Has anyone been watching 'Growing Out of Trouble'? It's a short series following Monty Don's project to encourage a small group of people addicted to drugs to change their lives by gaining skills and reconnecting to the soil.
The series suffers from the same problems as similar programmes: voyeurism, naivety, patronising attitudes, and extremely high levels of time and money devoted to a few individuals. It doesn't even have enough about the growing to make it interesting or informative.
The only reason I mention it is because in last week's programme, Monty Don talked about the depression he suffers each autumn. His openness was unusual, although I don't think it was as extensive, from what I can gather, as the programme about Stephen Fry's mental health which I didn't see but I think was shown roughly three months ago.
Is mainstream television (well, BBC2) starting to cover these issues in a sensible way?
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It would be nice if they were. I think it would be a good while though before they started doing programmes that shed a positive light on mental health issues consistently.
The one done by Steven Fry was good because at the start you knew that he had bipolar so immediately their was acceptance towards mental health.
All too often they get a journalist who brings a sceptical view to whether or not mental health issues even exist, then it becomes belittled and pushed aside again.
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