PHOTOS & VIDEO: David Tennant In Takin' Over The Asylum #ThrowbackThursday



Today's Throwback Thursday looks back to 1994 and one of David's earliest TV roles, as Campbell in Takin' Over The Asylum. The six part drama was written by Donna Franceschild and directed by David Blair. It was filmed on location at Gartloch Hospital in Glasgow.  With black humour the drama deals perceptively with the issues surrounding mental health and the prejudices faced by sufferers.

Ken Stott plays Eddie McKenna, a double-glazing salesman who moonlights as a DJ for hospital radio in a Scottish mental asylum - St Judes. 

He nurtures close friendships with the patients there including Francine (Katy Murphy), a self-harmer and Campbell, played by David, a manic depressive, with whom he shares a dream to make it onto the commercial radio scene. 

Campbell's inspired antics promise to bring the pair closer to their aim, but the pressures of life outside of the hospital begin to tell on Eddie. A vindictive colleague leads his small-minded boss to ban his activities at 'the looney-bin' and his eccentric grandmother returns suddenly to Lithuania leaving him peniless and alone. 

Eddie finds himself drawn to the troubled Francine, but when the radio is threatened with closure it is to another 'wee friend' he turns for comfort. Slowly we watch the roles reverse. As Campbell regains control over his life and courts success, Eddie goes into decline and is finally forced to face his own illness - alcoholism. 

The publicity photos for the show feature David with Ken Stott and Katy Murphy






Watch a video of David, aged 22, auditioning for the role here:





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