Review: The Real Mo Farah is a beautiful, shocking documentary which should be required viewing for future Prime Ministers

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The candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party have been flailing around for a vote-grabbing policy on immigration, like a Prime Minister in search of the next party, but you wonder what they would have made of The Real Mo Farah (BBC1, Weds, 9pm).

The four-time Olympic champion – and knight of the realm, let’s not forget – revealed the real story of how he came to Britain from Somalia, a story he has kept secret until now.

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It’s a secret he’s kept mostly because he doesn’t really know the circumstances of his arrival, and through fear of the consequences. Most of the last 30 years, he kept up the pretence that he came to the UK aged nine to be with his father, who was already here.

However, as this moving, shocking documentary revealed, the truth is far darker.

Mo Farah was at the centre of a new BBC documentaryMo Farah was at the centre of a new BBC documentary
Mo Farah was at the centre of a new BBC documentary

His father was killed in civil war, and his mother sent Hussein Abdi Kahin – Farah's real name – and his twin brother to safety in Djibouti.

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From there, he was somehow brought to the UK by a woman posing as his mother and put to work in her house looking after the younger children, cleaning and cooking.

Running came as a release, and through a combination of kindly teachers and social services, he is removed from his ‘mother’ and finally finds a way to flourish.

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Farah’s story of triumph from tragedy is one which any Government would trumpet, which makes the current obsession with deporting anyone who arrives here all the more cruel and absurd.

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This was a wonderful portrait of a complex man, and an indictment of failed policies regarding refugees not just in Britain, but across the world.

Not quite as bloody as the Tory leadership contest, but running it close, Resident Evil (Netflix, streaming now) burst onto our screens in a welter of blood and body parts. A gory, undemanding eight-parter, it will be very familiar to anyone whose seen the game or the film series, but it’s great as some red-splattered visual wallpaper.

I took my two sons to see Netherlands play Portugal in the Women’s Euro 2022 tournament, which was great fun – similar to the BBC’s coverage, which has been a brilliant cheerleader for what has turned out to be a goal-fest. A great mix of pundits, presenters and commentators.