The son of Sir Norman Wisdom has spoken of the agony of seeing his father struggle with dementia.

Nick Wisdom said it had been difficult for the muchloved comic's family to deal with his steady decline in the past few years.

He said his father struggled to remember conversations he had just moments earlier and would often not recognise his own relatives.

Mr Wisdom said: "A lot of it doesn't bother me.

"I don't mind if he asks the same question every two minutes because he doesn't remember what's been said.

"He's 93 and if I can be half as well as he is when I reach that age, I'll be happy.

"It's other things that are more difficult, like when you're in the street with him and he'll tweak a little girl's nose for a joke and she will pull away from him.

"Before he would smooth something like that over but now he'll try it again or get angry. He loses control and doesn't know where to stop any more."

Mr Wisdom, his wife Kim and sister Jackie faced a barrage of criticism in the national Press last July after taking the decision to put Sir Norman in a care home where he was not initially allowed to see people.

For the previous six years they had attempted to look after him either at their home in Bolney, near Haywards Heath, or on the Isle of Man, where he retired in the late 1970s.

But Mr Wisdom felt vindicated by a documentary screened last night on BBC Two, which showed how difficult it had become for the family to care for his father.

The programme, called The Secret Life Of Norman Wisdom Aged 92, was filmed between January and July last year while the family agonised over whether to put the entertainer into a home. It captured many of the difficulties the family experienced trying to care for him themselves.

For Mr Wisdom, watching the documentary was a strange experience.

He said: "I found myself laughing out loud at the situations we got into. Dad would like that - he still loves making people laugh."

andy.chiles @theargus.co.uk