Jon Snow: A Last Big Story review – the finest swan song you could hope for
This documentary about the journalist’s Alzheimer’s soon takes a turn, as he hears of an unreported mining disaster and goes on the hunt for truth
This documentary about the journalist’s Alzheimer’s soon takes a turn, as he hears of an unreported mining disaster and goes on the hunt for truth. It’s a dignified tale of a courageous, compassionate man Jon Snow: A Last Big Story is a valediction that forbids mourning. The hour-long documentary follows the 78-year-old investigative journalist and former Channel 4 news anchor in the wake of his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease.
During the course of one of his visits with his wife, Dr Precious Lunga, to family in Zambia, he gets wind of a story about a nearby environmental catastrophe involving a Chinese mining company that has gone virtually unreported. And so the documentary opens outwards and we see the man in his element as well as in the grip of what 850,000 Alzheimer’s sufferers in the UK alone, to say nothing of their carers, families and other loved ones, know to be an unforgiving, relentlessly worsening condition.
Early on, Snow asks with interest and no disquiet what the people with cameras around him are doing. “We’re making a film about your career,” his interviewer, Laura, explains. “And who you are now.” “Lumme!” says Snow, the son of a bishop. “How nice!” As they travel in a car together a little later, he leans forward and says politely: “I’ve forgotten your name already …?” “Laura,” she tells him.
“Lovely,” he says, sitting back. “I’m Jon.” Continue reading...
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