Just for the record

“Just for the record” is the final programme in the first aeries of “Video Diaries”. These are “subjective” documentaries which experiment with the elimination of professional involvement and mediation, at key production stages - most significantly during shooting. To do this the BBC gives simple-to-operate, but sophisticated SVHS camcorders to “ordinary” people, so they can record experiences from their own lives. David Francis was the only “diarist” with any relevant knowledge , not a professional programme maker, but a stills photographer and maker of Wedding videos. He had form some time kept a video archive of his important family events, but he intended this diary to be a record of day-to-day family life. As he started, his grandmother was in hospital, but her condition suddenly deteriorated, contrary to medical expectation. The hospital didn’t tell his family she was having chemotherapy treatment until shortly before her death two weeks later. Angry at what he saw as an unnecessary and possibly avoidable death, rather than abandon his plans, David kept recording the diary throughout. The result is a very personal, intimate and controversial diary of bereavement, made as his family try to prepare their young daughter for what is about to happen. David had full editorial control of the finished diary. It’s undiluted subjective viewpoint, and the way in which he chooses to cope with dilemmas that face him, raise important questions about this emerging genre of programmes.