Carrie Fisher: A Life in Ten Pictures: Who was Debbie Reynolds daughter and what was the cause of her death?

The life of Carrie Fisher is set to be explored in a documentary airing on BBC Two tonight. A Life in Ten Pictures will use 10 photographs to tell the story of Fisher from her childhood to death.

Best known for playing Princess Leia in Star Wars, the documentary will explore what it was like growing up as the daughter of Debbie Reynolds, her affair with Harrison Ford, filming the first Star Wars film and her one-woman show. Here's everything you need to know about Carrie Fisher: A Life in Ten Pictures.

What is Carrie Fisher: A Life in Ten Pictures about?

Carrie Fisher is famous for her starring role alongside Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford in Star Wars, but this new documentary will explore moments from her life by revisiting 10 photos. The official synopsis reads: "Although Carrie Fisher's image is famous around the world, this handful of iconic shots and private snaps reveal a new story and show her extraordinary life through a unique lens."

Who was Carrie Fisher's mother?

Fisher was the daughter of Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds and pop star Eddie Fisher, she joked in Vanity Fair that she was, "truly a product of Hollywood in-breeding. When two celebrities mate, someone like me is the result". Two years after she was born her father left Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor.

She had a complicated relationship with her mother, who she felt, "belonged to the world". Reynolds was often busy working, with Fisher writing in her autobiography: "When Mom was at home, she did a lot of sleeping because she worked so hard, so Todd and I wanted as much of her company as we could get. I slept on the rug on the floor next to her bed, and my brother slept on the couch near the window. In the morning when Todd and I got up, we would creep out of her room so we wouldn't wake her."

When Fisher became an adult, they experienced a "ten year" period of estrangement. During a joint interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show before their deaths, Fisher said: "We had a fairly volatile relationship earlier on in my 20s. I didn't want to be around her. I did not want to be Debbie Reynolds' daughter."

Reynolds added: "It's very hard when your child doesn’t want to talk to you and you want to talk to them, and you want to touch them, you want to hold them. It was a total estrangement. She didn't talk to me for probably 10 years. So that was the most difficult time of all. Very painful, very heart-breaking."

Fisher died on December 27, 2016, Reynolds died just one day later due to a haemorrhagic stroke.

How did Carrie Fisher die?

Fisher died of a heart attack on December 27, 2016, at age 60. She had experienced a medical emergency during a transatlantic flight from London to Los Angeles, with a coroner ruling in 2017 that she had died from sleep apnoea.

Carrie Fisher: A Life in Ten Pictures on BBC - how to watch

Carrie Fisher: A Life in Ten Pictures will be available to watch tonight (March 21) on BBC Two at 9pm.

Sarah McCann is a Trends Writer for NationalWorld who specialises in stories around TV, Film and Health. If you liked this article you can follow Sarah on X (Twitter) here. You can also share your thoughts in the comment section below.