Set in Glasgow in 1994, “Takin’ Over the Asylum” is a six part series focusing on the lives of patients in the Mental Health sector of St. Judes Hospital. As a sidenote and content warning, this show, despite being overall uplifting and fun, deals with rather dark and real topics apart from mental illness, like suicide. Still, it portrays them with delicacy. The main character, Eddie, is a weary ex-professional DJ who is roped into restarting the hospital radio station. The other main character is Campbell, a manic depressive teenager with big dreams and quite the imagination. Together as a dynamic duo of sorts, the tired and world weary DJ and the golden retriever teen, they restart the radio station. They receive help from various other patients and together they become a found family in the messy lives they all lead.
Eddie had preconceived notions about the patients and their illnesses but also an open mind and saw them for the people they were beneath the surface. He acts as a narrative device for the audience to insert themselves in his place, but also as a comparison to the fine line of sanity. Campbell even goes as far to say, “He isn’t a patient though he ought to be.”
As for the characters themselves, they are all equally represented, as each episode goes into their own conflicts and lives. They each have a different illness and the show really brings to light just how difficult and complicated it is to live with. And although Campbell holds the role of comic relief, the show never makes fun of him for his illness, but instead gives him a complex character and purpose to the plot.
The show even highlights the negativity and harassment many people with mental illness face in their daily lives. Even in the safety of the hospital walls, the protagonists and their friends still feel hate from a member of the nursing staff, who acts as the bad cop to the other kind nurses.
The creator of the show, Donna Franceschild, is bipolar herself and wanted there to be a piece of media that represented her, and others who also suffer from mental health issues. Her biography from the script adaptation of the show reads, “(she) is very proud of her work on the series.” The show itself has won numerous awards such as the 1994 Bafta for Best Drama Serial and the Mental Health Media Award for Best TV Drama. These only go to show how well written and acted this brilliant show is.
“Takin’ Over the Asylum” dives into the messy reality of life and how not everything has a perfect answer. This is truly such a beautiful show that not only showcases different people as, well, actual people, but gives the audience a better understanding of those suffering from mental illnesses in a kind and informative way. It is a touching story of friendship in the most unlikely of places.