Mental health charities are calling for ITV and Simon Cowell to re-examine urgently how they select contestants for their talent shows, warning that a tragedy is "inevitable". It comes after a 60-year-old man with a history of severe mental health problems, who was placed in a secure psychiatric unit after being judged a suicide risk, said that he believes he was selected by the producers of Britain's Got Talent specifically because they expected he would be jeered and ridiculed. Alyn James, a retired dentist from Neath, South Wales, appeared on the talent show two weeks ago but was buzzed off before he could finish his song, to shouts and boos from the audience.
James told the producers of the show that on seven occasions he had been judged to be a serious risk of suicide, but they chose to put him through to the televised auditions in front of Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden. James was screened by a psychologist before the show, a measure introduced after one of the show's stars last year, Susan Boyle, suffered a breakdown after the final. He was not deemed to be a risk. A researcher questioned him on his medical history. "That was what he [the researcher] was most interested in," James said. "We spent an hour and a half on the phone and he made me list all the drugs I've been on. I'm not on any now but at one point I made Pete Doherty look tame."
He told the researcher how, in 1988, he was struck off the dental register without warning, a decision he is still trying to appeal against. He was then sectioned and placed in a secure psychiatric unit where he was considered a suicide risk as he has been on six later occasions. Despite this, he was selected to go through to televised auditions in Cardiff arena. James said: "I think they have the best and the worst on, and I was there to be the worst. I was like that old man who break-danced last year. I was invited on to be laughed at and ridiculed.
"I had no idea beforehand. Because I know I'm good. I know all musicians say that but I am. I know I can perform. But there I was looking like a complete and utter idiot." After performing at the auditions, James has again been in crisis care and judged to be a suicide risk. The head of the Mental Health Foundation, Andrew McCulloch, said James's evidence raised extremely serious questions and warned that subjecting vulnerable people to such abuse would "inevitably" lead to tragedy.
4 comments:
Screen them, of course. This guy should never have made it on the show with his history. He's obviously got problems; he actually thinks he's good!
I don't know if screening is the entire answer, though. Just because someone has no history of psychiatric problems doesn't mean they're not going to be devastated if they get booed off the stage. Some people find criticism very hard to take.
You'd have thought they'd have learnt with Susan Boyle.
Susan Boyle recovered from exhaustion after five days in a clinic, and we all know she went on to phenomenal success and fame. She earned herself & all involved millions. Not a bad lesson to have learned.
Part of the formula of shows like this is to showcase the "train wrecks" for everyone's amusement. People like this guy "pass" their auditions because they're laughably bad, not because they have any potential for success. There's a huge difference between this an Susan Boyle. She wasn't prepared for the pressure of success and the emotional rollercoaster of a near win; this is is not the same as suddenly realizing that you are awful at what you love to do, that your friends lack the courage to tell you, and that you have been set up for failure and public ridicule because of your own delusion and their cowardice.
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