'What's the Matter with Tony Slattery?' - must-see documentary for anyone keen to know about bipolar

I don't shy away from sharing that I have bipolar disorder, and actually it has more recently been triggered by PME - pre menstrual exacerbation and menopause. But I don't share it for sympathy, really I just want to spread awareness of these under-researched and under-funded conditions, for which treatment is still lacking and very little understood. 

So I was really impressed by the documentary 'What's the matter with Tony Slattery?' that I watched on the BBC recently. In it, the late Tony very bravely lets us into his world and we see a man who is a shadow of who he once was. I grew up watching 'Who's Line is it Anyway?' and this propelled his career in TV comedy, but I hadn't realised that, despite his career rapidly taking off, it ended just as quickly and he fell into alcoholism and substance misuse. 

A familiar story for successful comedians -  in my TV production career whilst working at Endemol I worked behind the scenes on 'Kings of Comedy,' a reality show where we pitched 'old school' comedians against new ones, and you could easily see the fragility of some of them in the behind the scenes filming, which is the very drama we were taught to seek out to make 'good TV'. 

I also worked at the BBC on a programme which featured Greg Proops at the Edinburgh festival early in my career - a fellow comedian on the same improv show as Tony Slattery - and he was quite anxious to please and nervous backstage, but such a nice man and fortunately he has had a very successful career by contrast.

So what happened to Tony? In this documentary, he goes in search of a diagnosis, and ultimately treatment, for a condition which he has been self-medicating with drugs and alcohol for much of his life. He bravely lets us into his world, and at times it's so painful to see just how much he is suffering, having had brain damage from a seizure following years of substance misuse. 

Experts discuss the likelihood that he has bipolar, which although is more widely recognised than it was 25 years ago when I was diagnosed, still is quite hard to assess, and he is told to try and stop drinking so that they can make a more accurate diagnosis. He also meets Stephen Fry, a fellow sufferer and also another brilliant comedian who has maintained an amazing career but not without his dark spells, which have been much more in the public eye.

What also strikes me in this documentary is how wonderful his partner Mark is - often carers get no support and watching him opens my eyes to what it must be like for my amazing husband, especially having to live with different versions of me. 

I urge anyone with a diagnosis, a family member with #bipolar, or a friend who wants to understand what it's really like, to watch this programme because knowledge is power. With Tony tragically passing away earlier this year at 65, it shows what a tragic loss can come from the pain caused by such an illness. RIP Tony, thank you for being brave enough to share your journey, it's helped me enormously.