TO NOT MIND the BBC TV showing a mans last moments on the BODY prog tonight

[ScousyFogarty]

I have only seen one or two deaths; but my wife was a geriatric nurse
and death was part of the job.

This BBC TV prog tonight is making big news...its said to be a first. And,of course, the elderly man and his family have agreed to his last moments being
shown.

Would I die on TV? probably not but we do have to accept that old age death is natural. Mother Nature calls the shots.

Will the programme attract a big audience. It probably will, last weeks episode on birth was splendid.

I watched this earlier today, and I thought it was filmed very well and very respectful. I did have tears though as it reminded me so much of when dfil died. The slow heavy breathing, the open mouth and the skin colour.

The whole programme so far has been amazing.

I watched it and it was definitely moving. I think the most difficult bit was watching him decline; needing to be lifted, being unable to leave his bed, slipping in and out of consciousness. The death itself was just the final stage.

Watching him read his book with his bookmark only about a fifth of the way through brought a lump to my throat - I'm not sure I could start a book knowing I probably won't live to finish it. And the way they played his feelings on how he'd like to be remembered over a shot of his empty chair had me in bits. But the actual passing - peaceful, and fine to show, IMO.

It also made me think a lot about how we think of death as an event rather than a process. There was no real 'moment' of death.

We have it recorded but I doubt I will watch. Too many memories. i

What a lovely man he was.

It's definitely not a first. Robert Winston's 'The Human Body' showed the death of a German man,Herbie,living in Ireland,who had cancer,and that was very sensitively done,and it may even have been done before that.

There's nothing wrong with it imho.

If you want something to maintain power over people, keep elements of it hidden away, shrouded in mystery, add a touch of "other worldliness" and talk of maintaining it's "dignity" (just look at the way royalty and religion have been presented to the masses over the years).

Take those things away and the power and the fear diminish, and we can see the thing as it truly is. At some point we all wind down and will gradually lose the will or the energy to keep ticking. If we are lucky enough to have led a full life that shouldn't be greeted with fear. We can miss the people when they are gone, but the process itself isn't macabre, it is as natural as growing up.

The BBC isn't just there to entertain, it's remit is also to inform and educate. I think this programme is a welcome contribution to those aims.

well said Bluegrass. He was a great guy; and it was well done.

But it ripe for a bit of black comedy. If it attracted a big audience;and it probably did after all the hectic publicity.....then the BBC might firt more fictional deaths into the Archers, Eastenders, Casualty. the Shippin Forecast....and Gabby Logans Final score on saturdays.

"we have pictures, a player carried off breathing his last, after a fierce tackle at STamford Bridge. There will be further coverage on Match of the Day...."

I thought it was very moving and tastefully done. It's good for people to see the process of death, that people often become a bit frailer, go off their food etc.

Ignorance of this is one of the things that enabled Shipman to kill so many. No one was shocked about old people just dropping dead in the middle of having a cup of tea, etc (which is unusal), because few knew what death was really like.

ScousyFogarty - not realy in good taste when so many of us on here have been with loved ones when they pass away .

Not the thread for making jokes about death really.

I wonder if people in the Church have made a statement yet. I can imagine Archbishop Rowan Willilliams stroking his beard and looking askance. Nothing is everyones cup of tea.

I do feel old age death is natural. I have a different attitude to young death; especially children.

I dont really know how to take the deaths of the young soldiers in
afghanistan.

I am old now, and I have only been to 4 funerals. I wrote to a newspaper
some years ago suggesting some different songs for my funeral (knowing full well I wont be their to appreciate them) Unless you know better.

I watched and thought it was done with great respect and very unobtrusively.

It "fitted" within the context of the programme - and probably was comforting to people who have never been in the presence of a dying person.

I loved Michael Mosely's description of how his father died "flamboyantly" by singing at the end, and how he remembered him with great affection.