Mental: A History of the Madhouse

Mental: A History of the Madhouse

59 mins | Documentary | May 25, 2010

Documentary which tells the fascinating and poignant story of the closure of Britain's mental asylums. In the post-war period, 150,000 people were hidden away in 120 of these vast Victorian institutions all across the country. Today, most mental patients, or service users as they are now called, live out in the community and the asylums have all but disappeared. Through powerful testimonies from patients, nurses and doctors, the film explores this seismic revolution and what it tells us about society's changing attitudes to mental illness over the last sixty years.

Mental: A History of the Madhouse

59 mins | Documentary | May 25, 2010

Mental: A History of the Madhouse
Documentary which tells the fascinating and poignant story of the closure of Britain's mental asylums. In the post-war period, 150,000 people were hidden away in 120 of these vast Victorian institutions all across the country. Today, most mental patients, or service users as they are now called, live out in the community and the asylums have all but disappeared. Through powerful testimonies from patients, nurses and doctors, the film explores this seismic revolution and what it tells us about society's changing attitudes to mental illness over the last sixty years.
Producers BBC
Original title Mental: A History of the Madhouse
Directors Chris Boulding
Writers

Cast

Tamsin Greig

as Narrator

Peter Barham

as Himself

Maggi Chapman

as Herself