[Solemn music plays, noises of nature in
background]
Narrator: Broadmoor, a word that makes people shiver.
Most think that Broadmoor is a prison,
in fact it's a high secure psychiatric hospital,
and home to some of the countries most
dangerous and violent offenders.
[Gate unlocking, mechanical noises]
After five years of negotiation, and for the
very first time, the hospital has allowed
cameras in to meet the men who live behind
these walls.
[unintelligible yelling, sound of something slamming]
[Running foot steps keys jangling]
[more yelling and sounds of a struggle]
[door slams]
[foot steps echo in the hallway]
Inmate: Broadmoores got this, this history
about people being all these monsters here basically.
But you can be violent, and it don't mean you're
a bad person.
'Cause sometimes
you don't....you're not intendin' it.
Over radio: "Hello Brovo one, two, and go.
Over radio: "One going to the
[ unintelligible] all radio. Alpha four.
Over."
The easiest reaction in the world is to
see somebody that has committed something
atrocious, label them as evil, want to
lock the door and throw away the key.
Inmate: "I've probably actually never said
the words of what I've I actually done.
I've never admitted it. Still just a blur
in my head".
[knocking on door]
Inmate 2: "I've got born into this Italian
family. Very, very violent. In some cases
it would have been better to have killed
me than to have allowed me to have this
horrible life that I've had.
Narrator: With unprecedented access, and
filmed over a year, this series reveals
the secrets of life inside Brittians most
notorious institution.
[Bell rings]
[Solemn music]
Narrator: Broadmoor is perched above the
Berkshire village of Crowthorne. Just 40
miles from the center of London.
When people think of Broadmoore they think of
Ronny Kray, Peter Sutcliffe, Robert
Napper, and Kenneth Erskine. Some of the
most dangerous killers the country has
ever known.
"The public perceive this place as 'oh,
that's where the Yorkshire Rippers locked
up, that's Rachel Nickell's killers locked
up'. Broadmoor is an institution of lots of
people. We're not all rapist pedophiles,
or murderers. There is people in here for
self-harming in prison, there's people in
here for buggary and they've gotten in a prison,
and there's people in here for very very
evil things.
and it brushes with all the same brush
what station [unintelligible]".
[loud string crescendo]
Narrator: First built as a victorian
lunatic asylum for the criminally insane,
today Broadmoor is an NHS hospital.
Over its 150 year history, its been a secretive
and mysterious institution.
Staff are under strict instructions not to
discuss patients outside the hospital walls.
[clicking as items are placed on conveyer
and beeping of machinery]
Many won't even admit to working here.
Staff Member: " Close, close family
members know that, obviously, where we
work. But if we're in a normal mainstream
than you would, you would probably say you
work in the hospital or something. Don't
really talk about the place."
Staff Member #2: " Listen, if you said
that you worked here. Ah, boy. You'd just
spend the whole of a day, or the
afternoon, with a barrage of questions about the place.
So, it's just easy to say you work for the
NHS".
Narrator: They're told not to share
personal information with the patients
either, and to leave their private lives
along with their possessions. At the front door.
Broadmoor's most notorious patients,
like Peter Sutcliffe and Kenneth Erskine,
have chosen not to participate.
But many of the men here have been front
page news and are vilified by society.
This is the first time they've been
allowed to tell their stories.
Alex: I've everything from taking
hostages, more hostage taking, stabbings,
ya' know. Uhhhh... more assaults, violent
assaults, fire setting off. I set a whole
stammers a fire in a hospital. A
psychiatric hospital, the first one I
ever went to. Umm.. yeah. Just mainly
violence and whatnot. My history is mainly
violence".
Narrator: "Broadmoors 200 patients are all
men suffering from mental disorders.
They're classified as vulnerable adults
and only those who have Capacity to
Give Consent have been allowed to talk to
us.
Their faces have been blurred to
protect their identities
[Door closing]
Female voice: "What are you like when
you're not on medication?"
Alex: "Ummm...I'm quite a nasty
person. I'm quite violent, I'm very
violent in most circumstances. Very
antisocial. I don't like spending time
with people. I'm paranoid. I'm, uh, very
paranoid. [stammers] Every person around,
I'm thinking 'what's their intention?' I
come to that, sometimes I come very close
to attacking people because I'm thinking
that they're going to do something to me
and I don't want to get hurt first. Uh,
um..I remember one time when I'm off
medication, spent 11 months locked in a
cell. Segregated, due to the fact that I
was too dangerous to come out".
Narrator: 24 year old Alex arrived at
Broadmoor 7 months ago. He was serving a
life sentence in a dedicated prison unit
for highly dangerous prisoners.
They could no longer manage him.
Alex: "When I was younger, we would
chase a seagull... trails off
Narrator: Now in a remissions ward he's
been diagnosed with mental illness and
personality disorder and put on
medication.
One of his symptoms is Auditory Hallucinations.
He hears voices.
Alex: "Oh, I was doing a fruit salad
the other day for an assessment. That's
when they do this assessment from
personal motor, motor skills.
It's like for learning disability.
And....Umm...
I was cutting a mango
and I have never, I've never used a sharp knife.
In the seven years I've been away
I've not used a sharp knife
and I was shaking. Literally.
I nearly cut my fingers off cause'
the voices were telling me to attack the
people in the room, with the knife.
And, like, they were goading me into it,
and I thought ' I can't do that.
I can't do that.
and so I managed to finish fruit, the
fruit salad, and I thought " wow like, what
achievement'. Cause' mostly stammers a
year ago, two years ago, my emotions
would have done it.
Ya know?"
[unintelligible speaking]
Man in Sweater: "No. We'll clean it
afterwards. We are Going to give you
bedding for now, okay"?
Narrator: This is Cranfield, the
intensive care ward. Home to the hospitals
most acute mentally ill patients.
[door shutting, keys jangling, people
speaking unintelligibly]
Female voice: "Hi, can we come in and
talk to you, yeah?"
Man in Sweater: "Sit on the bed for us"
Narrator:Any contact with them has to be
carefully planned and executed.
This is a six person unlock.
The door to this patients room can only be
opened with six staff present.
Hospital Staff: "There is always the risk
of violence towards others if
[can't understand] with chronic mental
illness and they will be very distant
throughout the day, but you have to
learn to work with that.
[person sobbing]
My focus in working with this guys is
after telling me that they are here
not because of the illness, they
are here because of violence.
And they only progress from here
if there's a reduction in that violence.
So that message, you know.
It might take time, but gradually
over a period of time, is that
goal through".
[keys jangling, unintelligible talking in background]
Narrator: On this ward, even the most
routine tasks, run a risk of violence and
involve a protocol.
This patient has asked for a drink.
Man in White: "Just keep on the bed trails off
[unintelligible]
Shukran. Shukran
Shukran means thank you, right?
You know, you taught me all this.
laughs
[unintelligible speaking]"
Inmate: [unintelligible] "give me some more?'
Man in White: [unintelligible response]
"Thank you!"
Female voice: "Thank you guys."
Narrator: Life in Broadmoor can be a game
of snakes and ladders.
With patients moving between the hospitals
15 wards according to their
mental state.
[door closing]
Patients who have responded to treatment
can progress to one of the hospitals
Assertive Rehab Wards, where
they're given greater freedom.
Daniel is one of 12 patients on this
ward.
Daniel: "I've been here five years.
Luckily I never went to a high dependency
ward, I came straight to rehab.
And, to be honest, its been...
I wouldn't use the word wonderful...
Cause' eh... it's not wonderful.
But, I've been grateful basically
to come here.
In my spare time I try and engage
in artwork mostly.
This was the, uh... my first real attempt
at an actual portrait. All done completely
in graphite, and then I moved on to using
charcoal along with, uh.. graphite.
And the charcoal allows you to, to have
so much more...uhhh...depth in the tone or
quality.
And then, yeah....I did a self-portrait.
The whole, The whole picture was a
statement about when I got locked up,
when I was 14 and I'm now 24.
This is me at 24, but uh, that me.....
back then...sort of thing...."
Narrator: Mental Disorder is no respecter
of class or education.