I'm in two minds about the way the forthcoming programme was presented.
1. bad marketing
There is so much bending of truth these days on TV, in the papers, telling of half-truths, and so on - that this is not a one-off.
ITV should not have done it. It was not necessary.
The film producer says he was doing other things and didn't know it was done. I find that hard to believe. When one spends 11 years filming someone like this, I reckon the person doing it would be most interested in the way it is presented and ultimately shown. However, the man is a film producer - perhaps he was away on another job.
Barbara, I'm sure, was trying to help ITV. Once they had published the untruth, she would have felt that it would detract from her story and Malcolm's had she said "that is not true"; she might also have felt she would be ungrateful to do so.
Goodness knows, it is hard enough to get anyone to put dementia material on TV - why bite the hand of the one that does.
For my part, I think in Barbara's position, I'd have tried to find some way to weasel out of agreeing that Malcolm's death had been filmed. However, in reality, any good reporter [and certainly Jeremy Vine, and the Today team in the morning are certainly that] would have spotted it and then concentrated solely on did he- didn't he?
By going along with it, a day or more of good coverage and discussion and visibility was had.
.... also by going along with it, we all had a second day [and more] of additional coverage.
2. something positive out of every mishap
The row has put the story in the news, and on the front pages once again.
On yesterday's Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 , the producer was on air.
[listen again, first half hour of
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/main...adio/aod/radio2_aod.shtml?radio2/r2_vine_wed]
He made a good case for his side of the story, that he did not know about the marketing that had been done. I chose to believe him.
He also said clearly - the first time I have heard it put so bluntly - that a diagnosis of Alzheimer's is a death sentence. In my view anything that gets the public away from believing that dementia is just forgetfulness [where's my keys?] has to be good.
Without the row, I don't believe the producer would have been on air.
To be truthful, I was also pleased to hear him say that a point came when he felt the family should be left alone to care for the last days of Malcolm.