Secrets from the Asylum ITV Wed 20th Aug 9 pm

[kiterunner]

Following on from "Secrets from the Clink", another two-parter. Celebrities appearing in the first part include Al Murray, Ray Winstone and Claire Sweeney.

[Merry]

I quite enjoyed this, though Claire Sweeny got on my nerves over the use of the word lunatic and her belief that elderly people with severe dementia looked different in Victorian times compared with those suffering similarly these days. Thank goodness for the other two celebs who generally took things in their stride.

My great-grandmother spent 20 years in an asylum and the programme helped me to remember just how big these places were. When I visualise my auntie being taken to see her grandmother when she was 5 or 6 years old I always imagine a cottage hospital type affair, even though I know that's completely wrong! My aunt said they (she and her mother) passed through several locked doors behind a female 'gaoler' in a black Victorian dress (this was about 1926) with a huge bunch of keys hanging from a chain round her waist. Auntie thought they were going to see a murderer, but all they found was a bedridden frail lady. My aunt didn't know she was a relative as her mother kept that a closely guarded secret.

[Jill]

Watched with interest as my OH's great grandfather died in 1916 in Broadmoor of GPI, another two years and the 100 years will be up and we may be able to look at his records, though obviously we won't be talked through them by a friendly expert!
This is him
http://www.genealogistsforum.co.uk/f...harles+harwood

I shall be interested to see the next part, especially to follow what happened to Al Murray's relative.

I'm about 10 minutes walk from a Victorian mental hospital, now converted to apartments but remember it as being a major local employer. Various elderly inmates were allowed out in the day and would wander around the town, some of my school friends did voluntary work there.

[Olde Crone]

I was interested too (but kept getting distracted by the phone!) as I used to live almost opposite the main entrance to Colney Hatch (which we called Friern Barnet locally) in the late 1960s. It was the size of a village and was largely self supporting.

Even in those days when I didn't give the matter much thought, I was quite repelled at the, shall we say, low level of staff who worked there. One "nurse" lived in the flat above mine and frankly I wouldn't have let her look after my budgie.

On the other hand, awful as these places were, they were genuinely a refuge for many people and were better than what came next - care in the community.

OC

[kiterunner]

Ray Winstone and the researcher who researched his family seemed to make a lot of assumptions. I don't see that the fact that Hannah remarried 6 months after her first husband's death and managed to recover from syphilis particularly shows that she had an admirable strength of character, as they seemed to think. I thought it showed that she didn't care about the danger she was putting her second, much younger, husband in, oh, and of course the danger to the children she would have with him, though apparently they turned out to be healthy, but she wouldn't have known that when she married him. I liked Ray's hope that the second marriage was "for the right reason - that she was in love with him" but it seems unlikely to me! Perhaps I'm just cynical!

Oh, and Claire Sweeny thinking that the fact that the married couple and their daughter were all buried in the same plot made it a "love story". Again, maybe I'm just cynical, but it was likely cheaper that way.

[Margaret in Burton]

I'm as cynical as you then Kate.

Originally Posted by Margaret in Burton

I'm as cynical as you then Kate.

Me, too.

[Guinevere]

I haven't been watching this. It was a deliberate decision. Something about the concept makes me feel very uneasy for some reason.

[Olde Crone]

Gwynne

I know exactly what you mean, but in fact it wasn't prurient in any way (that's not the right word, but I'm sure you can supply your own!)

I found it moderately interesting and informative and I felt that Lesley Joseph was certainly sincere in her reactions, as was the other man (don't know his name). Biggins was a bit silly but how could he be anything else.

OC

[Margaret in Burton]

Think you are referring to Al Murray OC.