Well, readers, I watched this gem on Sky earlier. The first few minutes revisit what had been a best-selling book, later turned into a starring Gillian Anderson.
The show lulls you into a tranquil daze. There are drone shots of cliffs that look like they’ve been photoshopped by the concept of serenity itself. Gentle strings hum. Someone says something earnest about “healing.” You exhale. It’s about a 650-mile walk you can do in the South West of England as told by Raynor Winn. She had just lost her house, and her husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The walk was transformative.
And then—record scratch—a talking head appears to ask a question so sharp it could open tinned beans: “But did that actually happen?” From there, The Salt Path Scandal becomes less a journey and more a brisk hike through footnotes.
The documentary’s true star is its tone, which can best be described as polite British skepticism wearing a fleece. Nobody yells. Nobody lunges. Instead, the filmmakers deploy the deadliest weapon in the national arsenal: calm, persistent follow-ups. “Just to clarify,” a narrator says, with the menace of a librarian about to revoke privileges. Every “just to clarify” lands like a small pebble in your shoe—annoying, impossible to ignore, and increasingly painful over time.
You see, the book claimed to be a memoir. Like, it was supposed to be true. But once, a journalist, Hadjimatheou, probed a bit. Well, there were reasons to be skeptical.
Structurally, the series is a masterclass in pacing. Each episode introduces a claim, lets it bask in sunlight, then quietly rotates it to reveal a price tag, a date discrepancy, or a witness who remembers things… differently. It’s less gotcha journalism and more hmm, interesting journalism,
By the finale, you’re left amused, mildly scandalized, and deeply suspicious of any memoir. The truth is out there somewhere.
It gets four stars out of five from me.
Have you seen it? Let me know what you think.
Mark's Writing Corner 