Broadmoor: Evil Behind Bars | Preview (Channel 5)

This is the story of how to care for Britain’s most dangerously unwell. Deep in the Berkshire countryside, Broadmoor Hospital is one Britain's most feared institutions, where over 200 men with mental illness or personality disorders are sent when there’s nowhere else for them to go.

Told for the first time by those who have worked inside its high walls and those once detained here, former staff and an ex-patients reveal what it’s really like inside one of the most secretive institutions in the country.

Speaking exclusively for the very first time since being discharged, former patient “Joshua” recalls his seven years here, after being diagnosed with mental illness and hearing voices while in prison, sectioned under the Mental Health Act, and sent to Broadmoor.

Anonymised to protect his true identity, “Joshua” was treated with medication and therapy. He started life at Broadmoor in the Admissions Ward where all new patients arrive before being moved onto other wards as he showed signs of progress and recovery.

Some men try to fake their way in to avoid going to prison, such as nail bomber David Copeland. Journalist Bernard O Mahoney reveals how he wrote to Copeland in Broadmoor under a pseudonym, Patsy, to get him to admit that he was trying to fool the doctors.

We hear previously unheard words from Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, secretly recorded in a phone call from inside Broadmoor with his brother Carl. With no release date in sight, Sutcliffe tried - and failed - to get his state pension. We also hear how Sutcliffe was trusted enough to be allowed the mundane task of collecting fellow patients' food orders.

Staff and patients reveal first-hand insights into what day to day life is like inside Broadmoor. Hospital food is famously bland, but Broadmoor’s menu catered for a wide range of palettes, and with recovery taking years for many patients here, food took on a new meaning in their lives.

Infamous long term patient Ronnie Kray had some specific requests when it came to his diet in Broadmoor. He insisted on Cumberland sausages.

Other lesser-known patients featured include Broadmoor killers Graham Fisher, who revealed to his psychiatrist during therapy that he’d murdered a further two victims, helping the police to solve two cold cases, and Nicholas Salvador who, armed with a machete went on the rampage in a North London street, beheading two cats, and decapitating his elderly neighbour before being found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

Begins Wednesday 3rd January on Channel 5.