The Man Who Squeezes Muscles: Searching for Purple Aki – Analysis

This mini online documentary is about a criminal called Akinwale Arobieke, or ‘Purple Aki’, in Liverpool who stalked people and had an obsession with muscles. Benjamin Zand followed up on this, now true, myth about Arobieke and went and interviewed people whose lives had been affected by him.

In one of the cases, Zand found a story about a young man called Gary Kelly, who was 16 at the time, and went to interview Elaine Jordan, Kelly’s girlfriend during the 80s. He was able to gain the details of his story from her. Arobieke continuously stalked Kelly to the point where Kelly was killed trying to escape Aki by getting electrocuted when hopping a fence at a railway station. He saw this as his only way to get out of sight and reach from Arobieke. Kelly had previously obtained a restraining order against Arobieke but it was defied and broken by him. ‘Gary’s personality had changed from happy-go-lucky to that of a frightened boy constantly looking over his shoulder, the court heard.’ (Jon Kelly, The Man Who Squeezes Muscles, BBC). When news broke and police were in formed of Kelly’s death, ‘in May 1987, Arobieke was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for two-and-a-half years.’ (Jon Kelly, The Man Who Squeezes Muscles, BBC).

Zand had gone to all the places that Arobieke left a trail to show where he had been and where the harassment took place. This included the railway station where Kelly had died. This helps the audience see the severity and picture in their minds eye and sets the scene for them.

The documentary is very sombre in its production as parts of it a filmed at night and the tone of the interviewees and Zand himself are quite subdued. This is due to the nature of the documentary and the fact that they want to convey emotion for the viewer and deliver a form of empathetic report between the victims and the audience.

The target audience for BBC Three is ’16-34 year olds’ (BBC Three, service licence) so they would have had to have been relatively conservative about the stories they chose and which parts were told in detail, whilst still raising awareness to the issue and giving a voice to the victims and their families. The fact that it was a short 15 minute documentary was a good choice as there was perhaps not enough information and stories to tell for more than half an hour. In addition to this, because a portion of the target audience is very young, it will keep their attention to the story better as a long documentary could maybe bore the younger audience.

References:

Jon Kelly. (2016). The Man Who Squeezes Muscles. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-6d083913-0bfb-4988-8cd8-d126fa6dcff1. Last accessed 10th Feb 2018.

BBC. BBC Three Service Licence . Available: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/service_licences/tv/2013/bbc_three.pdf. Last accessed 10th feb 2018.