Investigative reporter Matt Shea’s second film about the misogynistic influencer is a dogged, disturbing, occasionally infuriating watch. But it contains important new claims
According to conventional logic, Andrew Tate – the Anglo-American kickboxer turned public misogynist currently awaiting trial in Romania on charges of rape and human trafficking – should not be this famous. How did a man whose biggest claim to fame before TikTok remains a six-day stint on the 2016 series of Big Brother become one of the world’s most Googled people?
That’s the mystery “no one has figured out”, says investigative reporter Matt Shea at the start of his second BBC documentary on Tate – which is a bit strange considering he already told us how he did it minutes into his first film, The Dangerous Rise of Andrew Tate, which was screened in February. Alongside extensive interviews with Tate and women who claim to have been abused by him, Shea explains that the money-making courses Tate flogs online using his bombastic personality and glitzy lifestyle double as an “affiliate marketing” scheme. Subscribers flood social media with videos of Tate saying wildly sexist things, using the attention generated to convince others to sign up to his virtual school; if new subscribers use their link, they get 48% of the fee. In other words, Tate has created his own promotional army. That’s why Tate is everywhere.
