PICK OF TODAY’S TV

JULIA BRADBURY: BREAST CANCER AND ME, 9PM, ITV

IT WAS while working on a series about woodlands for This Morning last year that Julia Bradbury received some terrifying news. The results of a biopsy confirmed she had a sizeable tumour that would require emergency surgery. ‘When you hear the words “You’ve got cancer”, your world stops’. But, not long after receiving that devastating diagnosis, the presenter bravely opened up to the cameras for this raw and very personal film, charting her thoughts and emotions as she undergoes treatment, including a mastectomy and reconstruction of her left breast. Julia reveals that what she found hardest of all was telling her young children — Zephyrus, ten, and sevenyear-old twins Xanthe and Zena — that she had cancer. So it’s intensely moving to see how Julia’s family have rallied round to support her — including her children, along with her husband, Gerard, her parents and sister Gina. This is a powerful and emotional film, all the more so because, as Julia reminds us, she is not alone — one in seven women in the UK will get breast cancer in their lifetime — and, as well as speaking to doctors, Julia meets some of the many other families who find themselves in a similar situation.