Pointon's widow unhappy with doc furore

The widow of a man at the centre of a 'fake death' controversy has complained that the furore is overshadowing the real issues.

Alzheimer's sufferer Malcom Pointon and his wife Barbara were followed by cameras for eleven years to show the effects of the disease. The documentary, Malcolm & Barbara: Love's Farewell, will air on ITV1 next week.

Information released to the press about the programme indicated that it ended with Malcom passing away, surrounded by his family. However, ITV confirmed earlier this week that the final scenes show Malcom slipping into a coma; he died three days later and cameras were not present.

Barbara Pointon has now complained that the row over Paul Watson's documentary has stopped people from talking about its true focus; the disease itself.

"Paul filmed Malcolm's last semi-conscious moments - and those were the most precious to me, because after that he just drifted into a coma and faded away," Mrs. Pointon told Radio Five Live. "The film ends with a freeze frame, a still image, which very simply, very sensitively, and very poignantly sends the message Malcolm has died... end of story."

"Does it really matter whether it was two minutes, two days, or two weeks after that point? It doesn't alter the fact Malcolm died of this illness," she continued. "And that's the message I wanted to get through - that Alzheimer's kills. The whole death-bed scene is a couple of minutes at most. There is another hour and 28 minutes of very important stuff that needs to be talked about."