The latest BBC Three documentary opens with Shabaz Ali floating down a London street in a black turtleneck and grey suit jacket, with alarmist string music swelling. He walks through lavish Knightsbridge and declares he has been asked to answer whether billionaires are bad. Then the camera zooms out to reveal another camera in his face, the music stops, and he says: "Er, yeah. They are!"
Mock end credits play at triple speed as he strides off. Shabaz Asks: Are Billionaires Bad? is not a typical BBC Three documentary but a parody of the genre.
Ali's comedic approach
Ali, a former teacher turned TikToker from Blackburn who calls himself the "povvo king", rose to fame during lockdown by reacting to out-of-touch content. In this show, he disarms the mega-rich by appearing slightly gormless, promising to "do the Louis Theroux stare when I can’t think of a comeback". At the winter home of Phones 4u founder John Caudwell in Colorado, he asks whether Caudwell has "a Batcave, or one of those big boards where you have a world map [for] conquering stuff".
Economist Faiza Shaheen schools Ali on the economics of becoming a billionaire, but he asks: "What’s billionaire shortbread?" At a get-rich seminar hosted by former Apprentice winner Joseph Valente, the camera pans to Ali doodling the letter S on his notepad.
Politics and economics
Green party leader Zack Polanski delivers a comeback when Ali asks if his party is scapegoating billionaires. Polanski says: "I’m very happy to scapegoat billionaires, because otherwise we’re scapegoating migrants, trans people, disabled people, people who can’t get a job …"
Ali also meets Emily Abraham, who sells luxury bags to celebrities and royals. He contrasts a £190,000 Hermès Faubourg Birkin with the cost of a two-bedroom house in Blackburn. Abraham, who grew up in poverty, agrees to an extent but says: "But the reality is that we do have people with money, and they do want to spend it …"
A hybrid of comedy and documentary
Ali's working-class background surfaces: his father was a taxi driver, his mother a housewife. He notes that his parents could afford to buy a house 20 years ago, but now the gap is so wide that an average person cannot do normal things. Caudwell himself remarks: "I’m not a fan of billionaires either."
The programme is a pilot that could become a series. Its makers will need to decide whether it is a proper documentary, a comic endeavour, or a hybrid of the two. Shabaz Asks: Are Billionaires Bad? aired on BBC Three and is on iPlayer.
