An objective window into the mental health of our teenagers
Mental illness is an issue that has been well publicised in recent years. But though it can feel like we read about it all the time, it’s rare that we get to see the harrowing effects of it in action.
BBC Two’s documentary Girls on
the Edge was our objective window into this world, following some of the teenaged girls who had been sectioned and were staying at Fitzroy House, Europe’s largest secure hospital for under-18s. We saw one, 17-year-old Jess, struggle to be among crowds. She was first sectioned when she was 13, and had been in nine different hospitals. Twice she bravely tried to be in a hall filled with fellow patients and staff. Both times left her outside in the corridor, crouched tightly in a corner in the grip of a panic attack that she couldn’t contain.
But this was as much about the families as the patients. Jess’s mother stood in her living room, staring at some professional family photos hanging on the wall, despondently recalling how those are the last pictures the family has of Jess before her arms became covered in selfharming scars. Their struggle was almost as painful to watch as that of the patients, as the girls’ parents and siblings spoke frankly about feeling helpless, and living with the fear that their relative could take their own life at any moment.
Another patient, Jade, was only a few weeks from her 18th birthday, after which she would be moved to an adult facility. The fear of becoming institutionalised loomed large. When she learnt in her six-month review that she was not yet well enough to go home, her disappointment was heartbreaking. She didn’t want to be a burden on her family, she tearfully told her mother. Her mother could only hug her and firmly tell her that she wasn’t.
The documentary did not have a voice-over, nor offer any commentary. There was no politics. The patients and families offered some thoughts on why they were there: bullying, social media and unrealistic beauty standards among them. But there was no definitive answer, because there isn’t one.
What is heartening is knowing that, for now, these facilities exist and that there are people out there who can help the teenagers in such desperate need. These girls were getting help; they didn’t just fall through the cracks. But it would be naive to believe that every such teenager is so fortunate. And the alternative truly is too unbearable to think about.
Though it’s fairly easy to miss in the UK, being tucked away on E4, The Big Bang Theory is arguably the most popular sitcom on TV. Now in its 11th season, it’s consistently the most-watched in the US and its ensemble cast command TV’S biggest salaries (around $26million per season).
With the end supposedly in sight (it’s believed the show will finish after its 12th), a new spin-off, Young
Sheldon (E4), has arrived from TBBT co-creator Chuck Lorre. It takes us back to 1989 and the childhood of the show’s most popular character: Sheldon Cooper.
The eccentric Sheldon has always been TBBT’S biggest laugh generator, largely as a result of the multi-awardwinning Jim Parsons’s note-perfect comic timing and natural gift for physical comedy. A self-proclaimed genius, Sheldon condescends his fellow-scientist friends and struggles to interpret social cues. Much has been made of the character’s very normal Texas childhood in the show, so for fans of the series this is a welcome chance to witness the prodigy conduct his oft-mentioned early science experiments, his dismissal of conventional children’s behaviour, and to meet his beloved “Meemaw” (his grandmother) – who will arrive later in the series.
To us weary adults, precocious children can be annoying, particularly ones as smug as nine-year-old Sheldon. But the show wisely allows him some heartfelt moments. His love of both his parents is laid plain, and actor Iain Armitage (Big Little Lies) does an uncanny impression of Parsons’s portrayal – who only appears here as the narrator.
The absence of a studio audience gives Young Sheldon a very different feel to its parent show. And the punchlines certainly don’t come anything like as thick and fast here. What we have instead is a warmhearted, coming-of-age tale in the style of The Wonder Years. But without a Parsons-level comic talent among the cast, this series will live or die based on whether the writers can create characters worth falling for.