Channel 4's The Secret Millionaire has a problem, or it will do soon. In future, anyone involved in running any kind of voluntary group will assume that a mysterious stranger, showing up out of nowhere, offering to help, is a secret millionaire: just like the landlord who suspects a new customer is the mystery shopper, they will change their behaviour accordingly. The dead giveaway, of course, will be the presence of a Channel 4 film crew, pretending to make a documentary about volunteering.
I don't want to be churlish about it all. The amounts given away generally represent a small fraction of the fortune, but I could say the same about my own, pitiful, giving. The most heartwarming programmes see the millionaire continuing their commitment in terms of time, as well as money. This is probably welcomed by the organisations involved as much as the cash, particularly when the involvement continues after the cameras have gone.
It is the cameras that make me uneasy. There is always some kind of Faustian element to such a show: the TV companies will pay for something, organise something, or provide research, in return for access. But surely someone who has built a multi-million pound IT empire from scratch doesn't need any help identifying worthwhile causes.
It is difficult to imagine the show continuing after this series, without any pretense of the 'secret' in the show's title becoming risible; I do hope that volunteering does become popular away from TV shows.
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