ONE of the saddest, most moving hours of TV I've seen in a long time was on Channel Four last night and it was all thanks to Baldrick.

Tony Robinson's Me and My Mum was a throught-provoking documentary looking at the way we care for the elderly in this country.

Robinson more usually seen charging around fields with a bunch of long-haired, scruffy folk in Time Team used his own personal experiences to highlight the dilemma which faces so many people.

Using the story of his own mum who suffered severely from Alzheimer's Disease we witnessed the anguish of a son who had been forced to put his mum into a care home and then tortured himself with guilt at having done so.

Along the way we met a host of interesting characters who each were tackling the problem in their own way.

But the main focus of the problem was the woefully inadequate way in which the state helps those who are carers, paying them a pittance to in effect offer 24-hour care to their loved ones. Tony Robinson became a passionate advocate for making people's later years more fun and to allow them to have more dignity.

As his mum passed away he shed a tear and I suspect that many households around the country joined him.

If ever a political party is looking for a Minister for the Elderly they could do far worse than give the Time Team office and call and ask for Baldrick!