House of Maxwell, review: another documentary about Maxwell and Epstein – and there are few revelations

Truly, the world doesn’t need another documentary about Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Who knows why the BBC waited so long to deliver it when Sky put together a good program last summer (Ghislaine Maxwell: Epstein’s Shadow) and ITV broadcast a poor version in JanuaryGhislaine, Prince Andrew and pedophile). But here it was three-part Maxwell House (BBC Two) who had little new to say.

He usually followed Ghislaine’s troubles to her father Robert before tackling Epstein’s stuff in the final part. There was one new claim: this Robert used Epstein to hide money at sea; that documentary evidence of this was found in the bedroom of his yacht after his disappearance in 1991; and that Ghislaine ordered the crew members to tear up the papers. In the grand scheme, however – in contrast to the later crimes of Ghislaine and Epstein – this was not exciting and there was nothing to support the claim.

The creators of the program have acquired a stockpile of secret recordings – Maxwell eavesdropped on his own home to eavesdrop on his wife and children (an antiques dealer bought a lamp at a sale of content from Maxwell’s house and found two tiny microphones hidden in it) and his office. Much was made of these shots in the workplace, in which the panicked leaders of the Mirror prepared for the collapse of Maxwell’s business empire. “It’s going to explode, and a head in the sand isn’t going to help.” “There will be the greatest God of almighty public scandal.” They sounded like replicas from a political thriller. But if they didn’t tell us who these people were, or what exactly they knew about Maxwell’s fraud, what good are they?

We got some insights into Robert’s character, from his secretary – who once heard a father and daughter meow at each other on the phone – to Eva Pollard, a former Sunday Mirror editor, who said of the tycoon’s relationship with children: “He loved them , but it was love that can grab you by the throat and the heart, and you never knew which way it would go. “

But there was nothing about Ghislaine and Epstein that we had not heard of. Victims describe their humiliating trials. Former friends who told us that Ghislaine was once so lively, smart and having a good time. She is due to be sentenced in June; let this be the last we hear of her.