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Polio
Daniel Farson meets people affected by polio in a series of studio interviews and a filmed report with a man paralysed after contracting the disease.
Director: Rollo Gamble
Overview
Daniel Farson turns his sharp interviewing style on four people who have direct personal experience of polio, a viral disease which attacks the nerves that control muscles. His guests are a former doctor, the director of a fundraising charity and a woman who contracted polio as a young child. He also visits an amateur radio enthusiast at home. Despite the stagey studio format, this programme was ahead of its time in highlighting a condition that had received little prior public attention.
Duncan Guthrie’s daughter was diagnosed in 1949. Three years later, he set up the National Fund for Polio Research. The charity is now known as Action Medical Research. This documentary is part of a series Daniel Farson presented for Associated-Rediffusion called People in Trouble. The series also featured episodes on unmarried mothers, interracial marriages and mental illness.
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