Christopher Eccleston Stars in Aardman Video About Demetia

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Ninth Doctor actor, Christopher Eccleston and the creators of Wallace and Gromit, Aardman have teamed up in this touching short film to raise awareness of dementia.

The 90-second video uses stop-motion animation to tackle the misconceptions about the illness, made as part of a digital campaign for Alzheimer’s Research UK. The brain of an Alzheimer’s sufferer can weigh around 140 grams less than a healthy brain – about the weight of an orange, and this fact has been utilised in the film to demonstrate the physical damage inflicted by diseases that cause dementia.

Eccleston, who played the Ninth Doctor in 2005, said he hoped to:

“fight the misunderstanding and fatalism that surrounds dementia in our society. We have to think differently about dementia. We have to stop believing dementia is an inevitability – something that simply happens to us all as we grow older. If we don’t, we’re never going to truly fight it. Dementia is caused by diseases and diseases can be beaten. We’ve tamed diseases like cancer and heart disease and a diagnosis of either is no longer a certain death sentence. People with dementia deserve this same hope. This film aims to show that dementia is caused by physical processes that scientists can put a stop to.”

Christopher’s father, Ronnie passed away in 2012 after a 14-year battle with vascular dementia.

This film launches a two-week campaign which began last night, as the video was shown during ITV’s Coronation Street. The aim is to raise awareness by getting people to share the clip and their  thoughts using the hashtag #sharetheorange.

Bristol-based Aardman is perhaps best known for creating Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, but are also responsible for numerous movies (including Chicken Run), ads, and even music videos. Aardman’s head of partner content, Heather Wright, told the Bristol Post:

“Animation is a great way of communicating difficult messages, delivering them in an easily understandable and memorable way. Using the orange as a metaphor for the brain makes this film very strong because the idea and the execution work perfectly together.”

Last year, the company also worked with Bristol Ageing Better to highlight older people’s isolation.

Hilary Evans, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, added:

“Major breakthroughs have been made in the battle against Aids and cancer, and research will bring these same life-changing advancements in the field of dementia. To get there, we must stop fearing dementia as something that just happens as we age, and focus on fighting the diseases, most commonly Alzheimer’s, that are the root cause of it.”

Watch the film above. It’s only 90 seconds out of your day. And don’t forget to share it using the hashtage #sharetheorange. Dementia isn’t a side-effect of ageing. We can fight it. So let’s do just that.

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