Great Yarmouth artist seeks bed-mates for mental health project

Dolly Sen, pictured speaking to contributor Hamja Ashan, said she expected to hear different perspectives in Great Yarmouth

An artist and filmmaker hopes people in a seaside town will join her in bed to talk about mental distress.

Dolly Sen is setting up an inflatable bed in the street and on the beach in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on Saturday to film her documentary, Bedlamb.

The bed is covered in soft toy lambs in a reference to Bedlam, the nickname of a London psychiatric hospital.

"I want to know what the average person in the street thinks about mental distress," said Sen.

"Mental health can be a bit of a ghetto - we speak to the same people.

"I want to ask [passersby] what they think mental distress is, what causes it and what can be done to help."

Sen, who lives in Great Yarmouth, said the town could offer some differing perspectives compared to an "arty crowd".

Dolly Sen interviewed Rachel Rowan Olive under the gaze of the Raving Madness statue, which once stood at the entrance to Bedlam

"It's a diverse population and it's also quite deprived," she said.

"The attitude in Yarmouth is changing, it just doesn't seem so happy."

The bed will be in King Street from 10:00 BST, before moving on to the library and then the beach, near Britannia Pier, until 16:00.

Sen filmed her first contributors at the Museum of the Mind, in Beckenham, south-east London, which forms part of the Bethlem Royal Hospital.

The hospital, founded in 1247, became known as Bedlam, a byword for lunacy and chaos.