BBC Drama

[BristolUK]

I'm pretty sure this has been covered before but I've completely forgotten it and I can't find it.



BBC drama series, Mentally ill patient (care in the community issue) stabs someone in a phone box.



I know many of you will know it.

[batman]

A phone box stabbing doesn't really narrow it down much, there's been loads of them over the years .... it could be a film called Alone.



LINK: Alone

[BristolUK]

TBH I didn't feel it needed narrowing down with more plot details. I thought my 'care in the community' reference was enough to bring out hoards of people reminding me of the title.



The killing was done by a guy who wasn't on medication, or was but hadn't been taking it. His mother, I believe, had been unsuccessful in persuading doctors that he needed treatment.



It was quite topical at the time of the broadcast.

[Euryale]

Could this be Can You Hear Me Thinking? (1990), which starred Judi Dench and Michael Williams. It was a stand-alone drama, not a series, but was shown as part of the BBC's Screen One run.



It has been released with the The Judi Dench Collection DVD set, and this is from a review of it I read:



This 1990 drama features not only Dame Judi Dench but also her husband Michael Williams, with whom she appeared for so long in A Fine Romance.



The film opens dramatically, following a happy, family game of cards as the well-to-do couple's son Danny, played by Richard Henders, collapses at the crease during a school cricket match. Rather than being hit by a beamer, his assailant is somewhat nastier if more subtle - schizophrenia.



Christopher Morahan's production explores the stresses put on a family when their almost 17-year-old son walks out on his boarding school and a normal life. Father Kevin, played by Williams, is sternness personified, while his wife tries her best to be patient and understanding. The boy's younger brother and sister also provide support beyond any reason expectation.



Danny's problem manifests itself in totally irrational behaviour and also a slightly sinister interest in God, exacerbated by his own messianic tendencies. After he attacks his mother with a carving knife, there is no choice but to exchange his boarding school for a psychiatric institution.



Eventually, cracks begin to appear as the strain becomes too much for every member of the family. Danny's illness also affects their lives in more tangential ways, preventing his father, a highflying architect, from taking a job that will further his career.



The film allows the husband-and-wife acting team to show off their skills, but the true star is Richard Henders who really gets under the skin of a troubled youngster in a convincing performance full of pathos.



Can You Hear Me Thinking? may not have helped its audience to understand what causes schizophrenia but it certainly proves to be a damning indictment of the policy of Care in the Community. This might well have been the primary reason why it was written and broadcast in the first place.





The mother survives the knife attack, but I think that there is a grim ending for her son.





Euryale.

[BristolUK]

Thanks, but that's not it either.



I'm really amazed that nobody knows it. There was quite a well known (up and coming, at the time) actress in it. She may have been the sister or friend of the victim.



It was such a big thing at the time.



I'm sure if I could remember the title and mentioned it, loads of members would say "of course, how could I not know it?"

[CaptainWaggett]

Can you remember the date? Even the decade would narrow it down.

[BristolUK]

Late 80s or early 90s I'd say.



The victim was either visiting a sister in London or was to be visited by a sister.

[CaptainWaggett]

Was the murder near the start of Holding On in a phone box? Though that was later. The victim certainly had a sister who was one of the major characters.

[oxfam1uk]

Was it a single film or a series ?



There have been loads of dramas on this subject over the years - it's a real BBC obsession !

[BristolUK]

name='CaptainWaggett']Was the murder near the start of Holding On in a phone box? Though that was later. The victim certainly had a sister who was one of the major characters.

Yesssssssssssssssss that's it. Thanks a million.



An 8 part series? And there was me thinking it was maybe a two parter. Just reading the reviews...I'd forgotten about the other killing.



Now if some one can only remember this one.

[elagred]

I remember it. It was set in London with different characters. It was definitely HOLDING ON. One of the characters was a black guy who was fiddling an insurance firm, and her who plays denise in eastenders , she lived in a council flat and was the sister of a hoodie type