TV Review: BBC3's The Eubanks Is an Hour of Hero-Worship Ahead of the Benn Rematch

A documentary about one boxing family is set to air days before that family's son climbs into the ring against a rival whose camp had no say in it. That is the complaint Christopher Stevens raises in his Daily Mail review of The Eubanks: Like Father, Like Son, shown on BBC3 and repeated on BBC1 this week. Chris Eubank Jnr is due to fight Conor Benn again in London on Saturday, and Stevens calls it an extraordinarily biased decision to screen an hour praising one fighter and his father with no contribution from the other side.

Stevens does not soften his verdict. He calls the programme more one-sided than a bout between Muhammad Ali and Little Shirley Temple, and says it could easily have passed for a promotional video for the Eubank camp: an hour of hero-worship for Eubank Snr and relentless PR for his son. He opens with a jab at the BBC itself, remarking that balance and impartiality are no longer things people expect from the corporation, and he adds, "Just ask Donald Trump."

The review sketches the Chris Eubank most viewers know. He is a mannered eccentric, recognisable by his lisp, his Bertie Wooster-style monocle and his habit of driving an American big rig truck when he feels the world is not paying him enough attention. Boxing fans remember him as a middleweight world champion in the 1990s. Everyone else, Stevens writes, knows him for what he has done since retiring, including a run of reality TV. He finished ninth on ITV's I'm A Celebrity. On Channel 4's Scared Of The Dark he appeared aloof, anxious and troubled, and he withdrew before the series ended.

His son gets less generous treatment. Stevens says Eubank Jnr is not even famous enough for I'm A Celebrity. He currently holds the International Boxing Organisation middleweight belt, though the critic notes that the IBO is not counted among the major titles. The documentary nonetheless showed him living in Dubai and driving a McLaren supercar. Stevens wonders whether he is breathtakingly wealthy or has simply mastered the Instagram-era trick of striking a successful pose for an audience that will forget him eight seconds later.

The structure drew criticism too. For viewers with little interest in boxing, Stevens says, the first 20 minutes were a confused muddle. The film zigzagged from the April bout between Eubank Jnr and Benn, to a meeting between the two Chrises months later, to Eubank Snr's heyday three decades ago, and then to clips from a short-lived 2003 reality series, At Home With The Eubanks. Much was made of the fact that Eubank Snr refused to speak to his son for years after being fired as his trainer, yet now graciously agrees to share the limelight at ringside.

Stevens also says the producers assumed viewers already knew about the rivalry between the elder Eubank and Nigel Benn, Conor's father. That feud, he argues, is the only reason anyone could care about the sons' fight. He compares their rematch to a comeback album by Julian Lennon and James McCartney: famous family names with barely a smidgeon of the original talent.

The column closes with a lighter item about Hidden Wonders on More4, in which Sandi Toksvig grumbles that she always does the driving as she and archaeologist Raksha Dave travel to a dig at the site of Cookham Abbey. Raksha points out that she can't drive. Stevens's joke is that Toksvig deserves a peaked cap and gloves.

The rematch takes place in London on Saturday. This is a critic's opinion piece rather than a ruling on the BBC's impartiality, but its timing may sharpen scrutiny of how the broadcaster handles sport coverage tied to live events.