All the madness of the November sweeps is fast crumbling away. Now it's time for TV of the soul and brain. I mean something demonstrating how TV can still impart information even in this age of Tabloid Journalism.
And there's one to watch, a new Australian documentary with the catchy title Catching Cancer.
But does it mean you can catch cancer?
Well yes and no. Director Susan Pemberton begins in the newsroom of the Auustralian Broadcasting Corporation which ressembles a hurricame-hit zone of clutter.
Everything has been dissembled, torn apart. Over a few years 16 women in the newsroom came down with breast cancer and doctors are still trying to find a link.
Pemberton uses this dramatic event to find out whether cancer can be caused by infections. And it seems at least 20 per cent of all worldwide cancers are caused by infections or viruses. But scientists on camera muse that it could be as high as 50 per cent or even higher.
We get the opinions of several Nobel Laureates plus world experts both inside and outside Australia, and front line investigators. We visit twins, little boys who are identical except one has leukemia and the other doesn't. How did that happen?
One British scientist even uses a slot machine to factor in our probability of catching cancer --it's a lethal lottery.
We all catch infections that can trigger cancer but relatively few of us actually come down with the disease.
Unlike many talking heads shows this one is filled with images that inform and information that's understandable. In short here's TV for the brain as well as the eye.
MY RATING: *** 1/2.
CATCHING CANCER PREMIERES ON CBC NEWS NETWORK'S THE PASSIONATE EYE MONDAY NOV. 23 AT 10 P.M.
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