Finding Michael review: Spencer Matthews hunts for his late brother’s body in an extraordinary documentary about grief, hope and adventure-Adam Miller-Entertainment – Metro

Spencer Matthews is a grieving sibling the hunt for his brother’s body (Picture: PA)

In 1999 Michael Matthews became the youngest Briton ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest at just 22-years-old. Three hours later, he completely vanished and no one ever saw or heard from him again.

More than 20 years on, Spencer Matthews, reformed Made In Chelsea star and now entrepreneur, receives an image out of the blue from another climber speculating that they might have come across Michael’s body. The clothing looks right, could it be him?

It’s completely unthinkable and shakes up Spencer and his family. Suddenly they have a huge decision to make: do they risk another life to bring Michael home?

For Spencer it’s not a difficult decision at all. It’s a total no-brainer. Two decades after losing his brother he’s going to make the pilgrimage, retracing Michael’s steps with hopes to retrieve his brother’s body and give the Matthews family the closest they’ve ever come to closure and perhaps, just maybe, the peace they’ve been so desperate for.

Naturally, there are many unexpected challenges along the way. Unsurprisingly, finding one body among the hundreds that have been left at the top of Everest isn’t as simple as Spencer first assumed.

Oh, and Spencer’s wife Vogue Williams has just given birth to their third child days before he’s set to jet off.

Michael Matthews died hours after becoming the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Everest (Picture: Disney Plus)

In turn, he’s going to need the finest team available, recruiting record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal “Nims” Purja with a little help from Bear Grylls.

Even if you could remove the fact there’s a prominent reality star out of the mix, Finding Michael is simply a remarkable story of a brother’s hope, determination and the unbreakable bond between siblings, even after death.

It’s layered with astonishing twists. Bear and Spencer first met years ago before either found fame when Bear came to Spencer’s school to talk to the pupils about his experience reaching the summit of Everest himself.

Spencer recalls standing up and asking the school’s special guest if he’d heard of Michael Matthews?

‘You could hear a pin drop,’ he says, as without hesitation Bear immediately came over to give the young boy a hug.

From then, they’ve kept a close friendship which effectively years later would play a huge part in Spencer’s adventure.

Leaving his family and newborn son Otto at home, Spencer travels across the world to explore Michael’s final days. The last pub he drank at, the last pool table he might have potted his final black on, before he eventually makes it to one of the most dangerous parts of the world brimming with unpredictable horror. He is quite literally heading to ‘the death zone’.

Every step is shown alongside video recording of Michael in the same spots. The final and only footage of Michael recorded by his friend who embarked on the same fatal excursion, but only he made it home alive.

Spencer recruits the finest team possible to recover his brother’s body (Picture: PA)

Together, with a team of experts risking their own lives for this crucial mission, Spencer doesn’t for a second take his eye off the end game. The years of longing for that day when Michael’s body is found and with perhaps some answers surrounding his death never leaves his face.

In Finding Michael you feel every moment of hope, every disappointment. Every step Spencer makes feels like a giant leap closer to a dream he didn’t even think possible with the gripping story set to the most spectacular landscape.

For anyone familiar with Spencer, which you categorically don’t need to be to have interest in this feature, you’ll know he’s not notorious for being the most emotional of characters. With Made In Chelsea long behind him, he’d also be the first to admit when he was womanising around West London he wasn’t exactly the most likeable person either.

But in Finding Michael, Spencer is unrecognisable to his reality TV villain hey day. He’s vulnerable beyond what Made in Chelsea fans maybe be able to comprehend and at no point is there any attempt to push for tears or dramatise what is organically such a powerful story. It’s about as real as reality could possible get.

Finding Michael is packed with unique conversations around loss and love as Spencer learns some unexpected lessons along the way and, without a doubt, you will too.

Finding Michael is available to stream on Disney Plus from March 3.

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