I seem to have a lot of high horses to ride of late

[filthgoblin]

After lots of hype and recommendation from an actor I know who worked on the show and one of the script editors I've worked with as an actor, I sat down last night to watch Crash, a new drama from BBC Wales.

The scripts are from new writers under the guidance of Tony Jordan, who some might know is a heavyweight of British TV drama. The premise of the show is that five young doctors just graduated to clinical practise set out onto the wards of a teaching hospital for the first time. It's been billed as something new and fresh, but in reality it was anything but.

I could overlook the poor acting and clunky dialogue, the ludicrous interpretation of NHS life where nurses openly proposition doctors upon meeting them (Doctor: you bleeped me? Where do you want me? Nurse: on top of me, preferably pulling my hair) and the fact the induction into NHS life bore no resemblance to either Mr G's or my experiences in over twenty years in the health service between us. No, the thing that pissed me off was this.

One of the patients treated in A&E had cuts and bruises over his face after falling down drunk. The doctor suggested it was a bit early to be drinking and the patient replied that "they" told him to do it. Upon further questioning, he revealed that "they" were the lizards that talked to him. He asked the doctor who sent him, stating everyone knew who he was because he was a king and didn't feel pain. It was at this point the sound of scraping from the bottom of the cliche psychiatric symptom barrel got too much for Mr G and he left the room.

By leaving when he did he missed the biggest cliche of all. We all know what people with mental health problems are, don't we? That's right. They're dangerous and violent. At the end of the show, the apparently psychotic man pulled out a knife he'd had concealed on his person and stabbed the doctor who had been single-handedly fighting the system to get him the help he needed for his lizard voices and cliched delusions of grandeur.

I was disappointed that something i'd been led to believe was good was actually so appalingly bad. Maybe I didn't handle my feelings in the best way by using another social networking site to express my dissatisfaction and ended up being called a bitch by the sister of the aforementioned script editor. First she tried telling me that the line on the lizards was meant to be humourous and then that all the people she's spoken to who suffer with the same problems thought it was fine so I was wrong. I'm sceptical that she would know many people with schizophrenia and paranoid delusions, but her reaction straight from the pages of the Daily Mail, lamenting the sad way that the NHS is failing these poor people, made me seethe.

I think I'm most annoyed because it seems mental illness is one of the final things about which you're allowed to use damaging stereotypes without reproach. The guy pulling a knife and stabbing a doctor is okay because he's mental and that's what mental people do. It plays to the public fear and perception of people with mental health issues as the boogieman, violent and dangerous. I don't see how that helps the cause of openly discussing mental health and wellbeing and dispelling prejudice as the woman who called me a bitch suggested.

I'm probably being oversensitive as I often am about labelling and stereotypes. I know that stereotypes exist because they're based in fact and that drama has to use them sometimes to convey something to an audience in shorthand. However I really thought this was too much, and being called a bitch for saying so kinda reinforced my view that a lot of people really don't understand mental health at all.