Larry

I watched Larry as a kid when I was off ill from school, it ran several times in the afternoon on British television.

I found this to be a profound and moving experience even more so as it was based on true facts. It was my first glimpse of Frederic Forrest who gave a brilliant turn as Larry.

It is hard to think that in the 1970s you can get gritty, emotional and ambitious TV movies from US television when these days they tend to adapt the latest hit chick lit romance books.

Forrest stars as Larry Herman misdiagnosed as severely retarded from childhood and spent his life in mental institutions. However when he moves to a new facility. His new therapist played by Tyne Daly has suspicions that Larry might not be retarded but in fact be completely normal and tries to get the Doctors to reappraise him.

Over time with the help of his carers Larry tries to adjust to normal society after so long being institutionalised. By the end of the film Larry disappears wanting to have a new life of his own, his whereabouts since then have been unknown.

Given the TV film was made almost 40 years ago, he spent 26 years institutionalised and the true events would have taken place a several years earlier. I presume the real Larry Herman has died by now.

In the intervening years he has decided not to write a best selling story of his life or appear in shows such as Donohue or Oprah. I hope he lived to have a good and contented life.