How do you follow up a masterpiece like Under the Skin? By giving
BBC Two viewers five minutes of unexpected hell. The visionary director on how a Trump hunting trip inspired his mystery short
The Americas with Simon Reeve is an amiable travelogue in which a dishy documentarian gads about the US. This Sunday night he was in
California, examining giant redwoods and Beyoncé’s mansion. At 10pm, the credits rolled and, abruptly, BBC Two plunged us into hell.
For five minutes before the start of Live at the Apollo, the channel screened a new short film in which a masked mob hang a man in a forest. He plunges for what feels an eternity (actually 86 seconds) down a well from the wooden gibbet, before the rope stops spooling and the man – miraculously alive – slowly starts to haul his way towards the light. It was broadcast without introduction or credits. There was no clue as to who was responsible.