SEVEN SONGS FOR A LONG LIFE, BBC2, 9pm
“I’ve always been a wee chanter. I’ve always had a go at it.”
In a hospice, a carer in a lilac smock files an elderly patient’s nails. He is slumped in his chair in silence and, within seconds, a terribly sad atmosphere has been created. This is going to be a melancholy look at the work of the hospice, of the quiet heroics of the staff, of the dwindling memories of the patients, isn’t it?
Not so. Things change instantly when the carer breaks the silence to ask her patient about singing, and he is suddenly perky and cheerful, telling her he was always “a wee chanter.” Soon he’s wearing a dapper hat and belting out “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”.
Set in Strathcarron Hospice, one of Scotland’s biggest, this documentary was made by its “filmmaker in residence”, Amy Hardie, who won the trust and confidence of its patients through songs. Inspired by one nurse who loves singing, the film follows six patients on the day care ward and songs are used to “unlock the patients’ pasts” and help them feel comfortable and at ease in the hospice, and with their conditions.
But there is no sentimentality in this. It’s not The Sound of Music set in a hospice. We learn that advances in medicine mean people can receive a death sentence and yet live for years, in constant anxiety and uncertainty.
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