It’s always been a mystery to me why Michael Jackson has remained uncancelled despite the overwhelming weight of evidence against him from multiple accusers. 

So I’m enjoying reading the reviews of Michael, the new hagiographic biopic of the serial paedophile and so-called ‘King of Pop’. And utterly baffled by the handful of positive ones.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a huge admirer of much of his music. I grew up on The Jackson 5’s string of hits. Off The Wall and Thriller still sound great too. And I saw him live once – and witnessed him behaving very strangely when meeting a group of children backstage – as well sitting right in front of the stage at that creepy Brits performance where Jarvis Cocker jumped onstage to mock him.

Full disclosure: I’m not one of those who won’t unlike things they once liked because the person who created them turns out to be a wrong’un. But I’m not going to defend their private lives either; quite the reverse.

So, as I say, I find it all a bit baffling that while Savile and Glitter and many others are – rightly – personae non gratae (I knew that classical education would come in handy one day), Jackson seems to have escaped more or less unscathed despite all the evidence.

First there was the 1993 case when he paid $23 million out of court after being accused of molesting 13-year-old Jordy Chandler, followed in 1996 by another multi-million pound payout to the mother of another boy, Jason Francia.

Then came the 2003 documentary Living With Michael Jackson, in which he is seen holding the hand a 12-year-old boy, Gavin Arvizo, while assuring him that “the most loving thing to do is to share your bed with someone.”

And finally, but probably not finally, the litany of abuse catalogued in the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland by Wade Robson and James Safechuck, describing how he groomed and sexually abused them as children.

But the Jacko fans won’t hear a word said against their paedo idol. Incredibly, and depressingly, his record sales actually INCREASED after it was broadcast.

So I’m pleased to learn that the latest film, Michael, which conveniently ends in 1988, is entirely uncritical of Jackson and avoids any mention of his predatory paedophilia. Nor (and this is surely no coincidence) any suggestion that he was himself a victim of abuse at the hands of his brutal father.

The critics are fairly united. ‘Michael’ is, says Kevin Maher in The Times (1 star): “two hours of pure and unadulterated bullshit.” The Independent (1 star) slates it as “a ghoulish, soulless cash grab”, the BBC (1 star) found it “bland and barely competent,” and The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw (a generous 2 stars) calls it “frustratingly shallow.”

Or, to put it another way: It’s bad. And it will be packing every cinema out this weekend. A look at Rotten Tomatoes (the reviews aggregator) confirms it with more than 1,000 ‘viewers’ giving it the thumbs-up, even though it only opens today so they almost certainly haven’t seen it.