In Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip, aired this week on Channel 4, Prue Leith of Great British Bake Off fame invites her son, Tory MP Danny Kruger, to accompany her on a road trip as they explore the question of assisted dying. Together, the pair visit parts of the US where assisted suicide is legal, as well as Canada, where a much more extensive system of euthanasia and assisted suicide was legalised in 2016, called ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID).

The catch is that Prue and Danny are on different sides of the debate. Prue is an atheist, while Danny is a conservative Christian. Prue has been a member of Dignity in Dying, a well-funded pro-assisted dying campaign group, ever since her older brother died a long and ‘most horrible death’ in 2012. Danny, a fervent opponent of legalising assisted dying, is chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dying Well.

The resulting documentary is perhaps the best-produced so far on the assisted-dying debate. Too often, assisted dying is portrayed in the media, whether in soaps, films or in one-sided documentaries, as simply a personal matter for a dying person, and as a means of alleviating needless suffering. Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip, however, is thoughtful and balanced. It considers the wider social ramifications of treating death as a form of healthcare.

Prue and Danny go first to the state of Washington, where it is legal for a doctor to assist a patient in ending his or her life by prescribing lethal doses of medication. Euthanasia – where a doctor ends a patient’s life, usually via lethal injection – is still outlawed. This is Prue’s opportunity to impress upon Danny the case for legalising assisted dying. A woman called Sher talks movingly about how her parents chose to die together after they were both diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and terminal cancer. This is powerful stuff.

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