IT should have been one of the happiest years of Vicky McClure’s life after winning a Bafta and landing her role in Line Of Duty.
But 2011 was also when doctors confirmed her maternal grandmother, Iris, was terminally ill with dementia.
For the next four years, the actress watched as she slowly faded away.
Now Vicky, 35, best known as anti-corruption cop DI Kate Fleming in the BBC1 thriller, is using the memories of her nan as inspiration for new documentary Vicky McClure: Our Dementia Choir.
In the moving two-part show, which starts next week, she leads a group of 20 singers suffering from the brain condition as they join together in their love of music.
It also meant sharing the pain endured by families of sufferers, including her own.
In one scene, Vicky is moved to tears when she asks her mum Carol if she feared getting dementia — and admits she has asked the same question to herself.
Vicky said: “I’ve got to be open in this process. I can’t not ask those awkward questions. It’s an obvious question, seeing as it seems to run in the family now. It is what it is.
“I don’t known what I’m going to die of. It could be dementia. I’ve thought of it but what can you do about it? Of course there’s going to be that fear it could be me.
“I did get asked in the documentary, we did discuss it. You can have a test that can potentially give you an idea whether or not you might hold the gene or have the possibility of getting dementia. I would not want to know.
“I’d rather just let life do what it’s gonna do. I could get hit by a bus. Life is too short to sit there waiting, after this person has said because I have had a test, this is going to happen.
“You’ve just got to live your life and enjoy every day.
“I don’t think there’s any point in looking too far ahead.”
Vicky, who won her Best Actress Bafta for This Is England, has been in Line Of Duty since the first series in 2012.
It has become one of Britain’s biggest dramas. But just as the thriller grew in popularity, Iris gradually declined and she died of her dementia, aged 79, in 2015.
The gripping show, which is drawing more than seven million viewers on Sunday nights, has turned Vicky from acclaimed actress into a household name.
It has also and given her two new friends in the form of co-stars Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar, who play AC-12’s DS Steve Arnott and Superintendent Ted Hastings.
That is why she made sure they were among the first to see the documentary when they were filming Line Of Duty series five in Northern Ireland last year.
Both men were reduced to tears. Vicky said: “They found it emotional, like everyone has.
“They are just human beings. They are not their characters to me, they are my friends.
“Martin and Adi watched a very rough cut when we were in Belfast filming. They are my mates and they are just very proud.”
In Our Dementia Choir, Vicky returns to her home city of Nottingham to bring the singers together, and provide some inspiration for the 850,000 people in the UK who have dementia.
The idea partly stemmed from the fact Vicky saw how music helped Iris, who used to respond to family members singing and dancing even when her condition was at its worst.
In one heartbreaking part of the documentary, we see old footage of her in a confused state, believing she is a 14-year-old girl again.
Vicky has also said her nan used to scream endlessly, and by the end of her life she no longer knew who her granddaughter was.
The actress said: “My nan was very bold and bright.
I also saw how music helped, changing her mood, calming her down and for a while bringing us back the old Nana
Vicky McClure
“She had a cracking sense of humour and a very dirty laugh. The dementia stripped all that — it leaves the shell of you.
“It’s one of the hardest things to watch a family member go through.
“I also saw how music helped, changing her mood, calming her down and for a while bringing us back the old Nana.
“I want to prove that life doesn’t end with a diagnosis.
“There currently isn’t a cure for dementia but music is one thing that has been proven to help.”
Over the course of three months, the choir members were tested by scientists to see how much music improved their health.
Leading researchers even carried out brain scans to see how sound stimulated their minds.
They were also given singing lessons to help them achieve their ultimate goal of delivering a performance to more than 2,000 people at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall.
That included Vicky herself, who was roped in to boost the numbers.
The journey they go on is packed with as much laughter as it is tragedy.
Vicky met 67-year-old retired woodwork teacher Chris Connell, who was a keen recruit to the choir. He was diagnosed three years ago with having a form of dementia that can make his behaviour
erratic.
Vicky found this out in one hilarious scene during the documentary, when she met Chris in the garden of his home and he showed her a phallic-shaped frame for a hammock.
Chris said: “We like a bit of action in the bedroom, Vicky, and we’ve seen various marital aids and things and my wife Jane particularly liked this design, so I made it.
“It just won’t fit in the bedroom, so we have to have it out here. But it’s still good fun, even in the garden. I mean, it’s quite secluded here.”
But she also met Dan Bradbury, a 32-year-old musician who was diagnosed with a rare form of inherited Alzheimer’s a year ago — one which killed his father by the age of 36. Medics only expect
someone with his condition to live for four years.
It is a particularly cruel blow because Dan and his wife Jordan have two-year-old twins, Jasper and Lola.
The family’s plight is an urgent reminder of why developing new treatments for dementia is so important.
Jordan said: “The likelihood of them inheriting this is 50/50 and there will come a time when our children will get tested.
“We both want, in that time, for things to have moved so far that if they are diagnosed with having this gene, there is at least some sort of treatment that will give them a longer life.”
This is why Vicky is keen to maintain the profile of dementia sufferers, which the documentary will bring.
The BBC is already in talks to create an entire series, which could also be fronted by Vicky. She insists there is so much more to explore on the subject.
She said: “I want to keep going. I’m not going to claim to just make a one or two-part documentary and, there, I’ve done my bit for dementia.
“I want to see what happens next because there’s loads more to be discovered. We did a lot of filming and there’s a lot of things we didn’t manage to put into the edit.
“I want to find new ways to help people to live well with dementia. Everybody’s doing their bit for that, and I definitely want to be a part of that.”
Vicky McClure: Our Dementia Choir is on BBC1 on May 2 and May 9 at 8pm.
THE Sun’s doctor, Carol Cooper, says:
Dementia covers more than 200 conditions that affect the brain.
While it always means damage to nerve cells and some loss of brain power, each person suffers very differently.
The most common forms of dementia are Alzheimer’s, vascular, Lewy body, frontotemporal, and mixed dementia, where there is more than one type going on.
It can strike at any age but is a lot more common in the over-65s. Early-onset, or young-onset dementia, is the term for someone who gets symptoms before 65.
Although the rates may be dropping, there will still be many people with it in future as lifespan is rising.
Dementia symptoms can include problems with concentration, trouble recalling recent events and recognising people and items. There might be confusion, speech problem and issues with getting around familiar places.
Also, personality and behaviour may change, and the person could lose their inhibitions. Some types cause trembling and other symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease.
To diagnose dementia, the doctor asks questions related to mental wellbeing and does blood tests to rule out other conditions.
It is usual to have X-rays and a brain scan and to be referred to a neurologist or memory clinic.
Some very rare types can run in the family – around ten per cent of people with young-onset dementia have a genetic form of the disease. But heredity does not come into most forms.
There is no way to prevent dementia, although healthy living including exercise and socialising seems to reduce the risk.
There is still no cure but drugs can sometimes reduce the symptoms temporarily. Support is vital for people with dementia and those caring for someone who has it.
