Five’s acclaimed documentary strand returns for a new run of programmes exploring some remarkable tales of human experience from across the globe. The series opens with ‘Hope for Hayley’, a new film catching up with progeria sufferer Hayley Okines who has been the subject of two Five documentaries in the past.

‘Hope for Hayley’ continues the little girl’s bittersweet story in perhaps the most important year of her life so far –one in which she deals with the news that her condition might at last be curable. Just months after the death of Hayley’s closest friend – an 11-year-old fellow progeria sufferer –she is to take part in the human trials of a drug that researchers believe could arrest and even reverse the effects of the disease. The documentary follows Hayley and her family as they make several trips to the Children’s Hospital Boston to take part in the clinical trials of a revolutionary new drug.

The film also provides an intimate and revealing insight into the life of this extraordinary little girl. Now aged nine, Hayley is more conscious of her condition than ever, and startling in her frankness. She talks fluently and willingly on camera to director James Routh, who five years ago set out to make a unique record of her tragically compressed life. Her feelings on the death of her best friend – which has brought the reality of her disease into even sharper relief –are explored, as are her mechanisms for coping with grief and fear.