Stacey Dooley’s Australia Beaten Track: Kangaroo Island Review
Stacey Dooley's Australia: Off the Beaten Track, a Channel 4 series, opens on Kangaroo Island, seven years after bushfires destroyed half of it. A review of the first episode finds the presenter struggling without the outrage that drove her BBC documentaries.
Stacey Dooley's Australia: Off the Beaten Track, a new Channel 4 travel series, opens on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, and a review of the first episode concludes that the investigative reporter looks lost without exploitation or outrage to tackle.
Dooley made her name on BBC Three with documentaries on child labour, sexual exploitation, poverty, religious extremism and homelessness. Since winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2018 she has moved more mainstream. She is also in the middle of a three-documentary run on BBC One covering murder, suicide and addiction.
A fire-scarred island
The episode begins with a 45-minute ferry ride south-west from Cape Jervis on the South Australian mainland to the island, also known as Karta Pintingga. It is Australia's third-largest island, a bit bigger than Cornwall, with about 5,000 residents.
Seven years ago, bushfires destroyed half of it. Its communities have been rebuilding since.
Dooley's first stop is Kangala Kangaroo and Wildlife Rescue, set up during the fire by Lisa and Jared Karran. They saved orphaned kangaroos, koalas, wallabies and possums, and still care for them.
Lisa tells of finding kangaroo mothers standing on scorched ground. The mothers had lifted their young back into their pouches to protect them. The joeys survived; the mothers' feet were burned to the bone.
Where the episode stumbles
The review calls moments like that the flashes of colour this kind of documentary needs, but says they prove rare. Ben, a sheep farmer who lost his house and flock, says of the fire: "It's hard to put into words."
Dooley is meant to supply the description, the review argues. On the way to Ben's farm she watches a smartphone video of his burning back yard, the first footage of the fire she says she has seen. Her reaction: "The video – this is such an obvious thing to say, but the video – utterly, utterly terrifying."
The lighter scenes fare no better, according to the review. On a boat trip to swim with seals, Dooley says: "This feels like such – such an amazing opportunity!" In her piece to camera afterward she adds: "I didn't quite realise it would be this spectacular. This has been like, for me, top tier. Unbelievable!"
The reviewer's verdict on the format is that light factual television can be harder than reporting from a war zone or a cult, because the presenter must conjure something from nothing. The review does see signs that Dooley will find her voice as the series goes on.
