Airdate: Miriam’s Deathly Adventure

Next month Miriam Margolyes confronts her fear of ageing & death and tackles our greatest taboo – our own mortality in Miriam’s Deathly Adventure.

Inimitable actress Miriam Margolyes is rather terrified of death. In this though provoking and entertaining two-part documentary, she’s on a mission to confront her fear of ageing and death and tackle our greatest taboo – our own mortality.

With her unique mix of charm, cheek and intellectual curiosity Miriam’s travelling through the UK, Europe and America taking an unflinching look at different approaches and attitudes to dealing with death.

In Episode One Miriam checks into Wren Hall, a dementia care home, to see what getting old might actually look like. With average life expectancy for women in the UK at 82, Miriam, 77, knows statistically she hasn’t got long left and the chances are, like most of us, she’ll end up in a home. She meets Geoff, who visits his wife June every day following her stroke six years ago.
Terrified and chastened she heads to America to meet people who believe that soon we’ll not only be able to ‘cure ageing’ but with radical medical and technological advances we could actually ‘defeat’ death enabling us to live forever.

In California Miriam heads to RAAD Fest – the world’s largest gathering of life enthusiasts. The Revolution Against Ageing and Death festival attracts thousands of people, with some going to extreme and even dangerous lengths to prevent ageing and prolong life.

Next she meets pioneers of the super longevity movement – the eerily youthful 82-year- old Bernadene and cryotherapy enthusiast Jim. At their monthly meeting in Arizona Miriam sees a growing community of people who are trying to achieve ‘unlimited lifespans’ by thinking and feeling differently about how we deal with death. In his minus 140-degree Celsius cryo chamber Miriam learns of Jim’s philosophy that rather than waste our lives because we all think death is inevitable, why not aspire to immortality and improving the world with our wisdom?

Loma Linda, near San Diego, is one of the world’s five ‘Blue Zones’ – longevity hotspots where people live longer than anyone else on earth and residents survive ten years longer than the average American. It’s also home to over nine thousand Seventh Day Adventists – strict believers in healthy living and a devotion to God. Miriam joins 71-year- old Marijke at water aerobics – part of her daily three-hour exercise regime. Surrounded by hundreds of sprightly pensioners, all preaching the gospel to fitness and Jesus, Miriam next accompanies Ida to her experimental laughter therapy session at Loma Linda’s medical university.

But not everyone wants to laugh their way to long life. For some, the answer to super longevity is found in science. At the Church of Perpetual Life in Florida, Miriam meets founder Bill Falloon. His church doesn’t involve God but rather a devotion to supplements that may keep you alive long enough to allow you to benefit from scientific breakthroughs that will lead to immortality. But they don’t come cheap and Miriam begins to wonder whether fighting death and achieving a healthy never-ending old age is beyond the pockets of most and wonders what this means for those who can’t afford it.

Returning to the UK humbled, Miriam heads back to Wren Hall. Geoff’s invited her to a party where she soon realises that while the privileged busily fret about extending their lives, for most people, the best way to deal with death is to make the most out of life.

Tuesday 13 August 9.30pm on ABC.