Phillip and his Seven wives?

[noxlumos]

did anyone else see this on BBC4 last night? It's about an ex-Rabbi in hove who thinks god has told him he's a biblical king so he's now got 7 women living with him.I wondered if anyone thought he was genuine, because to be he was a real see through fraud who'd clearly got these poor women who were wholly emotionally dependant upon him just to use them as a work force to run his second hand shops and skip out his stables.As my (Jewish) wife said "There's never anything on TV about the Jewish way of life and then they go and stick this mental berk on to represent us, fantastic!".

His sister really gave him away I thought, what does anyone else think?

[gary baldy]

Its funny because God told me to get myself a nice young girlfriend, cash in all my wife's ISAs and spend it on a SAAB convertible!
Sadly God's words were over ruled by the self same wife!

On a side issue there was a programme on last year on C4 about Orthodox Jews in Manchester.
The first one was on at 9pm, then the next one was shifted later and the third one was never seemingly shown - apparently because the Jewish community were 'nervous' about being shown as well, frankly, a bit nutty!

That programme last night didnt do much to alleviate that impression!

[charliebaps]

I flicked onto it a couple of times and kept having to flick back off in amazement and disgust!! When he was on his horse (literally and metorphorically) telling a couple of wives where to sand down the horse box (?) I shook my head in disbelief and turned over.

I didn't realise he lived in Hove. Goodness, I thought it was in eastern europe somewhere! Will have to go and do soem research. Wish I'd stuck with it now.

[sense4all]

I saw it. Funnily enough, I was intigued by his selection of partners.I did wonder if you and Mrs Noxie would be watching. I had to stop watching when he started ranting about them being being people who were taking not giving to the family. He then made a 'Cultie' type remark and I had to hit the remote. It felt voyeuristic of someone elses misery! Which is no different to a lot of other film makers I know, but I reserve the right to hit the off button.

[Ric.ror]

I am sorry now that I missed it. I did see him on GMTV this morning though. To be honest I cannot say what I thought of him as it is too rude. I wish Fiona Philips would have had more of a go at him though

[WoWo]

I didn't see the program (apart from about 2 minutes) but I did read an article in the Times about him and his "family" last week.

Personally if he wants seven "wives" and seven women want to share him then what buisness is it of ours. He isn't breakking any laws and if it works for them then that's fine by me.

However why, as a women you would want to get involved in such a thing is beyond me.

[noxlumos]

It's really weird because I had no issue whatsoever, and nor did my wife, with the fact that he had seven wives,in fact I thought it might be interesting to see how so many people shared their lives amicably but he came off as so manipulative and controlling and downright egotistically weird.That was my big issue with the man not that he has seven wives.

I rather liked the sympathetic way in which Mark Isaacs filmed it though as I felt his empathy lay with the wives and he thought that the man himself was on some self-glorification trip. It was Phillip's sister, who clearly knew nothing of the "biblical king" bit that the programme was supposed to be about, that made me laugh. He was sort of forced to own up to her that he'd had this visitation from God who'd told him he was a Biblical King and she collaped into peels of laughter and said "Well he used to be a DJ at Bar Mitzvahs, people have always followed him, I thought that was it".I can imagine a similar response from my sister if I said that:)

He's a big fat fraud and I hope his very nice wives wake up to that fact soon and find a man that treats them with the repect they deserve.

[sense4all]

To be honest Noxie, I thought it was quite telling that he was smart enough to pick 'more mature' ( I am being kind here) partners, So that he did not have seven mothrs in law! I can think of at least seven girls on AB that I'd like to challenge him to marry, I am sure we could give him a culture shock of his very own. I expected there to be a Kibbutz type of atmosphere, not a despotic tin pot ruler at the helm.