29/06/2010

Synopsis

As a tribute to the historian Tony Judt, who died earlier this month, this is another chance to hear his candid interview with Peter White.

Tony Judt was an acclaimed historian of post-war Europe. Eighteen months before his death, Tony - an active, sporty 60-plus - was diagnosed with a severe form of Motorneurone Disease, leaving him able to do little more than think.

Paralysed from the neck down, Tony needed 24 hour care and relied on other people for all his physical needs.
His mind however, was always his own, and was extraordinarily busy.

In this programme, first broadcast in June, he describes the experience of having the illness: "This disease is viciously consuming. It's like a kind of octopus: it eats you bit by bit. You can't fix it, you can't cure it, you can't stop it, but you've got one thing over it, it doesn't hurt. So if you're tough minded, you don't need medicine, you just need a mind".

Tony refused to be crushed by the disease and continued writing up until his death earlier this month.

Prod: Cheryl Gabriel.