As a follow-up to when Sir Trevor McDonald looked back at some of the lives of former members of La Cosa Nostra, here in this first part of two documentaries he now looked at some of the women in their lives.

What we got was a fascinating insight into the secretive world of The Mob.  It was a slickly put together production that did not seek to glamorise the violence or their way of life.  At times it was raw and emotional which thus gave it great poignancy.

The documentary worked because of the emotive personalised accounts that we heard from various women.  For example, we heard from a lady called Amy, who was now the girlfriend of a former Colombo family captain called Anthony Russo.  Details of his former life were tough for her to hear as she said,

‘Yeah, it’s hard for me to listen to it and hear the things cos that’s not who I know you know….you know it’s hard to hear sometimes, the stories and think like, wow he actually did that.’

The most emotive account came from a lady called Linda Scarpa, whose late father Greg Scarpa Snr, was nicknamed the ‘Grim Reaper’.  When discussing his death and how her younger brother Joey, was murdered aged just twenty-three she stated,

‘But you don’t realise the pain until it actually hits your home…until you have actually someone murdered.’

Away from Mafia life, her father she added, was just an everyday kind of guy who was a very loving father.  We saw her watch old video footage of a birthday party of hers when she was just a girl.  This video reduced her to tears such was her love for him and the huge amount of love that he had for her.

Sir Trevor McDonald was a brilliant interviewer throughout.  He was respectful without ever being too respectful not to ask hard hitting questions.  I did wonder if his old age, slight frame and polite British esque demeanour did enable him to get away with his probing questions unchallenged.  For example, he posed Anthony Russo an uncomfortable question when he asked him about his late son Michael, who had recently died of an accidental drugs overdose.  Trevor said,

‘The tragedy must be all the more terrible for you when you look back on your life and remember all the time you spent in prison away from Michael and your family.’

All the respondents acted well to Trevor, which was crucial as the documentary needed them to open up to us.

As already stated this documentary was well put together and this was achieved via a mix of present day interviews, old archive news footage and impressive camera work.  The overhead helicopter camera shots gave connotations of a police chopper following criminals or some infamous figures.  It was also a masterstroke stylistically, to see regular shots of Brooklyn’s inner city railway tracks.  They are an imposing sight, famous throughout the world and such scenes really added a sense of the spectacle to the piece.

When trying to be critical about this programme, nothing really springs to mind that was that irksome.  It was a fascinating, poignant documentary worth watching if you haven’t as of yet.  I look forward to seeing part two! 4/5.