TERRY PRATCHETT: BACK IN BLACK, BBC2, 9pm
TERRY Pratchett died in 2015, taken by one of the cruellest diseases, Alzheimer’s.
This brave documentary follows his struggles, telling us “when the best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett died he was working on one last extraordinary story: his own.”
We are given the remarkable story of Sir Terry’s life and literary career and the programme features fond memories from Neil Gaiman and Val McDermid, with actor Paul Kaye playing Sir Terry in humorous segments which make this a “dramatised documentary” of the author’s life.
It’s warm and funny, but often painful to watch.
When we see clips of Sir Terry, who was a brilliantly eloquent man, he often struggles to speak, with his illness meaning he frequently stutters and halts.
You might cry that “life isn’t fair” when watching this, but Sir Terry’s lesson is surely that you must put your energies and talents to good use while you still have them.
GEORGE III: THE GENIUS OF THE MAD KING, BBC2, 7.30pm
WITH some of us worrying that the leader of the free world is quite mad, this is a good time to look back at another “mad” leader, King George III.
History still trotted along despite having a madman in a position of power so maybe there’s a little chink of hope for us all? King George’s story has already been told on screen via the Hollywood film The Madness of King George. Rumour has it that they couldn’t call it “The Madness of King George III” as American audiences would complain they hadn’t seen the two prequels.
Here’s the story stripped of any Hollywood tinsel and it focuses on the king’s letters which were released after 200 years of being hidden away.
Simon Callow reads some of the papers aloud and they reveal a monarch who was keen to be a “political micro-manager” and to offer patronage to the arts and sciences.
Not totally mad, then?
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