The Zelensky Story (BBC 2)
That's no more unlikely than what happened in Ukraine, where under-sized Saturday night variety star and professional cheeky-chappie Volodymyr Zelensky has been transformed, into not only the President but arguably the most effective, courageous and charismatic wartime leader since Winston Churchill.
Until 2022, Ukraine was — like Czechoslovakia during the 1930s, in Neville Chamberlain's words — the archetypal 'far away country,' inhabited by 'people of whom we know nothing'.
Those in the UK who'd heard of Zelensky might have been aware that he'd won the Slavic version of Strictly, and starred in a sitcom called Servant Of The People, in which he played an ordinary man unexpectedly elected president.
The show, available to stream on Channel 4, was partly filmed at the ridiculous palace built for Zelensky's corrupt predecessor Viktor Yanukovych, complete with a pirate galleon and a private zoo.
The Zelensky Story traced a rise to fame so charming and extraordinary, it ought to be a Hollywood movie — and doubtless will be, one day. But it also featured interviews with both the President and his First Lady, Olena, who were stunningly honest about their marriage and its tensions.
He obviously adores her and has done since he first saw her at high school. 'One of the best moments of my life,' he said, speaking into the camera. 'I just looked at her, and I think I just loved, and that's it.'
Olena was not smitten so easily. 'He was constantly coming to my house, calling me,' she said with a grimace. 'And then I noticed that I got used to it. When he went somewhere for three days, it was the first time I thought that maybe I really needed him.'
The staggering revelation, though, was how he hid his political intentions from her. At the climax of his pre-recorded TV variety show on New Year's Eve 2018, Zelensky announced his intention to run for the presidency — and the first Olena knew of it was as she watched the broadcast with her husband beside her. She's still not any too pleased.
Other friends were more circumspect, but a portrait emerged of an ambitious young actor who was intensely loyal to those who stuck by him — a natural leader, with a deep suspicion of Russia and its dictator, Vladimir Putin.
Without getting lost in digressions, this superb three-part documentary explains Putin's obsession with conquering Ukraine, and charts the sequence of events leading up to the 2022 invasion.
It also captures Putin's personal loathing for Zelensky, who used to mock him with flashes of satire in his TV comedy routines — once pleading 'SOS us, SOS Ukraine,' in front of a cheering audience.
'SOS us' means one thing in English . . . and something else much ruder in Russian. Like Ant and Dec, Zelensky was all the funnier for being short, but he's never short on courage.
