EastEnders’ dementia storyline shaped by writer’s experiences
At Christmas millions of EastEnders fans watched Phil Mitchell’s childhood friend struggle with the impact of early-onset dementia.
Nigel Bates, played by Paul Bradley, was diagnosed with the condition last January and the climax of the powerful storyline compelled a pair of retired stalwarts from the BBC soap to return.
Pam St Clement, who played Pat Butcher for more than two decades, and Shaun Williamson, who was Barry Evans for 30 years, returned to The Vic when Nigel was visited by the ghosts of Christmas past as his mind mixed up memories with events in the present.
What audiences will not realise, however, is that the story was informed by the formative years of one of its script editors, working with the charity Kissing it Better.
Sophie Samuda is the daughter of its founder, Jill Fraser, and was an instrumental part of its launch in 2009.
Kissing it Better’s aim is to end the isolation of old age by bringing the generations together and is inspired by the universal phrase for how simple acts of kindness can make a world of difference.
Fraser, a former nurse, recognised the problem of loneliness when her mother, who had dementia, suffered a stroke and was repeatedly hospitalised.
She encouraged Samuda, then a teenager who was a keen performer at school, to come in with her friends to sing to her grandmother.
“My mother found it so depressing seeing her mother in hospital and wished that there was more that could be done for her. She knew that dementia and music have a really strong connection and asked if my group of friends would learn some songs that my granny loved in the hope that they would cheer her up,” said Samuda.
“She was moved by it as much as she could recognise. So then my mum thought: ‘Why stop at just her mother? Why not help other patients on other wards?’”
Constellation, the girl group with which Samuda sang, may not have cracked the charts but they went on to have a hugely positive impact in care homes and hospital wards around the Midlands.
One particularly powerful moment, involving another volunteer but captured on video by Fraser, was watching a man with dementia who could barely walk start to dance when a group came in to sing My Favourite Things, from The Sound of Music.
The man wasn’t supposed to leave his seat because he was at a high risk of falls but he was so mesmerised that he followed the music into a different bay.
Volunteering was a habit Samuda, now 30, kept up once she went to university. She recognises that there were benefits for her, as well as the patients she visited.
“Once you have performed for people with dementia and those who are experiencing some of the lowest experiences of their lives you feel as if you can do anything because it’s so hard and nerve-racking,” she said.
“Often we had patients who would scream at us to shut up because they were very confused. But for all those moments where it was quite chaotic we also have really moving moments. It was a really good experience for us to see that our music did make a difference.”
Samuda forged a career as a scriptwriter on shows including Casualty and Holby City, where she drew on her Kissing it Better experience to ensure that any storylines involving dementia were as authentic as possible.
“I felt that I knew a little bit about taking care of people who have been stuck in hospital for a long time and how lonely it can be, which helped us to set the tone,” she said.
“I wanted to bring that side of things to the storylines. It’s not all about the medical side of things but the personal and sociable experience as well. And how those touching, warm moments between characters can be really important.”
She also tried to reflect the differences between dementia patients in her scripts, with some able to chat, while others may be non-verbal but can communicate through their eyes.
“Like cancer, sometimes dementia gets stereotyped as one thing,” she said. “But for all the sadness that surrounds it there can be real moments of joy.”
It is this positivity that inspires Samuda to urge everyone who is able to help a charity, having returned to the role after she left for London to sing outside patients’ windows during lockdown.
“Volunteering can be seen as a bit of a chore but I really enjoyed it and still have good friends from my experience 15 years ago,” she said.
“And, any time I’m struggling through something at work, I think well, at least I’m not one of those nurses on the ward having to do something really traumatic.”