Once Upon a Time in Londongrad, Sky Documentaries,
review: A worrying report into Russia’s crimes in the UK
These people wouldn’t think twice about poisioning
your tea. This timely docuseries shows the real bravery of the journalists
trying to uncover their secrets
Investigative reporter, Heidi Blake receives a tip on
the death of a multi-millionaire property tycoon, leading her to uncover a web
of death that entangles oligarchs, the Kremlin, 10 Downing Street and
Washington D.C. Set across Vladimir Putin's two decades in power, ONCE UPON A
TIME IN LONDONGRAD charts the uncomfortable relationship between the UK???s
reliance on Russian money and the missed opportunities to contain Putin. Jane
Bradley - Investigative Reporter Once Upon a Time in Londongrad - Sky
Documentary TV still
Investigative
reporter Jane Bradley (Photo: Sky/Rise Films)
By Gerard
Gilbert
May 31,
2022 10:05 pm
A thrusting
young journalist is hired by a digital media company hoping to shake off its
reputation for listicles and cat videos. She is immediately contacted by an
anonymous female caller requesting a meeting at a posh London townhouse.
That could
make a decent beginning to a pulpy thriller, but in reality, this was 2014, the
journalist was Heidi Blake, now senior investigative reporter at Buzzfeed News,
and the anonymous caller was Michelle Young – best known for one of the longest
divorce cases in the history of lengthy divorce cases.
Young had,
however, not contacted Blake to discuss where her ex-husband, fixer to the
dodgy super-rich Scot Young, might have hidden the millions owed to her.
Instead, she wanted to state her belief that Scot had not recently taken his
own life by jumping from a fourth-floor window (as the police and coroner
subsequently ruled), but had in fact been murdered.
Young’s
death was the unexpected starting point for a stylish new Sky documentary
series Once Upon a Time in Londongrad. Co-produced with BuzzFeed and based on
Blake’s 2017 book From Russia with Blood: Vladimir Putin’s Secret War in the
West, it set out to link 14 murders on UK soil with the long arm of the
Kremlin.
Far from
being the successful tycoon of newspaper headlines, it seems that Scot Young
was mired in debt to some very dangerous individuals. And while snorting
industrial amounts of cocaine may have made him paranoid, it didn’t mean that
people weren’t out to get him. Young’s cosy relationship with Putin’s
arch-enemy, exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, brought the Russian security
services into the picture.
The second
of two opening episodes focused on Berezovsky himself while also providing a
zippy primer on the rise of Putin – the KGB careerist turned Yeltsin-era
functionary whom the oligarchs installed as their malleable man in the Kremlin.
Needless to say, Putin had other ideas.
Berezovsky’s
friends and associates provided some of the best quotes from the programme. “He
was absolutely honest and dishonest at the same time,” said one. “He was kind
and he was evil.” And this was from a mate.
Investigative
reporter Heidi Blake gets a tip about the suspicious death of multi-
millionaire Scot Young. Together with her team, she untangles a paper trail
that connects Scot to the notorious Russian oligarch, Boris Berezovsky. Heidi
Blake ? Investigative Reporter Once Upon a Time in Londongrad - Sky Documentary
TV still
Investigative
reporter Heidi Blake (Photo: Sky/Rise Films)
Berezovsky,
who fled Russia in 2000 and helped establish London as the go-to city for
money-laundering oligarchs, would be another Putin foe to meet a mysterious
end. But that’s for a later episode, and here we saw him in his exiled pomp,
throwing a lavish party at Blenheim Palace, where one of the guests of honour
was none other than Scot Young. Scouring footage from the party and spotting
Young was a eureka moment for the BuzzFeed journos.
The
programme provided an insight into the grunt work involved in investigative
reporting. It would be difficult to turn this material into a movie starring,
say, Lily James as Heidi Blake – most of their time is spent trawling through
data on computer screens.
As an arts
journalist who at worst might get into a Twitter spat with a disgruntled actor
or writer doing my job, I have to admire the bravery of these reporters in
delving into the secrets of people who wouldn’t think twice about poisoning
your tea.
“I’m often
asked if I get scared doing this kind of work and my honest answer has always
been ‘no’,” said Blake. “I have to say that that changed while working on this
story.”
After six
episodes of Once Upon a Time in Londongrad, you might feel afraid for her, too.
Once Upon a
Time in Londongrad continues on Tuesday 7 June at 9pm on Sky Documentaries
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