Makin' over the asylum

When failed double glazing salesman and part time disc jockey “Ready Eddy” agrees to revive the radio station at “St Jude's” hospital, he has little idea of what he is taking on: until his arch rival disc spinner informs him that “It's a loony bin…you'll fit in well there, Eddy!” From here on in, the plot in BBC Scotland's new six part drama “Takin' Over the Asylum” is well signposted.

From the cuckoo poking in and out of its clock in the first scene, to the standard bin-quip “you a patient or a member of staff?” (reprised thrice in the inaugural episode), writer Donna Franceschild has succumbed to the temptation to use all the usual mental health funnies.

Gartloch Hospital is the Victorian Gothic asylum that plays “St Jude's” in the programme. It doesn't require cinematographic yellow and red sky filters to register the fact that Gartloch, its twin castellated towers …