Takin' Over the Asylum (Season 1)

Takin' Over the Asylum (1994) is a Scottish tragicomedy from the BBC you can watch online on iFILM. Eddie McKenna sells double-glazing for a living, can't stand the job, and at 38 still shares a Glasgow flat with his gran.

His one escape is moonlighting as a DJ. So when he's asked to revive the run-down radio station inside St Jude's psychiatric hospital, he takes the gig — and stumbles into the company he never had. The patients gather around the mic: hot-tempered Francine, the voice-haunted engineer Fergus, Rosalie and her relentless compulsions, and young Campbell, who dreams of a slot on real commercial radio. Their motto says it all: "We are loonies, and we are proud."

Campbell is played by a young David Tennant, years before Doctor Who, alongside Ken Stott and Angus Macfadyen, with David Blair directing. Six episodes that land both the laughs and the ache, never reducing mental illness to a punchline or a verdict. A quiet British TV classic for anyone who likes human stories told without the sugar. Stream Takin' Over the Asylum (1994) online on iFILM.