Falklands: Island of Secrets
“For more than two years, I’ve been investigating the disappearance of Marine Alan Addis. The more I’ve looked, the stranger the story has become. So, how does a young, fit British soldier, trained in arctic survival, vanish leaving no trace and no apparent witnesses? Marcel Theroux.
Falklands: Island of Secrets, the new ITV Exposure documentary, explores the dark side of the famous British territory.
Fronted by journalist Marcel Theroux and directed by Oscar winning director Jon Blair, the film delves into the stories of a missing marine, suspected murder and a scandal that has shaken the islands to their foundations.
In August 1980, a young marine called Alan Addis went missing without a trace. For over thirty years, his mother Ann, tried in vain to find out what had happened to him. Ann would secretly record her conversations with the islanders as she desperately tried to find information about her son. Picking up where Ann left off, Marcel Theroux delves into the missing case of Alan but is surprised by the further scandal he uncovers.
The dark side of this remote community is brought to light with the twists and turns of events, leading to a team of British detectives bringing belated justice to a group of exiled and traumatised islanders.
As Marcel unearths, there are allegations of historical sexual abuse hidden in plain sight. Despite the difficulties of speaking out in such a close-knit community, some sex offenders did eventually come before the courts.
As the problem could no longer be ignored, the Falklands government commissioned experts from the UK to report on the state of child protection. The report was unequivocal - social services were failing children and the islands had a problem with sexual abuse.
Lisa Watson, a sixth generation Falkland Islander is the editor of its newspaper, the Penguin News. She recalls the difficulty in covering the sexual abuse scandals but the importance of detailing what had happened. She said: “I wanted to write an editorial sensitively but I also wanted to say to them, look, we have to turn around. We have to face this, and we have to accept that we have a problem.”
“Every person that was arrested is well known in the Falkland Islands. They've got family, they've got friends, everybody knows them. So, it's not a case of a complete stranger being arrested. A shockwave would run through the islands.”
The story of Alan Addis and the historical sexual abuse allegations that haunt the Falklands are intertwined, connected together by accounts of how hard it is for people to speak up on this island, 8,000 miles from the UK.
RUNTIME:
88 Minutes
PRODUCER:
Jon Blair
Ben Hall
Marcel Theroux
DIRECTOR:
Jon Blair
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
Brian Woods
Dorothy Byrne
RELEASED:
2022
Reviews
“a serious investigation into a sad and perplexing mystery.”
Daily Mail
“Amid a rash of films commemorating the
40th anniversary of the Falklands War, Marcel Theroux and director Jon Blair cast a rather darker light on the islands”
The Daily Telegraph
“Programmes about the Falklands tend to focus on the war, but this one takes a look at a mysterious event that occurred two years before Argentina invaded.”
The Mail on Sunday
“Marcel’s findings, the story of a far-reaching scandal, are compelling.”
The Sun
“Marcel Theroux… and Jon Blair attempt to solve the mystery - but get more than they bargained for…”
TVChoice
