Sunday Night: Nov 25

Sunday Night features a reunion between Mike Willesee and Quentin Kenihan (a regular reader here!), 30 years after their very first interview on Nine.

Bath Salt Tragedy
One dose of this legal powder is turning ordinary people into zombies with possessed minds and bodies. It’s an intense synthetic drug that’s marketed as a safe alternative to illegal substances – but it’s sending users into states of psychotic delirium, consumed with rage and superhuman strength. One man ate the family dog while under the influence of the substance that goes by the misleading name ‘bath salts’. In this special Sunday Night investigation, Ross Coulthart reports on the heartbreaking story of an Australian mum of two who lost her partner just weeks ago when the pair took the drug, believing it was safe. Rachael tells of the horrifying ordeal the pair suffered before her partner Glenn died when doctors had to switch off his life support. Easily purchased over the counter at stores across Australia, how is this legal and how do police counter the threat?

Willesee & Quentin – 30 Years On
It won him his first logie and is the story Mike Willesee is always asked about by members of the public. He first interviewed Quentin Kenihan 30 years ago when Australia fell in love with the cheeky seven-year-old who was confined to a wheelchair, suffering from a rare genetic bone condition. The boy who became a household name is now a 37-year-old man, and his reunion with the veteran journo will warm your heart. While he still battles health problems, having suffered pneumonia for the past 12 months, Quentin’s thirst for life is intact. Back then, Mike Willesee openly bribed him with toys to get the answers he was after, but now Quentin turns the tables and gives the interviewing legend a run for his money. See what happens when he returns a gift Mike gave him when they first.

Proof Of Heaven?
It’s the age-old question – is there an afterlife, and what is it like? Sunday Night meets a world-renowned and Harvard-trained neurosurgeon – for years a non-believer in the afterlife, but now a convert. When Dr Eben Alexander collapsed with meningitis four years ago, he spent seven days in a coma. When he finally awoke he told an extraordinary tale of what he’d experienced while he was sleeping. Dr Alexander distinctly remembers butterflies and beautiful women. Thousands of people – among them Melbourne woman Carmel Bell – have reported similar near-death experiences: travelling towards a light, encounters with heavenly beings, a sense of being outside their bodies. But none have had the scientific credibility of Dr Alexander. Sunday Night’s Pete-Jane Madam takes you on a journey into the afterlife and examines the scientific basis of his claims. We meet the scientists studying whether consciousness can live on despite the apparent death of the brain. Those who have ‘been there’ swear it’s real, while those who haven’t are sceptical. You be the judge.

6:30pm Sunday on Seven.