Top award for Between Life and Death - BBC documentary

The BBC documentary Between Life and Death, which was filmed at CUH over six months in 2009, has won a prestigious award from the Royal Television Society.

Richard Rudd with his father Richard

The programme – which was judged to be the year’s best standalone documentary – was described by the RTS as a “powerful and sensitively-filmed portrayal of the most tragic human condition.”

The RTS said: “The production team had secured astonishing personal access which they handled with great care and respect, delivering a subtle, moving and beautifully shot documentary.”

Director Nick Holt and assistant producer Marina Parker became part of the hospital team, working with staff in NCCU, the Emergency Department, and Intensive Care to identify families who were prepared to share their stories.

The film followed three patients during their time at Addenbrooke’s, including Richard Rudd – a 43-year-old who was paralysed in a motorbike crash and left with brain damage as a result of subsequent complications. His family initially told doctors that he would not want to be kept alive – but after a period of waiting, he began to show voluntary eye movement and was able to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to questions.

At the time, Nick Holt explained what it was like working in NCCU and making the film:

“Every day, throughout the country, there are families sitting at loved ones’ bedsides facing an extraordinary life-or-death decision, and I wanted to capture that process with all its emotional and ethical difficulties. Addenbrooke’s was an obvious place as it has one of the country’s leading neuroscience units.

“We could never predict how it was going to work – all we really knew was that each day a new series of intensely emotional human dramas unfolded in the 21 beds in the unit. We’d film patients as they came in, then talk to the family to find out whether they were happy to take it forward. I explained it was a journey we’d go on together, but could be stopped at any point, even right up to transmission. Interestingly, not one family said no, and no one ever told us to stop filming, even in their rawest moments.

“The experience was life-changing for me. Much of what I held to be true was turned on its head. We often think that if a machine is the only thing keeping us alive then we’d want it switched off, but life and love has this phenomenal pull. You can’t underestimate the life force running through each and every one of us. I’ve realised none of us can know how we would feel unless we were there, in that bed, facing the terrifying possibility of your link to life being severed.”

The film was originally broadcast on 13 July 2010.