Last Night’s TV: Witnessing the Passing of a Life
In a recent blog post we asked the question “Can Death Become a Beautiful Experience?” prompted by the controversy surrounding a scene from the BBC documentary series Inside the Human Body which would show the final breaths of Gerald, an 84-year-old man dying from cancer.
The episode was broadcast as planned last week. Watch the section of the show here:
Some media comment on the broadcast:
- The Telegraph: Why the BBC was right to air footage of a dying man
- The Independent: Television is not how to witness the passing of a life
- The Daily Mirror: Gerald becomes first person in Britain to die on national television
And, from The Guardian TV review:
It is not the kind of thing I would choose to watch every night, but the film was a genuinely moving, unsentimental portrait of an intimate moment and, compared with the daily dose of violent death we get on the news, it did more to make death seem less scary than any theologian has ever done. I can’t say I would choose to have my death filmed, but it was Gerald’s death and Gerald’s choice.
I never cease to be amazed at the information coming from the Pallium newsletter. This BBC production was particularly moving and is a message for us all.
Thank you all. God bless your work.