River City stars join film made by people with dementia on Covid in care homes

Two River City stars are to work on a film about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on care homes, which will feature actors living with dementia.

Joyce Falconer, who plays Roisin in the Scottish soap, and David McGowan, who stars as Tommy Chalmers, will take on roles in The F Ward, which is being directed by Bafta-winning filmmaker Ian Bustard.

The film has been conceived by Ron Coleman, who has vascular dementia, and is being developed by a group of people also living with a diagnosis of dementia.

Mr Coleman and Mr Bustard are working with a group of so-called “dementia activists” dubbed the Demented Poets, who each have the illness, to tell the story of the impact of the pandemic on those living in care homes.

Mr Bustard, whose family are living with his father’s diagnosis of dementia, said: “Ron has introduced me to a world of dementia activists around Scotland, who are really turning the dementia diagnosis on its head.

“They’re showing that a dementia diagnosis isn’t always what you think it is, and that there’s still a lot of life left in them yet.

“I’ve met people with dementia who have staged and taken part in a dementia conference, where the only people allowed to speak are those with a dementia diagnosis.

“It’s remarkable what these people will do and say when other people aren’t speaking for them.”

Work on the film is currently in its early stages, with the River City actors in the process of taking part in development workshops with the cast.

Screenwriter Simon McCallum, from Dundee, is working on the script with Mr Coleman, who is also from the city.

Production of The F Ward is set to begin after a double-bill featuring a play by Mr Coleman and a documentary by Mr Bustard which will feature at this year’s Dementia Arts Festival in Stirling from September 25-27.

Mr Coleman, who was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2022, said he hopes the F Ward helps people learn from what happened during the pandemic.

He said: “I want people to remember what happened. Thousands of people died, it wasn’t 20 or 30 people. It hit nearly every family, and every family knew someone who died of Covid in a care home, that’s where we got to.

“It’s where the highest group of people who died from Covid came from in Scotland. I worry that if another Covid happens tomorrow, we aren’t going to be ready because it feels like we have already forgotten the lessons of Covid-19.

“Having a diagnosis of dementia makes this a personal thing. For a lot of people it is a very personal thing, people who had to say goodbye to a loved one through windows or on tablets.

“It feels like it has been lost from our collective memory already. The F Ward is about saying, Okay, this happened – let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The double-bill, featuring Mr Coleman’s play Caught In This Moment Of Time and Mr Bustard’s documentary The Demented Poets, will be shown at the Dementia Arts Festival on September 26.

They will then be toured, with screenings and audience Q&As at 11 venues around the country under the Demented Cinema banner, with more information available at http://www.undergroundcinemaclub.org.

Mr Bustard, who is based in Angus, won a Bafta for his documentary Marty Goes To Hollywood in 2015 and his other films include BBC documentary The Falkirk Cowboys.

Mr Coleman worked as a mental health trainer for 30 years. Since his dementia diagnosis, he has formed the Deepness Media company and has become a writer, poet and actor who uses his writing and performance to challenge perceptions around dementia.

He said: “People think dementia is about memory, but that’s not the case for everyone’s dementia. For me, vascular dementia means I have problems with things like numbers and order. But ask me to write a piece of poetry and I’ll be right in there.

“It’s not as unforgiving as things like Alzheimer’s can be, and a lot of people don’t realise.”