PAXMAN: PUTTING UP WITH PARKINSON’S

ITV, 9pm

“I’m not living with it,

I’m putting up with it.” Thus the title of Michael Waldman’s revealing documentary was born, from a characteristically cantankerous outburst from the 72-year-old presenter and journalist. Jeremy Paxman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in April 2021, and the cameras follow him as he grumpily engages in physiotherapy, reluctantly joins a dance class and a bowls club, and meets doctors and fellow sufferers for insights and shards of hope regarding a future cure or treatments.

A couple of gettogethers smack of filler that might not have made the cut on the BBC: meetings with John Lloyd in a pub, Paxman’s decaying Spitting Image puppet in tow, or with Michael Howard to trawl over their notorious Newsnight head-to-head. But there are also seldom-seen moments of reflection, vulnerability and introspection from Paxman, and coverage of some groundbreaking science (notably Joy

Milne and her astonishing talent for “smelling” Parkinson’s). The show feels like an entirely unalloyed portrait of terminal illness with all the physical and psychological toll that entails, and for that both Paxman and Waldman deserve considerable credit. Gabriel Tate