A Short Stay in Switzerland PT 5

Julie Walters has become a kind of brand - the best kind.
Give her a role with any substance and you know she'll
deliver a Bafta-worthy performance and leave the audience
damp-eyed. And so it proves here, in the moving true story
of Bath doctor Anne Turner. Having watched her husband
suffer a slow, undignified death, she was diagnosed with a
similar neurological condition. "Rotten bad luck," her character muses. Walters plays Turner as the best kind of

frank, feisty, upper-middle-class mum. "Let battle
commence," she cries as she sets about taking on the
illness she knows is incurable, but she soon decides she
should be allowed to take her own life with dignity, even if
UK law doesn't allow "assisted dying". It's a decision her
three grown-up children struggle to cope with. Sadly, their
characters are short-changed by Frank McGuinness's
script; far better is Harriet Walter as a Christian friend with
whom Turner has a searing confrontation over a last game
of chess. It's one of several shattering scenes in a drama
that forces us to think hard about some big questions.

bbc
Sunday 25 January
9:00pm - 10:30pm
BBC1

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Julie Walters
• BBC
• drama
• Lyndsey Marshal
• Frank McGuinness
• assisted Suicide
• Dr Anne Turner
• Patrick Malahide

[hinkyponky]

I know what it is like to live with a degenerative condition - Julie Walters must have done some serious research for this role - it is nothing short of brilliant - thanks for posting this

[gicandido]

@hinkyponky I'm glad you enjoyed it !

[coziherebrap]

I find this move scary.. i think about dying myself and it scares me :( poor her...

[shushu825]

her performance is so good that my eyes are totally glued to the screen, but at the same time, i feel sick to my stomach...

[BrotherOfBullets]

we watched this in R.E

[XIHeartMerylStreepX]

when that girl said "there are people who can help" I found myself furiously yelling at the screen "SHE DOESENT WANT HELP! SHE WANTS TO DIE!" let her die in peace. It's not what you want, it's what the person suffering wants. respect that. Everyone

[BlondyZo]

im now shaking after watching her try to commit suicide with that plastic bag! i missed that part in school! no wonder everyone was crying so much!!! in tears now

[itskirstybetchx]

I really hope euthanasia becomes legal in the UK, if I ever end up like that then I'd want to end my life before it got really bad! I find it disgusting that it's illegal here, I mean, would you rather see a loved one die quickly and relatively painlessly or watch them slowly die in suffering? No brainer to me.

[ADEMruinedmylife909]

I watched this once at school during a Religious Studies lesson on euthenasia. Tears were pouring down my cheeks for an hour after watching this, but most of my class were laughing themselves silly.

It never fails to amaze me that some people take their own lives for granted...

[longmelford]

I`m not talking about the morality or otherwise of assisted suicide but in this case, as a registered MD, why didn`t Doctor Turner commit suicide here in the UK where she could easily have obtained the Barbituate required without risking the possible prosecution of her children. Was this more a political and high profile statement against the law as it presently stands in the UK ?

[joshwood47]

Has anyone else here read some of the articles on Dr Turner that are on the web?

I think it's interesting how it's this point the children site as being when they knew she was serious about dying, if not completely unsurprising.