Terry Pratchett: Living with Alzheimer’s

Judging by the number of "tweets" on Twitter the documentary Terry Pratchett: Living with Alzheimer's is creating a stir across the pond. People seem to be genuinely moved. There can be little doubt that this documentary is raising awareness of Alzheimer's disease in Great Britain. This is a good thing.

Hopefully, the BBC documentary will be seen here in the U.S. soon.

Living with Alzheimer’s (BBC2) is a two-part documentary in which, for a year, the cameras followed Pratchett down what he describes as “the dark path”. (Ronald Reagan, when he was diagnosed, called it “the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life”, but I guess it amounts to the same thing.) The most disturbing moment in last night’s programme came when Pratchett tried to put on a tie. Here was a clever man talking fluently and engagingly about what was, for him, an intellectual challenge: at what stage do you make the loop, and in what direction? He could have been one of those orange-shirted Open University lecturers grappling with a quadratic equation. He didn’t crack this one. Sometimes he puts his leather jacket on upside down.

So far the available clips of the television documentary are only available in Great Britain. We will keep our eyes open.

To read a review of Terry Pratchett: Living with Alzheimer's go here.

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