Violent Homeland plot is ridiculous and grotesque, says real-life hostage

FORMER hostage John Mc-Carthy has voiced his concern over violent scenes in Homeland, the hit TV drama about an American war hero turned by al-Qaeda, and dubbed part of the show’s plot “ridiculous”.

The US drama is just about to return on Channel 4 with a second series, having scooped a clutch of Emmy awards, including a best actor for its British star Damian Lewis.

Lewis, who plays US marine Nicholas Brody, has said he took inspiration for his character from An Evil Cradling, Brian Keenan’s book on the four and a half years he was held hostage in Lebanon by the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

Keenan’s cellmate for much of that time was Mr McCarthy, a British journalist and broadcaster who was taken at gunpoint from a Beirut street in 1986.

Mr McCarthy hinted that he disapproved of the scenes in Homeland where Brody, who returns to the US as an al-Qaeda sleeper agent, having been held captive in Iraq, appears to have flashbacks of beating a fellow marine to death to appease his captors.

He said: “My concern is that, with the flashbacks and hints and really horrible violence we see, his conversion is almost like titillation – let’s keep watching… did he really kill his comrade?”

He said of the flashback scenes: “It all seems so mad, the whole bloody plot. It seems ridiculous.

“But watching someone being beaten to death in that way, it is absolutely grotesque and makes your stomach churn.”

Mr McCarthy, who was debriefed by MI6 and the CIA when he returned to Britain, said the scenes showing Brody being questioned by the CIA did not ring true.