Comedian focuses on dementia ‘epidemic’
COMEDIAN David Baddiel has called for the “epidemic” of dementia to be given more public attention.
The 52-year-old’s father was born in Swansea and is now housebound, receiving 24-hour care.
Mr Baddiel has made a documentary exploring dementia’s impact on family members of sufferers. He said creating The Trouble With Dad was hard, but decided there must be a wider dialogue about the disease.
He told the Radio Times: “There is no situation where it is straightforwardly OK to put someone on camera who is not totally informed about it due to dementia, as is the case here.
“But the alternative is that nobody ever talks about this, and we must. It’s an epidemic – the largest killer of older people, bigger than cancer. We must bring that into the light.”
His father, aged 82, has Pick’s disease, a rare type of dementia that can see sufferers behave in a sexually disinhibited way and become prone to swearing and rude behaviour.
The Channel 4 programme focuses on the relationship between Mr Baddiel, his father, Colin, and his brother, Ivor.
It follows the BBC Wales documentary made by Radio Cymru presenter Beti George about her partner David Parry-Jones’s struggles with Alzheimer’s, which was shown on Monday night.
Mr Baddiel, who is probably best known for his work with Frank Skinner, said he feels “exhausted” after weekly visits to his father.
“He’s hard work. Sometimes he’s not too mad, but others he’s very thankless. He can be extremely exasperating.”
The father of two added: “He doesn’t understand who the kids are any more. He was never a cuddly grandpa. He doesn’t always know Ivor and me. He understands he has sons, and can recognise pictures of us from our teens, but he seems to think we should still look like that.”
Last summer Mr Baddiel revealed that Wales’ triumph at getting into the semi-finals of Euro 2016 brought joy to his father.
“Just phoned my dad. Through his dementia his excitement shone through. Thank you this glorious Welsh team,” tweeted Mr Baddiel following Wales’ 3-1 win over Belgium.
“For 15 years my dad made us go to Swansea for our summer holidays. Finally it’s all come good. I love Wales!”
The Trouble with Dad will be on Channel 4 at 9pm on Monday.