An unflinching look at life as a paraplegic
You knew that Being Frank: The Frank Gardner Story
(BBC Two) was going to be unflinchingly intimate from the start. The BBC’S security correspondent’s introductory piece to camera was interrupted by a long, gurgling blast of flatulence from his colostomy bag. “It’s uncontrollable,” Gardner explained sheepishly. “Sometimes it happens in the studio when I’m on-air. I cough to cover the noise.”
This deeply personal documentary saw Gardner examining his life since being shot six times by al-qaeda terrorists in Saudi Arabia 16 years ago. The bullets damaged his spinal nerves and, age 43, Gardner was left partially paralysed in a wheelchair. Gardner wanted to explore the emotional impact of sudden disability, but admitted he wasn’t one for soulsearching. His instinct was to “just get on with it, not dwell on what happened”. He remained stoic, misting over only twice.
He did, however, talk with candour about the effects his injuries have had on his career, relationships and self-esteem. Going from standing 5ft 11in to being “the height of an eight-year old”, he said, was “humiliating” and “emasculating”. We saw the realities of both working in a newsroom (Gardner almost missed a broadcast because the lift was playing up and he couldn’t take the stairs) and
filming on location (his trip down a mountain to report from the Colombian rainforest was hair-raising). He was admirably open about the “physical indignities” he faces, willing to be filmed emptying his stoma bag and changing his catheter.
Most enlightening of all, he met others with disabilities – a woman with limited mobility due to a climbing accident, a Royal Marine who had his leg amputated, an Edinburgh student left tetraplegic after diving into a lake – to compare notes. First-person pieces
often have a self-discovery narrative. Sometimes it’s not terribly convincing. This was one of those rare occasions when you could sense growth. We ended with Gardner skiing in the Alps, while reflecting: “With a life-changing injury, the mental recovery is often far harder than the physical one. But when all is said and done, I’m really very happy just being Frank.”
An uplifting sign-off to an inspirational film.