Dr Danny Nash
Thanks to roles in films such as This Year’s Love, If Only and Orphans, Douglas Henshall is one of the hottest young actors around. So it is something of a surprise to learn that he does not come across that many good scripts. “You’d be surprised how many script-writers don’t know how to write dialogue,” he sighs “I hadn’t read anything for a while that made me go ‘wow’. Then I suddenly saw Psychos, I love the way David Wolstencroft writes dialogue-it’s the way people speak.” Further than that, he was attracted by the weighty themes that Psychos tackles. “I liked the idea that it questioned what is sane and what is insane and made no distinction between the two.”
Henshall was also impressed by “the way director Andy Wilson talked about the shooting. He made it so exciting, that was the thing that gave me the first spark. When I read it, I wasn’t thinking this will be good for shock value. It wasn’t a crusade, I was drawn for the artistic purpose. The piece was just so satisfying for an actor.”
His character, Dr Danny Nash, is a maverick, intuitive psychiatrist with his own personal demons that he has to deal with. “Nash is a holistic psychiatrist,” Henshall explains. “He’s not a Jungian or a Freudian – he’s just in favour of whatever works. He’s very open- minded. He’s an orphan whose sister died of a heroin overdose, and he has this idea as long as he can heal others, he’ll heal himself.”
All the same, Nash can be a difficult colleague, “He’s a sharp boy who is capable of being quite cutting,” Henshall says. “He’s not the easiest man in the world to work with because he’ll just go off on a tangent without necessarily telling the people he works with.”
A thorough researcher, Henshall has gone deep into his subject. “I read a book called An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamieson. I also have an acquaintance who is a psychiatrist. I asked him to evaluate the role-I paid for it as a session. He pointed out the things about Nash that I would have never seen.”
A thoughtful man, Henshall is aware that the series may prove controversial. “We do have a responsibility. I know people with mental illness will be watching Psychos, and the last thing I want to do is to patronise or insult people. I’d feel we’d failed dreadfully if we did. But I believe we’re getting this as right as we can. Everybody concerned with this piece has done their research. There is nobody doing ‘mad’ acting, that wouldn’t be allowed.”
Henshall ends by praising Channel 4 for dealing with this difficult subject in the first place. “The main problem about metal illness is that it’s never discussed. It’s just brushed under the carpet. I couldn’t imagine anyone other than C4 taking it on. People with mental illness are usually never shown on TV in a positive light. We hope this will change all that.”
From the Psychos press pack