Broadmoor: For the Criminally Insane

Testimonies from former patients and staff reveal new insights and untold stories about the high-security psychiatric hospital over its 160 years of its existence. In the first edition, a former patient recalls his seven years there after being diagnosed with a mental health condition and sectioned under the Mental Health Act, while there are previously unheard words from Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, secretly recorded in a phone call from inside Broadmoor with his brother Carl.

Psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and other workers reveal how they care for and contain the hospital's most dangerous patients, with the threat of violence part of the job. Staff explain what happened when Lee Rigby's killer Michael Adebowale assaulted a nurse at Broadmoor, and tell the story of the attack on Peter Sutcliffe that left the Yorkshire Ripper blind in one eye.

This is the story of Broadmoor's secrets and scandals. Hidden behind its walls and high up on a hill in the village of Crowthorne, Broadmoor Hospital is one of Britain's most famous and most secretive institutions. Staff at Broadmoor have always been forbidden from revealing what goes on inside. They discuss how they were harassed by and forced to fend off journalists eager for a scoop. In 2007, one member of staff was paid by a tabloid for confidential information about Peter Sutcliffe. Nicknamed 'Tipster Bob', he was eventually caught and sent to jail. In 1977, 19-year-old Colm Byrne joined Broadmoor as a trainee psychiatric nurse, and nearly 50 years on he reveals the experiences he witnessed inside the hospital that shocked him so much that he had to leave. 

Broadmoor Hospital, one of Britain's most secure institutions, known for holding some of the country's most dangerous criminals. We hear about infamous escapee "The Wolfman," who broke out twice, and Joshua, a patient who reintegrated successfully after years of treatment. Cases like Kenneth Erskine, the "Stockwell Strangler," raise questions on rehabilitation, while Ronnie Kray's story shows some may never leave.