The award-winning journalist takes centre stage one last time in an extraordinary new film made for Channel 422:16, 12 Jun 2026Former newsreader Jon Snow Is now “living a quieter life” months on from filming a documentary with Channel 4 about having Alzheimer’s disease.The 78-year-old cancelled a planned appearance on a panel at the Sheffield Documentary festival on Friday which coincided with a screening of Jon Snow : A Last Big Story which shows him navigating life with Alzheimer’s.The film, which shows the beginnings of his memory fading, actually finished filming last year. Asked how he was now, the Executive Producer Ben de Pear who also worked with Jon for many years on Channel 4 News said: “He has been in Zimbabwe(on holiday) and I spoke to him recently. He was his usual self, he was feisty, funny and really excited about the film coming out. Jon is living a quieter life but I think he is still interested and engaged in the world and still fascinated by people. When he goes to the supermarket he still ends up speaking to people for 20 minutes each.”On the original plan of him being at the event in person, Ben added: “To be honest some days it is good and he could have been on stage, we could have had a discussion and some days it’s worse. That is the nature of the disease.” He told the audience that Jon "sent his love" before the screening began.Ben and director, Laura Warner also spoke about the unusual circumstances around making the emotional film and then showing it to Jon and his wife, Dr Precious Lunga.Laura said she would start each day explaining who she was and what film she was making to make sure Jon was still happy. She added: “Every day we would have to re-consent Jon and he would ask why there were cameras and we would explain.“He was extremely engaged and leading the story. But there would come a time every day, around about sort of sunset, I think it is called sundowning where Jon would really start to struggle. The cameras went down at that point every day and we would look after him.”On the final edit, Laura recalled: “Jon and Precious watched it several times in terms of giving it send off. It was really important to Precious that he viewed it by himself the first time, so he wasn’t influenced by her reaction too it or anyone else’s.“He had a really emotional reaction to it because I think it was the first time he had seen himself with the condition.”Ben added: “Precious loves the film, she thinks it is really important.”The film also sees Jon discover a news story whilst on holiday in 2025, which leads an investigation into a Zambian community whose land and water were impacted by a mining disaster.As the Mirror previously reported, he speaks in the film about his own mortality, and seems happy with the life he has.Jon says: “A strange old business life. I had a good innings of it. It's understandable, you can be worried about death, but to be worried about growing older is irrelevant. It's absurd. How old is older? You're going to die tomorrow or the next day. Stop worrying and get on with it.”His wife Precious says of the film: “I want it to be a story of love, laughter, acknowledging that times are hard. I don't shy away from the fact that it's hard caring for someone with Alzheimer’s. But we can also be on the lookout for opportunities that would lessen that burden. And yeah we do that by having our little adventures.”Article continues below* Jon Snow: A Last Big story will be available to watch and stream on Channel 4 on Sat June 20 at 8pm.Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.