Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
Dreams Of A Life (2011) 12
Thursday, 10pm, Ch4
Can we ever truly know someone? That’s the conundrum at the heart of Carol Morley’s documentary – a shocking true story taken straight from the headlines.
In December 2003, Joyce Vincent died of unknown causes, alone and unnoticed in her bedsit next door to a busy north London shopping centre. Her decomposed body, surrounded by half-wrapped Christmas presents, wasn’t discovered until January 2006 – her television was still on.
After reading a newspaper report, Morley (inset) became obsessed with finding out more about this forgotten woman who, at just 38, had simply disappeared. One typical comment on the internet read: ‘[She] must have been a miserable cow that no one had come looking for her.’ That judgment, as Morley soon found out, couldn’t have been further from the truth.
What emerged when she started to piece together the interviews she had conducted was contradictory, to say the least, but one thing this woman never appeared to be was miserable. Bubbly, bright, beautiful and a free spirit – but never miserable. What did become clear, however, was that none of the people here – a mix of friends, workmates and ex-lovers (her family declined to take part) – ever really knew Joyce (played by Zawe Ashton, above, in flashback). And when she inevitably went out of their lives, they just assumed she was having a better time somewhere else. As one former colleague put it, ‘We just accepted that we never heard from her again.’ That is the
real tragedy here.
The lesson?
Morley doesn’t want to lay blame, but her film is more than just an intriguing story – it’s a sad indictment of the age. While technology has made it easier to stay in touch, for many, meaningful connections have become fewer. One of the reporters who initially unravelled the story says, ‘You’d like to think that everyone’s got someone who would look out for them.’ But on learning of Joyce’s story, it’s painfully clear that’s not the case. And maybe that’s the one thing we should all take away from this film – assume nothing.