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Home > Television > TV reviews > Craig Bellamy's African Dream review
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Craig Bellamy’s African Dream
The single-programme documentary tails Craig Bellamy as he heads out to Sierra Leone to visit the football school academy that he has set up. Despite protestations to the contrary there's clearly at least a modicum of image clean-up about the whole thing, but the end result is a bit hear warming.
There's no drama about it, it's not sensationalised in any way, it was informative about the country, it's past and its present condition of resolve to avoid conflict at all costs, and it was sort of a delight to watch.
Though Bellamy's name is on the front cover and it's his money that funds the school, the documentary did enough to focus on some of the other people involved in making the project work, including its English teacher who fights to add grammatical inclinations to the football focused kids' lives and the president of the Craig Bellamy Foundation who heads up the operation in Sierra Leone.
The Foundation was set up to help disadvantaged kids in Freetown, Sierra Leone, establishing a not-for-profit football academy. With backing from Unicef, the Craig Bellamy Foundation has also helped to set up a national league in the country, where the existing main league has been suspended due to lack of funds.
Though the documentary isn't necessarily scintillating viewing, it more than makes up for it with great production values, genuine sentiment from Bellamy and a brilliantly heart warming story. What do you know? ITV have managed to make something with a good chunk of quality and likability for one. Still available on the ITV Player, it’s definitely worth a watch.
Craig Bellamy's African Dream review: 4/5