News > Media

Launching on DVD on the 8th of  February - must pre-order by 8th of February for Exclusive 45% discount on DVD of the Stephen Fry two part documentary 'the Secret Life of a Manic-Depressive' . Originally having appeared on the BBC in 2006, the documentary has won an International Emmy Award.

10% of the profit from the DVD will go to the British Bipolar Charity- MDF The BiPolar Organisation

£8.99 instead of £15.99
This discount is only available on pre-orders via this link.

Please click here to join the Bipolar In-Touch Network to recieve a bulletins of further useful information and News about bipolar disorder.

 

Winner: Best Documentary - International Emmy Awards
Nominated: Best Factual Series, BAFTAS
Featuring interviews with Carrie Fisher, Richard Dreyfuss, Jo Brand, Griff Rhys Jones Rick Stein and Tony Slattery

Title: Stephen Frys The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive
Catalogue No  1041DC
Release date  08 February 2010   RRP £15.99 ,   £8.99 if preordered
Barcode 5037899013939                  Running Time 115 mins
 

Equilibrium Comment:

Stephen Fry's two part documentary 'the Secret Life of the Manic-Depressive' appeared on the BBC in 2006. is launched today on DVD. It was an unusually open account of his own problems with Bipolar Disorder and in addition, a journey of discovery to understand as much as he could about the problem and its causes.  Ever since its first screening we have had frequent enquiries from those seeking a copy of the documentary- both those who missed the original and those wishing to see it for the first time. Unfortunately until now it was not available.


On the 8th of February this will change as it is being released on DVD and can be purchased here with an exclusive 45% Equilibrium discount.

The documentary traces Fry's own journey of discovery from the point of his 'disappearance ' in suicidal despondency, to Belgium in the midst of a theatre production, to meeting others with the disorder from celebrities to the more 'ordinary'. It features interviews with Carrie Fisher, Richard Dreyfuss, Jo Brand, Griff Rhys Jones Rick Stein and Tony Slattery. Fry also engages with razor sharp grasp those who are seeking to understand the causes in terms  science, medicine and psychology such as Professor Nicholas Craddock a psychiatrist and geneticist at the University of Cardiff and brain imagers at the Institute of Psychiatry who try to examine Fry's genes and brain respectively.


The documentary we can only describe as 'excellent, engaging informative, human and uniformly intelligent'. 
 â€¨From it's screening however we were interested by the fact that in the programme, Fry asks the question of those he meets-  'if you could completely switch off your bipolar disorder, would you?'

In the program the majority of those interviewed said .  We were surprised by this and wondered if it was due to the selection bias of most of the interviews being with high profile, successful celebrities with bipolar disorder.

Fry's  reasons for interviewing this group predominantly are absolutely valid and understandable given one of his key aims of destigmatising bipolar disorder and educating the public in general. For this reason the interviews with the successful and famous who have experienced bipolar disorder are completely legitimate.

 "the Fry question..... would you switch it off?"

Nevertheless, it left us with the question was this really true amongst a more representative sample of people affected by bipolar disorder. feedback to us was that although the documentary was highly regarded by people affected by bipolar disorder, two issues came up again and again. The 'would you switch it off' question  and the issue of the usefulness of treatment with medication for bipolar disorder.

We has many comments expressing that somehow the documentary has in the desire to destigmatise  somehow trivialised the intense suffering of many people who would definitely switch it off if they could and accept any medication which may help bring their extremes of mood under control so that they had a sense of being 'captains of their own soul'.

To answer this we asked the same question as one of many items in the International Bipolar Disorder Survey which is now being analysed. Of around 3317 people with bipolar disorder who answered this question the vast majority  said that they would switch their bipolar disorder off completely if they could. Unlike in the Fry programme,  only 28 percent expressed the sentiment that they would definitely choose to keep the whole package of the disorder with 55% clear they would switch all of the disorder off and 17% stating they would like to keep aspects of the disorder or traits associated with it.

One pertinent comment made " I wonder if they would still want to keep it if they didn't have so much money?", indirectly raises the association of creativity and bipolar disorder which is for another day. Going for a walk on a Californian beach, unfortunately,  though therapeutic for almost anyone is not widely availabe in the NHS.

In my opinion, "the Secret Life of the Manic Depressive", despite its flaws- is probably the most important factual piece on bipolar disorder there has been and as such ranks with the impact of Kay Redfield Jamison's "an Unquiet Mind" as being ahead of its time and worthy of it's International Emmy.