Netflix probes Madeleine McCann disappearance in new documentary

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Netflix, review: bloated and manipulative, this documentary series tells us nothing new

By Ed Power 21 March 2019 • 8:47am



The controversy swirling around Netflix’s Madeleine McCann documentary in the end has proved more sensational than what has reached the screen. Delays and reports of wrangling behind the scenes raised the possibility of explosive new revelations as the streaming service applied the true crime formula pioneered by Making a Murderer to the mystery of the little girl who vanished from an Algarve holiday apartment in May 2007 as her parents enjoyed a meal with friends 100 yards away.

Alas, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann simply confirms that the true crime genre has become prisoner to its crassest tendencies. The eight-part series is somehow at once overwrought and melodramatic and also crashingly turgid. Kate and Gerry McCann refused to participate and are said to have urged friends likewise to decline director Chris Smith’s advances. It’s hard not to see why.

This is exploitative filmmaking on auto-pilot – a box-ticking re-hashing of the case garlanded with a few vague intimations of sinister figures who might (or might not) have had something to do with the disappearance. At eight hours, it is furthermore far too long, with aimless detours into the historical roots of tourism in the Algarve and the spread of paedophile rings throughout Europe.

Without the McCanns, Smith (director of Netflix’s excellent recent Fyre documentary) casts about widely for focus. He draws his sights on the Portuguese police, whose paranoia is eclipsed only by their anarchic investigation techniques. Their theory that Madeleine’s parents had been drugging and accidentally overdosed their daughter is debunked. But only after Smith cynically leads us to believe the authorities are indeed justified in briefly naming Kate an official suspect.

It’s horribly manipulative. “I probably didn’t really like him. It wasn’t a warm engagement,” says Jim Gamble, former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, of his first encounter with buttoned-down Gerry. Later Gamble recalls giving the father a pep talk in which he declares that whoever knows something about the disappearance should come forward while they have a chance (nudge, nudge Gerry).

Gamble at this point is explicitly portrayed as suspecting the parents (although he has since come to believe that the McCanns had nothing to do with the disappearance). It is a suspicion we are encouraged to share.



Yet, in the next episode, the rug appears to be pulled away, though it would be a spoiler to reveal exactly how. Suffice it to say that beneath the glossy production values – endless languid shots of the Praia da Luz resort start to feel inappropriate given the subject matter – Smith has stooped to the tawdriest bait and switch. The only intention is keeping us glued.

More than 40 individuals were reportedly interviewed but, for the most part, it is the same parade of talking heads. Gamble pops up repeatedly, as do Looking For Madeleine authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan and former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie. Later we are introduced to Brian Kennedy, the double-glazing millionaire swooping in as the McCanns’s benefactor. The closest to a villain is Gonçalo Amara, the Portuguese police chief who wrote a self-justifying book pinning Madeleine’s fate on the McCanns.

A bigger issue is sheer over-familiarity. Among Netflix’s international subscriber base the basic facts of the case may be fresh and gripping. To anyone who has lived with the story since 2007, the déjà-vu soon becomes exhausting.

And yet, there’s nothing else – no compelling theories, no new witnesses or evidence. The final episode dissolves into a gossipy hit-parade of weirdos, reprobates and spectres allegedly sighted in the vicinity of the McCanns’s apartment in the hours around Madeleine’s disappearance. However, there’s no substance – or even intelligent conjecture: the presumption, never stated out loud, is that child traffickers were probably responsible for the abduction. The closest to a concrete conclusion is Gamble’s belief that the truth about Madeleine will come out in his lifetime. Viewers may wish they had followed the example of the McCanns and steered clear.

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Netflix documentary - The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Top Cast

Anthony Summers

   Self - Investigative Journalist…

Maria João Vaz

   Detective

Gonçalo Amaral

   Self - Former Chief Investigating Coordinator…

Robbyn Swan
 
    Self - Investigative Journalist…

Jim Gamble

   Self - Former Senior Police Officer, Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre

Sandra Felgueiras

   Self - Journalist, RTP Network

Ernie Allen

   Self - Former President & CEO, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Robert Murat

   Self - Local Resident…

Susan Hubbard

   Self - Friend of the McCanns

Haynes Hubbard

   Self - Friend of the McCanns

Kelvin Mackenzie

   Self - Former Editor, The Sun Newspaper

Paulo Pereira Cristovao

   Self - Former Detective, Policia Judiciaria…

Brian Kennedy

   Self - Businessman & McCann Benefactor

Patrick Kennedy

   Self - Brian Kennedy's Son

Jayne Jensen

   Self - Tourist, Ocean Club Resort

Neil Berry

   Self - Tourist, Ocean Club Resort

Jon Clarke

Self - Freelance Journalist

Julian Peribañez

   Self - Private Investigator

Rui Gustavo

   Self - Journalist, Expresso Newspap

Netflix doc shows moment sniffer dogs 'picked up blood scent' in Madeleine McCann holiday apartment

The expert spaniels both flagged the same spot in the Praia Da Luz apartment where the McCann's had been staying to their handler

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Olivia Burke
Published 16:18 25 Apr 2024 GMT+1
Updated 16:18 25 Apr 2024 GMT+1

Chilling footage captured the moment a sniffer dog picked up the scent of blood in the apartment where Madeleine McCann was snatched from in May 2007.
The alarming development in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], which unfortunately did not lead anywhere, left investigators combing through the holiday rental in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] resort of Praia Da Luz with more questions than answers.
Video of the shock discovery reared its head again in 2019, after it featured in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] documentary [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which was released that year.
Take a look at this:

(Video on this link: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] )

The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] aimed to re-examine the infamous disappearance of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the media coverage of the case and the investigation conducted by authorities, as well as how her parents [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] dealt with her vanishing.

Months after the three-year-old first vanished on 3 May, 2007, puzzled Portuguese cops were struggling to find a lead and decided to bring in their [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for assistance.

Expert [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Martin Grime, who has lent himself and his animals to help with crime scene investigations across the globe, travelled from the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] with his two spaniels, Eddie and Keela, to see if they could make any progress.

They headed to the resort where the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] had been staying in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], to see if the dogs could pick up on anything which the human eye or [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] could not.

Explaining the abilities of his highly-trained pooches during an episode of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], Martin said: "When the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] indicates in the field, it will either be human decomposition or human blood.
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Martin Grime brought his two spaniels, Eddie and Keela, to exercise their expertise at the crime scene (Netflix)
"The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is very persistent, very pungent to the point where we've been able to locate, in blind searches, graves 40 years after the body has been removed and the body was only there for a short period of time.
"With blood, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] have been to the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and somebody has cleaned the blood up to the point you can no longer see it. That doesn't mean there isn't any there to find.
"It might drip through the gap and run around the back of the floorboard, but odour will still be coming through the gap in the floorboards and the dog will pick it up and respond to it."
Although this means that is unlikely the animals will bypass any key evidence, it also suggests that they may have been detecting the scent of blood which may have been spilled long before the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]s fateful [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
Eddie - who was trained to smell traces of human corpses - was the first dog sent on a reconnaissance mission around the apartment.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] journalist Robbyn Swan said that the spaniel's 'behaviour changed the moment he came through the door'.
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The dogs trawled through the Praia Da Luz apartment the McCann's has been staying in (Netflix)
"He became tense and aware," she explained. "The dog handler said Eddie didn't alert in any other situation except when he scented that which he was seeking: the scent of a human cadaver."
The footage from the Netflix doc shows Eddie wandering around the room, sniffing, before going over to a wardrobe and then turning to his handler and barking. He barks again when he sniffs behind a couch.
Keela - who was trained to only alert her handler only when she smelt human blood - then headed in alone for round two.
She also stopped in the same spot behind the couch.
Both of the dogs were then brought outside to inspect the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] hire car the McCanns had used during their trip.
The pair again both indicated to Martin that they had picked up on scents of human blood and a corpse in the boot and outside of the driver's door.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry were named as persons of interest by Portuguese police shortly after the dogs were brought in, however, this was voided in 2008 when the case was archived.
When asked about the dogs findings that year, cardiologist Gerry said: "I can tell you that we've obviously looked at the evidence about cadaver dogs and they're incredibly unreliable."
Featured Image Credit: Netflix
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