For Scots, coping with cancer is a comparatively common occurrence. Some estimates reckon that one in three of us will contract a disease that is responsible for a quarter of all deaths across the European Union. Confronted with such grim statistics, you might pass up the chance to watch a one-off documentary about cancer patients at a Glasgow hospice. In fact, it's your loss if you miss a second of Life's Too Short. Sure, there's sadness in visiting the 52bed Hunters Hill Hospice in Springburn. But there's also tenderness, courage, generosity of spirit, poignancy and much else to inspire.
"It's obviously emotionally demanding for all the patients, their families and the hospice staff, " says director and cameraman David Peat, "but I hadn't reckoned it would be the same for us, too.
"I cried while conducting a couple of interviews; I've cried while working in the cutting room; in fact, I've gone home after some days' editing and said: 'Only a three-cry day today - not so bad.' But the whole experience has been incredibly positive.
"Like many people at the hospice, I'd leave, go out into the wider everyday world and see crowds of people blindly bustling about as normal and I'd feel like shouting: 'Don't you know? Carpe diem!'
"Telly is, as we know, a superficial business - programmes have a brief life and then they're gone. But everyone involved in making Life's Too Short feels the same way: we all hope that the programme will touch people who have experienced the effects of a cancer diagnosis - either their own or a friend's or relative's.
"If you ask folk about Springburn hospice, they'll usually just say: 'That place - oh aye, that's where you go to die.' Yes, inevitably, that happens. But it's also a place where they truly make the most of life.
Life's Too Short focuses on three Hunters Hill patients. Jacqueline Duffy's cancer journey began seven years ago and she hopes and prays it won't end before a happy family event in the near future: her son's wedding.
James Hemphill, who suffers from bowel, liver and lung cancer, accepts it's "getting nearer the time." He is set on spending as much of his remaining time as possible at home with wife Margaret, but still needs the hospice's help as he nears the end of the road.
Jill Thomson, whose cancer went into remission for a year, reflects on the strength of her family and how life will be for them when her journey comes to its end.
As David Peat counsels potential viewers of his documentary: "Never be afraid to cry." Life's Too Short, Monday, BBC1, 9pm.
mumper Tam Cowan returns with a new season of Offside, taking a pawky look at the rare highs and many lows of Scottish fitba'. Irreverent vox-pops loom large on the agenda as ever, as Tam plans to ask unsuspecting Parisians to remind him of the score when France last played Scotland. He also hopes to capture Old Firm inductees Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larsson at the Scottish Football Hall of Fame dinner. Bonne chance, Tam.
Offside, Monday, BBC1, 10.35pm.
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