Real Life

Episodes - Real Life

• Addicted to Love People who believe themselves to be addicted to sex talk about how their affliction rules their lives. Mark and Linda Church discuss the strain unreasonable demands can place on a relationship, while two devotees of the fetish scene reveal its attraction for them and a single woman seeks the help of psychotherapist Dr Sydney Crown to discover the origins of her obsession and whether she will ever be able to live a normal life
• Beating Breast Cancer The story of Sixties icon Marsha Hunt, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. Famous for her role in rock musical Hair! and her relationship with Mick Jagger, the actress talks about her decision to have a double mastectomy and forego reconstructive surgery. To show her determination, she recreates a pose photographed by Patrick Lichfield in her heyday, pointing out she's still the same woman despite the illness
• The Boy They Call Chucky Documentary following 13-year-old Christian Cunniffe, who is afflicted with a complex range of behavioural disorders that cause him to fly into uncontrollable rages in a split second. His mother Cath is desperate to help her son rather than putting him into care for the good of her family, and embarks on a nine-month quest to find a cure - a journey that takes her to some of the world's most eminent child psychiatrists
• Children of the Miners' Strike The struggle of a mother in the former mining community of Worksop in Nottinghamshire to save her son from heroin addiction, an epidemic blighting the generation born during the death throes of the coal industry. Donna Marsh battled through the deprivations of the 1984 strike, but now faces a bigger challenge to keep 22-year-old Gary clean long enough to start a rehabilitation course when he comes out of Lincoln prison. Meanwhile, the cycle of stealing and scoring goes on in similar towns and vi…
• Desperate To Be Slim No synopsis available
• The Diary of a Mother on the Edge Documentary following Henrietta and Michael Spink, who have battled with Social Services and the health and education systems to get help to care for their two severely disabled sons. Having given up their jobs and seen their debts spiral they take the heartbreaking decision to sell their home, buy a yacht and set sail for an ocean adventure around the world. Their ultimate aim is to obtain ground-breaking treatment in America, but first they must adjust to life at sea
• Human Eyes and You Shall Know No synopsis available
• Lin and Ralph - A Love Story Documentary featuring Lin and Ralph Berwick, who met and fell in love following the death of Ralph's first wife. The couple married within two years and set up a charity to provide holidays for disabled people, despite serious health problems of their own. They discuss their work and reflect on how their relationship has been strengthened by a refusal to be limited by Lin's blindness and cerebral palsy, as well as a 17-year age gap
• Living on the Edge Children living on rival estates in Southwark, an area of London with one of the highest levels of violent crime in the country, talk about their hopes and fears for the future. They reveal how their lives are blighted by the tension which exists between the two communities, and cast doubt on well-meaning efforts to tackle the hostility and suspicion that so often escalates into confrontation
• Love on the Run Documentary telling the story of 16-year-old Wendy Kelly, who ran away from her family to be with her lover Adrian Bristow : a 38-year-old father-of-three who used to drive her school bus. The programme reveals how a family secret contributed to Wendy's decision to start a new life away from home, and follows the unlikely couple through a year of emotional and financial turmoil
• The Man with the Seven Second Memory Insight into the tortured existence of Clive Wearing, once a renowned conductor and musician, who was struck down by a virus which left him brain-damaged and with a memory span of just seven seconds. His wife and children discuss the difficulty of trying to keep the family intact, when he has to live in a unit 80 miles from home, and the heartache they suffer when he cannot remember who they are
• Me and My Face Documentary following three people with facial disfigurements as they prepare to undergo operations that could potentially change their lives for ever. Before meeting some of the world's best surgeons at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, they discuss the ways in which they deal with their appearance, describing the attention they attract in the streets and how their jobs, ambitions and love lives have been affected
• A Mother's Journey In September 2002, Jewish teenager Yoni Jesner became the first Scottish casualty of a suicide bomb when the bus he was travelling on in Tel Aviv was ripped apart by an explosion. His mother, Marsha Gladstone, provides a personal account of the 19-year-old's life, using family videos and photographs, and explains her desire to visit the eight-year-old Palestinian girl who received Yoni's donated kidneys
• A Murder in the Family Documentary following grandmother Margaret Davis's fight to secure justice for her murdered son Steven. After a two-year struggle to prove her daughter-in-law Evelyn was responsible for the murder, she finally gets the chance to see her tried in a courtroom in the Philippines. If Evelyn is found guilty, she could face a life sentence or the death penalty - and Margaret's grandchildren might never see their mother again
• My Death Row Lover Documentary following three British women whose lives are dominated by love for their partners - who are all prisoners on America's death row. They discuss the changes in their lifestyles that have come about through their devotion to their convicted loved ones. Two of them are making preparations for marriage - even though they can never be together - and the third is trying to find her boyfriend's long-lost son
• My Mum is My Dad No synopsis available
• Size Matters Three people reveal what it's like to be short in a society where height is valued and commands respect. At just under 5ft, fortysomething Wendy is desperate to subject herself to gruelling leg-lengthening surgery in a bid to gain up to four inches, while teenager Ricky feels trapped in the body of a 10-year-old and wants to know why. Finally, Michael Calwell speaks out against the prejudice suffered by the vertically challenged at the annual convention of the Tall Persons Club : will he find a …
• Too Scared For School The stories of four teenagers who have been bullied for years at school, including Rebecca, who ended up in hospital for three days after being beaten up, and James, who was so desperate for the torment to stop that he stood in the road waiting to be hit by a car. The programme follows their daily lives as they struggle to cope with the feelings of isolation and helplessness. Including video diary footage, short reconstructions and the thoughts of the bullies themselves
• Unfit Parents No synopsis available
• The World at Their Feet Documentary following the fortunes of five talented youngsters selected for the Football Association's School of Excellence at Lilleshall in 1995, when they were just 14. Most successful has been Leeds United's Alan Smith, who ironically left the scheme after two months because of homesickness, but scored with his first touch in the league and has gone on to achieve international status. For the rest, luck and the vagaries of the managerial merry-go-round are as important as hard work and talent…
• You Will Know Them By Their Trail Of Death Widows Pauline Bonney and Joan Baird investigate the truth behind the deaths of their husbands from asbestos-related cancers after they were exposed to the substance at work. With 150,000 people predicted to die from the asbestos epidemic in Britain, Pauline and Joan discover the censored medical research that could have saved their husbands and assess the work being done to deal with the legacy of the deadly chemical