Prue Leith and her Tory MP son hold profoundly opposing views on legalised euthanasia. They tackle them in a sensitive, fascinating show that’s full of nuance and respect
There has been a line of celebrity parent-child “road trips” creeping on to our screens. Bradley Walsh occasionally takes some time off from The Chase in order to travel with his son on Breaking Dad. For five series, Jack Whitehall trotted his curmudgeonly father around the world to try to bond with him on Travels With My Father. Now Prue Leith and her son, the Conservative MP Danny Kruger, are taking up that mantle with Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip (Channel 4). That sounds like a lovely tour of near-death experiences, doesn’t it? Will Kruger be taking his mother skydiving? Will Leith gamely attempt to lasso a bull at the rodeo? “This film is about assisted death and whether we should legalise it in Britain,” Leith explains. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in the Bake Off tent any more.
This is a thoughtful and nuanced film about the assisted dying debate, and it finds a great way to tell the story and examine both sides, by way of a mother and son who have diametrically opposed opinions on the issue. Leith is in favour of legalising assisted dying in Britain and campaigns for it, having seen the slow and painful death of her older brother David. “I would rather die like most dogs die,” she says, calmly. Her son, meanwhile, chairs an all-party parliamentary group, Dying Well, which campaigns to oppose euthanasia, arguing that it is impossible to legalise assisted dying without opening up the process to coercion and abuse.
