The Zelensky story (BBC 2)
That is no more unlikely than what happened in Ukraine, where the Saturday-night variety star and professional brazenegger Volodymyr Zelensky has transformed himself not just into president but arguably the most effective, courageous and charismatic wartime leader since Winston Churchill.
Until 2022, Ukraine was – like Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, in the words of Neville Chamberlain – the archetypal “faraway country”, inhabited by “people we know nothing about”.
Those in the UK who had heard of Zelensky might have known that he had won the Slavic version of Strictly and starred in a comedy called Servant Of The People, in which he played an ordinary man unexpectedly elected president.
Zelensky’s story depicts a rise to fame so charming and extraordinary that it should be a Hollywood movie (and no doubt will be one day).
Images of Volodymr Zelensky talking about his teenage years in The Zelensky Story, via BBC
It also included interviews with the President and his First Lady, Olena, who were surprisingly honest about their marriage and its tensions.
The programme, available to stream on Channel 4, was partly filmed in the ridiculous palace built for Zelensky’s corrupt predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, complete with pirate galleon and private zoo.
Zelensky’s story chronicles a rise to fame so charming and extraordinary that it should be a Hollywood movie (and no doubt will be one day). But it also includes interviews with both the president and his first lady, Olena, who were surprisingly honest about their marriage and its tensions.
He obviously adores her and has done so since he first saw her in high school. “It was one of the best moments of my life,” he said, speaking to the camera. “I just looked at her and I guess I just loved her, and that’s it.”
Olena didn’t fall in love so easily. “He was constantly coming to my house and calling me,” she said with a grimace. “And then I realized that I had gotten used to it. When he went somewhere for three days, it was the first time I thought that maybe I really needed him.”
The most surprising revelation, however, 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 president, and Olena first learned about it when she watched the broadcast with her husband at her side. She is still not very happy about it.
Other friends were more circumspect, but a portrait emerged of an ambitious young actor who was intensely loyal to his supporters: 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 traces the sequence of events that led to the 2022 invasion.
It also reflects Putin’s personal hatred of Zelensky, who used to mock him with flashes of satire in his TV comedy routines: he once pleaded “SOS us, SOS Ukraine” in front of a cheering audience.
“SOS us” means one thing in English… and something much ruder in Russian. Like Ant and Dec, Zelensky was much funnier for being short, but he never lacks courage.
(tags to translate)dailymail