Love's Farewell

Fingers have already been pointed at faulty PR for the mistaken message that documentary filmmaker Paul Watson had actually filmed the death of Malcolm Pointon for the ITV documentary Malcolm and Barbara: Love's Farewell.

The film, broadcast on Wednesday 8 August, was a moving, poignant and tragic portrayal of one man's descent into dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease and the consequences of the fatal illness for his wife. The 11-year project was a testament to the strength of the Pointons, the ravages of Alzheimer's, the sad state of healthcare in the country and the commitment of a filmmaker to telling a story as honestly as possible.

Unfortunately, the significance of the film was lost beneath a storm of controversy initially stirred by tabloids about the voyeurism of broadcasting the death of a human being. What caused it was an ITV press release that declared: "The film ends when Barbara calls Paul to ask him to come, as Malcolm is about to die .... In moving scenes, Malcolm is surrounded by his family and Barbara strokes his head as he passes away."

The press release was approved, but Paul Watson says he never saw it. In interviews, he says he never alluded to the fact that he had actually filmed the death. In fact, as Malcolm Pointon's brother Graham said in an online statement, Watson had stopped filming a few days before the event in February this year. He had wanted to give the family some peace.

The controversy then shifted to another level, following in the footsteps of the recent TV-related scandals about broadcasters deceiving the public en masse. It turned into a story of another incident of a broadcaster misleading the public. Michael Grade has launched an investigation into what has now been classified as false information. Heads will soon roll, no doubt in ITV's press office.

Sadly, Barbara and Malcolm's love story was diluted. Few seem to realise that Barbara Pointon has no complaints against Watson or ITV. She insists that the film was true to their story. In fact, she considered her husband to have died when he slipped into the coma, as shown on the film. The last scene of the film, called into question because the still image of Malcolm was ostensibly meant to indicate his death, showed him to be lifeless rather than dead. Which is what he was at that time.

The press release says that he "passes away", not that he died in the last scene of the film. It is perhaps a play on words, but the fact is that he had passed away. Malcolm Pointon was in a coma, he was a lifeless shell of the man that he was, destroyed by Alzheimer's disease.