- A University of Sheffield historian has collaborated on a new film that shines a spotlight on the impact that traumatic world events - such as the outbreak of war - have on people’s mental health
- Professor Julie Gottlieb’s research is the first to show how Britain’s role in appeasing Hitler during the Munich Crisis of 1938 - 86 years ago this month (30 September 1938) - affected the hearts and minds of the British public
- New film tells the real life story of how one British couple’s marriage dramatically and tragically broke down under the psychological stress of the fear of war in Europe
A new film shining a spotlight on how traumatic world events - such as the outbreak of war - can have a major impact on people’s mental health, is set to be released this month as part of a collaboration between a University of Sheffield historian and an award-winning filmmaker.
The film, called The Nervous State, tells the real life story of how one British couple’s marriage tragically fell apart under the psychological stress of fear of war breaking out across Europe during the Munich Crisis of 1938 - 86 years ago this month (30 September).
The crisis saw British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sign the Four Powers Pact with Hitler in an act of appeasement designed to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War. The agreement allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia, granting all of his demands and leaving Czechoslovakia defenceless.
Research by Professor Julie Gottlieb, from the University’s School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities, is the first to reveal the psychological impact that the crisis had on people across the UK.
Professor Gottlieb has studied letters as well as private and published diaries written by ordinary Britons at the time, which revealed that it had a significant psychological impact on people across the country. The crisis triggered an epidemic of suicides, as people responded to the act of appeasement and feared the outbreak of war.
The new film, by award-winning playwright Nicola Baldwin, draws on Professor Gottlieb’s research. It is inspired by the published journal of F. L. Lucas, a Yorkshire-born writer and political commentator, who was commissioned to write a journal of the year ahead in 1938. He intended to write about his travels, literary opinions and political commentary, however the crisis caused the mental breakdown of his wife Prudence (Prudie) and put a strain on their marriage.
A classics scholar, writer, traveller and artist, Prudie is rarely mentioned in the journal directly, but has a nervous breakdown at the height of the Munich Crisis and is hospitalised when Peter sits in the audience at the Stockport Garrick theatre to watch his play which she had designed.
The short film retraces their steps to and from that night, bringing Prudie back into the picture to tell their inside story of Britain's 'war of nerves'. It is being screened for the first time at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London on the anniversary of the crisis (30 September) and will be screened in Sheffield next month before being made available to watch online. There will also be a screening at King’s College Cambridge on 18 November - the College where Lucas spent his entire career and forms one of the main backdrops of the film.
Professor Julie Gottlieb, Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield, said: “The Munich Crisis was a pivotal moment in the build up to the Second World War. We are all familiar with the images of Neville Chamberlain returning to Britain declaring he had secured ‘peace for our time’, but what people may not know is the psychological impact that this crisis had on ordinary people across the country.
“People throughout Britain were watching on as this tactic of appeasing Hitler played out, causing anxiety and fear that war was imminent. The Nervous State film enables us to go back to that time to learn more about how major world events, such as the threat of war, can affect people’s mental health and see this through the tragic true story of one married couple. This is also, sadly, very relevant today as people are experiencing similar effects from the major global tensions and conflicts of our time.”
Nicola Baldwin, an award-winning playwright and filmmaker, whose recent work includes BBC Radio 4 and short dramas for the Imperial War Museum, said: “When Julie and I first talked about adapting F. L. ‘Peter’ Lucas’ ‘Journal Under the Terror, 1938’, all we knew of his wife Prudie was that she had experienced a breakdown at the time of the Munich Crisis and was referenced in the entire text only twice, as ‘P’. Our first adaptation - a play - was about rediscovering Prudie’s story and the impact of her breakdown on Peter. When it came to making the film, the one fixed point we knew they shared was The Lovers of Gudrun play written by Peter and designed by Prudie, which premiered at the Stockport Garrick Theatre on November 10, 1938.
“We were able to recreate the night when Lucas watched his play alone, using current members of the Stockport Garrick Theatre company in the audience with a bouquet for his absent wife created by the local florists who would have provided it in 1938, handed to him from the original stage. Filming The Nervous State on location allowed us to bring a contemporary dimension to Julie’s research by retracing Lucas’ steps in the present day.”
The film, Nervous State, will be screened on Monday 30 September 2024 at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London from 6-8pm. Tickets and event information.
Following the London screening, the film will be shown in Sheffield on Thursday 17 October 2024 from 5:15pm to 7:00pm. The event will take place at the University of Sheffield and will include a panel discussion focusing on dramatising history, the film's relevance to today's world, and the parallels between the late 1930s and our current state of 'permacrisis.' Tickets and event information.
The film will be available to watch online via the University of Sheffield Player later in the year.
