Reviews - The Doctor Who Hears Voices

This programme was always set to be a cause for debate, bringing up as it does some important issues around the treatment of mental illness and the diagnosis of schizophrenia in particular.

Reviews and comment
Times online
Guardian
Mirror
Telegraph
Expert Family Law

Tonight - The Doctor Who Hears Voices

"A young NHS hospital doctor called “Ruth” is suspended because she is suffering from depression. She does not tell her employers that she is also hearing a voice in her head, telling her to kill herself. To do so would mean dismissal and probably get her sectioned. She turns to Rufus May, an unorthodox NHS psychiatrist* who rejects the use of medication. He believes such voices are full of meaning and that patients should engage with them. He talks to the voices himself. He talks to Ruth’s......"

".....Inevitably, this film raises far more questions than it can possibly answer. But it shines a powerful light on a condition that, for the sufferers and their families, can be, literally, a matter of life and death." (The Times)

The Doctor Who Hears Voices, Mon 21 April 2008, Channel 4, 10pm

The full article from the Times, including an interview with the Director Leo Regan can be read here

Rufus May has his own website at www.rufusmay.com and has also written an article called Underground Recovery about the background to the film.

* Rufus May is actually a clinical psychologist, not a psychiatrist. The Times got that wrong.

MAD - Dir Leo Regan

Coming soon...
To be broadcast on Channel Four during April 2008









The Doctor Who Hears Voices
Drama documentary, 70mins Kudos/Ch4




Starring - Ruth Wilson & Rufus May
Director of Photography - Johann Perry
Sound Recordist - Mary Milton
Editor - David Hill
Director - Leo Regan


Dr Rufus May is a maverick psychologist.
He thinks madness is a good thing.
Last week Ruth Fielding* came to see him for the first time.

Ruth’s a junior doctor who’s hearing a voice telling her to kill herself.
Most doctors would say Ruth is a danger to herself and others, and have her sectioned.
Rufus is different.
He doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with hearing voices.

Rufus May is one of the most controversial doctors working in the NHS today.
He thinks all mental hospitals should be shut down, there’s no such thing as schizophrenia and medication destroys lives.
He says we should learn to love mad people.
He does.
He was mad himself once.

To protect Ruth’s identity an actor is used to tell her story and some details have been changed.
Everything you see with Ruth is based on original transcripts, recorded over twelve months.
Everything else is documentary footage, filmed as it happened.


This is an unusual project where documentary and drama are used together. I recorded only the drama sections of the project with Johann Perry as DOP. The documentary sections had been shot by director Leo Regan previously over a period of months. Drama reconstruction was used to protect the identity of the real "Ruth" here played by actress Ruth Wilson. Rufus May appears as himself across documentary and dramatised sections which gives real continuity to the piece. We wanted to match the shooting style of the drama sections as closely as possible to the documentary style. The documentary had been recorded almost exclusively with radio mics placed outside the clothing of characters. To match this I put radio mics on the outside the clothing of both actors in situations where we felt Leo would have done this had it been documentary. These weren't always the mics I actually used for recording the sound, most often this was done with radio mics which were concealed under clothing to protect them from wind noise. Hence on most of the exterior shots the Ruth and Rufus are wearing two mics, one functioning and one as a prop. On the interior shots most often they both wear only one mic which is on top of clothing and functioning. There are also a few times where Ruth wears only a concealed mic, for situations where we thought Leo would not have had a chance to mic her up in a pure documentary situation and would just have used his camera mic.

The programme was shot in standard definition on a Sony Z1. In order to stay cable free sound was radio linked to the Z1 from my SQN. Johann carried two radio mic receivers in a bag around his waist which was linked with short XLRs to the camera. Sound was also backed up on a Sound Devices 744T which was also very useful for making wildtracks while free of the camera.

*Ruth Fielding is not her real name.