What made you two such a good fit for each other?

J: Me and Emily got on so well because we have the same interests: partying, socialising and drinking. We both like to sing too, so it was a massive bonus for me to be able to sing with her brothers’ band, something I'd never done before.

E: Jasmine and I share a love for crude comedy and a strong belief in speaking honestly without constraint, so inevitably we were both up for talking about topics that would ordinarily be taboo when you’ve only known someone for a few hours!

What has been your favourite experience together? Why was that?

J: My favourite experience was going swimming with Emily, it's such an amazing thing to be able to walk in water, and to be able to experience this with her was truly amazing.

E: I introduced Jaz to my brothers at an open mic in Bristol. We’re in a Disney cover band called Dizney Rascal which is extremely silly. Jaz had told me that she likes to sing so I asked her if she wanted to sing a song together. My brothers thought she was really sound (and also a "slammin’ hotty"). Jaz was pretty nervous but she just got up, no messing and smashed it, of course. She’d just overcome a pretty big fear and it was a pleasure to watch.

What has been the most testing moment for the both of you?

J: I did struggle with the personal care, because I am shy. I worried that if Emily didn't wash me correctly I'd have to tell her to do it again and this would be awkward… which it wasn't.

E: This will sound ridiculous, but for me the most testing part of my experience of working for Jasmine was the polishing. I don’t want to sound like a princess but I have genuinely never polished a thing in my 21 years of living!

How have your domestic skills improved, Emily?!

E: I would love to say that some of Jasmine’s tidiness rubbed off on me, but that would be a straight up lie. I’m still not bringing my washing in before it rains and I have yet to master poaching eggs. Scattiness is in my genes!

What’s one thing you’ve learned from each other?

J: Since meeting Emily I have an 'I don't care' attitude. I have had three VERY daring tattoos since meeting her and I love them!

E: I’ve learned so many things from Jasmine it’s kind of impossible to say succinctly. She taught me how to straighten my hair properly... and I guess how to not look like a mess in general! More importantly, I have been trying to emulate the patience that she exhibited when taking me through her personal care routine.

Jasmine’s not resentful or frustrated with the sometimes inconsiderate treatment of people with disabilities in society. She seems to handle everything that life throws at her with so much grace.

How does your friendship make you feel?

J: Have you ever met someone and wondered how you managed without them before? Emily is like the long lost friend I never met, I literally love her.

E: I knew Jasmine and I would be good buddies as soon as I sat down in the interview and we started talking about how prone we are to dying our hair stupid colours until it falls out. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to her for choosing me as her PA and giving me the chance to get to know her. She is a truly stellar woman.

What would you say to young people looking for an assistant or young people looking to take on a similar role?

E: I would say that you’d be hard pushed to find a more meaningful and challenging role. Being a PA for young people just doesn’t seem like work (except maybe the cleaning and cooking aspect - but I’m sure the majority of young people out there aren’t quite as inept as myself when it comes to the household chores!). All you need is the resolve to just give it a whirl.

Wanted: A Very Personal Assistant continues on Friday, 31 July at 9pm on BBC Three. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

The programme is part of Defying the Label on BBC Three, a season of compelling programmes capturing the lives of young disabled people.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

How did you first become involved with the film?
 
Pete Bowker [the writer] came to see me at a hotel in Stoke - he said that he wanted a chat about possibly doing a drama about Neil Baldwin.

The hour meeting turned into a two-hour meeting, to three hours. It probably got to the four hour stage, and we were still talking about Neil!

He asked to come and see me again, with [the director] Julian Farino.

The more I talked, the more interested Julian got. And by the time they left, they’d probably convinced me that something was going to happen.

When I heard it was going ahead, I was delighted and surprised, and anxiously waited to see how it was going to come across on television.

You’re played in the drama by Tony Curran – what was it like having you and Neil’s story as part of the film?

Tony, I believe, had been in Gladiator. I’d never seen him before. When I looked for his picture online, I thought, Bloody hell, he looks nothing like me!

But when I went to the shooting of the film at one of the football grounds, they’d cut his hair shorter and they’d done something with the colouring. He started to resemble me.

I asked him about the voice, and he told me he’d picked it up from the radio, and from Manchester United Television. He’d tried to get as close to it as he could.

I sat there watching him play me, sort of live, and I’ve got to be honest, I thought, Well, that’s not bad! That’s better than I thought it would be!

I went down to London to watch the premiere, not knowing what to expect.

I was never a nervous footballer. I had no fears of walking out into packed stadiums, whether it be Hampden Park, Celtic Park, or Old Trafford. But here I am, sitting years later in this film studio in South Bank, and I’m shaking. And I really was shaking!

I’m thinking, What the hell am I shaking for? I was going to see for the first time what they’d done with me. How they’d used me, and how they’d shown my kit man!

That was probably the most important thing - how he would come across.

When people have asked me what [the film] is like, I’ve said to them, "At the end of it, if you haven’t cried or you haven’t laughed, then you’re not human."

Looking at people round about me, there was laughter in that cinema in London.

And there were people crying, certainly [at the premiere] in Stoke on Trent.

How close to real life is the film?

Everything in it is true. From start to finish, everything happened. The bit I liked best starts with me getting the job at Stoke City...

The next scene is the team bus, outside the stadium. The players are standing outside the bus waiting to go for a game, and out comes Neil, with the kit.

In a chicken outfit!

I told [Pete Bowker] everything that had happened - and believe me, you couldn’t get everything into an hour and a half. I said to him I’m expecting Marvellous 2, Marvellous 3 and Marvellous 4 to come out, because there’s so much we couldn’t get in there.

So I’d like to keep stressing, this is real!

 

 

 

What was it like to catch up with Neil?

There’s no need to catch up - I’ve been in touch with him ever since we parted in terms of working together. He lives in Stoke, I live in Stoke.

When I’ve gone to some of the games at Stoke, he sits on a wall there before a game for about an hour and he’s holding court! People passing say, "How’s it going Nello?" and he chats to them.

I’ve never lost touch with him. I wouldn’t want to.

I took him on to work for me because I had a feeling that he was going to be good for me. The whole time I’ve known him, he’s been loyal. He’s everything you want in a person to work for you.

His mother came in to see me once, as she was a bit concerned about him [working at the football club].

I said to her, "He likes this. This is his environment. He loves being part of the team."

The team was 20 players, plus the coaches - and Neil.

Lou Macari is a former footballer and football manager and is played by Tony Curran in Marvellous.

Marvellous is available to watch and download in BBC iPlayer until 25 January 2015. It was first broadcast on Thursday, 25 September at 9pm on BBC Two and BBC Two HD.

More on Marvellous

BBC Two: Marvellous: Director Julian Farino and Gemma Jones share their "Marvellous" experience

 

BBC News: Clown and kit man: BBC film captures Neil 'Nello' Baldwin

 

BBC Midlands Today: Nello is simply Marvellous

 

The Guardian: How Neil Baldwin became Keele University's mascot

 

BBC Writersroom: Writing the "Marvellous" story of Neil Baldwin

 

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Dr Guttmann (Eddie Marsan) begins to introduce changes at the hospital

I had known of Dr Guttmann ever since playing wheelchair basketball at the Guttmann Centre (now Stoke Mandeville Stadium) as a child.

The Best Of Men tells the story of how Dr Guttmann's work rehabilitating World War II soldiers led to the creation of the Paralympics.

I received the phone call to say I had got the part on my birthday and remember thinking it was like a little present from my Nan who I know is my guardian angel.

Jeremy is so far removed from any other character I have played. He has suffered a spinal injury in the war and is in a pretty bad way.

With the help of Dr Guttmann he recovers and we see him go from strength to strength. He develops a strong bond with Neil (Ben Owen Jones), the wounded soldier in the bed next to him.

As a disabled actor I rarely get a chance to do period dramas so this was a very special project for me.

Looking at the cast list of Eddie Marsan, Rob Brydon and Naimh Cusack I was just honoured to be part of it.

William (George MacKay) and Wynne (Rob Brydon) playing wheelchair hockey

We filmed for three weeks in Bristol and were all staying at the hotel together.

Strangely Nina Toussaint-White and Lacey Turner who I had filmed EastEnders with were also in our hotel for another production, along with all the contestants of Deal or No Deal, it was a really happening party hotel.

We all developed a very special bond having dinner together every night. Rob making us laugh, Eddie and Naimh telling us amazing anecdotes and my fellow actors George MacKay, Ben Owen Jones and I loving every moment.

On set our bond created a lovely atmosphere and that helped as some scenes were emotionally very hard to get through.

Tim Whitby's one of the coolest directors I have ever worked with and he smiled all the way through, his enthusiasm was infectious.

Jeremy is a quiet character and he is pretty out of it for the first part of the film, slowly he comes round.

Dr Guttmann, Jeremy (David Proud), Sister Edwards (Naimh Cusack) and Will

For a few scenes I had to pretend to be asleep and did actually fall asleep during one take, Tim woke me up and complimented me on being a method actor.

I thought that was bad until in the next scene Ben did exactly the same but started to snore, I was trying to nudge him and quietly say "Dude, wake up!" but it didn't work.

Of all the things I have worked on I am most proud of this, I've made some lifelong friends and helped to tell the story of a man whose legacy allowed me to be born into a world where being an actor is possible.

Eddie Marsan plays Dr Guttmann and he's mesmerising to watch and so down to earth, he has such respect for other actors and such a passion for his craft.

His speech about "I will not shield you from the realities of life" made me cry when we filmed it and makes me cry when I watch it.

That's all disabled people want, it's all I have ever wanted, the chance to face the same struggles as everyone else, to be equal, to be The Best Of Men.

More on The Best Of Men
Lucy Gannon on writing The Best Of Men on the BBC Writersroom blog.
Ludwig Guttmann, the doctor who invented the Paralympics on the BBC Ouch blog.

David Proud is an actor in The Best Of Men.

The Best Of Men is on Thursday, 16 August at 9pm on BBC Two and BBC HD. For further programme times, please see the episode guide.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Jasmine Harman with her mum Vasoulla Savvidou at Vasoulla's home

She was sleeping on a scrap of floor in the hall as each of her five bedrooms were inaccessible.

Yet she was not still unable to face letting any of her possessions go, nor could she seem to resist the temptation to accumulate more and more stuff.

I think mum wanted to show other hoarders and their families that they were not lost causes and I wanted to continue the work we'd started, both in the house and raising awareness.

For years we all thought mum was just messy, lazy and reckless with money.

When my youngest brother (then aged 11) was removed from her home when his school insisted that it was not a suitable environment for a child, instead of motivating her to 'tidy up' things got even worse.

Although she desperately wanted him back she was paralysed and received little support from social services or the NHS.

Mum was just supposed to get on with clearing out the house on her own!

In my opinion this would be the same as telling an anorexic to just start eating, or an alcoholic to just stop drinking. It's not as easy as that.

I have to say it has been a huge relief for me not to have to hide this 'shameful' secret anymore.

Even the few people I had told about my mum's house didn't really get it and would make comments which clearly demonstrated their lack of understanding such as "I know what you mean, I'm a complete hoarder too! I've got a whole box full of magazines that I can't throw away!"

Hold on a sec, my mum will show you how to be a proper hoarder!

I really hope that through this documentary I have helped my mum and Alan and Richard, who as you'll see in the programme also struggle with too much stuff.

Alan and Marion Burgess outside their home with Jasmine

When I first arrived at Alan's house I saw the 5 ft high sea of clutter that filled the front garden and I could see the front door, but was left wondering how on earth I'd reach it.

Then I spotted a tiny gap which was the narrow pathway to the house.

Inside books, videos, ornaments, clothes, boxes and other items were stacked floor to ceiling, meaning the only place his wife Marion had to sit down and eat her dinner was on the toilet.

They sleep on half of a double bed as the other half (and the rest of the room) is covered with Alan's belongings and they are forced to visit friends in order to shower as their bathroom is bursting at the seams.

Alan and Richard each have different views of their hoarding.

Whilst Alan feels everything is useful and will only let perished items go, Richard sees that much of what he holds onto is rubbish but still struggles to part with anything.

He has the need to check everything which is frequently the case with hoarders.

One thing they had in common with my mum is that a crisis brought about the need to tackle the hoarding.

For Richard it was his health. When we filmed with him he had just come out of hospital suffering with chest and circulation problems, probably not helped by the fact his house was full of dust, spores and was freezing cold!

Jasmine and Richard Pout at Richard's home

Alan's house is an eyesore and I understand that neighbours' rights must be considered. But I'd like to see local authorities offering help or support for people with his problem.

Instead the course of action Alan's council took was to threaten to prosecute him for the second time.

I feel there are other ways of going about it.

I hope the programme has gone some way to removing the stigma attached to hoarding.

Yes it's messy. Yes it's smelly and unpleasant. But people who make rude comments are the ones who should be ashamed of themselves.

After all you wouldn't laugh at someone who had any other type of illness!

I hope now many hoarders will find the courage to come forward and ask for help and I have set up a website which offers online support and resources.

Hopefully the medical profession will soon give full recognition to Hoarding Disorder and I feel proud of my mum for having been one of the first people in the country to stand up and tell all about the challenges she faces every day.

I think she has been incredibly brave and we've become closer than ever as a result of the documentary.

Crucially I now understand some of the reasons behind her hoarding and we even can have a laugh about it!

Jasmine Harman is the presenter of Britain's Biggest Hoarders.

Britain's Biggest Hoarders is on Tuesday, 8 May at 9pm on BBC One and BBC One HD.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Rita Simons: My Daughter, Deafness and Me

Maiya was diagnosed with hearing loss at six months old and Rita and her family have recently found out that she will probably lose her hearing completely.

In the end Rita came to the conclusion that if she could break some of the stigma about deafness and raise awareness that deaf people can achieve whatever they want in life, it was worth doing the documentary.

Rita also, by her own admission, had been sticking her head in the sand about Maiya's condition and she finally felt ready to look into what was available for Maiya's future.

As the producer and director I was mindful about how our presence in the family home might affect the children and if it might put new emphasis on Maiya's hearing loss.

But once I got to know the family I became very comfortable with the role we played in their life for the four months we filmed with them.

Maiya and her twin sister Jaimee are fun, strong, characterful children who love being filmed and by the end of filming were directing me half of the time.

"Have you filmed me doing a handstand yet?"

However, we were always careful not to film sensitive scenes about Maiya's hearing loss when the children were around.

When Rita and Theo first found out from specialists that Maiya will probably lose her hearing altogether Maiya actually had her hearing aids out and wouldn't have been able to hear anything.

Maiya gets her hearing tested

Ninety per cent of deaf children are born into families who have no previous experience of deafness, so Rita and Theo are representative of many parents with deaf children.

It was a rollercoaster of emotions for them.

Everyone wants to do the right thing for their children, but choosing a route of treatment seems a big gamble as you never know until afterwards if you've made the right decision.

Rita is starting to understand about what life might be like for Maiya as a deaf adult and is starting to learn about how deaf people communicate.

There are many choices but Rita takes quite a black and white view for Maiya - to keep her in the hearing world with artificial sound like hearing aids or cochlear implants, or immerse her into the deaf world with sign language.

However, there is huge middle ground and most people use a mixture of ways to live and communicate.

There are so many different options and paths available to deaf people now that as Maiya grows up I'm sure she'll work out the right fit for her and Rita and Theo will support her in that.

Filming with deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL) was a challenge as I don't know BSL. I can now sign what my name is, that I work as a director and that I'm filming with an actress from EastEnders who has twin daughters - but that can only get you so far!

We had many moments of communication breakdown that we had to overcome, but we managed it.

What most people don't realise is that BSL is not just a translation of English, it's a totally different language with different grammar.

For me as the English language speaker it was a bit like trying to communicate with someone who only speaks Mandarin, and it made me realise how difficult communication can be for deaf people.

As we show in the documentary, Rita and her family took a BSL lesson. As an actress, Rita was actually very good at sign language as it's a visual language and she picked it up very quickly.

However, at age five, Maiya was more interested at playing dressing up games than BSL, but I do think that as she gets older the family will look into learning sign language again.

When we started filming Rita said to me that I'd never see her cry about Maiya as she takes a very practical approach and won't let herself become emotional about it.

However, when she went to visit the deaf school and saw a big group of deaf children rehearsing a school play I turned round and saw tears streaming down Rita's face.

Rita visits the deaf school

The impact of seeing so many children like her daughter was very emotional for her and I think it hit home that Maiya is deaf and does have to overcome challenges on a daily basis because she can't hear like other people.

Rita and Theo are united in their approach to parenting Maiya, but they have very different personalities.

Theo is more reticent in making decisions whereas Rita is very decisive, but the balance between the two of them makes them a good partnership.

Rita and Theo have been together since they were teenagers and although having a deaf child inevitably makes parenting more stressful it hasn't put a strain on their marriage and they are very happy.

Rita wanted to find out about cochlear implants so she met eight-year-old Jack who has the same level of hearing loss as Maiya and was having a cochlear implant operation.

One of the most stressful parts for me was filming Jack's activation appointment.

Rita and Jack's parents were incredibly stoical about it but I absolutely hated it when Jack took a while to start hearing through his implant.

You may like to know that two months on Jack's parents Tracy and Mick have told me that he's getting on brilliantly and that he can hear all sorts of sounds that he couldn't hear before.

Sophie Leonard is the producer and director of Rita Simons: My Daughter, Deafness and Me.

Rita Simons: My Daughter, Deafness and Me is next on at 10.40pm on Tuesday, 20 March on BBC One and BBC One HD. It was first broadcast on Tuesday, 20 March at 12.35am on BBC One and BBC One HD with signing in British Sign Language.

For further programme times, please see the episode guide.

If you would like further information about deafness and the issues raised in the programme, please visit the information and support page.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Captain Martin Hewitt pulling a pulk

I was serving in Afghanistan as a platoon commander in the Parachute Regiment when I was shot leading an attack on an enemy position.

While moving forward I was shot through the upper chest, shortly followed by a bullet in the foot.

The impact threw me to the ground and I immediately realised that the bullet had severed the artery supplying blood to my right arm and severed the nerves, rendering the arm paralysed.

I'd always looked for challenges, which is why I commissioned into the Paras, and enjoyed working under pressure in the austere conditions of the desert. I wanted to see if I could do this in the Arctic.

On returning from racing, I was interviewed in London alongside dozens of other hopefuls and invited to attend a selection weekend in the Arctic Circle that May.

I'd never seen a pulk or Nordic skis so it was all rather strange.

The selection process involved pulling a pulk over undulating terrain for two days, and camping out overnight in a tent with my new teammate Guy, who'd lost a leg in Afghanistan.

I hit it off with Guy "Maximus" Disney and the rest of the team immediately, and while the selection was challenging, I enjoyed every minute of this barren environment and the other team members.

On completion of the selection weekend I was invited to begin training as part of the team.

I was still undergoing the occasional operation on my injuries and thought that the training would help me maintain drive and a good standard of physical fitness.

Should I make it to the Pole it would not only be an achievement, but to me it would signify overcoming the injuries I'd sustained in battle.

Captain Martin Hewitt walking with his team: Left to right - Simon Daglish, Prince Harry, Inge Solheim (behind), Capt Martin Hewitt, Pte Jaco Van Gass, Sgt Steve Young, Henry Cookson, Capt Guy Disney, and Ed Parker.

I've had to adapt everything since my injury - from learning to write and type with one hand (my non-dominant hand), to searching for a new career.

I'd found the greatest physical challenges to date were regaining independence in independent living with one arm.

If I could achieve that in the most inhospitable environment on the planet, it would signify overcoming the additional challenges my disability have presented me.

While I'd faced mental challenges coming to terms with the loss of my prized career, I felt that I'd maintained a strong mental robustness too, post-injury, and thought this would be a great test of that.

As the training progressed, and more people became aware of the expedition, I was getting messages from other injured colleagues stating that what we were doing was providing them with motivation to get their own lives back on track.

This was something I never anticipated at first and it had a huge impact on me. I now felt that I had a professional duty as a serving officer to ensure success in order to provide an example to others.

It was this - and the desire to achieve success - that drove me on in training.

I just had to convince my poor parents, who'd hoped I'd calm down a little post-injury, that ski racing downhill for the country and walking to the North Pole were perfectly safe. Erm...

Prince Harry on the Arctic Circle expedition

Throughout the expedition we worked to each other's strengths and supported each other with our injuries. This is something we found came naturally with a military background.

While there were long periods in our own thoughts walking, walking, and a little more damn walking, we'd push each other on with jokes, banter and taking the piss.

I've always found that soldiers have a slightly dark, even warped, sense of humour and that made the expedition significantly more bearable than it could have been.

On the ice I found that I was back to my old self, as this was the first time post-injury that I was part of a close team, which the expedition has highlighted I'd missed enormously.

Harry's Arctic Heroes will show the journey in more depth than I can go into here but I'll culminate by staying that we succeeded due to drive, determination, team work and a great support structure - along with a little blessing from lady luck.

Captain Martin Hewitt is a participant in Harry's Arctic Heroes.

Harry's Arctic Heroes is on BBC One at 9pm on Tuesday, 23 August.

For further programme times, please visit the upcoming episodes page.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

The successes of modern medicine are often rightly publicised, but we rarely discuss what happens when medicine fails.

For example, death is commonly viewed as an event which involves cessation of the heartbeat. In actual fact, it is irreversible damage to the brain that decides whether a person survives or not, and the heart needs to have stopped for several minutes before such damage results.

Indeed, it is common, as with head injury, for the brain to be irreversibly damaged, while the function of the heart and lungs is maintained by intensive care.

People have little concept of the varying degree of brain injury that result in brain death, coma, a vegetative state, or severe disability.

A discussion of such difficult topics is important in a civilised society, and helpful to families of patients. I felt that the knowledge from a well-made programme could inform such a discussion.

However, there were also significant pitfalls in making such a programme. There were difficult issues about filming unconscious patients who could not provide consent, and we were concerned that a poorly made programme would display patients as exhibits.

Also, as you might imagine, there were sensitivities about being recognised as an expert on dying! It was clear that there was an opportunity to make a very good programme, but also the danger of making a very bad one.

We thought long and hard about the issue of consent, and finally took the same approach as we would for research in this setting.

We felt that if there was a wider good, the patient was not put at risk, and this was likely to have been what they would have wished, it was appropriate to include them in the programme.

In order to understand whether or not patients would have wished to be part of the programme, we sought advice from those that knew them best - their close families.

We also agreed that patients and their families would have the right to withdraw consent to participate in the program up to the point of transmission.

Nick Holt (director of the film), and Marina Parker (producer) spent several months in the NCCU and Emergency Department (ED) at Addenbrooke's even before they even started to film.

In the succeeding months they essentially became part of the NCCU team, and shot nearly 90 hours of film! Their interviews took them right across the spectrum of clinical activity in the NHS, including the ED, intensive care units and operating theatres; the wards and rehabilitation centres; and even the mortuary and anatomy dissection rooms!

In the event, the programme's editors chose to focus on three patients who had been through the NCCU. Their stories make unconventional television viewing.

Richard was one of those people. He was admitted with an isolated spinal injury, but then fell into a coma, from which he showed no signs of emerging.

The consequence was that we had a man in his forties who was unable to respond to us and who, his family informed us, had previously expressed the conviction that he would not want to survive in that state.

Given that this was the best information we had of his wishes, we were willing to be guided by this, but decided to wait a bit longer to clarify the situation.

When, after a period of waiting, he showed voluntary movement of his eyes, everything changed. We could use these eye movements to document "yes" or "no" responses, and through such communication, allow Richard to have a say in his own care.

This was crucial, because we know that there may sometimes be differences between what a patient declares when he is fit and healthy, and what he feels when he is the one in the hospital bed.

As time passed, we were confident that Richard had enough comprehension and memory to make these interactions meaningful. We were then able to establish, on three successive occasions, that he understood what had happened to him, and that he was happy for us to carry on with his treatment.

The presence of such communication also enabled both the ICU staff and Nick to directly ask Richard whether he was happy to continue to participate in the making of the programme, and we be certain of the fact that he was in agreement with this.

Since completion of the programme, Richard has continued to improve very slowly.

However, we need to ensure, through continuing communication, that he remains happy with treatment. Given the length of any potential recovery process, it is also essential that we maximise his enjoyment of life, particularly in terms of interactions with his family and friends.

Arguably, none of the three cases that are featured might be considered a success.

However, I hope that viewers will take away a sense of the uncertainties that medical teams sometimes face, and why good clinical care remains just as important in these difficult settings.

I also hope that the programme shows why medicine remains as much an art as a science, why good clinical care requires wisdom as well as knowledge, and that common humanity does not need to be a casualty of "high tech" intensive care.

Many of the staff on the unit were initially wary about the filming because of the fears expressed earlier in this discussion. Despite these fears, we chose to go ahead, because a well made programme could illuminate a very difficult topic, and inform the public about this grey area between life and death.

In the event, any fears were completely unjustified. Nick and Marina were absolutely fantastic, and have become good friends not just to us, but also to the patients' families.

Their feedback has been uniformly positive. Indeed, after they viewed the programme, the feeling that came across was that it gave them a voice that they would otherwise not have.

My only regret is that, because of the need to keep the program to a manageable length, we could not tell all of the stories that we recorded.

Still, there is always a next time...

Professor David Menon is a consultant at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

Between Life And Death is on BBC One at 10.35pm on Tuesday, 13 July and on BBC HD at 00.00 on Wednesday, 14 July.

She found that Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, one of the largest in country, shared her strong belief that the documentary was a real chance to help break down stigma around mental illness.

Once we started looking for contributors for Sectioned, however, we soon discovered there were very few people both well enough and brave enough to appear in the film. But following the guidance of some of the Trust's consultant psychiatrists and nursing staff, we began to meet patients who had an unfolding story we could follow.

It was absolutely crucial that anyone who might take part was well enough to make a decision about being filmed. Before I shot a single frame, lawyers from the BBC and the NHS Trust drew up a rigorous protocol.

A key staff member treating each potential contributor would sign a form to confirm the patient had the mental capacity to consent to filming and that they understood what it would entail.

The contributors themselves had to give three levels of consent - in writing, on-camera (which you see in the programme) and then at the end once they'd seen the final film.

We checked in with staff every time we wanted to film and they had the power to stop us at any time. Once these safeguards were in place, we could begin to tell their stories.

We met Anthony quite early on and it was obvious how deeply frustrated he was with the psychiatric system. He's been in and out of hospital for 26 years since a breakdown back in 1984, but rejects the label of schizophrenia he's been given and hates the medication he has to take when under section.

He feels trapped in a Catch 22-like situation - if he protests against taking medication, he's told that shows what little insight he has into his illness and proves how much he needs to take the medication.

But when Anthony's daughter Marcia described the level of self-neglect Anthony sinks to when not on his medication, it was clear his story was more complicated than it first appeared.

I met Andrew on one of Nottingham's treatment and therapy wards. A month earlier, during a paranoid episode, he'd been involved in a high-speed chase with three police cars and when he was finally caught, he was arrested and then sectioned.

Andrew recently retired from a long and fulfilling career as a consultant pathologist despite enduring bouts of bipolar disorder for 30 years.

Even when unwell, Andrew seemed to have a real insight in to his illness and after our first conversation he was keen to take part in the film.

But he was still in the manic stage of a bipolar episode and it was a few weeks before his consultant was happy enough with his progress to allow any filming.

When Andrew's mood sunk into the depressive stage of the illness he found the filming very arduous and some days he couldn't face it. But such was his belief in the project, he admirably continued when he could.

The day we met Richard on the intensive care ward, he was hearing voices and experiencing powerful suicidal thoughts.

Now 34, Richard had his first psychotic episode 15 years ago and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Despite the delusions Richard was experiencing during our first meeting, his consultant was confident Richard still had the capacity to decide about being in the film.

Lucy and I were immediately struck by how charming and positive Richard is about life despite the huge challenges he faces.

The intensive care ward is an intimidating place for the uninitiated, but Richard soon made us feel comfortable and although it was hard at first to know how to react to the long pauses while Richard listened to 'the gods' in his head, we soon got used to it.

I set out to try and build relationships with Anthony, Richard and Andrew that were not based just on discussions about their mental health.

Perhaps the fact that that turned out to be so easy says something about my own prejudices going in to the project.

These men don't want to be defined by mental illness, although that is often how they feel others see them.

We wanted to make a film that gave a voice to those whose identity is often masked by a label and all three men have said making the film gave them that opportunity. That they found the experience of making Sectioned helpful is what I am most proud of.

Ben Anthony is the director of Sectioned, co-produced by the Open University, and is available on iPlayer until Thursday, 26 May.

Sectioned is part of the Out Of Mind season, a series of programmes which focuses on mental health issues.

For more information about Sectioned or for information on how to get help with the issues raised in this blog post, please visit the BBC Headroom website.

Jonathan was an extraordinary young man and I'm still inspired by his courage and strength. But what also struck me about his case was the way the decision was made.

Gone were the days when doctors would decide on the best course of action without consultation with the patient. Gone also were the days when the parents' will would automatically prevail. And whilst this is all undoubtedly a good thing, it made me think about how difficult decisions are made in hospitals across the country on a daily basis.

When Films of Record approached us with an idea to make a series in Great Ormond Street Hospital, I was keen to see if we could explore this complex issue further.

We knew we wanted to follow patients' stories, but we also wanted to see if we could focus on the side of the story we rarely see - the perspective and point of view of the doctors as they wrestle with the most complicated dilemmas.

One of the most powerful things that documentaries can do is to give viewers an insight into a situation that they wouldn't usually have access to. Although there has been no shortage of series in the past featuring doctors talking about their work, this series' director Ricardo Pollack and his production team managed to forge such a level of trust with hospital staff that they were allowed to film the meetings where teams of doctors discuss individual cases candidly and try to reach a consensus on what the best course of action is for the patient, both medically and ethically. The doctors allowed them to film when not everyone agreed on a course of action. And they allowed them to film their differences of opinion.

I don't believe Great Ormond Street's doctors have ever allowed this level of access before, and this is what is so compelling about the series. We are witness to conversations that you or I would never normally hear. And the doctors have been brave enough to let the cameras in to capture the raw honesty of their discussions.

What's extraordinary is that you are there in the moment with the doctors as they make the decisions, and what comes across most clearly is that these decisions are not always black and white - there are huge grey areas.

When medical science has come so far, it's often not a question of can they save a child's life. It's much more a matter of should they really keep the child alive.

In the first film we follow the cardiac team as they attempt to treat four very difficult cases. In one case the doctors decide that there's nothing they can do for a little eight-month-old baby girl called Aicha who's suffering from a very rare and serious heart condition.

In their view the risks associated with the operation are too great. But her parents are adamant that there's still hope for their daughter and plead with the doctors to reconsider their decision.

Their cardiologist is Dr Philip Rees and he agrees to bring their case back to the cardiac team to see if there is anything at all that can be done. He feels it's important to push the boundaries and try to do everything possible to help Aicha, but he also has to be careful not to embark on treatment that could be regarded as futile.

This is the crux of the dilemma, and we see Dr Rees admit to the team that he recognises he has become too emotionally involved in the case to make an objective decision.

The team agonise over the right thing to do - before deciding to get a second opinion from a number of teams in other hospitals who will be able to look at the case through fresh eyes. That way the parents won't waste their time raising money to take their child for treatment abroad. And that way the doctors can take the decision to try out a new surgical technique. The outcome is a welcome development for Aicha's parents.

Now that patients - and in most cases at Great Ormond Street the parents as well - have a say in the treatment they receive, doctors' jobs have inevitably become much more complex.

Add to this the fact that advances in medical technology now offer parents hope that wasn't there in the past, and you begin to get a sense of the pressures that doctors are faced with. But what I hope people will take from this series is a greater understanding of these ethical dilemmas and how doctors go about making some of the most difficult decisions you can ever imagine.

Charlotte Moore is the BBC commissioning editor, documentaries

Once again, it takes a proven, entertainment format, but then turns it on its head, by adding a fresh element, in this instance, wheelchair dancing, a sport we were sure most viewers would never have seen before. A documentary element is also added, for as the series progresses, you will get to learn more about each disabled character's life.

The commission was the idea of an independent production company called Fever. Their pitch, in January 2010, was simple and very effective: they showed me a DVD of wheelchair dancing that they'd pulled off YouTube - something like this.

I was instantly taken with it: here was a real sport, enjoyed by people all over the world, but rarely seen in the UK, despite our obsession with ballroom and all things Strictly.

I then discovered that there was a Wheelchair Dance European Championship being held later in the year that our winning couple would be able to enter. So suddenly we had a real event to focus on. The UK had never entered this competition before.

After a discussion with BBC Three controller Danny Cohen it was commissioned quickly, but with a proviso: we asked that it be cast with celebrities who crucially already knew how to dance. We wanted to give this minority sport as a high a profile as possible on the channel and to bring a mainstream audience to something they would not necessarily know about.

I know this approach is debated by some members of the disabled - and non-disabled - community, who would prefer a more purist approach, but I want my series to be watched, and for wheelchair dancing to be talked about by as many people as possible. I think this is the best way to achieve that at this time.

The first challenge was to convince celebrities that this was a real show as many of them initially thought it was some kind of hoax! Others said they just found the concept too weird. But the more we got this kind of reaction, the more determined we were to make this. Soon it became clear there were a group of celebrities who were up for the challenge, though I don't believe any of them quite knew how it would take over their lives.

The final piece in the jigsaw was Brian Fortuna, the series teacher. As The Independent wrote in their TV review, "Gone was the sappy, nice guy persona he maintains in Strictly, replaced instead by a kind of foul-mouthed New York stage school sass."

Brian's no-holes-barred style in which he made no allowances for anyone's disability and instead, simply pushed them to be as good as they can possibly be, was exactly what the series needed.

His passion to bring able-bodied people together with wheelchair users is what drives the films, for he inspired all the contributors with his belief in it, and many of them surpassed their own expectations and, to be honest, his too.

I know from experience that when you make a disability programme you will always face criticism: you enter a quagmire where you're damned if you don't by the Why Are We Never On TV? lobby and if you do dip your toe in, then your approach can easily be attacked. I absolutely welcome the debate. Even so, I'm always a little shocked that sometimes, a programme like this is almost immediately dismissed, for example, by being accused of producing some kind of freak show.

On the BBC Ouch! messageboards meridi asks why we don't have an integrated show regardless of impairment and Nia says that she won't be watching Dancing On Wheels because she feels it's a shame that wheelchair users "have to be singled out and given a separate different TV program." [sic]

In fact, the whole reason they were singled out is because this is a real sport, with its own organisation and competitions that only an able-bodied and wheelchair using partner are allowed to enter.

David G started a thread on the Ouch! messageboards where he likens Dancing On Wheels to the Black And White Minstrel Show. In short, I fail to see the comparison - that was made up concept and people were blacked up, whereas wheelchair dancing is a real, competitive sport, no one is pretending to be anything they're not.

I understand there is no way this kind of criticism can be avoided, and I would never claim to have made the perfect series, but I am certain of one thing: the more disabled appear on primetime television, be it in comedy, drama or factual, the less prejudice and ridicule there will be for future generations of disabled people to face.

Finally, I will leave the last word to Diana Morgan-Hill, pictured at the top of this blog post with her partner, ex-Olympic swimmer Mark Foster. Diana's a 47-year-old mother who lost part of both her legs in an accident 20 years ago. She said, after a few days filming "It's wonderful, I never thought I'd dance again."

That alone is fantastic justification for making this series, and anyone who doubts this, should watch the final episode where we catch up with the contributors' lives and see what impact taking part has had on them.

Harry Lansdown is commissioning editor for factual programmes on BBC Three