The film was directed by Stephen Frears and stars Ian McKellen as Walter, a man with a learning disability. The story focuses initially on his youth in which his parents attempt, with little success, to have him adapt into the conditions of a "normal" life. Walter's father dies, followed soon after by his mother. The social services bureaucracy then place him in a psychiatric institution. Walter is molested by another patient, witnesses the murder of a patient by another patient having a breakdown, and remains in the institution for the rest of the film.
Channel 4 is taking the extraordinary step of launching itself with one of the most shocking films about mental illness ever shown on British TV. Walter, which occupies the key slot in next Tuesday's opening night schedule, features scenes of homosexual molestation in a mental hospital, patients covered in excrement, and a suicide in a barber's shop.
As part of his review of Channel 4's launch night, Chris Dunkley of the Financial Times wrote that:
The temptation is to go overboard in praise of Walter, first of the channel's 'Film On Four' productions, because its cause was so worthy and the central performance by Ian McKellen so overpoweringly moving.
Accolades
The film was nominated for two BAFTA TV awards for Best Make Up and Best Single Drama in 1983. McKellen won The Royal Television SocietyPerformer of the Year for his performance.
Sequels
A sequel, directed by Frears and starring McKellen, entitled Walter and June and set some 19 years later, was aired in May 1983. Walter and June was adapted from David Cook's novel Winter Doves. Walter falls in love with an attractive fellow-patient and at her urging the two escape and attempt a life together in the outside world. At first matters go well, but ultimately Walter comes to the sad realisation that he cannot relate to others not like him and he returns alone to the sheltered refuge of the asylum. The two films are sometimes packaged together in an edited form under the title "Loving Walter". McKellen reprised the role in BBC Radio 4's Saturday Play "Walter Now", broadcast on 12 January 2009, in which his character is revisited 26 years later as an old man, when the institution in which he used to live is closed and he is moved into a smaller, group home. Among the issues explored are the subjects of reproductive rights for people who have learning disabilities, and the right to self-determination in areas such as choosing one's own home and housemates.
