Frosta del Sol: BBC documentary gets cool reaction in Spain
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Version 0 of 1. It was meant to just be the picturesque backdrop for a tale of sun-soaked British dreams gone sour. But Spain is up in arms at BBC documentary Costa del Sol: Last Brits Standing, which followed expats such as Big Dave, Bronte the barmaid and 66-year-old jive dance instructor Colin. This week Spaniards got their first look at the film, and few are impressed. “It paints a picture of Spain as a cruel place, facing off against a British colony,” wrote Bárbara Mora of online television news site Vertele. She marveled at its ability to fill 55 minutes with Spaniards who consistently described the English as “barbaric” and “crazy,” and with an expat who keeps a straight face as he explained that “the Spanish, before we arrived, used to ride on donkeys. Now they ride round on brand new cars because the bit of land they had, they sold to the Brits. We built houses, we built everything.” Related: Costa del Sol: Last Brits Standing - the end of an expat dream? The colourful cast of characters seem more bent on telling the story plucked out of the director’s imagination than one that echoes the realities of life today in the Costa del Sol, said Mora. “It’s a manipulated, out-of-date report that doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Just irritation.” On social media, many saw the documentary as a swipe at Spain by the BBC. “Come April every year, we have the traditional and charming campaign of the BBC against tourism in Spain,” posted one Twitter user, while another urged the channel to label the documentary as science-fiction. Related: Costa del Sol: Last Brits Standing; Teens review – ‘They look at us like we’re their Polish, over here, nicking their jobs’ Others took aim at the stereotypical portrayal of Spaniards by lobbing back British stereotypes on Twitter. “We should instead follow their example and drink until we drop, touch girls when we go out drinking and throw ourselves from balconies,” wrote one. For many, the idea that Spain had hurt the expats in some way was particularly offensive. The film showed Spain as “a cruel country and enemy of the British, using the stories of people who are far from the reality of Andalusia,” noted La Vanguardia. The idea of a clash of cultures was aided by a cast of Spaniards who seemed to be following a scripted dialogue, said La Vanguardia, listing one tired cliche after another, whether it was describing bars that were empty of alcohol thanks to expats with a penchant for drink, or complaining of Brits who urinate in the streets. For Spanish daily ABC, a sore point was the assertion by one character that Spain no longer had anything to offer Brits, which flies in the face of recent tourism figures. In 2014, Spain received a record 65 million foreign tourists – and Brits topped the list at around 15 million. The documentary was impressive in one way, noted ABC. Despite a healthy exchange of millions of tourists between both countries as well as emigrants, “just 55 minutes was enough to turn Brits and Spaniards into enemies”. |