I am Ruth. Channel 4.

[Tirrrrred]

Anyone going to be watching this Thursday?

I saw the advert a couple of weeks ago and meant to Google the daughter. I thought she was Kate Winslet's daughter IRL as they look so alike. She is.

I love all "I Am" programmes. Although they are very deep and thought provoking.

Wasn't keen on the Suranne Jones one.

I must admit I thought Freya was younger than 17 when it first started and I was yelling in my head for her to just confiscate the bloody phone. You can't really do that with a 17 year old though can you. KW played the character really well, yes posters commenting on her appearance, fgs....

Awful when she rejected school counselling as it was deemed embarrassing, please hope parents don't really think like that these days

I thought it was really good, great acting from KW and her real life daughter was incredible as Freya. Was a difficult but fascinating watch seeing Ruth totally overwhelm her disturbed daughter with well-meaning but suffocating love and concern.

It's such an important subject for a drama and I thought this was a bit of a wasted opportunity with such good actors and a 2hr running time. Surely it would have benefited from a more detailed script instead of overlong and repetitive shots of Kate Winslet and her daughter looking anxious /angry /stressed. We get it, it's a horrible situation to be in. Now explore all the angles in more depth. Not doing so seemed like a bit of a cop out, to me anyway.

Watching now. Filmed in our town - on those very bikes someone told me my leggings were see through and I have never been back upstairs at the leisure centre 😄 my son swims there every week though. Love Kate!

Wow this was SO good. I literally sobbed through some of this. I am not kidding. So heartbreaking to watch. Amazing acting from everyone. Kate's daughter (Mia) is a bloody brilliant actress. Just like her mother. (Her son Joe who played the brother is promising too.) One of the best things I've seen in YEARS! Well done to everyone involved. I agree with @JamSandle Kate is fucking amazing. I will also watch anything she is in. And everything I have ever seen her in has been really good, and she is always amazing in it!

As for the poster bashing Kate's appearance. @Zippedydoo123 I LOVE her for not buying into the naff and destructive fillers and botox, and actually looking like a normal 47 year woman. Sadly, we have lost sight of how people are supposed to look, with celebrities/Hollywood types pumping their face with CRAP in an attempt to defy ageing.

It doesn't work, and they end up looking ODD, but people are no longer used to seeing lines and wrinkles, so someone like Kate who has had nothing done and looks ordinary and normal (still pretty but ordinary,) some people see as looking 'old.' Bloody ridiculous. Also ridiculous is claiming you look younger than Kate, even though you're 10 years older. LOL, no you don't. 😂 You look your AGE. Like everyone does - within 4 or 5 years!

@kerstina

There you go......... They're all here. xxx

www.channel4.com/programmes/i-am

Well said @PurpleButterflyWings

Thanks @PrincessScarlett 😘

Thank you PurpleButterflywings! Didn’t realise there were so many …late to the party as usual .

Catching up on it now on TiVo. I'm a huge Dominic Savage fan. I think it's quite well done.

And I liked the one with Suranne Jones. I suffer with anxiety myself, so really empathised with her character. ❤️

Prompted by this thread, I now intend to watch it! I had the impression it was light entertainment and I prefer something deeper; my impression was obviously wrong and I'm now looking forward to it.

I was trying to work out where it was? Surrey?

@MassiveSalad22 Mine too. Funny seeing her drive up Holloway Hill...and then suddenly appearing down the bottom by Domino's.

But as others have said, very hard hitting. I cringed every time KW put her foot in it and said the wrong things. It's really hard to know what you would do in that situation though. And she so needed help and support. I wanted her to call the woman she was in the gym with at the beginning - she seemed so alone and with no one to turn to (except her son). And Mia didn't seem to have any friends either? Very bleak.

It was just superb. I’d forgotten what a fantastic actress KW is. Her daughter is so talented too, why haven’t we seen her in more?

We are living with 2 teens who are struggling with mental illness in which phones played/ play a big part. It is that dark, gruelling and claustrophobic. Nobody really knows what it’s like unless you’ve lived it.So, so very impressed with the reality this film managed to get across. We’ve had almost identical conversations, scenarios and pressures. One thing I would say was it didn’t show the broken mental health support system. Ruth would have been told the waiting list for CAMHs was 18 months, then under CAMHs she would have experienced the frustration of gate keeping whilst her child got worse. At 17 she’d have probably got next to thing before 18, then a cliff edge with adult services providing nothing until a few suicide attempts.You are constantly battling for everything which is a continuous daily pressure. It also didn’t show how CAMHs are struggling themselves and often at a loss as to know how to deal with the impact and management of phones and SM. Finally the battle with MH is long and gruelling for families. I’d like to have seen that conveyed. To get to the point Freya got to at the end would have a taken a long and very arduous battle.

So many families are coping with life like this, hidden and with additional work, money and sibling pressures too. It starts to impact everything and take over your life. I applaud KW and he’d daughter for succeeding to shed some light on it in such a skilled way.

@BytheSea6773 I’m sorry you and your family are going through this, phones are insidious and destructive yet we can’t not allow teens to have them

Wow the generation gap was really highlighted

Ruth's attitude of just carry on! Her embarrassed attitude

Teenagers now are different to 90s teens

She seemed to totally misunderstand or bury her head in the sand. How could she have dismissed the schools offer to help

Because it’s a shock and you have no idea of the extent of what is going on at first. You also need to try to carry on. I’ve had the same battles whilst trying to keep a job. Setting a good example and being up and out is good for mental health as opposed to just giving up but it’s hard to know when that isn’t possible. As a parent it’s like being a rabbit caught in headlights. She captured it beautifully.

Same I was judging their poor continuity 😄 knew she’d live up that side of godders!

You could sense that feeling of ‘please just let her be ok and then everything can be normal’ from her interactions with her daughter and perhaps that’s why she did refuse the schools help.

On the phone I totally get her frustration. A friend a few years ahead of me told me to never allow them a mobile past 10pm when they are in school, so up to 18. She said it’s the one fight always worth having. When my DD had a rough patch I think that was her saviour

It was so good, I cried, ugly cried, I have a daughter who has eating issues and the putting her foot in it versus frustration and anger felt very well and I understood it totally, I’m also dealing with it all on my own but no one in real life knows.

Haven't watched but would it be suitable to watch with a 13 year old? It sounds topical but like it might be too adult for viewing together?

I think it would really depend on the 13 year old. My DD would think I was trying to show her the danger of phones (I am) and would pull against it for that reason

I've not watched yet.

No doubt I'll have loads of questions as I never understand what's going on 🤣

We did the no phones past 10. My children had limited screen time and no phones until secondary school. Phone use wasn’t like it is now when they were younger.

Made zilch difference. Yy to the previous poster you can’t take phones off 16,17 and 18 year olds so much is on them- school groups, homework, bus pass, payment, social life..