Recovery question

[canterlevi]

Is Recovery based on a true story?  Who is it based on?  I've been looking around the internet and can't find an answer.  I know one of the DT fans here will know the answer!

Thanks!

Comments

[xebgoc]

I don't think it is based on any one person. DT spent time talking to families of people with brain damage and at Headway observing and talking to patients and staff. But the story itself is just a story.

[canterlevi]

Thanks! I always wondered. Here in the States the 'disease of the week' movies are often based on real people like "I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy", etc. (I can say that because I had a mastectomy too. ;-))

It's one of my favorite non-Who things he's done. I love when the character says to his wife something about when he kisses her, he wants her lips, not her cheek.

[justlook3]

I do remember somewhere that alot of it is based on one particular case although of course highly fictionalized.

[canterlevi]

Do you remember where you read that?

[satiaentreri]

It is not based on a true story - it is just very precisely what could be reality. As xebgoc already wrote, DT got in contact with "Headway" before filming and did not only do research, but also had a lot of talks with families and patients. He talked at several occasions in interviews etc. how very disturbing it was for him, to see, that the personality of these people often changes completely and how difficult it is for the families to deal with this. But not in a single interview, text or talk about the movie it has ever been said, that there is one single true story behind this. Since his research for the movie David Tennant is the patron of that organisation. Here is the adress: http://www.headwayessex.org.uk

[canterlevi]

Thanks for the info! I've been to that website before.

[canterlevi]

Mine too. :-)

[beachy_geek]

He was so brilliant in that, and he and Sarah Parrish break my heart every time I watch it. If you haven't seen the Sunday AM interview about it with Andrew Marr and DT here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN1GSrdknL0 or visited the film's web site here http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/recovery/abouttheshow.shtml you might like to.

I don't know why they haven't worked out the rights issues and released this on DVD.

[canterlevi]

Oh, wow! Thanks!

[criminalkitten]

I don't have anything to add about it being a "true" story, except, I saw it 1 year after my brother got ABI (aquired brain injury) after a truck accident. And I love watching DAvid's prtrayal of my life. The only thing is, Alan (his character) is far more aware of his "condition" and wants to change things more than my brother wants to. That breaks my heart. I'll never have a moment with my brother where he promises to try his best and try to be his best. This is my life forever and ever. Recovery is my catharsis and my sanity, because some actors managed to tell my story (and not just mine but anyone dealing with people with severe ABI), and when I have no words to describe what is happening in my life I show it to people to help them begin to understand what I go through every day.

It is the most brilliant thing that David ever did for that reason alone.