The Daily Record left us in no doubt about its view of Psychos, Channel 4's new drama set in the psychiatric ward of a Glasgow hospital. A banner headline screamed: "How Low Can TV Go?" over a piece which ranted about "trash TV". The paper quoted a campaigner from the National Viewers and Listeners Association railing that Channel 4 had "set a new standard of depravity for television", before fulminating that it's pandering to the lowest common denominator in a desperate bid for ratings."
Not surprisingly, the makers of Psychos see things rather differently. They reckon the series - provocative title and all - will challenge preconceptions about mental illness. Gub Neal, the commissioning editor for drama at Channel 4 and also behind the equally controversial Queer As Folk, is donning his hard hat for incoming fire from the tabloids, but believes the flak comes with the territory. "What the Daily Mail will think of this series, I don't know," he chuckles. "But if we're pushing out stuff with a new perspective, then conservative writers are never going to like it. That's just part of the process we're engaged with. It's one of the joys of Channel 4's remit. If you can't wind people up in life, then what's the point?"
So much for the official bravado. Chrissie Skinns, the producer of Psychos, is just keen that viewers don't get the wrong end of the stick about her series. She sighs that "the papers were writing headlines like 'How Low Can TV Go?' without knowing anything about the programme. They think we're saying: 'Oh, look at these funny mad people.' But that's not what we're doing; we're just showing what everyday life is like for these people."
While acknowledging that the subject remains society's last great taboo - "mental illness is still feared, we're all scared about becoming something else and losing control" - Skinns is quick to point out that one in four of us will have psychiatric treatment during our lifetimes. It is not, she contends, a topic that should just be locked in the attic and kept out of sight.
"Look at the whole subject of schizophrenia and the way it's been misunderstood in the press," Skinns says. "There the word 'schizophrenic' is used derogatorily - it means someone who is likely to attack you with a knife. But, of course, the vast majority of schizophrenics are not like that at all. With Psychos, the idea is to question what is sane and what is insane. The doctors themselves in this drama are seen to have as many problems as the patients. We all think we're on the side of sanity, but everyone can see manic depression in themselves. Who decides when that becomes an illness."
Douglas Henshall, the Scottish flavour-of-the-month actor, takes the lead in Psychos as the maverick psychiatrist Dr Danny Nash. On the set, Henshall is watching a video of High Society - "like snuggling up with a warm duvet" - during a break between scenes. He and the rest of the cast have found it easy to get into character in the bleak location of Netherne, a disused mental hospital in deepest Surrey (Scottish film crews are so in demand at present that the series had to be shot in England). The stark corridors that stretch out for a quarter of a mile, the ubiquitous musty smell, the ghastly swirly brown wallpaper, and the posters about manic depression, schizophrenia and ECT all contribute to an authentically cheerless atmosphere.
Sweeping his floppy fair hair out of his eyes, Henshall dismisses the critical advance press. "People with mental illness will be watching Psychos, and the last thing I'd want to do is patronise or insult them. But I believe we're getting this as right as we can. We've already had narrow-minded coverage in the press with journalists jumping on the title and using it in negative headlines. But they're just reinforcing stereotypes without finding out anything about our aims. Everybody concerned with this piece has done their research. There is nobody doing 'mad' acting - that wouldn't be allowed."
But surely people might still be offended by such an in-your- face title? "The title should challenge your prejudices," Skinns argues. "The word 'psychos' refers to the doctors rather than the patients."
David Wolstencroft, the first-time writer responsible for Psychos, conceived the series after discussions with a good friend who is a psychiatrist. He admits the title is deliberately inflammatory. "'Psychos' is an incendiary word - I wasn't blind to that. But the idea is to get people to watch - and then they'll get it. It's like The Satanic Verses. The furore was just a knee- jerk reaction. Titles lead you into things. But you don't buy a title in a bookshop, you buy a book. Psychiatrists talk about the need not to jump to conclusions about mental health."
The first episode certainly overturns expectations. Reluctant to prescribe medication to a chronically paranoid patient in the psychiatric unit at Muirpark Hospital, Nash's considered diagnosis is that "they're coming to get him". He goes on to suggest a treatment: "I'd recommend a course of karate once a week till blue belt - then as required." Another patient spends all her time in the day-room looking at the ceiling; Nash explains that she is staring at an eight-foot duck that no one else can see. Meanwhile, the sign on the door of the doctors' on-call room reads: "The psychos are in."
According to Skinns, this sort of gallows humour is merely a reflection of the way life is in actual mental hospitals. "Look at M*A*S*H. In the middle of the most awful situations, they would talk about who they got off with last night. That wasn't trivialising - it was making it more real. Humour is part of everyday life in hospitals. If you're dealing with difficult issues, you've got to make a lot of gags."
So Psychos will no doubt cause a storm, and Channel 4 may have to lay in extra staff for its duty office on the night of the first episode. But the makers assert that we shouldn't get too bogged down in the controversy. It is true that, beyond the headlines, Psychos is a sparky, thought-provoking drama. Wolstencroft claims it is richer than more conventional, Casualty-style medical dramas. "If you've got a kid with a broken arm, it's purely mechanical. But in psychiatry, you're dealing with two personalities coming into contact with one another; there are three people in the room - the psychiatrist, the patient and the illness. Dealing with someone whose life is broken is far more emotionally complex than a kid with a bee sting on his nose or a Santa falling down a chimney. What if a doctor who has lost a loved one suddenly has to handle a patient who's lost a loved one?"
For Andy Wilson, the director who also helmed Cracker, Psychos has a universality about it. "In effect, all drama is psychodrama. There'd be no drama without conflict, and one of the most extreme forms of conflict is an extreme psychotic behavioural state. In Cracker, we were at pains to emphasise the criminals' psychopathy. They were whydunits rather than whodunits. This has the same spirit. What we're saying is that there is a value in trying to understand psychological states, not just in the context of a cop drama or a whodunit. Look at the acres of books that have been written about the psychology of Hamlet and Macbeth."
Wolstencroft, too, feels it is a theme we can all identify with. "When it comes to mental illness, there's a hell of a lot of 'there but for the grace of God go I'. We don't know how it feels to get liver failure, but all of us have been depressed or manic. We've all sometimes found it hard, we've all had periods where we don't want to get out of bed in the morning. That's going down the same road as someone with deep clinical depression."
If just one person's view of the mentally ill is changed for the better, then Psychos could be deemed a success. "The main problem about mental illness is that it's never discussed," says Henshall. "It's just brushed under the carpet. People with mental illness are usually never shown on TV, unless they're wielding an axe. They're never seen in a positive light. We hope this will change all that."
Wolstencroft concludes that: "I don't like 'social message television'. In the end, this is a drama series. Channel 4 have this great catchphrase - 'TV to talk about'. That's what we should be aiming for. Hitchcock talked about 'an ice box chat', the discussion you have at the fridge after watching something. If people get Psychos and start to talk about it, then that would be cool."
But the series may also have a political impact. Iain Fraser - a man who for three and a half years worked as a real-life psychiatric nurse in Bellsdyke Hospital before playing Jim, a fictional psychiatric nurse in Muirpark Hospital - thinks it just might. "This series will show how difficult it is to be a psychiatric nurse. Of course, some people will say: 'I wouldn't do that - look at all the piss and shit.' But maybe it'll make the government say, 'let's see these guys get some more money'."
We live in hope.
James Rampton Scotland on Sunday 18th April 1999