DEMENTIA
 

 In Me and My Mum, Tony Robinson took an intensely personal look at the plight of Britain's elderly in a film about his 89-year old mum, Phyllis, who suffers from dementia and lives in a care home.

Tony looked candidly at an issue that will eventually face many of us, but which we prefer not to talk about: the reality of what we should do when our parents can no longer live independently. "I'm angry at the way old people are treated in this country," says Tony. "I feel frustrated that no one ever talks about it, and maybe I'm guilty because I am as much to blame as everyone else."

Whether caring for a parent themselves or admitting them to a home, he meets other people facing the same dilemma in different ways and asks what we, as a society and as individuals, can do about it.

In the film Tony also talked to care professionals, organisations representing the elderly and politicians about the possible solutions. He faces all of this with honesty, wit and a determination to find a solution.

And while Tony wonders whether more could be done for his mum, and faces an unexpected change in her health, he also realises that this is a situation that may well confront him and his own children in time.