Compiled by Ellie Broughton Email details of events to therapytoday@thinkpublishing.co.uk
TV Big Mood
Theatre
Nicola Coughlan of Derry Girls and Bridgerton plays a struggling playwright in a loud new comedy about living with bipolar disorder. Maggie (Coughlan) and Eddie (Lydia West, of It’s a Sin fame) have been friends for a decade when Maggie’s bipolar disorder rears its head, and Eddie begins to question whether their friendship can survive the ups and downs. Unlike other comedies about millennial women’s mental health, Big Mood has the guts to look closely at the impact of a mood disorder on loved ones and relationships – with the talents of Coughlan and West keeping heavy subjects watchable (and even, dare we say, funny). The series was created with the support of Bipolar UK. All episodes are available to stream from www.channel4.com/programmes/big-mood
NYE
Disturbing the peace Podcast picks
Michael Sheen stars in this lively and moving new play by Welsh writer Tim Price about the founder of the NHS. Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan was raised working class in Monmouthshire before leading general strikes in 1926 and – despite his detractors – passing the National Health Service Act in 1946. As an election approaches, there’s no finer time to learn the true story behind how universal healthcare was established. The play has also reignited interest in Nye’s wife – with whom he had an unconventional but loving relationship – the extraordinary Jennie Lee, who became the youngest-ever woman to be elected a member of parliament at age 24, at a time when women under the age of 30 were not allowed to vote. The play started off at the National Theatre and, as well as now streaming in cinemas and online, it’s at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff from 18 May to 1 June. www.wmc.org.uk/nye
! Sleep On It , The Sleep Charity’s new podcast, debuts with a series on ADHD, with presenter Mark Thompson talking to experts about ways to help ADHDers get their head down in trying times. Essential listening for neurodivergent people and their therapists, especially at a time of rising rates of diagnoses, and medication shortages. www.thesleepcharity. org.uk/information- support/podcast
! The Goenka network teaches intensive vipassana meditation, but some who leave it experience breakdowns and even death. In each episode of the Financial Times ’ new podcast series, Untold: the retreat , investigative journalist Madison Marriage exposes heartbreaking survivor stories from people who went looking for peace, and found only more unrest. www.ft.com/untold
! A recent episode in the long-running BBC Radio 4 series All In The Mind , ‘What’s going on with girls’ mental health?’ looks at the post- pandemic spike in young women’s mental distress, and in disordered eating. Claudia Hammond meets epidemiologists at King’s College London, and looks into the emerging science of psychoneuro- immunology to get the latest statistics. www.bbc.co.uk/ programmes/b006qxx9
THERAPY TODAY 17 MAY 2024
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