Juliet Burton
- Writer
Press clippings
Radio Times review
Mental health issues are no laughing matter. Or are they? Julia Sutherland talks to four more funny people - Australian comedian Felicity Ward, actress Keara Murphy, performer Juliet Burton and comedy guru John Lloyd - about their experiences of depression, anxiety, psychosis and eating disorders.
While these chats are quite straight-faced, they are interspersed with clips of Ward, Murphy and Burton performing in Edinburgh, each using their bleakest moments to raise laughs.
My favourite line is from Ward who likens admitting you're seeing a therapist to saying you've just bought a slave - people are happy you're getting help, but there's still a stigma attached. Murphy's amateur radio ham from a remote corner of Scotland is an oddball delight, with some homespun advice on coping with depression.
Burton's charming tales of fulfilling her childhood dreams by stalking Prince Harry soon descend into an attempt to recreate the experience of psychosis, while Lloyd asserts it's essential to laugh at mental health issues and reveals that it was creating QI that helped raise him from a deep depression.
Part of a Changing Minds season on mental health, this manages to be both funny and informative - which is no mean feat.
David Crawford, Radio Times, 16th January 2014