"Think with your head, not with your heart."
Doctor Chandler, a bright young psychiatrist faces a challenge in Claire, a young woman suffering from compulsive disorder syndrome. She is convinced that if she doesn't carry out her litany of complex rituals then 'bad things' will happen. Really bad things. Doctor Chandler reasons with her and succeeds in breaking her compulsion, but realises that there is more here than simple acts of faith ...
Comment
The sheer simplicity of this production is its greatest strength. With just two cast members and a single room, director Ian Knox is able to generate a genuine sense of creepyness as Doctor Chandler attempts to reason with the compulsive Claire. Can he get her to see that her rituals are not preventing 'bad things' from happening as a result of her 'bad thoughts', but that it's all just coincidence? Claire is unconvinced, and in a superb piece of focussed acting from Sarah Smart, slowly starts to open up to Chandler. The strangeness comes slowly: a mirror unexpectedly shatters into a shape which echoes a tattoo on Claire's leg, Chandler's pen springs a leak and spoils a photograph of Chandler and his partner, who is at that moment flying back to England from New York. Knox keeps the tension up until the end, when Claire's 'bad thoughts' are directed at her prediction that she will break the Doctor's heart.
The ending unfortunately suffers from some slight confusion. Does the plane carrying Chandler's partner crash? The implication is that it does, but is Claire responsible? Chandler pays perhaps more attention to Claire than strictly necessary when she inadvertantly shows her G-string to the world, but does this make him a bad person?
Ultimately, the episode asks a lot of questions, but doesn't really resolve any. You feel sorry for Claire, trapped in her own world of ritual, but is she really causing all these events or is it just coincidence? Like the psychiatrist, must we try and rationalise, or like the patient, should we just accept?
Perhaps Channel 5 are on the side of Claire, as this episode was pulled from its original transmission slot following hightened sensitivity following the terrorist plane attacks on New York, and the crash in Queens a week before the transmission.
Author
Frank Tallis is a clinical psychologist and novelist. He has written six non-fiction books (including Changing Minds: A history of Psychotherapy) and over thirty academic papers in international journals. His lecturing and clinical posts include The Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College and the Florence Nightingale Hospital. He is one of Britain's leading experts on obsessional states and played a key role in setting up 'Obsessive Action', a charity for those suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and their families. He has written two thrillers, Killing Time and Sensing Others, both published by Penguin. Frank won an Arts Council Writers Award in 1999 and the New London Writers Award in 2000. His next non-fiction book, A History of the Unconcious, will be published in 2002.
| Credits | |
| Written by | Frank Tallis |
| Directed by | Ian Knox |
| Starring | Sarah Smart (Claire)
John McAndrew (Dr Chandler) |
Click here for full credit list | |
