Mental health is suddenly a hot topic — for Prince William and Prince Harry, Rio Ferdinand on BBC1, and even in election pledges. Radio’s contribution to mental stability is quieter, of greater longevity and overlooked, but a series starting this week shows what it can do and the tradition it maintains of helping troubled people realise they are not alone.
On the Sporting Couch consists of six Saturday-night interviews with international stars on talkSPORT (owned by News UK, as is this newspaper). The cricketer Marcus Trescothick chronicles the anxieties that cost him his England career; the darts player James Wade discusses his bipolar illness; the footballer Keith Gillespie the gambling addiction through which he lost £7m; the rugby player Duncan Bell the depression that destroyed his career; the referee Nigel Owens his sexual torments; and the swimmer Rebecca Adlington the strain of competing in the Olympics. The interviewer, Gary Bloom, a psychotherapist as well as a commentator, concludes with a panel discussion on mental health in sport.
The length of each show (one hour), plus the title, may justify the station’s claim that it is “on-air therapy”. There are certainly echoes of Radio 4’s In the Psychiatrist’s Chair (1982-2001), in which people bravely bared their souls to the Irish psychiatrist Dr Anthony Clare. The deeply personal conversations showed that success often conceals pain, neuroses are shared and all human feet are made of clay. In 1988, Clare went on to present Radio 4’s All in the Mind, now the world’s longest-running programme on mental health.
Radio drama has often been drawn to the subject: particularly memorable was Jack Woolley’s descent into Alzheimer’s on The Archers, which took five years to play out. Illuminating the creeping impact of dementia before it was as widely discussed as now, it won a Mental Health Media award in 2007.
Radio, of course, makes an invaluable contribution to mental wellbeing simply by being itself: a companion, a solace and the best of friends.