A review of Channel 4’s Millionaire Playboy Races by Matthew Steeples
I watched last night’s Millionaire Playboy Racers expecting to find myself in agreement with Knightsbridge residents complaining about the noise generated by Arabs and their supercars. In many instances I would have previously agreed that they are bloody pests but surprisingly, by the end of the 45-minute Channel 4 documentary, I was left with feelings quite to the contrary.
My followers on Facebook often comment on the snaps I take of the supercars that come to London from Dubai, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Some are impressive and amazing. Others are vulgarity personified. A few are shown below.
Millionaire Playboy Racers was commissioned, like most television these days, to provoke. It failed. The whingeing residents of The Royal Borough complaining about the cars, one of whom was bizarrely named “Panda” Morgan-Thomas, came across as spoilt and obnoxious whilst it was a Kuwaiti named Abdul Aziz Al Rashed who came across best.
This sensible young man expressed his views clearly. He understood the situation and though the British police treated him unfairly at one point, he remained reasonable. As the show ended he stated:
“I be very serious with you… At 12am I stop using this car as many people are sleeping… My friends are very sad to go back to Kuwait… I feel very sad to leave this nice place to go back to my desert… Give us London and we give you Kuwait.”
Morgan-Thomas, her daughter and their friends on the other hand came across as weird busybodies. These resentful, hectoring pests showed the people of this wealthy enclave in their worst light. As an example, Ms Morgan-Thomas showed the cameras a tree made out of roses that she had dried in her flat that she was building up towards her ceiling. She stated that when the top was reached she might marry her partner. Who on earth would do such a bizarre thing? The woman is plainly a loon.
Justin Downes, another of their number, did not help the cause of the anti-supercar crusaders with comments like:
“[They’ve created] a kingdom of Qatar in the middle of London… Idiots… I’ve seen the area move from being a very quiet residential area to being cosmopolitan in a way that is extreme… These Gulfies come in and use the area to drive recklessly. If they were UK citizens they’d be prosecuted… I am angry.”
Here were people who came across as racists and bigots. They damaged their cause and of the residents the only one I felt sorry for was an elderly lady who lived in a basement studio near Harrods. This poor woman came was indeed being disturbed late at night and if more like her had been interviewed then an entirely different perspective would have been presented. Instead, Channel 4, to satisfy their viewers, allowed a woman who lived in one of London’s main shopping streets to make residents come across as a bunch of utter weirdos and freaks.
I am still of the opinion that many of these Arab drivers are reckless and vulgar but having watched this programme, the ridiculousness of the “Knightsbridge girl” Panda and her chums has now truly been exposed. In fact, I’d rather it be her who is kept off the streets of SW1.
Watch Millionaire Playboy Racers at: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/millionaire-boy-racers/4od