Inside Broadmoor: Former patient lifts the lid on life in the hospital

Broadmoor hospital has been home to some of Britain's most dangerous criminals – but the high security psychiatry facility apparently doesn't scrimp on feeding its patients and keeping them entertained.

In a new Channel 5 documentary called Broadmoor, about the infamous high security psychiatric ward, one former patient shared his experience of living in the Berkshire facility. 

Former patient 'Joshua' (not his real name), who spent seven years at the facility, revealed he ate 'hotel' food and was offered a range of leisure activities including access to a swimming pool and animal husbandry.    

Speaking using a voice distorter, Joshua recalled his first impressions of the hospital – which is located in Berkshire around 40 miles away from London.

He was brought to the high security psychiatric facility on account of the 'auditory hallucinations' he was experiencing, and remained there between 2004 and 2011.

He shared: 'When I arrived at the hospital, I found it quite intimidating. You're stood outside and there's big wooden doors which open into an airlock, a little area between the front doors and inner doors.

'The vehicle will stop inside the airlock to make sure nothing dodgy is going on. Everything is locked in Broadmoor.'

Despite the initial entry being 'intimidating', Joshua was shortly put at ease. 

The documentary explains that when patients first arrive at Broadmoor, they are placed in the admissions ward - formerly known as the Luton - where their mental state is supervised and determined.

Joshua said he was offered a cup of tea, a cigarette and a hot meal after he arrived. 

'My illness had gotten quite bad and my behaviour was psychotic,' he said. 'I remember driving through Portsmouth in my car and my voices were daring me to trust them and I drove at 45mph, straight across a crossroads, with a major road in Portsmouth.

'I'm very glad no one was there but that was my voices telling me. I still here voices now,' he admitted. 'Even in the last 12 months, I've had moments where I'm screaming at my voices to F off because they've been winding me up.' 

Joshua arrived at Broadmoor from prison and recalled immediately having his handcuffs removed.

He recalled: 'The nurse who greeted us, the first thing she said was, well, you can take those off.

'So they took the handcuffs off and they said take a seat, would you like a cup of tea? Do you smoke, would you like a cigarette? Are you hungry? We'll get you something to eat. And I was thinking, well this is nice,' he recalled pleasantly.

'That really set the scene for what would become the next seven years of my life,' said the former patient. 

New patients must spend between three and nine months of their time at Broadmoor on the admissions ward, where they can be monitored for a period of 'intense assessment'.

After that, they are slowly awarded more privileges and freedoms – depending on their behaviour. 

Speaking in the documentary, Professor Tony Maden, a lead clinician at the facility between 2001 and 2010, explained how riskier patients are kept under tight restrictions at the hospital.

He said: 'If people are acutely unwell then the wards are quite tightly controlled whereas for a more settled patient, you want as much activity as possible and the atmosphere is very orderly and peaceful and calmer.'

Joshua was sent to Kent ward – described as a 'relatively calm' part of the facility. 

Following good behaviour, Joshua was placed in 'assertive rehab' meaning he had some autonomy over his whereabouts, allowing him to move between rooms.

'You can choose to go to your room, or you can go to the television room or the games room,' he explained. The documentary said that patients had the option to take part in leisure activities.

Far beyond the constraints of a conventional prison cell, patients at Broadmoor were given dozens of options for how to spend their time, Including 'art and drama and music.'

Maden said: 'Everyone would have a timetable which we would try to keep reasonably full. Not every minute of the day was occupied. How do you guarantee security on a ward like that? Part of it is keeping people busy.' 

Joshua recounted the countless options. 'There's quite a lot of activities. There's the shop to go to once a week, there's a swimming pool, a gym, a metal workshop, a ceramics workshop, a wood workshop, electrical shop, kitchen, gardens.

'There's an animal husbandry so you can look after the rabbits and the chickens,' he added. 

Broadmoor residents are also treated to generous helpings of 'fresh' and 'wholesome' food, with Joshua comparing his meals to hotel-quality fare. 

Joshua recalled: 'Food in prison is terrible but the food in Broadmoor – by comparison – that was like being in a hotel.'

A former nursing assistant, Neil Wheatcroft - who worked at the facility between 1995 and 2009 - recalled the 'hotel' quality and portion sizes of the food offered to patients.

He remembered what they ate. 'Up to eight choices per meal, big portions, pretty wholesome food. Fresh fish and meats, cheeses, things like [that]. Chicken in a hospital will do eight people, but in Broadmoor it would do four, there was a big difference.'

The documentary also revealed the notorious East End gangster, Ronnie Kray, had 'some specific requests when it came to his diet in Broadmoor.'

Maureen Flanagan, a friend of the infamous gangster, recalled asking if they could 'bring in sausages' for him.

The older brother of the Kray twins, Charlie Kray, even managed to arrange for Ronnie to have Cumberland sausages, which were his favourite.

Broadmoor starts at 10pm, Monday 21 October on Channel 5 and My5.