Putting a price on someone’s life is and always will be a contentious issue, but in last night’s documentary, The Price of Life, filmmaker Adam Wishart guided us through the process of how NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) must do exactly that. And somewhat shockingly, we heard how NICE have a ceiling – or rather, had, before that ceiling increased recently – of £30,000 per person per extra year of life.

In this case, the subject of contention was the cancer drug Revlimid. It’s an expensive drug which, the manufacturer of it claims, can potentially increase the life expectancy of some patients by anything from months to a few years. For the individuals who would benefit from that, it is of course invaluable, however, with unprecedented access to the process of NICE’s decision making on whether to grant funding for this drug or not, we saw how difficult making the decision is.

However, one of the first things that occurred to me on hearing about the financial limits placed on the value of a year of life is that in the wake of the MPs expenses scandal being revealed in full, we know that millions of taxpayers’ pounds have been blithely paid out, seemingly without any checks on the validity of the claims, yet people were dying while awaiting approval by NICE for this drug. For some, approval came too late and one person who Wishart interviewed for the film, Julia, sadly died before she could take advantage of NICE’s ultimate decision to green light the drug. Read more & comment »

Ten years after they became a worldwide phenomenon – raising over £2 million for Leukaemia Research and inspiring a Hollywood film – the Calendar Girls of Rylstone WI were back for last night for one last time, and a delightful, heartwarming visit with them it was too.

The film followed six of the original Calendar Girls as they celebrated the 10th anniversary by stripping off for another new nude calendar, but it’s not all been harmonious; the ‘Hollywood effect’ had caused rifts and rows between the original 11 women, which is sad because it all began with a strong and common goal, which was to raise money for Leukaemia Research after Angela Baker’s husband John died of the disease… Read more & comment »

OH. MY. GOD. This has to have been one of the weirdest and worrying documentaries I have ever seen. In many ways, it would be the easiest thing to just laugh at the people who were filmed for this programme because, bluntly put, most of them are screaming loons, but there’s an infinitely darker side to their stories which, in the main, isn’t amusing at all.

This Channel 4 film followed three couples who have “monkey babies” – primarily Capuchins – but not as pets; they’re substitutes for children. That’s not only sad, it’s shocking and what these people are putting their primate ‘babies’ through in order to satisfy their own sad need to be needed is quite horrifying.

They’re selfishly denying these monkeys the right to live as monkeys, choosing instead to dress them up, make them wear nappies and have diets that consist of the foods they’d spoil a human child with. It was rather sickening viewing to be honest. Read more & comment »

Last night’s documentary, On the Fiddle, featured benefit fraud investigators and benefits compliance officers up and down the country whose job it is to uncover those who make fraudulent claims for state benefits. And uncover them they did in one case which I’ll go into more detail about shortly, but for now, suffice to say there was a huge operation to uncover and apprehend the suspect. Fine, ok, and rightly so; he was costing the taxpayer thousands annually and deserved to be caught.

However, the reason this show angered me is because as many revelations about MPs claims for expenses continue to flood the press – which have been proven to be unjustified and often falsely claimed – why aren’t we seeing police and several civil servants kicking in the doors of their homes at 4am in a bid to prove culpability in stealing public money?

How is it that MPs claiming taxpayer’s money for things they aren’t entitled to any different from a member of the public claiming taxpayer’s money that they’re not entitled to? Read more & comment »

It’s good pickin’s for TV next week so as always at the weekend, here are our Primetime Picks for your upcoming televisual delight… Read more & comment »

Hi all, hope you’re having a great weekend, and as part of your Sunday chill out, here’s a few entertaining finds for next week’s viewing…

We try to avoid the usual TV recommendations and go for programmes that are slightly unusual so many of them might be a tad graphic, but that’s half the fun right? Having to watch from behind your cushion while someone has an axe removed from their head or something or taking a look at how someone else’s life went awry or even went well!

Those are the kind of shows we like to recommend, so here are our TV picks for this coming week… Read more & comment »

I hope you’re all having a lovely Easter weekend and once it’s over, here’s what we here at Primetime reckon is worth watching this coming week…

Easter Monday

The Jet Stream and Us, 8:00pm, BBC4

This new documentary traces how human understanding of the jet stream – a ribbon of fast moving air high in the atmosphere – has grown. Now, that may sound boring but it’s actually very interesting!

It’s been responsible for bewildering effect on bomber pilots in World War II, turbo charging modern transatlantic flyers, the infamous 1987 hurricane and the devastating floods of recent years.

Scientists now believe this powerful weather phenomenon is now changing its pattern of behaviour and could have an even bigger impact on our climate and the way we live our lives.

Interviewees include Sir Brian Hoskins, University of Reading and Kirsty McCabe from the BBC Weather Centre… Read more & comment »

Here’s what we recommend you tune into this week, with two of the most major events happening in Coronation Street and EastEnders where there’s a fire and fireworks respectively this week!

Monday

Tonight: How Safe is Your Hospital? is on at 8:00pm on ITV1 during which Morland Sanders looks at recent hospital scandals, including Stafford Hospital – where up to 1200 people may have died unnecessarily – and Birmingham Children’s Hospital where a lack of equipment and trained staff has put patients lives at risk, and asks why regulators failed to recognise the problems earlier… Read more & comment »

In last night’s disturbing documentary from Dispatches, the deservedly award-winning Pakistani journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy investigated how the “war on terror” is creating a generation of child terrorists in her homeland Pakistan. These children are prepared to kill others and themselves, both inside and outside Pakistan.

Sharmeen investigated how the Taliban are recruiting increasingly younger and younger “fighters” to serve their need for what amounts to cannon fodder and expendable ’soldiers’.

She met with a 14-year-old boy in her home city of Karachi who is desperate to become a suicide bomber. Sharmeen then followed the elite unit of the anti-terror police squad who warn that the Taliban are hiding out in the city’s sprawling slums and recruiting children from small deprived neighbourhoods.

Sharmeen also interviewed a Taliban commander who’s responsible for child recruitment, and he happily revealed that children as young as five are now being used by the Taliban. Read more & comment »

Welcome to our Primetime Picks of what we reckon is worth tuning into this coming week!

Oh and don’t forget, there’s no episode of Lost tonight. It’s not on until next Sunday… don’t know how I’m going to cope without my Lost-Sunday-Fix but I suppose I’ll just have to… Read more & comment »

Last night’s edition of Horizon – How To Survive A Disaster – was Horizon at its best; scientific data delivered in an interesting and ‘easy’ way and this particular one made us viewers stare in the face the fact that all those things we just assume will never happen to us actually just might. And what’s more, it gave us a few clues on how to survive if and when it does.

From plane crashes, boats sinking and car crashes to which surfaces are more likely to cause you to fall to your death, the broad spectrum of grim ways to die – many of which are quite possibly avoidable – were covered with advice from experts on what to do if any of these things should happen to us…. Read more & comment »

What an interesting but also very sad programme this was. I felt it was sad on many levels; sad as in literally upsetting as we witnessed the heartbreak and desperation of couples who’d give anything to have a child of their own, and sad as in my personal feeling was that at least some of the women supposedly ‘addicted’ to surrogacy are more addicted to the cash reward.

But having said that, some of the women featured in the film were genuinely ‘addicted’, but not necessarily to surrogacy per se, but to the psychological need to be needed. The surrogacy part was just a means to fulfilling that end.

It wasn’t comfortable viewing but as always with Cutting Edge, it was non-judgemental viewing too, which in some ways makes it harder; it’s sometimes quite a pleasant relief to be told what to think! I jest, it’s not of course and I’ve always admired Cutting Edge for its – primarily – unbiased reportage of actualities rather than judgemental commentary. Read more & comment »

Welcome to our Primetime Picks of what we reckon is worth tuning into this coming week!

Monday

A brand new series of the fabulous Monkey Life starts at 6:30pm on Five. The series follows the residents – both human and primate – of Dorset’s Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre. In this episode, 88 capuchin monkeys rescued from a research laboratory in Chile wake up to their first morning at Monkey World.

Over in the Chimp nursery, Rodders has a run-in with a sticky melon and the park’s naughtiest resident, Seamus the chimp, comes face to face with alpha male Butch in the bachelor pad… Read more & comment »

Martin Green and Stephen Powell

Last night’s first episode on BBC2 of this three-part documentary series began charting the ‘journey’ towards the much longed for – by some anyway – London 2012 Olympics.

This first film followed the activities of the ‘Ceremonies Team’ as they prepared for an eight-minute show to mark the official handover of responsibility for the Olympic Games from Beijing to London… and let’s face it, Beijing’s going to be a hard act to follow! Especially given that the economic climate in this country is on its knees, I don’t see how we’re going to pull it off in anything like the style of Beijing… Read more & comment »

Welcome to our Primetime Picks of what’s on our tellyboxes next week, and it looks like being a good ‘un this week!

Monday

The Real Pink Panther: Lord Victor Hervey, 8:00pm, Channel 4

The final film in Channel 4’s Toffs and Crims series, which explores the affinity between the upper echelons of society and the criminal underclass.

Victor Hervey, the sixth Marquis of Bristol, masterminded a gang of career criminals and then found himself at the Old Bailey on two counts of jewel theft.

It has long been believed that, when he was convicted in 1939 and sentenced to three years penal servitude, this was the end of Victor’s criminal ways. However, recently declassified police documents reveal that after he was released Victor may still have been involved in crime… Read more & comment »