I am writing to you concerning the mental state of Ms Julia Bradbury, presenter of Countryfile and who recently appeared on The Great Comic Relief Bake Off.
There were several points throughout the Bake Off program in which it became clear that Ms Bradbury’s mental state was, quite frankly, detrimental to herself and those around her. I find it a bitter pill to swallow that the BBC has allowed this woman to perform in such an openly unhinged manner. Is it from a lack of respect for the mentally ill that this has spawned?
I must be explicit in my complaint: my issue does not lie with the viewing of the mentally ill, but instead with the way in which Ms Bradbury was paraded as – forgive me – a disabled zoo animal. The producers of this program goaded her to make a fool of herself and filmed the consequences for the television hungry vultures of this country to feast on. If I wished to watch this kind of embarrassing exhibition then I would have chosen Channel 4.
While there were a number of disturbing situations here, there are two such situations which have been impressed on my mind and burnt into my retinas.
The first was when Ms Bradbury announced that she would not only be using a scone recipe which included jalapeno peppers (!) but that the recipe she had chosen would run over the allotted time period by at least one hour. If you are decent enough to provide Warwick Davis and Ellie Simmonds with platforms to stand on, then surely you should have the decency to provide the other contestants with basic care. Just because we cannot see Ms Bradbury’s disability does not make it any less real.
The second moment of disbelief came in the form of a hallucination. While Ms Bradbury was concentrating on the task at hand, Mr Paul Hollywood crept up behind her in much the same way as a predator would approach its prey. Clearly startled by this Ms Bradbury turned to Mr Hollywood and, with terror in her eyes and fright in her smile, greeted him ‘Hello Shark’. Mr Hollywood did not bat an eyelid, and it seemed that no single member of your production staff was in the least bit concerned about Ms Bradbury’s disintegrating sanity.
I find this to be a sad, sad time indeed, if it is one in which those in need of patience and constant care are left to fend for themselves, while you record their fading mental health for the entertainment of the general pubic.
I do hope that this will create a dialogue between us around the issues of mental health and Julia Bradbury. I await your response.
Yours sincerely,
Disappointed, Edinburgh
