The Financial Times has announced the upcoming release of its latest FT Standpoint drama — a short film written and co-directed by author and comedian David Baddiel, starring Stephen Fry and Gemma Whelan. The 13-minute film, Recall Me, Maybe, will launch on FT.com and YouTube on September 18.
Stephen Fry plays a grandfather living with dementia who turns to AI to fill in the gaps in his memory. As the family navigates a digital archive of his life, they uncover unsettling truths – prompting them to ask: What memories are real? And how might AI reshape not just what we remember, but who we are and what we believe to be true?
Though fictional, the film is rooted in FT journalism. It is the product of editorial and creative workshops between Baddiel and FT journalists – AI editor Madhu Murgia, innovation editor John Thornhill, and science editor Michael Peel – exploring one of today’s most urgent and complex questions through the lens of storytelling.
Co-director Juliet Riddell, who is also head of new formats at the FT, said: “This production is the latest in a growing body of FT scripted film that harnesses the power of creativity combined with rigorous journalism to spark debate and reach broad and influential audiences. As AI shapes the world around us, there’s never been a greater need for audiences to understand the scale of its impact.”
David Baddiel added: “I was really interested in the idea of making a film that provoked a conversation, in the tradition of the FT’s brilliant series of shorts about contemporary issues, but also an emotional story, with characters you hopefully really care about. AI is the story of the moment, and something everyone is trying to write about, but I found a personal way in by thinking about the way this technology shifts our sense of reality, and dementia, which, as I saw in my father’s later years, also does that.”
Stephen Fry said: “We have to remember that AI is developing and developing all the time. What we see now is powerful and disruptive enough – but in five, ten, twenty years it will look as primitive and clumsy as an old brick-sized mobile phone from the 80s. There are so many ways AI will impinge upon our lives, but David Baddiel in this FT film explores a wholly convincing and wholly terrifying side to generative AI that strikes at the very nature of our personal histories and identity.”
Gemma Whelan said: “’It was exciting to bring such a thought provoking and engaging story to life with the likes of Stephen, David and the FT. It certainly made me aware of the more chilling side of artificial intelligence. It feels like a small but important work to bring truth and light to the public via storytelling of such beautiful quality.”
The FT has previously collaborated with prestigious institutions including The Royal Court, Sonia Friedman Productions, The Royal Albert Hall, Sadler’s Wells, and LIFT, creating films and events that tackle contemporary issues in new, artistic forms.
