I must admit, I’m no keen Xarabank consumer, far from it.  It’s not just about the programme style and content that doesn’t fit my TV pursuit but I, like many others, am a selective TV viewer.  In fact Friday nights, which are sacrosanct, are more willingly spent in the company of family and a glass of wine as I chomp through a Hollywood blockbuster. 

But I suppose there are always exceptions to the rule, and last Friday was a case in point!

After the wide spread promotional campaign on TVM announcing that Angelik’s visions on Borg in Nadur and the surroundings will be discussed during this week’s edition of Xarabank, I took the plunge and watched it, captivated and focused on nothing else. 

Considering that it was Carnival and San Remo weekend, Xarabank producers had the nerve to intentionally design a programme that managed to keep scores of people hooked on the national broadcaster instead of zapping off to RAI UNO.  But apart from the strategically (intentioned or not) smart move to have such a spellbinding theme on the schedule at hand, all hell broke loose and this programme ended up headlining most people’s statuses on their Face Book pages, most claiming, for one reason or other, that the programme shouldn’t have been aired (that is, after they had seen it from beginning to end!). 

If anything, the quasi-crazy behaviour of Angelik, the melodrama acted out by the members of the panel (most brandishing a Bible as if they are on some pulpit at the Parocca or at the Saphire Hall), made religion sound mindless. 

Another low was that Peppi must make a clean breast that he is starting to struggle with highly opinionated panels.  John Bundy and Dione Borg, presenter and journalist respectively, at one point were taking over.  The same did Pastor Gordon Manche’ and Dun Gorg Dalli who were trying to act righteously but at a certain point even they were clowning their arguments and gesticulating thoughtlessly. 

Ramon Casha, the self professed atheist, was more of a pot-stirrer than making proper arguments. 

The irate squeaking voice of the lady on the right of the screen, sitting near her husband (in growing embarrassment) both staunch supporters of Angelik of Borg in-Nadur, made non-arguments.

But one thing the panel and Peppi succeeded in doing was that they managed to float-up the viewers’ angels and demons which is why I think this programme was so widely viewed. 

Let’s keep one thing in mind.  People keep watching a programme because they are either curious, entertained or both.  This was the case of Xarabank last Friday.  And whilst I really believe that this series that has been going on for almost 20 years might need to be put on ice for the next 20, if truth be told people see it in flocks when such social phenomenon, that are close to home, are disputed. 

Back to Angelik and his tomfoolery. 

The argument thrown around whether such a programme should be allowed to be broadcasted on national TV or not is an anathema for me. 

We already have our share of dull programmes on our national broadcaster.  If we take away the contentious programmes, the ones that put an effort in production (rather than just re-creating radio on TV) it would be a disaster in terms of audience ratings.

Educational (I find this terribly patronising) or not, informative or not, the base line is whether people are keen to watch a programme. 

Now you can criticise Peppi till the sun turns blue, but at least in this show once again he used his Xarabank-wit and got people to watch, through the use of camera, employing poignant features, engaging the feisty spectators, timely 1-to-1 interviews and the rest.  He got the audience at home to form or confirm an opinion, to give a ruling on Angelik’s genuineness, to reflect on their beliefs (or lack of) and to question incontestable issues like apparitions and Godly interventions.

So at the same moment when we were all trying to decipher if Borg in-Nadur is anywhere nearer to Heaven, most of us were in their heart of hearts trying to come to terms with our own demons. 

Most people watching were asking if there is any hidden message that God is telling us via these contended visualizations;

Whether we might need to check the direction we are giving to our life. 

Whether the claimed miracles, visions and signs had any truth in them.

Whether the Devil is really bothered that much with Angelik and his high jinks.

Whether what this unadorned man from Birzebbuga is saying, who carries his obese self with difficulty and is hardly intelligible especially with that lisp, is true. 

So whilst the oil (whether olive or sunflower) drips from the figurine, and the tears stream out of the statuette of the Madonna, and the salt comes in droves, and the Host appears out of nowhere and turns into meat, and people are confused with the blood that is pasted on the face of the Sinjura - we wonder and keep doubting if any of Angelik’s hullabaloo might be true and if there is a message being directed towards ‘me’.

Now if this is not a brawny way of doing TV, what is?

My biggest qualm in all of Friday’s programme is that if we suspect that Angelik might be delusional, hallucinating, barmy or has some other mental health issue I believe that ethical concerns come into play and so all of what I said becomes outmoded and the programme should not have been broadcasted to safeguard the person’s and his family’s integrity in the first place.  Nothing should come, not even if it was the best of television, between the narrative and the storyline.