The Young Poisoner's Handbook

Dir: Benjamin Ross

1995

****

Ross and Jeff Rawle’s fictional biography of Graham Young, known as ‘The Teacup Murderer’ and ‘The Bovingdon Poisoner’, has become a cult British dark comedy since its release in 1995. It had a limited cinema release, due to its dark nature and by the fact that Young himself had not long been dead and many of his surviving victims and families of those he killed were still alive. I’m not sure you can say that Ross and Jeff Rawle’s is respectful in anyway, but the changes in the true story work well in the film. Benjamin Ross’s direction is brilliant, he’s not made many films but those he have are all great and woefully overlooked. The highlight of the film are the brilliant performances, particularly from Hugh O’Conor who plays Graham Young himself. In the film Young poisons his step mother and then his own father before getting caught, but there has been speculation whether or not he really did poison his step mother as he was said to have been very close to her and that she actually had a terminal illness. She was cremated before any tests could be performed on her. Young always intended on becoming a notorious poisoner and didn’t have a desire to use his knowledge for good use or to create a diamond. The real Young was diagnosed with personality disorder and schizophrenia (classed under the law in the 60s as psychopathic disorder as it was linked to abnormal violence). Subsequent analysis has suggested signs of the autism spectrum which I think certainly comes across in O’Conor’s performance, although I have no idea whether this was known/intentional. It is incredible just how he got away with his murders and anything that may seem unbelievable in the film is in fact true. The Prison Hospital Order initially stipulated that he should be detained for at least 15 years following the murder of his step mother, father and attempted murder of his sister. The Secretary of State later noted that the index offences, for someone found sane, carried a sentence of no more than seven or eight years. Young was released after nine years, deemed "fully recovered". In the hospital, Young had studied medical texts, improving his knowledge of poisons, and continued experiments using inmates and staff (one of whom died). It was rumoured that his knowledge of poisons was such that he could even extract cyanide from laurel bush leaves on the mental hospital grounds and that he used this cyanide to murder fellow inmate John Berridge. In June 1970, after nearly eight years in Broadmoor, Dr. Edgar Udwin, the prison psychiatrist, wrote to the home secretary to recommend his release, announcing that Young "is no longer obsessed with poisons, violence and mischief." He was Broadmoor's youngest inmate since 1885 and befriended infamous criminals such as Roy Shaw and Ian Brady (they both shared a fascination with Nazi Germany) – neither of whom are mentioned in the film. After release from hospital in February 1971, he began work as a quartermaster at John Hadland Laboratories in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire. The company manufactured thallium bromide-iodide infrared lenses, which were used in military equipment. However, no thallium was stored on site as suggested in the film and Young obtained his supplies of the poison from a London chemist. However, his employers received references as part of Young's rehabilitation from Broadmoor but were not informed of his past as a convicted poisoner. Young's probation officer never once visited Young's home or place of work and Young was really only caught after admitting what he had done to others. He died in prison of a heart attack in 1990, rather than committing suicide as is shown in the film. The details don’t detract from the story or character, a factual account would be nice at some point but there is something devilishly irresistible about Ross’s film. The script is brilliant, Hugh O’Conor’s performance and narration is perfect and the supporting cast is a great mix of some of Britain’s finest character actors, many now sorely missed, including Ruth Sheen, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Charlotte Coleman, John Thomson and Charlie Creed-Miles. I love the mood of the film and how the directional style changes. There are at times a feeling that it is just a TV movie, then it switches to thriller, comedy and even horror. From its jovial beginnings to a terrifying scene that sees a dead Ruth Sheen coming out of a toilet (before Trainspotting came out I might add), The Young Poisoners Handbook is hypnotic and disturbing but thoroughly entertaining. A contemporary British classic.