Secret Million Pound giveaway

It is difficult to find feelgood stories that give a lifeline to 900 people and highlight something very nasty that should be bollocked.

I thought this article covered all bases excellently and deserves it's own thread. The extra article highlights Michael Sheen in more detail. They deserve to be read in full. He is a serious guy.

Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway review – this Robin Hood heist is a total inspiration​

The Welsh actor is rightly indignant as he meets people struggling with debts in his home town … then devises an elaborate ploy to pay them off using his own cash. You can’t help but root for him


Rebecca Nicholson
Tue 11 Mar 2025 09.00 AEDT

In Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, the Welsh actor Michael Sheen – that is how he says people describe him, so I am merely obliging – is putting his own money on the line to expose the world of high-interest debt and credit. Due to the murky issue of reselling debt, Sheen discovers that it may be possible for him to buy £1m’s worth of debt for a relatively paltry £100,000. Over two years, this documentary shows him working towards buying up the debt, which he plans to write off immediately, pulling off what he calls a “heist”.

But this heist is only a framework; Sheen’s Robin Hood act, while impressive, is more of a carrier for the message. The real point of the documentary is to simplify the story of debt, credit and interest rates and to reveal the extent of the problem, particularly in areas with high levels of deprivation.

Sheen focuses on his home town, Port Talbot, and meets ordinary working people who are struggling to get by. Ceri, the manager of a community centre and boxing gym, explains concisely how debt can spiral. She describes getting through her savings, turning to food banks and credit cards, then being stuck with high-interest repayments, thus exacerbating the problem.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...iew-secret-million-pound-giveaway-port-talbot

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...iew-secret-million-pound-giveaway-port-talbot
This documentary compares the breathtaking profits made by banks and other financial institutions with the suffering on which some of that profit is built. Sheen is indignant at the unfairness of the system. He reads out a slew of statistics, including that, in October 2024, 2.2 million low-income families in the UK had high-interest credit loans. These arrangements have an enormous impact on the households that can least afford it. Sheen digs into loan sharks and unofficial lenders, uncovering stories of violence and intimidation, of missed payments leading to interest doubling and doubling again. He hears about one man who borrowed £500 and ended up repaying £5,500.