Being Pamela (C4); The Secretary Who Stole £4 Million (BBC2): BEING Pamela is the documentary they tried to ban

. "They" being the official receiver, who represents the interests of those who cannot represent themselves, and St Helen's Council, which provides carers for Pamela Edwards. She suffers from dissociative identity disorder - or multiple personality disorder, as it's better known. She's literally not herself most of the time as Pamela competes for attention with her four other personalities: Margaret, Susan, Sandra and Andrew.

Film-maker David Modell spent two years with 31-year-old Pamela to shed light on this little understood condition. The documentary was shown as planned after a High Court ruling that freedom of expression was more important than her individual rights.

Perhaps the council was concerned at the public debate that might result from people learning it spends £500,000 a year on a team of 20 full and part-time carers to look after Pamela in her own home. This is almost twice the cost of keeping her in an institution.

The scheme was created five years ago by Judy Williams, her former foster mother as she battled to help Pamela. What emerged was a disturbing story that offered little hope for the future. Judy would say otherwise, maintaining that Pamela's condition is improving. Her IQ has gone up, she self-harms less and her violent outbreaks are not so extreme. But we heard stories of her breaking windows during a violent outburst, leading her carers to lock themselves in a room. We saw a holiday to Greece become a battle of wills between Judy and Pamela's personalities. "She's getting better but it takes time. One day it will change," said Judy. The evidence of this film suggests there may be a large element of wishful thinking there.

The tragedy is that Pamela wasn't born that way. She developed multiple personalities to deal with childhood starvation and abuse. Margaret, Susan, Sandra and Andrew all made appearances in the programme. The reasons for her behaviour are rooted in childhood. Her sister has obtained social services records detailing the abuse and neglect. They make horrific reading and show how little was done to protect the children from their abusive parents. There's no easy solution to Pamela's situation, although it would be good to think this documentary will at least help others understand Pamela and those like her.

I suppose you could say that Joyti De-Laurey had a split personality. On one level, she was a loyal and trusted personal assistant working in a large investment bank. On another, she was a thief who helped herself to millions of pounds of their money. Based on a true story, The Secretary Who Stole £4 Million was an enjoyable crime caper with Meera Syal sleekly efficient as the financial fiddler. I loved the way Joyti repaid her boss the £40,000 she'd lent her - out of her boss's own account.

Published: 09/06/2005