Jan Marshall- Author of A Curious State of Affairs (available UK, USA) reviews a BBC drama based on a book:

At the weekend I watched an amazingly thought provoking and moving BBC television drama called: Stuart - A Life Backwards - based on the book by Alexander Masters.

It charted the remarkable and unusual friendship that occurred between a reclusive writer and illustrator, Alexander Masters, and a chaotic, homeless alcoholic with a violent past, Stuart. The story is told backwards (a suggestion proffered by Stuart himself) and moves from the present day, backwards through his life.  The technique of telling the story backwards is extremely powerful - since it allows you to make the kind of judgements you’d make in real life if you met a character like Stuart - but then enables you to discover later why your judgement is impaired.

Alexander meets Stuart when he is doing a temporary job working to help the homeless. When two of his co-workers are arrested, charged and imprisoned unfairly Alexander (the “middle class scum ponce” according to Stuart) and the “knife wielding beggar” get to know each other, as they work together to bring about the release of the two innocent charity workers.

As Alexander gets to know Stuart he begins to realise that there is a remarkable story to be told.  How did the innocent baby, then playful boy, then teenager that was Stuart, become the homeless miscreant that is the adult Stuart? As the two begin to communicate Stuart’s sad life story emerges - hopelessly tragic and yet told with humour, wit, compassion and pathos.

Slowly we hear of bungled post office heists, violent prison riots and we even learn of the exact moment in time when Stuart discovered violence - and then uses it in his own self defence. We hear of the tragedies and misery that changed him from a happy-go-lucky little boy into a poly-drug addicted, alcoholic Jekyll and Hyde personality, with a fondness for what he called ‘little strips of silver’ (knives to you and me).

Stuart is a complex character and not easy to like. He shuffles along and has a peculiar voice that grates slightly. He constantly uses vulgar offensive language and is prone to sudden and terrifying outbursts. He often lives rough so looks unclean (and we can imagine he smells). His eating habits are truly horrendous.  He is every parent’s nightmare walking the streets and you would definitely take a wide berth, or even cross the street, if you saw him lurching towards you.

But, as the drama progresses and you learn of the terrible atrocities that made the man that is Stuart what he is - you cannot help but realise that he never stood a chance. He is a damaged victim of his own pathetic life. You find yourself beginning to warm to his outspoken but often funny and despairing ways.  When you eventually learn that he has suffered from a muscle wasting disease all his life (which is why he shuffles along and speaks strangely) you feel guilty because in the early part of the drama you may well have concluded (like me) that he had damaged himself with drugs and drink, and was paying the price. Not only was I wrong, but ironically, I realised that whether his peculiar gate had been caused by drugs and alcohol, or by muscular dystrophy - he was still not to blame. You couldn’t have lived his life and come out unscathed.

When Stuart died in the end - as violently as he had lived, I wept. I was shedding tears for the hopelessness of his doomed existence; the cruelty and violence he’d suffered - and for the many souls out there in the world who have had, or may yet still have, similar appalling experiences to live through.

The drama was funny, despairing, brilliantly written and full of surprises and it is the most original and moving drama  I’ve seen in recent years. I will definitely be buying the book.

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