A profound reflection on the challenges of life after war
For every British soldier killed in Afghanistan, seven more were wounded. The veterans who came home have had to learn to cope with steep challenges: the scars left by ejection from the forces, and by life-changing injuries.
One such is Andy Grant, a marine commando who trod on an IED in 2009 whose story was told in Paragon (ITV). A photograph illustrated the horrendous cavity where his shin used to be. After 15 operations to salvage his leg, he eventually elected for amputation. His counterintuitive goal was to get back on his feet, one of them now prosthetic, and run into the Guinness Book of Records by becoming the fastest single-leg amputee over 10 km.
The running part turned out to be a peripheral element to the narrative. This was partly no doubt because watching joggers jog is only a couple of notches up from watching writers write or paint dry. But also a lot of Grant’s key prep was done in his head.
Hence his encounters with motivational mentors – medics, old comrades-in-arms, random sports celebrities, a weightlifter with cerebral palsy. There was a lot of deflecting banter via which the men avoided talking about big stuff. But Grant has a Scouser’s openness, so there was plenty of emotional honesty too about the death of his mother when he was 12, his determination to regain peak physical fitness.
The outcome was moving – Grant broke the record – but not straightforward owing to Guinness’s pernickety rules on disability. It neatly upended the simple idea that redemption lies at the far end of a hard slog.
While undoubtedly inspirational, as implied by that unironic title, Paragon could have done with being either shorter or less repetitive, and casting its net a little wider. How do veterans like him really feel about the sacrifice they have made for Queen and country? Perhaps it was judged impolite to ask.
The format was constructed to encourage profound reflection. It required Grant to be his own slightly shy presenter, talking directly to camera or interviewing interlocutors, all of them men. Positive and dauntless, he embraced this steep challenge as he has gamely faced much larger ones. But he looked more comfortable running than talking about running.
Confession of a television reviewer: in this line of work you do watch a lot of stuff that you feel you’ve seen before. Maverick detectives, docusoaps about airlines, etc. I was a bit anxious, therefore, about Confessions of a Junior Doctor (Channel 4). BBC One’s excellent six-part fly-on-the-wall documentary
Hospital has only just finished. Could yet another nosey around a NHS hospital – in this case Northampton General – unveil much that was new?
Well, yes, as it turns out. Inevitably many of the same stresses – to the system, the patients and their carers – are in evidence. This resolutely frank second episode loitered around the A&E department, where all the familiar alarm bells were ringing. A code red state of emergency went to black as on one hellish day the corridors filled with untreated cases and the ambulances backed up out of the road. But the USP is there in the title.
Hospital was mostly about the upper end of the profession. This is about the newbies, on a fast track from idealism to cynicism, who last year were provoked into industrial action.
This week’s rabbits in the headlights were very different. Morgan, 24, grew up emotional, squeamish, terrified of hospitals and needles. Why does she do it? “I even question it myself.” (It would have been good to find out.) Dan, 26, was a cooler customer: “I’ve never thrown myself too much into the human side of things,” he said.
It takes all types to be a doctor, but they all have to travel the same hard yards. Morgan was better at breaking bad news to stricken patients and relatives. But then she also broke down when someone senior told her she was getting something wrong.
The edit intersperses frank frontline action with junior doctors talking about on the requirements of the job and the myriad impediments thrown in their path. We won’t presumably get to meet the ones who opt for an easier life Down Under – that’s another documentary entirely. This one is very useful. Accidentally scheduled during an election campaign, it’s emergency viewing.