Beldina Odenyo alchemised the pain of exile, loss and racism into music as Heir of the Cursed before her death in 2021, as this attentive tribute explores

Instead of an artist in a booth, a lone amplifier plays the music of singer-songwriter Beldina Odenyo for a cluster of microphones to pick up during the posthumous recording of her debut album. It is a haunting encapsulation of the absence and presence at the heart of Louise Lockwood’s documentary, which makes a commendably thorough exploration of the mental illness that led to Odenyo killing herself in November 2021, and its roots: exile, loss and racism.

Performing under the moniker Heir of the Cursed, a translation of the Tetela name of assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, Odenyo was on the verge of bigger recognition at the end of 2021 after a successful performance at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall. But hemmed in by successive Covid lockdowns, the 31-year-old is clearly unwell in a discomfiting backstage interview. Squirming, monosyllabic, she seems to be regressing to the non-verbal state of shock in which she arrived in Dumfriesshire from Kenya as a young child.

From a man with triple lives to fake family deaths, the lies told by seemingly devoted partners in this series are shocking. But this is more than true crime entertainment – it is an enraged warning for other victims

A model turned DJ, Liv Nervo had forged an enviable career travelling the world with her sister and musical collaborator, Mim. Old cliches about being a strong, independent woman and not needing a man aside, it’s clear that Liv already had a fantastic life before she met her former partner, Matthew. A successful businessman, their paths first crossed when she played a private party on Richard Branson’s Necker Island. “I thought I had found the best guy in the world,” she says. “But it was all a lie.”

So begins the second series of Love Cheats, a stark and shocking true-crime show about people who think they’ve found the love of their life but are instead being pulled into audacious romance scams. Series one featured a fraudster impersonating a member of the nobility while leaving their victims to foot the bill for their lavish life, and another faking terminal cancer. Series two keeps the bar for grim deception high, beginning with Liv’s whirlwind romance with Matthew, who was desperate to have a family with her. Mim was equally taken in by her sister’s devoted new partner, who had made his fortune selling honey but wasn’t a fusty corporate type. “[Liv] used to date men with a briefcase,” she clarifies. “I would never date a man with a briefcase!”