Grandad, Dementia & Me
documentary / times vary / BBC1
age catches up with all of us eventually, which makes this documentary essential but difficult viewing. In 2014, Dominic Sivyer’s grandad, Tom, was diagnosed with vascular dementia and Dominic decided to start filming him in a bid to make sense of the illness and to hold on to the man he loved. The intimate film is shot over two years as Tom experiences violent mood swings and short-term memory loss. Witnessing Tom’s decline is heartbreaking, made all the more so by his family’s inability to do anything to help. Dominic’s 80-year-old nan, Pam, is caught in the middle, unable to live with an abusive man whom she no longer recognises, but unable to turn her back on her husband of 50 years.