That was mean!

[NAB3]

ITV1 have just interviewed Margaret. The lady whose husband died of Altzeimers. It transpires he didn't actually die the second they filmed but very shortly afterwards. Why are they asking a grieving widow to explain why it was said he passed away rather than he was dying?

I agree, although I think it was two days later.

The lady in question is very eloquent and could do a lot to bring about more awareness of the disease. It's a shame she's got embroiled in this.

i feel so sorry for his wife. this is just adding to her grief

Agree with your sentiments. I think the husband's brother contacted the BBC to complain after hearing an interview with this lady and the documentary maker. The wife also blamed the Mediawatch pressure group for seizing on the time of death issue as a way to attack the documentary.

i think the media are so hot on catching everyone out on these so called TV scams that they are picking on every minor detail now.

how awful for this poor woman. who cares if he died at that very second the next day or the next year, it was to highlight the altzeimers itself wasnt it? it really pisses me off, no consideration for his poor wife

Ok

Have not seen this, but have heard a lot of discussion.

They could have faded with X died very shortly after making this film.

My FIL is in a dreadful place with AZ, I would be happy for a camera crew to go down to the wire, but not be there at the last gasp.

People were misled, and that is the long and the short of it.

If I had AZ I would top myself.

If you had AZ you would be so far down the road before you realised, you would not be in a position to do it.

No, you know before that, Bree. It's very, very, very slow.

Nobody should be interviewing the wife - it's unnecessary.

But questions ought to be asked of the makers of this film - they deceived their audience. Trust has to be at the core of broadcasting - otherwise how can audiences trust what they see?

I am pissed off with a lot of the shortcuts and sloppiness in TV these days. Nobody has standards any more. Gah.

I don't believe the film was misleading at all. His wife certainly doesn't think so, and she should know. And the film maker, Paul Watson, is the person who asked for the press release that suggested that the chap died on camera to be corrected. That hardly sounds like deliberate misleading to me!
You could blame the press office, but not Paul Watson.
Margaret is, I belieive, now a campaigner about Alzhemers, so don't think she would be upset to be interviewed about it.

the press offices often put out releases before they've even seen the films. it got me into A Lot of trouble once...

Mind you, I haven't seen the film, so I don't really know either. The film took 11 years to make though - that's a huge commitment.

Hunker, in a way it's the government wot's to blame. As in, the Tory government deliberately introduced provider competition into the industry to create a market by setting up Ch4 as a broadcaster relying on independent producers and later forced the BBC to commission a percentage of its output from indies. Had a major impact on training and standards - fewer people doing in-house training and being part of the Beeb and an awful lot of people on short-term contracts, driven to do whatever their bosses want and to wring the last drop of excitement out of any given subject.

Although I have only tangential experience of TV, that's the impression I get from brief encounters and from friends who work in that industry.

me too, aloha. this big hoo-ha over 'standards' has made me pmsl. it's the same in journalism too, tbh. loads of staffers on peanuts cos they were originally the YOP scheme kids and got roped into Actually Creating A Newspaper.