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Jo Brand

Claire Whalley

For Crying Out Loud

Documentaries

Factual

14/02/2011

BBC Four - For Crying Out Loud

Jo Brand examines the subject of public crying and why we do it so readily nowadays.

Film in which Jo Brand gets to the bottom of crying: why we do it, whether we have always done it and, as a reluctant weeper, whether she can make a handkerchief soggy.

Jo Brand is outraged and appalled by the latest outburst of public crying. It is happening on X Factor, Who Do You Think You Are and even the politicans are at it. It would appear we are awash with tears. Jo is particularly baffled by this outpouring of weepiness as crying is something she rarely does. 

In this documentary, Jo decides it's time to get to the bottom of crying: why we do it, who does it and whether we have always done it. And once she discovers crying is in fact good for you, she has no choice but to see if she can actually make a handkerchief soggy too. 

To find out more about crying she talks to friends Phill Jupitus, Shappi Khorsandi and Richard E Grant; interviews crying historians, psychologists and biochemists; and, in her quest to discover her own tears, visits Moorfields Eye Hospital to check her tear ducts are in good working order. She subjects herself to joining a class of crying drama students, discovers the world's weirdest crybabies at the Loss Club and finally opens up to Princess Diana's psychotherapist, Susie Orbach. 

Having unpicked the watery world of crying, can Jo bring herself to actually shed a tear?

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