TV pick of the week

PICK OF THE WEEK

Mum And Me
BBC1, Tuesday, 10.35pm

Ethel's lot is not an enviable one. Age and the ravages of Alzheimer's have reduced her possessions to a handful of trinkets. Her vistas are limited to whatever views can be glimpsed from her Ayrshire rest home. And her lucidity waxes and wanes by the hour, revealing a cognitive prisoner confined by the ruins of her crumbling memory. Yet, somehow, her dotage is not a wholly miserable one. For all her woes, Ethel's heroic sense of humour and capacity for joy remain stubbornly intact. It's a paradox her daughter, filmmaker Sue Bourne, shares with us in a sublime documentary that's both heartbreaking and hilarious.

Though this is a narrative driven by decline, the tone is one of unlikely triumph. Her sense of self and memory may be in flux but Ethel's determination to enjoy herself is infectious. Still, for all her benign self-deprecation, Ethel is a handful. In a painful scene we see mother and daughter clash angrily. It's an uncomfortable moment but also an instructive one. For those not caught by Lethe's cruel currents it's better to cultivate happier recollections.

Filmed during weekly visits over the course of three years, Bourne's approach is intimate, low key and startlingly honest.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Reverend Death
Channel 4, tomorrow, 10pm

Long accustomed to chronicling fringe eccentrics, even the normally fearless Jon Ronson seems alarmed by his latest subject, American 'Right to Die' advocate the Reverend George Exoo. Initially, Exoos' maverick style and apparent compassion make him a hard man to dislike. But, as the programme progresses, our perception of this self-declared saint changes.

No longer restricting his assistance to the terminally ill, the Reverend reveals that he's been actively helping the chronically depressed to end their lives. So, as his sense of unease builds, an increasingly perturbed Ronson delves deeper to reveal a man whose zeal may mask darker motives.

Also try: Class Of '62 (BBC2, tomorrow, 9pm). Film-maker Marilyn Gaunt explores the lives of her schoolfriends as they reach their 60th year

BEST COOKERY SHOW

The Supersizers Go... Wartime
BBC2, Tuesday, 9pm

With lazy imitators still borrowing Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me shtick it's a relief to find restaurant critic Giles Coren and comedienne Sue Perkins offering a more imaginative version of his approach. Using a larder in lieu of a Tardis, this new series finds Coren and Perkins revisiting various eras by subsisting solely on the cuisine of the time, a process they inaugurate by tasting the culinary horrors of wartime Britain.

Also try: Come Dine With Me (Channel 4, Thursday, 8pm). Another serving of Four's Dinner Party hit as gourmand Juliet battles fussy eater Adish

BEST ARTS

The Passions Of Vaughan Williams
BBC4, Friday, 8pm

Though he's chiefly remembered for his wistful evocations of England, there was more to composer Vaughan Williams than ascending larks. Here, on the 50th anniversary of his death, friends, family and colleagues recall the real Williams. What emerges is a surprisingly candid psychological portrait. Haunted by his grim memories of the Great War, drawn to adventurous women and driven by a fury one contemporary likens to "the wrath of Zeus", Williams' life was every bit as rich and complex as his music.

Also try: The South Bank Show (STV, today, 10.45pm). Melvyn Bragg meets with novelist, essayist and provocateur Gore Vidal