Today, the BBC is launching a new season across TV, iPlayer and Radio called Memories and Dementia: Starting the Conversation.
The season is being led by Dr Punam to help start conversations between those living with dementia and their friends, families and carers by evoking memories of their past through content from the BBC’s archive.
Programming and support for the season will come from across the BBC, including specially curated collections and a pop-up channel on BBC iPlayer, special films on Morning Live and The One Show, and features across the BBC’s radio network.
Ambassador for the Memories and Dementia: Starting the Conversation season Dr Punam, said: “Dementia can be a challenging condition to live with. I see patients with dementia in my practice – and know the strain the condition can place on people – as well as on their family and friends. One thing that can really help is reminiscence – using media like TV, pictures, or music, that captures history, or follows a familiar place, or interest, something that evokes memories which can help start a conversation with loved ones and carers.
“That’s why I’m delighted to be a part of this season – the BBC has played an important and significant part in all our lives here in the UK, and as a result programmes from its rich archive have worked their ways into our memories like nothing else. By collecting some of these programmes together on iPlayer we may be able to spark reminiscence, helping those people living with dementia to bring joy to the present by exploring memories of the past.”
In the context of dementia, reminiscence is the use of TV, pictures or music to evoke memories for people living with dementia which can help start a conversation with loved ones and carers. By using media that captures life in a decade gone by, or follows a familiar place, experience or interest, reminiscence focuses on the ‘personhood’ of the person living with dementia.
Dan McGolpin, director of BBC iPlayer and Channels, said “The research shows how reminiscence through TV, film and music can help connect people living with dementia to their friends, family and loved ones. It’s important to remember that everyone is different, there’s no one size fits all approach that will work for everyone. We’ve worked with the BBC Archive team to identify content that will help evoke the age it was made and have collected a wide range of content that covers a vast period of the BBC’s rich history of programme-making. We hope that within these collections people will be able to find those programmes that will help start conversations.”
A pop-up channel and three specially curated collections launch on BBC iPlayer on Monday 24th March, featuring programmes from across the BBC archive. Each collection gathers together programmes from a specific decade: the 60s, the 70s and the 80s – and the programmes included will feature the best in arts, entertainment, culture and news events of the era. Programmes in these collections will include the 1969 special edition of Panorama marking man’s first steps on the surface of the moon, Philip Donnellan’s 1964 film The Colony, Abba’s victory in the grand final of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, and Keith Floyd’s classic 1987 food series Floyd on France.
A pop-up channel called ‘Memories’ will feature programmes from each collection and will run 24 hours a day as a live stream on BBC iPlayer. While viewing these programmes may not lead to immediate, dramatic responses for those living with dementia, studies show they can have significant value in helping create connections and moments of recognition with their friends and family.
Special programming will air across the week on Morning Live. Dr Punam will be exploring the impact a young onset dementia diagnosis can have on people who can often be still working, paying off their mortgage and parenting children, as well as finding out about the free resources available to help people care for those affected by dementia. Sheree Murphy will meet remarkable people living with dementia performing in a one-of-a-kind variety show in Darlington, Abbie Dewhurst will board the Forget-Me-Not Train from Whitby to Middlesbrough, and Martell Maxwell will look at some of the exciting technological advances that are helping people with dementia and their caregivers retain their independence.
And in a special film BBC 5 Live’s Eleanor Oldroyd will talk through some of the key sporting moments in history and share her experience of how great sports events can spark a connection, ease isolation, and bring comfort as part of her work with the charity Sporting Memories. She’ll be joined by Dr Xand who’ll explain how music, food, and even familiar places can stir emotions, unlock recognition, and strengthen neural pathways, showing just how deeply memories shape our well-being.
In a special film for the One Show, actor Kola Bokinni, whose parents met when his mother was a pub landlady, shares the story of his father’s dementia. He visits a care home in Bristol that aims to improve residents wellbeing by growing hops to produce their own beer, while connecting over stories of time spent in their favourite pubs, and the sensory experience of growing and handling hops.
For help and guidance throughout the week, the BBC has worked with a number of organisations, including Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia UK, UK Dementia Research Institute, Alzheimer Scotland, Sporting Memories, Rare Dementia Support, Nordoff Robbins, British Gymnastics and others.
Pippa Considine
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