Fans praise Jason Watkins and wife Clara for ‘heartbreaking’ but ‘important’ documentary

Fans praised Jason Watkins and his wife Clara for their bravery in their moving new ITV documentary, In Loving memory of Maudie on Thursday.

Their daughter Maude died, aged two, of sepsis on New Year’s Day 2011 after doctors sent her home with what they thought was croup.

Jason and Clara discovered her in her bed the next morning after her oldest daughter, Bessie, told them she couldn’t wake her sister.

The documentary was well received by viewers, who said it was a “heartbreaking” but “important” watch to raise awareness of sepsis.

One viewer wrote: ‘I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a child. Thinking of @Jason__Watkins & Clara #inmemoryofmaudie a very moving documentary’.

Another echoed: ‘#InMemoryofMaudie is heartbreaking to watch, but raising awareness about sepsis is so important. So much bravery on the part of Jason and Clara to allow this to be filmed.

A third added: ‘Watching ten minutes and I’m already finding it heartbreaking. #InMemoriadeMaudie’.

A fourth said: ‘ I really don’t know how a father behaves. Just unbearable #InMemoryofMaudie’.

While a fifth tweeted: ‘A beautiful powerful documentary Jason. You have already helped many and I feel that with the film, you will have helped many more in those moments.’

And a sixth agreed, writing: ‘Christ, this is one tough watch. I have no idea how you deal with the loss of a child. They are so brave, while still drowning in pain, doing this to try to raise awareness #InMemoryofMaudie #sepsis’.

In heartbreaking scenes, the couple went through their daughter’s belongings for the first time since her death.

Emma, ​​a close friend of the couple, packed up Maude’s clothes and toys and stored them in her loft.

“It was very difficult for me to walk into Maude’s room and see all her things as if I were still going to go in,” Clara said in the documentary that aired Thursday night.

So Emma brought it all out and Emma has been taking care of it in her loft for 11 years.

“Weirdly, as time has passed, those things have gained value to me and I think if we had gotten rid of them right away, it wouldn’t be a problem, but because they’ve been there, they’ve taken on meaning.” and now I feel compelled to review them.’

Clara, a fashion designer, broke down in tears as she unzipped a bag containing a pair of her daughter’s ‘little shoes’, while Jason picked out a Peter Rabbit toy.

“I don’t know if I can do it,” Clara said. ‘What are we going to gain from this? Do you want to save things?

“There’s a part of me that wants to reach into the bag and just grab something and try to get used to it, just to try to keep them.”

Jason, who won a Bafta for The Lost Honor of Christopher Jefferies, said: “The fact that it’s so physical, it’s such a physical thing.” It’s the closest you can get to having her with us.

The couple allowed cameras to document their journey as they prepared to move out of the apartment where their daughter was born and later died.

The scenes, which were interspersed with photos and home videos of Maude, showed them attending therapy together for the first time, with Clara revealing that she can still feel the weight of her daughter from the car ride to the hospital.

They were also seen comforting their 11-year-old son Gilbert, who broke down in tears while visiting a memorial bank for the sister he never knew.

The couple have campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness about sepsis, with Jason attending an innovative training program at Kings College Hospital that attempts to teach medical professionals how to spot signs.

Visiting the morgue and coroner’s court, Jason said: ‘This is the hardest part. I have this thing that she was alone when she left the house in that black ambulance and they took her here.

“I know it seems macabre, but sharing it maybe relieves me a little or is like saying that she existed, that she was alive, not just wherever she is now.”

He added: ‘Obviously it was lost. There’s a bit of anger there obviously… I know I’m irrationally doing this because if I figure it out and no more children die, which is ridiculous because unfortunately they will and I fully understand the condition that is sepsis, that Maude will come. come back into the room, I got it, I’ve figured it out, this is what we have to do and she’ll come back into the room… but that’s irrational and it’ll never stop.’

The family visited a bench dedicated to Maude, with Jason saying: “Not a day goes by that we don’t think of Maude and there’s a special place we visit to remember her.”

“I like to go to the bench with the family and I also like to go alone. I don’t necessarily cry there, but I like it because I feel close to her and all that stuff.

‘Gilbert always jumps up and asks “Am I Maude’s replacement? Am I Maude’s replacement?” He is not stupid. I say “Of course you are not, you are your own person thank God you saved us”. He’s a bit of a savior in that sense because he came.

‘And for Bessie she saved us too, she was so strong. She was there and suddenly her sister wasn’t there.

Clara and Jason meet with a group of bereaved parents as they discuss their loss.

Clara said: “My impulse during my grief was always to offer hope because I think without hope I just don’t know if there is a future for someone after the loss of a child.” You have to know that life is going to get better.

The couple goes to therapy for the first time together and meets psychotherapist Julia Samuels.

Clare said: ‘I haven’t really thought about this car ride that deeply. I can really feel the weight of her in my lap.

“When I think about the type of trauma and when people talk about the trauma, I think ‘oh, that’s going to be the day we find her dead,’ but actually during that car ride I really hadn’t.”

“I feel like if I had been a different kind of person, I might have said, ‘No, I want you to keep her tonight.'”

Jason said: ‘I can still feel my breath trying to draw my breath into her and it’s not working. Then I went down.

Clara reveals that she was watching this happen, but Jason had forgotten and thought he was down with Bessie.

Jason added: “The worst thing for me was that she was alone on the journey from the morgue to the autopsy.” That haunts me.

Jason admits: ‘Talking to Julia has been a revelation… I realize how strong Clara has been. Maybe I’ve suppressed my pain and maybe that’s a typical male response.’

The couple are now campaigning for better awareness to recognize the signs of sepsis.

Jason and fashion and jewelry designer Clara married in 2014. In addition to their late daughter Maude, they also share a daughter Bessie and a son Gilbert.

Jason was previously married to actress Caroline Harding and they share two grown children: Freddie and Pip.

If you need further support or information about grief and bereavement, you can contact the mental health charity Mind on 0300 123 3393.