the abundance of tricksters, from Gregor MacGregor, who invented a country hungry for investment (Poyais, supposedly in Central America) to Malcolm McLaren (after launching the Sex Pistols, despite lacking musical gifts, he recycled himself into recording artist).
One of these amazing scammers, although the “recognition” came to him a posteriori, was Ronnie Cornwell; His shadow hangs over all the work of his son, the writer John Le Carré. Ronnie spent time in prisons in various countries, but managed to make a living with audacious frauds. I have remembered his career while watching The Greatest Show Never Made, a three-part series available on Prime Video. Here, the scammer calls himself Nikita Russian, Nik to his friends, which should have aroused suspicion: Nikita was a hit from 1985, where – if we are to believe the painful video – Elton John falls in love with an officer of the border guards of the German Democratic Republic. Already.
Here we go: in 2002, reality shows —Big Brother, Pop Idol, Survivors— sweep the United Kingdom. An advertisement appears challenging potential contestants to give up a year of their life, with the possibility of winning £100,000 (and the resulting notoriety). After a castingthree are formed teams, each with 10 candidates. People who abandon their jobs and, sometimes, their city of residence in pursuit of “their dream.” We follow the adventures of a team. Meeting in a bleak London park, Nik explains to them that they are not going to be locked up in a house. ad hoc: The test is to live on your own and, uh, get a million pounds.
Accommodation is resolved by one of the members, who invites them to their apartment. It is Tim, a professional clown, who has a video camera where he records the stupor of his companions when they understand that they are not going to travel to an exotic destination – they were required to present themselves with a passport – and that they must sign a ruthless contract. Warning signs go off: they discover that Nik was employed in a bookstore chain and that they do not know him on the channel that is supposed to broadcast the Show. They decide that the reality He only exists in his mind: he is held until he confesses before a team from the program London Tonight. They do not achieve fame, but they do achieve a certain infamy: Nik for his farce, they for their naivety. They scatter.
20 years later, they get together. A real television production company, legitimized by Amazon money, has built a replica of Tim’s apartment in a studio, with saturated colors, as if it were a fable. They review their experience from 2002 and end up confessing a certain affection for Nik. That, after a detective traces his steps, also materializes: like the others, he has rebuilt his life. And everyone finally achieves their goal: to star in a series.
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