Earlier today, I had a flashback to a show I saw on television back in the early-mid 1990’s. It was a somewhat disturbing show and I only caught a brief part of it, but I am hoping somewhat can help fill in the context of it.
It was probably a made-for-tv movie or special. It was British in origin (I saw it in Canada) and the story focused on a developmentally challenged boy living with his mother. Either the boy or his mother had a fascination with birds (pidgeons I believe) and there were several in the house in cages.
One morning, the boy went to his mother’s bedroom, presumably to wake her up but unfortunately she had passed away during the night. The boy (who I figure is around 15 years old) doesn’t understand the concept of death and believes that his mother is still sleeping. Over the next few days (?), he starts letting the birds out of their cages where they then have free range over the house.
Fast forward a day or two, everything in the house, including the boy, is covered in bird shit. A friend of the mother arrives at the front door. Taken aback by the appearance of the boy, she asks to speak with his mother. He takes her to the bedroom whereby the friend is horrified to see the dead woman still in bed and also covered in bird poop. The friend admonishes the boy for allowing such a dreadful thing to happen to his own mother and leaves in disgust, but as far as I can tell never offered any assistance to the obviously confused boy. It was either a commercial break or my own disgust that got me away from the show never to return.
A short period of time (two/three months), I’m flipping through the channels and wouldn’t you know it - the same show at the same point of the story comes on. I watch it again, certain that I was mistaken when I thought I remembered how revolting the whole thing was… Nope.
Luckily, I’d managed to scrub it from my mind - until today. Does this sound familiar to anyone?