Dirty Filthy Love | |
---|---|
Written by |
Jeff Pope Ian Puleston-Davies |
Directed by | Adrian Shergold |
Starring |
Michael Sheen Shirley Henderson Anastasia Griffith Adrian Bower Claudie Blakley |
Theme music composer | Martin Phipps |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Production | |
Producer(s) |
Granada Television Christine Langan |
Running time | 93 minutes [1] |
Release | |
Original network | ITV |
Original release | 26 September 2004 |
Dirty Filthy Love is a British single television drama starring Michael Sheen as an architect living with obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome.
Directed by Adrian Shergold, the film was first broadcast by ITV on 26 September 2004. It was written by Jeff Pope and Ian Puleston-Davies, who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorders himself. In addition to Michael Sheen, the cast features Shirley Henderson, Anastasia Griffith, Adrian Bower and Claudie Blakley.
Sheen's performance was recognised with a Best Actor nomination at the 2005 British Academy Television Awards and both he and Henderson were nominees for 2005 Royal Television Society Awards. Dirty Filthy Love won the Best Single Drama category at the RTS Awards. It was released on DVD in the United States in 2005 by Hart Sharp Video in association with The Sundance Channel.
Mark Furness (Sheen), once a successful architect, finds it increasingly difficult to control his "bad habits", such as climbing stairs in a strange sequence, swearing involuntarily and washing himself compulsively. His wife, Stevie (Griffith) asks him to leave their home, so he seeks solace with his best friends Nathan (Bower) and Kathy (Blakley), who take him under their wing.
His life gets even worse when, at a meeting with his employers, he finds himself swearing uncontrollably and loses his job. Accepting that he is unwell, Mark visits a doctor, already convinced he is suffering from a brain tumour or meningitis. In the doctor's waiting room, another patient, Charlotte (Henderson), recognises Mark's "habits" as symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome, and invites him to a local self-help group she runs. Mark finds it comforting that others share his disorder and with Charlotte's help, hopes to face his problems and win his wife back.