BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 10 Episode #3 - Patrick Stewart

[Geoff-E]

 

[Colin D Gronow]

Watched the Paralympic Games opening, so not seen it yet

[baggygenes]

oh doh!!  what with Bank Holiday this week I thought it was Tuesday yesterday and missed it .. grrr.
Hopefully its on iplayer already

[weste]

Looks like it was a memorial to his father. I think they just did what patrick wanted to find out. I would have liked more about other ancestors. It would have been better as a stand alone feature.

[baggygenes]

Looks like it was a memorial to his father. I think they just did what patrick wanted to find out. I would have liked more about other ancestors. It would have been better as a stand alone feature.

It was very interesting (actually made me feel a little sad) but I agree with your comment.  Maybe had been better in that series a few months back about what celebs ancestors did in the war.

[Skoosh]

Sent overseas to combat tyrany & oppression, he returned to practise it at home. Don't swallow the hero stuff. He was in Belgium for five minutes and returned to complain of shell-shock, comparisons with the guys on the Somme were odious.
 Patrick wanted to believe this portrayal, his brother who knew the subject better, and what their mother went through, looked rather more sceptical.
 The real hero was the mother, financial circumstances meant she had to put up with this crap.
 Agree with weste, not much in the way of genealogy.

[baggygenes]

It actually made me feel sad because of the feeling of desperation of wanting a reason for his father being the way he was - maybe the war did it too him but maybe it didn't but it is a case of jumping to conclusions again ... having re enlisted at 38 to such a physical role and his rise through the ranks and a start as regimental police maybe he was just a man who thrived on asserting his authority and conflict.

[danuslave]

He was in Belgium for five minutes and returned to complain of shell-shock, comparisons with the guys on the Somme were odious.

Shell-shock (or PTSD) isn't quantative!  It's not a case of the worse the experience the worse the shell-shock

Some people go through terrible ordeals and don't get it at all

Given the type of man he was, he would probably have agreed with the WWI view that shell-shock was a sign of 'weakness', and not admitted, even to himself, that he had a problem.  There would have been very little support available even if he had been willing to look for help.

There is also the fact that he had spent most of his life giving orders and expecting them to be obeyed

Unfortunately there are still cases of soldiers (suffering from PTSD or not) being unable to fit back into civilian life

None of this excuses his behaviour towards Patrick's mother, but it might help to explain it

Linda

[Skoosh]

Linda,  who told the reporter of the local paper that he had shell shock?

Skoosh.