Get To Know More About; "The Mad World Of Donald Trump"

1. Show looked lightweight but had substance

Despite the cartoonish title, Matt Frei’s Channel 4 documentary The Mad World Of Donald Trump packed a decent punch. It was diligent, damning and hard-hitting when it came to exposing some of the wannabe US President's many flaws. We could’ve done without some of the tackier touches, though - the whooping vox pops, jaunty music and that Ivana Trump sound-a-like voiceover.

2. Rape allegation was most haunting moment

One headline-making revelation was that during their 1992 divorce, Trump’s ex-wife Ivana accused him of raping her three years previously. The allegation appeared in her sworn deposition and was chillingly dark in its detail. Ivana tempered her language after the couple’s divorce, stating: ​"​ I referred to this as a ‘rape', but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.” Yet Frei described the claim as “a time-bomb” that could “come back to haunt him”. Depressingly, though, in the States so far he’s a Teflon Don. Even such serious incident are forgotten and his gaffes get glossed over.

3. Women could be Trump’s Achilles heel

Ivana’s testimony wasn’t the only tale of Trump’s vile misogyny here. Selina Scott claimed she was “stalked mentally” by Trump, who sent her 13 “extremely abusive” letters after she made an unflattering 1995 documentary about him. More recently, Trump has been embroiled in a string of scandals after making disparaging comments about women. He described one as a “fat pig”, another as “extremely unattractive” andaccused Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly of having "blood coming out of her wherever" after she challenged him. As Scott said: “It surprises me that any woman in America can vote for this guy.”

4. He’s an equal opportunities bigot

It’s not often that profiles of presidential candidates come with a pre-credits warning that they “contain provocative views” but we got one here. At his dispiriting redneck rallies, Trump spouted racist rhetoric about Muslims and Mexicans that was full of ignorance and fear. Disabled people didn’t escape his sneering contempt either. It’s as if Trump is trolling an entire country. Worryingly, this seemed to play well with the crowds. Although admittedly, two of his most enthusiastic acolytes were a grown woman in a leopardskin onesie and a man wearing two hats at once.

5. Scotland and Salmond made a cameo appearance

First Minister Alex Salmond seemed star-struck four years ago when he cosied up to Trump and supported his plan to build a luxury golf resort in Aberdeenshire. It was satisfying to see Salmond looking suitably sheepish now. Also nice to see him without a Wall’s Solero in his hand.

6. Trump was always weird-looking

Now aged 69, “The Donald” is a gurning overgrown schoolboy with a daft hairdon’t. However, as the biographical background segment showed, he’s long looked a little strange. Shipped off to a military academy aged 11, he resembled a toothy Aryan nerd. “Awww,” said precisely nobody.

7. A reminder of tycoon Trump’s failings

He might be America’s most famous billionaire and former frontman of The Apprentice USA but Trump isn’t even a terribly impressive businessman. He got a large leg-up from his father and four of his businesses have gone bankrupt.

8. The joke that isn’t funny anymore

Trump’s candidacy started as a novelty but it’s now being taken seriously - partly because it’s a self-fuelling machine. The more ridiculous he seems, the higher his profile. His campaign has drawn more column inches than all his Republican rivals combined. Have Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum or Mike Huckabee had an hour of terrestrial primetime coverage here? Of course not. Perhaps all publicity is good publicity after all.

9. Critics made strongest case

Frei hit the campaign trail to conduct (mercifully brief) interviews with Trump’s growing army of exuberant supporters, but it was his detractors whose comments really resonated. Muslim activist Jibril Hough, who was shown being forcibly ejected from two Trump rallies, said he was a “buffoon that has to be taken seriously”. Ex-Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens called Trump “a huckster, a fraud, a stark raving disaster for the Republican party. This isn’t a reality show, it’s running for President. These displays of stupidity and hate are dangerous.”

10. …But he could yet become President

Trump has already made a meteoric political rise and as we saw here, he’s tapping into the distrust and disenchantment of middle America. Frei, formerly the BBC's Washington correspondent, said: “I have to say the last time I saw crowds as enthusiastic as this was for Barack Obama in 2008.” Gulp.

11. That hair has got to go

Trump, as we were repeatedly told, is a multi-billionaire. So you’d think he’d have the wherewithal to sort out that notorious “double combover” coiffure. He looked like a windswept Shredded Wheat. Like a bad Boris Johnson impersonator after a downpour. Like a frightened ferret peering through out through the glass door of a tumbledrier.

12. Sarah Palin still unintelligible

We got another opportunity to see Palin shrieking her support for Trump. We’re still no wiser about what she was on about.

13. Mad world indeed

He’s got a name like a flatulent cartoon duck. He’s unfit to be leader of his own hair, let alone the free world. He’s a gift to satirists, internet wags and, yes, TV critics. However, Frei’s film reminded us of the dark side beneath the Trump caricature and it was soberingly scary stuff.