Link: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/aug/19/tv-tonight-the-jawdropping-story-of-the-mother-who-faked-her-sons-illness

A shocking documentary about a woman who pretended her child was terminally ill. Plus: isolation and horror in Australia’s desolate outback. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Channel 4“He seemed to be allergic to the 21st century,” said journalist Paul Levie of Matthew Hayden-Johnson, a child from Torbay who, his mother, Lisa, claimed, was unable to walk, eat or breathe without medical assistance. However, as this jawdropping documentary series shows, Matthew’s litany of disability was a fantasy maintained by Lisa. With testimony from Matthew and Lisa themselves, it tracks a toxic fantasy as it took root, then fell apart. Phil Harrison

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