A Justifiable Madness

On a warm September morning in the early 1990s, Mark Randall emerges from a commuter train, naked and ranting unintelligibly. This is his first step toward a peculiar goal: getting himself admitted to an NHS acute psychiatric ward. There, he manages to convince professionals that he is psychotic. But who is he and why is he so keen to spend time in a psychiatric hospital? Refusing to speak, Mark is entertained by the confusion of medical personnel who dub him Jesus Trainman. But once admitted to the system, he discovers that his “mission” has gotten him into trouble he could never have imagined. Sectioned under the Mental Health Act, decisions about his future are handed to a Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr. Giles Sharman. Mark may have fooled his way into a nightmarish world of abuse from which there is no escape.