Media

A fool and his money

Last night's TV: Rupert Smith

Alot of waffle has been talked and written about TV alternatives to football as we enter the scheduling free-for-all that is Euro 2000. But if you wanted to escape far, far away from sport last night, Channel 4 had the dream ticket - or, as it turned out to be, nightmare. True Stories: Pimp Snooky was one of the most infuriating, depressing and exhilarating pieces of television to come this way for a long time - a trip deep, deep into the underworld in the demonic company of Milwaukee's premier procurer.

Snooky, a handsome man in his late 20s or early 30s, ran a stable of prostitutes from a smart-looking house in the city. He cruised around in his flash Mercedes looking for fresh talent: "gonna find me a new bitch today", he said, putting on his headhunter's charm. It didn't last long. Once the new bitch, a hapless creature named Mika, had been recruited, she was subjected to a programme of mental torture that left her - and viewers - gasping with shock.

Pimp Snooky was filmed over a 12-month period last year by Clive Gordon, a man who clearly knows no fear in pursuit of a good story. Such was the rapport between film-maker and subject that Snooky allowed Gordon to witness the most revealing moments of his life: knocking his girls around, trying to stay calm during a drive- by shooting, or coming sheepishly out of prison. He emerged, blinking and shaken, into the daylight, his drab sportswear in sharp contrast to his more usual pimp threads. "I look like a trick", he complained. "They treated me like a trick."

You might have expected the film to reveal a warm, caring side to Snooky, or to have led us to understand and perhaps sympathise with his way of life. But as he showed more and more of himself, we could only come to loathe him. His treatment of his women - and their terrified, brainwashed compliance - was jaw-droppingly horrible. He employed his nephew, a young man of about 19, to attempt to seduce the girls under concealed video surveillance; if they succumbed, they faced the wrath of "Daddy". He nutted Mika on the forehead, and would have done much worse had he not suddenly become aware of the camera's presence. He bragged endlessly about his financial acumen, and even organised a glitzy party (The International Players' Convention) to celebrate the pimp lifestyle.

If all this sounds disgusting, it was - and yet it was impossible to stop watching. The Players' Convention was shown in slow-motion, the girls writhing obediently at the feet of their men, a carnival vision of hell. Mika's training by two of her "wives-in-law", Fantasia and Unique, was a ridiculous parody of sisterhood. "You say yes and no, you call him Daddy at all times, you walk behind him, open doors, wait for him to get out of the car before you do. He puts his ho's on pedestals. He treats us like queens, so we gotta treat him like a king." And Snooky was a king in his own kingdom, a dictator no less. God help the girl who stepped out of line. Mika, who, it transpired, was only 18 and unprepared for life on the game, had her wrathful family on Snooky's tail, and we feared for her life.

Gratifyingly, this little dystopia began to fall apart in the final section of the film. After the tacky climax of the Convention, Snooky spent a night in prison, endured gunmen shooting at his house and, we suspected, had heavier foes than Mika's irate uncle to deal with. The enemy was at the gates, and it was hard to fathom what was going on. Snooky remained calm throughout, but he was running scared. At the time of transmission, Snooky was in prison - probably the safest place for him, and it's a miracle that one of his bitches didn't pick up a gun and blow his head off first.

Clive Gordon deserves to be showered with awards for having the guts to bring back this report from the pit. Presumably he developed some kind of rapport with Snooky (who called Gordon from jail, begging him to bail him out), but even so he didn't let it get in the way of this cold, dispassionate dissection. The rap soundtrack, with its usual catalogue of bragging and swearing, seemed comically feeble compared to the reality on screen. "I'm not no crazy sadistic fucked- up-in-the-head fool", said Snooky. Oh, but you are.

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