Emotional rescue
HORIZON BBC2, 9pm
SUICIDE is the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK, causing more deaths than car accidents or even cancer.
And there’s another scary statistic: suicide is responsible for killing one person every 40 seconds across the globe.
In this thought-provoking documentary, Dr Xand van Tulleken investigates why people develop suicidal thoughts and what can be done about it.
“According to the statistics, the most likely thing to kill me is me,” he says. “And I want to know why.”
This is emotional from the off, with Xand – usually seen as the grinning TV medic making films with his twin, Dr Chris van Tulleken – opening up about his own life.
“I used to find suicidal thoughts impossible to relate to,” he reveals.
“But 20 years on, I’ve got a son who lives thousands of miles away, which I feel very guilty about. I worry about him. I worry about money. I worry about my career. I’ve messed up relationships.”
Admitting he has experienced suicidal thoughts himself, he says: “No one is immune”. It’s a brave admission, one that engages us with this important topic of male mental health – and there are many moving accounts.
Steve Mallen, now an avid suicide prevention campaigner, describes the Monday in 2015 when he lost his 18-year-old son Edward to suicide. He says the aftermath was like “staring into an abyss of grief ”.
And Kevin Hines, one of around only 30 people to survive a suicide attempt off San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, says: “The voice in my head said jump now... and I did, but I had instant regret.”