Season 1 - Episode Guide

In episode one, actor Ray Winstone visits the spectacular Colney Hatch Asylum in North London where his great-great grandmother's Hannah Stratton's first husband James was committed in 1875. Comedian Al Murray follows in the footsteps of his great-great-great grandfather and "Vanity Fair" author, William Makepeace Thackeray, to discover the lengths he went to, in order to save his suicidal wife from the horrors of the asylum. And Claire Sweeney discovers how senile dementia and old age mental health was treated in the Victorian era.

In episode two, Al Murray finds out how ideas about inherited insanity meant his family member Laura Stephens was branded an imbecile and institutionalised from a young age. Lesley Joseph goes on a deeply personal journey to uncover a painful family secret about an aunt whose very existence was kept secret for years. Sue Johnston revisits the asylum where she had worked in the 1960s and Christopher Biggins discovers the truth behind his great grandfather's time in an asylum.