ITV inquiry into 'faked' death

ITV has launced an inquiry after it emerged it filmed the "death" of an Alzheimer's patient three days before he actually passed away.Film-maker Paul Watson spent 11 years with Malcolm Pointon and his wife Barbara as the talented pianist and former composer was reduced to a skeleton of his former self after being diagnosed with the crippling illness at the age of 51.Last week ITV annouced that the documentary Malcolm And Barbara: Love's Farewell, showed the moment Mr Pointon "dies", and described the scene as an "integral part of the story" after a press screening shocked reviewers.The broadcaster has admitted that it was approached by Mr Watson about a clarification but it said the film-maker did not contact them until Monday.Bosses said they had agreed on Monday to issue a correction as soon as it verified that Mr Pointon's death was not filmed.When Mr Watson contacted the broadcaster the story had been generating headlines for four days.The company and Mr Watson, who claimed ITV "turned down" the request for a clarification and "came back to me much later", now appear to be at odds over the sequence of events.In a statement, ITV said: "We have begun a formal inquiry to establish the sequence of events and the facts and until that is complete we are not prepared to comment in detail."However, it is correct that Paul Watson approached ITV on Monday to suggest a clarification in the film about the moment of death."When ITV did establish, later that day, that the death was indeed some days after the end of the film, we immediately agreed with Paul that a clarification needed to be made. ITV issued a statement the following morning."The latest breach of viewer trust comes soon after it emerged the BBC doctored footage of the Queen for a documentary of the monarch.ITV's director of television Simon Shaps said: "The film-maker responsible, Paul Watson, has now confirmed that the film does not portray the moment of Malcolm's passing, which was in fact some days later.""This will be made clear at the end of the film on transmission and should have been made clear earlier."Meanwhile, the executive in charge of GMTV's premium-rate competitions has resigned, the second senior departure in the company inside a week after a string of phone-in scandals across the industry.Kate Fleming is leaving the station on August 10 following the announcement that managing director Paul Corley is also departing as part of the measures aimed at restoring viewer confidence in its daily prize competitions.And Channel 4 has also announced it is axing all its profit-making premium-rate phone-ins following an inquiry into Richard & Judy's You Say We Pay competition.Earlier this month, media watchdog Ofcom said an inquiry into TV programmes and quizzes that use premium-rate telephone numbers found they frequently misled viewers, such as naming fictional winners.Broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 have been caught up in the issue and have been publishing details of cases in which they have misled viewers.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | August 1, 2007

Tags:. .programmes. .aimed. .simon. .shocked. .bosses