BBC 1, 15 October until 19 November, 10.35 pm

Rating:

Oncologists never seem to get as many presents from their patients as surgeons do. Since I doubt that, as specialists, oncologists are somehow not as nice as surgeons, then there must be an alternative explanation. In Living with Cancer, Glenford, a young man with metastatic sarcoma, suggests a possible reason for this when he observes that “cancer has no beginning and no end.” Oncologists rarely get to finish the job and say goodbye while the patient is still alive because, even when treatment has eradicated all detectable signs of malignancy, cancers have a habit of coming back. How people live between clinic appointments with this kind of uncertainty—literally living with their cancer—is one motivation behind this remarkable new television series.

Sammip Sett has cancer of the mouth and is about to undergo a 14 hour operation

(Credit: BBC TV)

The format of the series is refreshingly …