New BBC reality show focuses on mental illnesses

From Sam Wollaston's column in The Guardian in the UK.

What's this then: How Mad Are You? (BBC2). I see. So you've got five people who have a mental illness and five people who don't. And they all get banged up together in this big old castle for a few days (hopefully, the castle will help to bring out the madness in them) and given these tasks to do. We have to work out who's mad and who's not. Classy, huh?

Is nothing now sacred, and exempt from the reality TV treatment? Mental illness is clearly OK. Why didn't they just call it I'm a Nutter, Get Me Out of Here? So what will they do? Put a big plate of chocolate eclairs in front of them, to find the anorexic? Erect a cross and see if anyone nails themself to it, to flush out the schizophrenic? Take them all down to Beachy Head, to see who's most depressed?

Well no, not quite. But that's not far off. First, they make them all do a bit of stand-up comedy, hoping that one will start sweating and shaking and having palpitations, and then they'll be able to point the social anxiety disorder finger at them. It proves inconclusive, though, as does a problem-solving exercise with cards. So they take them to a farm to slop out the cows, because they know one of them has obsessive compulsive disorder and will probably have a serious problem with the dirt and contamination. Sure enough, Dan looks very anxious in the cow shit and says he's going to throw his wellies away afterwards. Ha, got you Dan: first mad man outed.

To be fair, it's not only us at home playing Guess Who's Mad. There is a panel of experts in mental health trying to figure it out, too. They get Dan right, but they're wrong about Yasmin - all agreeing that she doesn't have any mental health issues at all, when actually she does.

And actually, I'm beginning to think that maybe this show is OK, once you're over the shock of the premise and the fact that it's a little bit like that Lars Von Trier film The Idiots, though in reverse. Here, it's people with mental health problems searching for their inner sanity, rather than sane people searching for their inner idiot. And these people are all there willingly; no not just willingly - the ones who do have mental disorders are doing so almost proudly, flying the flag for whatever it is they have and showing us that, if it's treated properly, it's perfectly possible for them to function like anyone else. I'm learning a lot about OCD from Dan, and if it means putting the condition in the context of reality TV to get me there, then I don't see what's so wrong about that. Plus, there are all sorts of interesting questions being thrown up about the diagnosis of mental illness, and what a fine line it is between living with one and just having a character trait.

So that's it, the final taboo comes tumbling down. Anything goes on television now. Though wouldn't it be better if we could take part at home: dial 0800 800 followed by 01 to have Holly sectioned ... no, maybe not.