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

[silvery]

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

Skoosh.

Good point. 

[danuslave]

Just re-watched the section on iPlayer (about 24 minutes into the programme).  Alfred had had little food or sleep for 3 weeks and witnessed an aerial bombardment

If reporters then were anything like present day ones, you can imagine him saying to Alfred 'Would you say you were suffering from shell-shock?' and him just nodding.

It doesn't really matter though.  

I was just making the point that PTSD (or any form of stress) can strike anyone, with terrible consequences for other family members

Linda

[danuslave]

I suspect that Alfred might not have been a very nice peson anyway.  After all he did join up just after the first son was born!.  On the other hand, he was thrown into some pretty bad situations and seems to have acquitted himself well (the hero stuff)

But we don't know the whole story.  Why did he decide to marry Patrick's mother after so long?  Did she pester him into it?  Why didn't he just walk away altogether?

As I said before, nothing excuses domestic violence, but this was rather a one-sided story!

I still found it very interesting

Linda

[LizzieW]

I've not watched it yet, although I've recorded it.  I did read that Patrick Stewart was not interested in finding out anything about his family history, he just wanted to know what had turned his father into someone who abused his wife and family, but how does he know he wasn't like that before he fought in the war?

Lizzie

[stonechat]

Forgot to record so will have to use i-player
(and I need to catch up with Celebrity masterchef too)

[baggygenes]

I've not watched it yet, although I've recorded it.  I did read that Patrick Stewart was not interested in finding out anything about his family history, he just wanted to know what had turned his father into someone who abused his wife and family, but how does he know he wasn't like that before he fought in the war?

Lizzie

Exactly .. maybe going back a bit may have shown he came from a background where domestic abuse was the norm (NOT that it makes it OK - just agreeing the point he could well have been like it before the war)

As to why he married Patricks mother so long after the birth of the first son .. perhaps as he had to pay for the child he thought he may as well have a home to go to when on leave etc.  Maybe the problems in the marriage weren't war induced but simply incompatibility and resentment .. or maybe a bit of both that and a problem settling in to civilian life.  Whichever I don't really think it gave real answers just possible "excuses" for his behaviour.

[panda40]

Found the episode very interesting. I would have liked more information on his mother's background. When near the end he described his mother as timid I thought this sounded like a different person to the one who took his father to court to prove their son was his. That took some guts and determination to do but was glossed over quickly in the story.

My grandfather was injured twice in the second world war. One being a head injury, resulting in him having a metal plate inserted. The other was a foot injury. That is all we were ever told. He never spoke of the war. They were not encouraged to share their stories in those days. They cam back from a horror story of war to civilian life and were expected to fit straight back into it with little or no support.
Regards panda

[Nick29]

I think that if I were in Patrick Stewart's position, I would have liked to find something endearing too. 

[Skoosh]

This lassie found herself severely stressed, she found the courage to face him in court, no doubt at her parents insistence. Financial hardship was the name of the game here, if her mother wouldn't keep the child she would have to maintain him herself which involved full time work to keep a house with all that entails, and meantime  who looks after the child? if he was taken into care she was liable to pay maintenance, failure to do so could result in a jail sentence.
Unlike thousands of others, Stewart's father returned from France without a scratch, many more never returned at all or spent the rest of the war in captivity.
 There was no shortage of folk on both sides of the Atlantic who thought Dunkirk was the end of the war. Britain would sue for peace, Hitler picked up enough abandoned weapons to equip an army and some establishment figures here thought enough was enough.
 Our hero was a user & abuser, the war provided an escape, not an excuse.