LEWIS: ONE FOR SORROW - PART ONE (ITV)

[Spoiler-Free] Oxford-set British detective drama Lewis (Inspector Lewis in the US), a spin-off from Inspector Morse, was launched in 2006. Although it was assumed that Series 7 would be its last, Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox returned as Lewis and Hathaway for an eighth series last year on ITV.  

Series 9 premiered yesterday in the U.K. (Lewis is co-produced by the American network PBS) with the first part of One for Sorrow.

DI Robbie Lewis, pathologist Laura Hobson (Clare Holman) and DS Lizzie Maddox (Angela Griffin) try to identify the remains of a body found in a well. Meanwhile DI James Hathaway visits his estranged father Philip (Nicholas Jones), who's now in a care home because of dementia. Young avant-garde artist Talika Desai (Shanaya Rafaat) and her agent Sean Wilkinson (Ralf Little) open an exhibition of her artwork mixing video and taxidermy. But she's found dead the next day from an apparent drug overdose. Joe Moody (Steve Toussaint), the new Chief Superintendent, is dubious about Lewis's motivation for coming out of retirement and he threatens his position as a consultant for Oxfordshire Police.

Since 2013 each series of Lewis consists of stories split by ITV in two 60-minute instalments. This inappropriate change, conveniently turning three episodes into six, breaks the momentum of the story. Thankfully, feature-length versions are still aired on PBS or French public broadcaster France 3. Directed by Nick Laughland (Midsomer Murders), One for Sorrow is written by the talented Helen Jenkins, behind the return of Lewis and Hathaway in the excellent Entry Wounds last year. The cast, which also includes Emma Cunniffe, Steve Pemberton, Helen Schlesinger, and Tim Piggott-Smith, is really great.

The portrayal of Philip Hathaway by Nicholas Jones is touching. Dementia is approached with sensitivity in this very good episode (1). Angela Griffin returns to what successfully became a detective trio in the previous series. The only problem for now is the new boss, CS "Don't bother with the 'Sir' thing, it's Joe" Moody, whose only purpose is to be the perfect idiot. Of course, it's hard to replace Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent, played by Rebecca Front, but let's hope that the character will evolve rapidly in the second half (2). Lewis is a co-production ITV Studios and Masterpiece. The music, composed by Barrington Pheloung, is orchestrated and conducted by Matthew Slater.

(1) Interestingly, Kevin Whately investigated the subject of dementia in a formidable 2009 documentary produced for ITV's programme Tonight (http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2009/03/tonight-kevin-whately-on-dementia-itv1.html).
(2) The two-part format definitely doesn't help.

http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/92812-itv/

See also:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

NEWSCASTER JOHN SUCHET TALKS ABOUT HIS WIFE'S BATTLE WITH DEMENTIA

[18.04 - French Time] Journalist and newscaster John Suchet talks about his wife Bonnie's battle with dementia in a moving must-read article for Mail on Sunday.

Our readers may remember that John Suchet appeared in the essential Kevin Whately on Dementia, a documentary aired in ITV's Tonight on March 2009 and reviewed in this blog.

John Suchet's book, My Bonnie - How dementia stole the love of my life, is published by HarperCollins and will be available on tuesday (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Titles/49847/my-bonnie-john-suchet-9780007328420).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1280490/The-thief-stole-Bonnie-Newsman-John-Suchet-reveals-wifes-battle-dementia.html

Kevin Whately on Dementia:

http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2009/03/tonight-kevin-whately-on-dementia-itv1.html

Alzheimer's Society:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/

SPORT RELIEF 2010

The Sport Relief 2010 weekend, which took place from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st March, began with a great television Friday night on BBC One and BBC Two.

Sport Relief is the biennial fundraising event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport. Hosted by Gary Lineker, Christine Bleakley, Davina McCall, Richard Hammond, Claudia Winkleman, Fearne Cotton, James Corden and Patrick Kielty, Sport Relief 2010 has raised more than £31m for charity so far.

The star-studded Friday telethon delivered entertaining moments of television for great causes: A Question of Sport Relief, a special segment of Walk on the Wild Side (« Alan! Alan! Alan! »), Match of the Day meets Masterchef, and comedian Rufus Hound (Let's Dance for Sport Relief 2010 winner) did his now famous rendition of Cheryl Cole's Fight for this Love.

After an episode of Hustle one month ago, Dragon's Den stars Peter Jones and Duncan Bannatyne, proved once again that they have humour and added a great dose of courage to it, competing in front of three of the Strictly Come Dancing judges. Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood would fit perfectly in Dragon's Den.

James Corden did his Smithy routine and impersonator duo Jon Culshaw-Debra Stephenson (The Impressions Show) hosted a very special edition of The One Show. Gene Hunt and his team investigated the case of the missing Ryder Cup for an Ashes to Ashes special with many guest stars, including Sir Michael Parkinson, Paul Daniels and Daley Thompson (« Is that Tom Selleck? »). And Hunt's Audi Quattro paid a tribute to General Lee (The Dukes of Hazzard).

Celebrities took on a number of challenges in earlier efforts. Among them, legendary comedian Eddie Izzard and his 43 marathons in 51 days (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a177558/eddie-izzard-completes-charity-marathon.html) or Christine Bleakley's cross-Channel water-ski.

There were many touching moments during the evening. One of the most moving was certainly the story of Dennis and Audrey, an elderly couple together for more than 60 years. Audrey now has Alzheimer's and her husband is her carer. They are an inspiration to all of us.

https://donate.comicrelief.com/donation/

See also:

http://www.sportrelief.com/
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/
http://www.facebook.com/alzheimerssocietyuk?ref=nf
http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2009/03/tonight-kevin-whately-on-dementia-itv1.html

NOT THE KIND YOU'VE EVER MET (THE FIXER SERIES 2 ON ITV1)

Preceded by an edition of the celebrity version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? featuring Zoe Lucker (Footballer Wives) - for The Caron Keating Foundation - and John Suchet for a charity called for Dementia (1), The Fixer returned yesterday evening on ITV1 for its awaited series 2.

The opener of an intense two-parter was the most-watched programme during the hour, interesting 3.83m viewers (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a175249/lisas-bb-eviction-seen-by-25-million.html). The Fixer beats a rerun of real-life documentary series Traffic Cops on BBC One (http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/ratings/the-fixer-thrills-38m/5005134.article). Last year the premiere of the show produced by Kudos (Spooks, Hustle) for ITV, and distributed by BBC Worldwide, made an impressive 6.2m.

Ex-special forces John Mercer, played by Andrew Buchan (Party Animals, Cranford, and soon Garrow's Law), is an assassin for the government. His job: to kill criminals the law cannot apprehend. He receives his orders for the mysterious, cynical and almost thuggish Lenny Douglas (the great Scottish actor Peter Mullan) and teams reluctantly with disgraced ex-copper Rose Chamberlin (Tamzin Outhwaite) and former petty thief Calum McKenzie (Jody Latham, far better actor than Hell's Kitchen candidate) - who shares a flat with him in a housing estate (Aylesbury Estate, in the South East of London).

This unlikely partnership (imagine the employees of Wernham Hogg in The Office played straight) comes back for six new episodes of the best Brit show of the moment, a dark, hyper-realistic spy/crime drama with a social sub-text - Ken Loach meets the obscure side of The Equalizer, the series with Edward Woodward. Actually The Fixer, created by Ben Richards, is reminiscent of another "Woodwardian" classic: Callan (1967-1972) (2), the uncompromising spy show. And Calum is an obvious tribute to the character of Lonely, played by Russell Hunter.

« You're police or what? » asks a young lady in distress. « Not the kind you've ever met », answers Mercer, who targets a ruthless street gang trafficking drugs but also children. And this time it's more than personal, as the situation reminds him of his own tragedy when he "sanctioned" his uncle and his aunt for because the former abused of John's sister Jess (Liz White, revealed by Life on Mars) without any intervention of the latter. « Kids should just be happy, shouldn't they? They should be safe and they should be secure ».

Rose is the Femme fatale turned mother figure of a dysfunctional family where Lenny provides the snark, Callum the comic relief and John the action, in the shadow of their respective personal tragedies. Phil Davis and Rob Jarvis guest starred in this episode written by Ben Richards and directed by Sam Miller.

« Calum, not only are you not the organ grinder, you're not even the monkey, not even the bell the monkey jingles. You're just a flea under its collar. So do not tell me what I can and cannot do, OK? » (Lenny)

http://www.itv.com/drama/copsandcrime/thefixer/default.html

Interview of Andrew Buchan: http://geeksyndicate.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/the-fixer-series-2-interview-with-andrew-buchan/

See also: http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2009/07/itv-autumn-2009-drama-season-highlights.html

(1) http://www.fordementia.org.uk/ - Please read http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2009/03/tonight-kevin-whately-on-dementia-itv1.html
(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDdSWjpPJDg&hl=fr

TONIGHT: KEVIN WHATELY ON DEMENTIA (ITV1)

Kevin Whately is one of the most appreciated actors of British television for his roles in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Inspector Morse, Peak Practice and of course, Lewis. But with this episode of ITV1's current affairs programme Tonight produced and directed by Linsey Wynton, Whately shares with us a personal concern in an inspired documentary about dementia. A subject the actor knows too well: his mother, Mary (aged 83) was diagnosed with the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, eight years ago.

The term "dementia" is used to describe the symptoms that occur when the brain is affected by specific diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, stroke and many other rarer conditions (http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents.php?categoryID=200131). Kevin Whately believes passionately that it is important to raise awareness about dementia and its potential effects on society. But also to ensure that people suffering with dementia get much better treatment and care. In the UK 700 000 people live with dementia. Probably about 400 000 to 450 000 of these people have Alzheimer's disease. One in three people over the age of 65 will die with the disease and by 2025 more than a million will have dementia.

Alzheimer's disease results from a build-up of toxic proteines on the brain that causes nerve cells to die and the brain to shrink. Stroke related dementia - sometimes called vascular dementia, the second most common cause of dementia, occurs when nerve cells die because of the lack of oxygen. It is often following a stroke. Both provoke memory loss, particularly of the short-term memory, and confusion.

Three years ago, Kevin Whately's mother became very ill and, after a stay in hospital, the family had to move her to a nursing home because she was no longer able to cope with living on her own. Sadly she's now in an advanced condition and could not take part in the ITV programme. For the Tonight doc, Kevin Whately's brother Frank remembers when he first noticed that their mother was losing her memory, and the brothers discuss how they had to face the progression of her condition on a daily basis.

It took a few years to get Mary Whately diagnosed but about two-thirds of those having dementia have no diagnosis. British Government has launched in February a National Dementia Strategy backed by £150 million over the first two years, and wants to set up a Memory Clinic in every town. Kevin Whately visits one of these clinics, Newbury Memory Service in Berkshire, where a woman has her memory tested with a series of 19 questions after evaluation by a doctor and a clinical psychologist. Unfortunately, she's diagnosed with both Alzheimer's and Lewy Bodies dementia - the third most common form of Dementia, which bears some similarities to Parkinson’s disease.

Diagnosis is primordial. There's no cure for dementia but anti-dementia drugs Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl can improve or stabilize the symptoms of the disease in about 50% of cases. But since November 2006 NHS doctors have been banned from prescribing these drugs to thousands of patients newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's by the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) because "benefits don't justify costs". Kevin Whately meets a patient with Alzheimer's, Keith Turner, who got prescribed Aricept prior to the ban and so receives it free on the NHS (£900 a year/£2,50 a day). His wife and him are now campaigning for others to have the same access (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/transcripts_2006_23_mon_02.shtml). Later this year NICE will review its cost calculations and consider whether to review its guidance.

During the filming of the Tonight programme, Whately discovered that there is a therapy called SPECAL (Specialised Early Care for Alzheimer's) which carers can use to make communication easier with patients with dementia (http://www.specal.co.uk/). Admiral Nurses, specialist dementia nurses, can also be of a great source of help and support (http://www.fordementia.org.uk/admiral.htm). Journalist and broadcaster John Suchet (David Suchet's brother) tells Kevin Whately about the precious help he has from Ian Weatherhead, an Admiral Nurse, in caring for his wife Bonnie for dementia. There's only 60 Admiral Nurses in the UK, funded by the NHS and local councils.

The documentary also introduces us to Music therapy, which calls to the part of the brain not yet deteriorated, and the work of Singing for the Brain (http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/singingforthebrain). Reminiscence Therapy, recalling memories ("the good old days") can have therapeutic benefits for people with dementia. And Kevin Whately talks about the importance of finding a decent care home when comes the time, and the illogism that people with dementia has to pay themselves for their care.

Kevin Whately on Dementia is a programme which is the honour of every person involved in its conception, or interviewed, for its clarity and its constructive approach of one of the main health issues of the century. Kevin Whately, who is ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society, shares his concerns and his experience with humility, generosity, and empathy. The programme and its production team deserve to be awarded and it is not unreasonable to believe that Mr Whately should have his own current affairs series.

http://www.itv.com/News/tonight/episodes/KevinWhatelyondementia/default.html
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1163677/KEVIN-WHATELY-I-wouldnt-worst-enemy-care-homes-looked-Mum.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4684841/John-Suchet-in-tears-as-he-describes-wifes-Alzheimerss-Disease.html