Best Interests; Sarah Beeny Vs Cancer

“The hour provides a masterly and profoundly moving examination of the many types of agony that arise when a child with a progressive illness reaches a point where palliative care becomes a consideration.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“This is a wonderful, heart-shattering piece of work. Sharon Horgan (as Nicci) is superb, even outperforming Michael Sheen (as Andrew), and it’s not often one can say that. This drama is wholly believable but the beauty of Jack Thorne’s script is in making Marnie not a legal case, but a joyous, rounded person. We see, inch by inch, exactly what these parents are losing. I defy anyone not to cry.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The entire drama efficiently hits its marks, taking cues from recent news stories (including Covid, and last year’s Archie Battersbee case). But it’s at its strongest when staying away from the pulpit and depicting the so-called ‘stepwise deterioration’ of both Marnie as a clinical case and her family as a cohesive unit. It’s brutal, at times overwrought. But in the end, there is a powerful and moving redemption that feels beautiful and true.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph

“Sheen and Horgan are both superb at conveying the emotional exhaustion inflicted by all the incidental extras that come with long-term care: the endless hospital appointments, the friends with sympathy fatigue, the constant seesaw of hope and despair, the desperate need to juggle other commitments, the obligation to be polite to the point of saintliness with a procession of professionals, when all you want to do is swear at them.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The show poses big questions, both about the practical issues surrounding end-of-life care, and more philosophical enquiries about the value we, as a society, place on young lives. Anchored by a raft of excellent performances, this is a powerful, moving story of the impossible decisions facing the parents of seriously ill children.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“Flashbacks to Marnie’s life outside of hospital – performing dance routines with her sister and racing her new electric wheelchair down the street – made the life-or-death debate even more agonising. Thorne, a staunch campaigner for disability rights, made sure Marnie was more than just an ill girl in a hospital bed: she had an inner life and still took joy in the world.”
Emily Baker, The i

“This is a story told with frankness and good humour, and is more sensitive and less combative than the title suggests. This is a well-rounded documentary that aims to be of some use to others, and is likely to fulfil that brief.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“I wish I had a fraction of Sarah Beeny’s sunny positivity, which must have helped her through the breast cancer ordeal she had been expecting since her mother died of it aged 39, when Beeny was ten. Good documentary, lovely family.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Part video diary, part medical enquiry, for films like this to work the subject must be prepared to tell the story while feeling vulnerable and uncertain. So it was here. Beeny’s brave and charitable act in making this film will be a welcome boon to those who need it.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph