In 2008 two events occurred which caused national headlines in the UK and which may never be fully understood. The official line is that some form of psychosis was involved yet, inevitably, there are those who believe that the events were perpetrated by aliens, superhumans (watch the video and you will see why) or that that everything was an elaborate hoax that was perpetrated, for some reason, by British authorities.
Ursula and Sabina Eriksson are Swedish twin sisters (born 1967) who came to national attention in the United Kingdom in May 2008 after an apparent episode of folie à deux(or "shared psychosis"), a rare psychiatric disorder in which delusional beliefs are transmitted from one individual to another, which resulted in a series of bizarre incidents on the M6 motorway and the subsequent murder of Glenn Hollinshead of Fenton, Staffordshire. There was no evidence that drugs or alcohol were involved in the incidents on the M6 or the death of Hollinshead.
In 2008, BBC cameras filmed the bizarre incidences involving the Eriksson twins on the M6 motorway. When the resulting documentary - Madness in the Fast Lane - was shown on BBC One, nearly 7 million viewers were glued to their screens, and millions more watched it later on YouTube.
The footage was shocking. One previewer wrote "On no account miss this documentary. It opens with what is perhaps the most extraordinary footage I've seen on TV".
But this amazing footage was only part of an even more incredible story, one which could not be told at the time for legal reasons.
Now, two years later, this documentary reveals the full story of the hours just before the cameras captured that motorway footage, and the even more chilling story of what happened over next 72 hours, which left one of the sisters fleeing the scene of a crime, after she had stabbed a man through the chest.
Those who were at the centre of this fascinating legal case, including the police and Crown prosecution service, reveal the complex issues involved in both bringing charges and taking this disturbing case to trial.
A leading criminal psychiatrist, Dr. Nigel Eastman, explains the difficulties the judicial system has in achieving justice and deciding punishment when dealing with mental illness. He explains the possible causes of the women's behaviour, and why, in his view, it could happen again.
Madness in the Fast Lane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jZMngBSVUl8