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Good. It's all going horribly wrong

Steven Poole
Thursday 01 June 1995 23:02 BST
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Documentaries about the making of films are only entertaining if we see things go wrong. Hearts of Darkness, for instance, a terrific delve behind the scenes of Apocalypse Now, succeeded due to the fact that Brando turned up massively overweight and without having learned his lines.

The Making of the Three Tenors Concert (2pm BBC2, concert follows at 4.45pm) is the same, in a fluffier way. In most ways, the LA extravaganza on the eve of the 1994 World Cup final was organised with ruthless efficiency, as befits an event with a worldwide audience of 1 billion, and head-wrenching numbers of CD and video spin-off opportunities. But when the tenors loped into the gargantuan stadium for a dress rehearsal two days before the gig, they clearly hadn't learnt their own cues, and it was a shambles.

Luckily they cleaned up their act in time. It's a heart-warming film because the three top tenors in the world should by rights be at each other's throats, but either they're very good actors - hardly likely, given that they're singers, after all - or they really do like each other. And who should provide the narration but Roger Moore, keeping an invisibly raised eyebrow hovering over Wayne Baruch's kludgy script. Describing the aptness of the football tie-in, Moore has to say: "Domingo is more of a striker than a singer". Surely some mistake?

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