In the episode titled The Lie a married woman with a daughter receives a phone call about a blood test for her son.
No she does not have a son: but her husband does with another woman. So she discovers her husband is leading a double life. The added twist is that the other woman is a therapist: who the wife arranges therapy sessions with to see what she is like!
BBC1 Secrets -The Lie
This is one of five half hour dramas associated with TV drama in the sixties and seventies.
Fascinated with the intrigue of affairs, and the insecurity of love the series seems out of place in 2014. In the sixties and seventies the population was on the brink of a sexual revolution which could potentially reach every household. In another way the sixties and seventies were still buttoned up so it was seductive to watch fantasy people leading fantasy lives. But what is the attraction now? In this intensely competitive culture is it Schadenfreude? Is it the joy of seeing others’ pain at a distance? The eking out of pain that in reality is so intense and personal? BBC1 Secrets
Then there is the fact that when you see your job being acted in a TV drama: you realise how the poetic licence is a slave to the drama and manipulates the truth. In this episode the therapist sits at the kitchen table across from the client making notes in a notebook easily seen by the client! What are they doing sat at the kitchen table? Why is the therapist writing notes during the session? The banality and phoney sincerity the actor employs to play the therapist is so exaggerated it mocks of the profession. Why not? Our profession needs more mocking to dilute the pervasive intense sincerity, and lack of a sense of humour about the work. But I don’t think that was the drama’s intention! Then the therapist’s partner interrupts the session to say he is taking their kid out! The therapist answers normally – and then apologises for the interruption! Wow! Boundaries!
Perhaps it is a sign that therapy is so common that people understand what it is about? A little manipulation will not put anyone off because they know it is just telly! That is not my experience in the multi ethnic high churn rate populations of inner city boroughs!
Well maybe the ethnic inner city population is not wringing its hands with the love problems of the middle classes. Anyone for therapy?
BBC1 Secrets -The Lie
Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2014
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Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.This article is designed to provoke argument and critique.
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