The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty

Rupert Murdoch has been so powerful for so long that this series can tell the story of his later career, starting in the mid-1990s, and barely touch upon his remarkable life before then. This is a good documentary, with access to the right people and critically, a willingness to call a spade a spade. The one thing we don't really get is proof of his supposed business genius, which is taken mostly for granted; we get plenty of proof of his mostly baleful influence on the world. If nothing else his life is a demonstration of what society gets when it leaves everything open for the biggest bastard in the market. Almost the oldest material in this series is Dennis Potter's famous deathbed denunciation, which sadly still seems accurate 25 years later.

A stark illustration of the corruption and clandestine way in which countries are manipulated. We are all his puppets

Another show that made the Guardian's top TV of 2020 was "The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty", a three part documentary about the Australian media mogul, his influence on worldwide politics and the internal dynamics within this family, as the debate over who may follow him begins to come to the fore.

Cheated out of what he considered his birth right, Australian Businessman Rupert Murdoch begins with a single newspaper and eventually creates a media empire of Newspapers and Television stations that spans the globe. With his acquisitions comes increasing influence, so much so that potential Prime Ministers are making sure that he is on side, as the right headline can make all the difference. This comes to a scratching halt when journalists at his News International company are caught up in a phone hacking scandal. But his influence re-exerts itself with the populist political movements of the 2010's on both sides of the Atlantic.

I don't particularly want to spend any time on the subject of the documentary, but I do feel that the amount of unelected political clout that Murdoch has been able to wield, is unsuitable to be in anyone's hands. Though if I'm honest, I'm disappointed more that the various politicians involved were so greedy and self-serving to allow themselves to be influenced, more than with the particular influencer.

The documentary I thought was pretty good. The family and some of the key characters refused to get involved but I thought that the range and passion of the contributors was reasonably fair and balanced. The three-part structure works really well for the growth, ruin and re-emergence overarching story, as does the "family" tree showing the incestuous links that a country like Great Britain has run on for decades. I had no problem following the various strands of the story and the explanations were thorough and detailed.

It's not the documentaries fault that generally it's a disappointing story of how the world has been made, perhaps irreparably, worse (forget what I said earlier, I can't stay impartial) by it's subject. And I honestly felt that this was as balanced as any documentary is going to be capable of being.

A truly well produced and Informative docuseries. Absolutely a must watch!!

This excellent BBC documentary shows the worrying influence of the Murdoch empire. Told in a reasoned and unsensational way, these three illuminating episodes are not (as one angry reviewer claims) "unwatchable" or "laughable" but in fact essential TV, highlighting the sinister forces at work in our society today.