A LIFE IN TANDEM | 2024 | Feature Documentary | 90mins
Publicly premiered at The Ritzy Picturehouse, London in July 2025
Screened across the UK in cinemas through September 2025.
Official Selection: Kendal Mountain Festival 2024
Official Selection: Ayodhya Film Festival 2024
Official Selection: New York Festivals TV & Film Awards 2024
Official Selection: London Mountain Film Festival 2025
WINNER: Best Feature Documentary (Ayodha Film Festival 2024)
Directed by Mike Rumsey
Executive Produced by Ellen Windemuth (academy award-winner for My Octopus Teacher).
Produced by Waterbear Studios and Luke Grenfell-Shaw.
Edited by James Burt
Score by Robin Schlochtermeier
Animation by Gary Andrews
Colour and GFX by Harvey Wilson
Sound by Matt Snowdon.
SYNOPSIS:
When Luke Grenfell-Shaw turns 24, his whole life is in front of him. Until he is diagnosed with incurable stage-four cancer. Weeks later, while he begins chemotherapy, his brother dies in a freak accident. As his family shatters, Luke makes a decision: he has to survive.
Luke sets himself an extraordinary challenge - to cycle 20,000 miles from Bristol to Beijing on a tandem bike, inviting others living with incurable cancer to join him. Together, they make every moment count and prove that even in the darkest circumstances, anything is possible.
But along the way, Luke faces a quieter, deeper test - repairing his fractured relationship with his mum, Jenny, and rediscovering what life means when so much has been taken away.
A Life In Tandem is a gripping, uplifting true story - described by its Oscar-winning producer Ellen Windmuth as “a story that must be told.”
