MARK WAREHAM reviews this weekend's TV: Newsman Jon Snow turns back the clock for one last hurrah on cameraSee more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy MARK WAREHAM Published: 22:46 BST, 21 June 2026 | Updated: 22:46 BST, 21 June 2026
Jon Snow: A Last Big Story (Ch4) Rating: Five out of five starsWhen you think of the veteran journalist Jon Snow, despite his many news scoops and interviews with era–defining figures such as Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev, the first thing that springs to mind is his jazzy range of neckwear.Snow recalls: 'When I started to read the news at Channel 4, I'd been on the road for about 15 years, I felt very conscious that I was the dullest thing in the studio.' So he livened up his image thanks to a friend who was a tie maker. 'Did you hide behind your ties?' he is asked. 'No,' he replies. 'I rode them.'This is just one revealing moment in what is very probably his last hurrah on camera. Jon Snow: A Last Big Story is an extraordinary film in many ways, but above all, it's a tender, human story of a wonderful man and an incredible career.Now 78, Snow is living with a life–changing diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, and the film opens with him at the piano musing over his condition. 'To be worried about growing older is absurd. Stop worrying. Get on with it.' This matter–of–factness recalls his 32 years presenting Channel 4 News, where his style was always firm, polite and pointed, like Jeremy Paxman without the ego. Now 78, Jon Snow is living with a life–changing diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease Snow began his presenting career at Channel 4 News in 1989As the film progresses, we meet his wife, Dr Precious Lunga, who happens to be a neuroscientist, and together they take a holiday to Zambia, where Snow, ever the newshound, stumbles upon a story about a huge toxic mining spillage. You can see his mind start to whirr as he turns to the camera. 'It's an absolute blockbuster of a story that nobody's got hold of,' he enthuses.He calls up his old Channel 4 editor, Ben de Pear, and they set to work, just like old times, investigating what turns out to be a truly shocking environmental disaster as they witness tragic scenes of devastation.Cameo of the weekend Cameo of the weekend:Eccentric Northern Irish rural comedy Funboys (BBC1) returned and was given the stamp of approval by a Steve Coogan cameo.In episode one, the ‘emotionally unassembled’ gang of four attempt to get to grips with the potato famine.Coogan’s wayward accent apart, it’s a feast of comedy. Throughout all this, it's impossible to ignore Snow's condition. Visibly energised by this footnote to his career, he marvels: 'I feel 50 years younger.' Yet, only moments before, we see him asking the same question over and over again, 'So, how many people have been affected?' 'A thousand,' comes the patient reply, six times in a row.He then sits down with campaigner Sarah Sekani as she explains how her work is motivated by the death of her father in the mine.As she breaks down and Snow reaches for her hand, it's impossible not to well up. It's not lost on the viewer that the twin strands of this moving film both concern conspiracies of silence. And Snow is keen to dismantle these taboos. 'In the beginning, I wanted to hide it. There's so much prejudice. Any revelation of mental decay, you're sort of dead.' This marvellous account puts the lie to that.A film to touch us all. Christopher Stevens is back tomorrow.
