The Financial Times has released its latest FT Standpoint drama – Recall Me, Maybe – a bold, fictional short film written and co-directed by acclaimed author and comedian David Baddiel, starring Stephen Fry and Gemma Whelan. The 13-minute film is free to watch on FT.com and YouTube.
In this moving and timely story, 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 leading 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 storytelling.
Co-director Juliet Riddell, head of new formats at the FT and a multi-award-winning filmmaker, 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 at incredible speed, there’s never been a greater need for audiences to understand the scale of its impact on a practical and human level.”
David Baddiel said: “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. There seems to be a faith, an almost religious faith, coming from the corporations, in the ability of quantum computers to fix human limitations, to fix our mortality. But in doing so, we may be changing what it means to be human. The film tries to explore all this, without necessarily coming down in any straightforward way on the side of good and bad. AI is complex, and so, in my opinion, must be our story-telling response to it.”
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 really exciting to bring such a thought provoking and engaging story to life with the extraordinary likes Stephen, David and the FT. It certainly made me aware of the more chilling side of artificial intelligence. It feels like small but important work to bring truth and light to the public via storytelling of such beautiful quality. It was a real honour to be part of it.'
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 vital issues in new, artistic forms. Previous films have won two Rose D’Or’s and received BAFTA nominations.
About the Financial Times
The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The FT has a record paying readership of 1.5mn, while the wider FT Group has a global paying audience of 3mn across its portfolio of journalism, products and services.