C4 adapts Poppy Shakespeare with Anna Maxwell Martin and Naomie Harris
April 1st, 2008, 6:24 am Hobbies Ideas
I’m trying to think of all the conditions under which you shouldn’t watch
Channel 4’s adaptation of the acclaimed written-by-a- former-mental-patient
novel, Poppy Shakespeare. It’s quite a long list.
You wouldn’t want to watch it if you are feeling depressed, for instance. With
a drama that oscillates between uneasy, nausea-green NHS corridors and what
will almost certainly be the most squalid flat you’ll see on TV all year -
it makes the homes in Shameless look like Nigella’s pink kitchen - you can’t
help but feel a little sombre, after a while.
Similarly, you wouldn’t want to watch it if you, or a loved one, were at the
very start of seeking psychiatric treatment from the NHS. Let’s face it -
dramas about mental health problems are never merry at the best of times,
and this one invokes all the big touchstones (Kafka, One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest) you sincerely hope you will never be citing when describing
what happened after your big nervous breakdown.
It’s your classic nightmare, really. A perfectly normal woman - Poppy
Shakespeare - is sectioned into the Dorothy Fish mental health unit,
insisting that she is f***ing sane, all right?
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