Loch Ness: They Created a Monster (2023)

To be honest, I was rather disappointed with this documentary. I was expecting something a bit more forensic about just how the myth of this beastie became the stuff of global interest. Instead, we get a slightly lightweight and repetitive bitching exercise about who amongst the supposed resident "Nessie" investigators were or might have been frauds. Now I am old enough to recall the appearance at the time of some of the photos and recall the hype, but as many of these images were later proved to be flawed, I was interested in knowing a little more of just how - pre photo-shopping - middle aged men in tents and loch side caravans with no electricity could create and manipulate the pictures to quite such an effective extent. We don't get that here. What we also get, rather disappointingly, is a mix of real and actor contributors that compromises the integrity of the rather weak and insubstantial narrative somewhat. Clearly a labour of love for the director, but it appears to me it's designed too reignite interest in the monster rather than explain in any detail just how we (and the media) came to care about "Nessie" in the first place. It's an OK watch but it does under-deliver and I suspect that the late Queen Elizabeth II and her daughter were quite relieved that this creature remained at large!