Family Confidential replays Bryce Courtenay episode

Next week ABC1 replays an episode of Family Confidential featuring Bryce Courtenay.

Given the state of his health and, his recent tragic announcement of inoperable stomach cancer.

The doco will be updated with a card at the end.

“I’m 78 years old. Two years ago, I had a heart valve replacement; a year ago, I had two-thirds of my stomach taken out; I’ve had five knee reconstructions. At the moment I’m going through my 3rd month of shingles – but I’M HERE!” Bryce Courtenay

Made in the last year leading up to his diagnosis of terminal stomach cancer in June 2012, this powerful portrait reveals the home truths about one of the world’s most popular authors.

Bryce Courtenay always swore he would only reveal his autobiography to the cameras just this once in his lifetime. Little did he – or the filmmakers know – that they had taken what was probably his last remaining opportunity to do so.

This program, filmed through 2011, as Bryce struggled with illness, charts his despair at not being able to complete a book for Christmas.

It shows Bryce after a medical check-up gives him the all clear, planning many more books to come.

“He’s very determined. Anyone who can write 21 books in 21 years is very determined.” Christine Courtenay, wife.

But just six months later, in June 2012, Bryce was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.

“I’d like to cark it in the middle of a book.” Bryce Courtenay

He’s now determined to complete his last book for Christmas 2012.

As this film shows, Bryce is a man who has been determined to succeed at all costs.

Now, as he faces a fight he can’t win, it traces his journey to overcome a life that began in poverty and illegitimacy in South Africa.

This is the powerful story of a man for whom the story means everything. It comes just as his own story, and his ability to reshape it, is drawing to a close.

8pm Monday November 26 ABC1