Within These Walls: Love Me, Love My Bear (ITV 25 Feb 1978, with Jennie Stoller)

In Love Me, Love My Bear psychiatrist Dr Dady’s new patient, Kate Bonney, is refusing to communicate except through the Panda cuddly toy, Charley, she refuses to be parted from.

Dady thinks she should be placed on the psychiatric wing whilst she is under observation but Peter Mayes thinks she would be better served on the ward. At first the rest of the inmates think Charley is fun but for no reason Kate goes on a rampage and almost kills Mrs Armitage (smashing a milk bottle over her head and hold the broken bottle to her throat). It is Officer Dove, who was the first to work out how Kate communicates, who comes to the rescue.

It’s clear that Kate Bonney is mentally ill but because the crime she committed (basically smashing up the place where she was working) the government won’t allow her to go to either a specialist secure unit or a psychiatric hospital. Instead she must serve out her six month sentence at Stone Park.

Mrs Armitage and the rest of her staff are adamant that she needs to be kept on the hospital wing. Liz Clarke discovers that Kate is unable to read or write and helping her with that, helped by Miss Dove, looks to be the key to unlocking the real Kate. Unfortunately Kate is unable to keep her ‘paraphrenia’ at bay for long.

On the romance front there seems to be something developing between Liz and the younger Dr Dady. Interestingly Peter feels the need to offer his advice. By the end of the episode Dady and Clarke are ‘going steady’ as he puts it.

production details
UK / ITV – London Weekend Television / 1×50 minute episode / Broadcast Saturday 25 February 1978 at 11.15pm

Writer: Terence Feely / Production Design: Gordon Melhuish / Director: Bryan Izzard

cast
Sarah Lawson as Susan Marshall
Denys Hawthorne as Dr Peter Mayes
Mona Bruce as Mrs Armitage
Beth Harris as Liz Clarke
Simon MacCorkindale as Dr Dady
Elaine Wells as P.O. Spencer
Jennie Stoller as Kate Bonney
Pamela Stephenson as Officer Dove
Linda Beckett as Officer Sweeney
Carole Bollard as Officer Bailey
Linda Goddard as Debbie
Pearl Ann Turner as Coral
June Parkhurst as Sandra
Allan Mitchell as Raynes
Constance Reason as Nurse