Panorama film about Lynn Gilderdale wins Medical award

thisisthewestcountry.co.uk, Tuesday 15th February 2011:

YEOVIL-BASED media company GRACE Productions has won the prestigious Broadcast TV prize at the Medical Journalists’ Association Winter Awards 2011, for a documentary the company made for BBC Panorama.

GRACE’s film, I Helped My Daughter Die, was first broadcast on the BBC’s flagship current affairs series last year.

Presented by Jeremy Vine, the programme followed the tragic story of Lynn Gilderdale - chronically-ill with ME for 17 years - who took her own life in an assisted suicide. Her mother Kay Gilderdale was later charged with attempted murder.

GRACE’s production team, led by director Ray Tostevin, spent nearly a year following Mrs Gilderdale as she prepared for trial.

GRACE’s Panorama film went out at the conclusion of the trial, in which Kay Gilderdale was found not guilty of the attempted murder of her daughter. The case was a legal landmark, and made headlines around the world.

The MJA judges praised GRACE’s film for “well-chosen contributors and a great story which was sensitively followed over a long time.”