This drama-documentary lifts the lid on the history of one of the world’s most notorious mental health institutions, the Bethlem Hospital in London, otherwise known as Bedlam.

What really went on behind the walls of this unique and mysterious 600-year-old institution, whose name has come to stand for the very idea of madness itself? We’ll meet the Mad Doctors, the tourists who visited, the whistleblowers who tried to reform it, and above all we’ll tell the stories of some of the extraordinary patients who ended up there. Drawing on the latest scholarly research on Bedlam’s history, the film aims to explore the origins of our modern understanding of mental illness.

The programme is currently in production, and will be broadcast by the History Channel at 9pm on 18th March 2010. It has been made possible by the generous support of the Wellcome Trust.