Madeleine Was Here - Channel 4
Gerry and Kate McCann Have Not Given Up Hope
“There’s a deep, deep scar there at the minute that’s kind of knitted but you still think it might break or come loose.” It’s been two years since Madeleine McCann disappeared from apartment 5A at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz. Portuguese police have now closed the file on the missing girl but Kate and Gerry McCann are determined that the public will not forget about their daughter and that she is still alive. To this end they are embarking on a series of media events, including this Channel 4 documentary.
Perhaps not surprisingly, given the personal nature of the show and the need to reach as wide an audience as possible, the programme includes several reconstructions of events described in witness statements. Gerry McCann returns to the apartment with two family friends, plus the two British ex-detectives employed to sift through the evidence gathered and try to come up with new leads. Three different witnesses claimed the apartment was being watched, and there were two sightings of a man carrying a child that night.
Trying To Be A Normal Family
The show also follows the family, including their four-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, at home as they try to carry on some semblance of a normal life. Gerry has now returned to work as a hospital consultant, while Kate stays home with the children and continues to sort through the 30,000 case files from the Portuguese investigation. Pictures of Madeleine are everywhere in the house, and the twins are still waiting eagerly for their big sister to come home.
Both Kate and Gerry speak frankly on a variety of subjects, including an admission that not being in the apartment with the children that night did increase the risk of abduction. They are also well aware of the detrimental effect Madeleine’s disappearance has had on the local tourist industry in Praia da Luz, and how some locals are not pleased the whole matter is being raised again. At no point do they appear to be pleading for sympathy; there are tears from both, but no hand-wringing or “poor us”. It is clear they are still focused on finding Madeleine, but not at the expense of their other children.
What Would Madeleine Look Like Now?
One of the most poignant moments is the visit to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington D.C. The Centre has found 900 children, all of whom had been missing for over two year. An age-progression image of Madeleine is produced, predicting what she might look like now, as a six-year-old. President Ernie Allen also has a theory that because she was so young at the time, Madeleine might not even realize she is missing; she may simply have been told “now you’re supposed to come with me”, and she did.
Madeleine was Here, plus Kate and Gerry’s subsequent appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show, will do nothing to silence critics who claim the McCanns are simply publicity seekers. But the fact remains the Find Madeleine fund is fast running out of money, and when the cash is gone, it is difficult to see how the McCanns can continue to pay the former detectives to keep up the search. The programme can hardly claim to be neutral, but Gina McKee’s unobtrusive voiceover and John Lemke’s haunting score both keep the show on the right side of sentimental.
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