Latest news with #MrDoodle
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews The Trouble With Mr Doodle: Sensitively drawn portrait of Mr Doodle's psychotic breakdown
The Trouble with Mr Doodle (Ch4) Rating: Doodling at work made Roger Hargreaves a multi-millionaire. The advertising executive drew cartoon characters in idle moments, which evolved into the Mr Men — Mr Tickle, Mr Greedy and many more. But Hargreaves never thought to create Mr Doodle. That manic persona sprang from the perfervid brain of art student Sam Cox, who had been doodling obsessively throughout his teens, up to 15 hours a day. Mr Doodle, though he looked like a bundle of fun in his white suit and hat covered in squiggles, was not the benign Mr Man character he seemed at first. His demented extrovert personality took over Sam's life, enabling him to make a small fortune in the art world but gradually shredding his sanity, until he was sectioned for his own safety in a psychiatric hospital. This two-hour documentary, directed with sensitivity but also humour by Jaimie D'Cruz and Ed Perkins, depicted the stages of Sam's psychotic breakdown, which seemed to be building up in waves for several years. Mental health, no longer the taboo subject of a decade ago, is now frequently discussed on TV, but it's rare to see the development of such severe illness shown so clearly. The Trouble With Mr Doodle deserves to join the case histories of Oliver Sacks, who wrote up his patients' symptoms in a series of bestselling books, as a model of psychiatric study. Sam has been fortunate to have a close and loving family to sustain him. His compulsion to doodle over every available surface was so extreme that he fantasised about covering the entire planet in his artwork, and then zooming off in a rocket ship to discover new worlds to daub with jaunty graffiti. Though no one was interested when he tried to sell individual pages of doodles at £1 a time, his fortunes changed after a Hong Kong art dealer began marketing his work to the cartoon-crazy Japanese. One sprawling canvas sold for $1m (£730,000), enabling Sam to buy a large, secluded he then proceeded to cover in doodles. The documentary began at the moment Sam, filmed by his Ukrainian fiancee, Alena, explored the house, after it had been stripped of all its cupboards and carpets, with all the walls, floors and ceilings painted bright white. Then, he got his marker pens out... His breakdown occurred halfway through the project. Incredibly, after he left hospital, he returned to the house and finished every inch of doodling. Loyal Alena never stopped supporting him, and the one genuinely happy moment in this portrait of fraught, hyper-intense jollity came at the end when their first child was born. But weighed against that were the interviews with Sam, who seemed deeply anxious to be facing the camera and whose face was sometimes a vacant mask. These silent close-ups were a reminder that there's so much we simply don't understand about mental illness.
The Herald Scotland
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
The Trouble with Mr Doodle: Artist mistook his mum for Nigel Farage
**** THE man who bought a big house, painted it white, then doodled over everything. Walls. Floors. Ceiling. Duvet cover. Toaster. Everything. It sounds like one of the odder items from BBC Breakfast or, heaven help us, The One Show. The story of Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, did indeed attract attention around the world. Here was a real-life English eccentric and successful artist. What viewers did not know was that Cox was being driven mad by his alter ego and had been for some time. This extraordinary film by directing trio Jaimie D'Cruz (Exit Through the Gift Shop), Ed Perkins and Alex Nott tells the disturbing story of what happened when obsession met opportunity and raced out of control. The Trouble with Mr Doodle opened when the white house was ready for the first stroke of the artist's pen and looped back from there to his childhood. 'It did cross my mind there was something different about him,' said his mum of the red-headed boy who would spend 15 hours a day drawing. It was clear from interviews with his parents, friends and art teacher that this was the beginning of a cautionary tale. Yet on the surface all was well. Thriving even. Sam was an online hit, commissions were coming in, there were trips to Japan. Best of all he met Alena, a fellow gentle soul from Ukraine. The boy bullied at school was winning at life. Read more The trouble, to quote the title, was Mr Doodle. Where Sam was shy, awkward and reclusive, Mr Doodle was a shouty street artist brimming with confidence. The invented character 'took over' and the doodling became increasingly manic. Sam's mother used the word 'possessed' reluctantly, but that is how it must have seemed. At one point he called her Nigel Farage and believed Donald Trump had asked him to doodle on the US/Mexico border wall. Other filmmakers might have brought on a mental health professional to explain what was happening. Instead it was left to the film's other trio, mum, dad and girlfriend, to describe what it felt like to watch, powerless, as illness took hold. Further helping our understanding were illustrations and animated sequences of such high quality, one fancied Mr Doodle himself would have approved of them. Together, the artwork and the family's recollections were as clear a guide to a major breakdown as it is possible to get at one remove. Recovery was slow, with setbacks along the way. Occasionally, the film's two-hour running time made itself felt. At other points, particularly the final section, the pace felt rushed. I would have liked to know more about the treatment he received and how he was doing today. How common, or not, was his experience? As his mother acknowledged, they were lucky to get their Sam back. This was a story with a positive ending. Other families watching won't have been so fortunate, but anything that aids our understanding of mental illness, as this remarkable film surely will, is to be welcomed.
Daily Mirror
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Artist who doodled all over his mansion speaks out in Channel 4 doc
Artist Sam Cox created the alter ego Mr Doodle, but slowly the lines became blurred and everyone feared for his mental health. As a child, artist Sam Cox would draw from the moment he woke up to the moment he went to sleep. Through school and university, he wasn't interested in anything but drawing. His time was increasingly spent doodling, and even on a night out, he'd sit in a corner drawing on his phone. But over time, he found himself caught in a nightmare of his own making - trapped in Doodle Land, leading to a psychotic break and being sectioned. An intimate documentary, on Channel 4 tonight (July 9th) at 10pm, explores how Sam gradually morphed into Mr Doodle - an alter ego who ended up buying a mansion and painting it white, simply so that he could draw all over it. His mum Andrea says: 'I remember my auntie saying to me, 'It's ok, it's just that he's a genius and sometimes geniuses go mad'. He was lost somewhere in some land that he no longer had control over.' When Sam left university, he was given a year to see if he could make his art pay. He created Mr Doodle to draw attention to his work, dressing up as the persona and trying to sell drawings in the street for £1. Sam came to the notice of an international art dealer after a video of him doodling went viral - the money came in and he even met a woman. But it started to become unclear where Mr Doodle ended and Sam began. And then he bought the house... Sam says: 'Whenever I try to talk about what happened to me, my heart starts racing.' The Trouble With Mr Doodle is airing on Channel 4 tonight at 10pm There's plenty more on TV tonight - here's the best of the rest... SHIFTING GEARS, DISNEY+ Tim Allen (famously the voice of Buzz Lightyear and star of Home Improvement) leads the cast in this family comedy revolving around a car restoration shop. He plays Matt, the stubborn, widowed owner of the classic car workshop, whose life is upturned by the arrival of his estranged daughter and grandchildren. Riley (played by 2 Broke Girls actress Kat Dennings) drives up with her two kids in tow and asks for a place to stay in the wake of her divorce. It all sets up for a classic odd couple format, with the father and daughter also having a couple of decades of emotional baggage to deal with. The jokes are a bit clunky and it's hardly subtle. 'When I build stuff, it's built to last,' says Matt. 'Except our relationship!' Riley replies. But it's endearing and there's comedy from the kids, including tween Carter who wants to improve Matt's Instagram presence and Georgia, who wants to become a billionaire. POISONED: KILLER IN THE POST, CHANNEL 4, 9pm This heartbreaking documentary speaks to bereaved parents about the deaths of multiple young people who took a deadly poison being sold online. When a young man, Tom Parfett, died aged 22 in 2001 after ingesting the poison, Times journalist James Beal investigated and realised he was not the only victim. In fact, the poison was sent to hundreds of young people across the world, from the US to Canada, Germany and Australia. This film follows what happened as James went undercover, discovering a dark world of online suicide forums. The seller has since been arrested and accused of sending over 1,200 poison packages to young people and is linked to 97 deaths in the UK. Tom's dad David says: 'Tom had a lot to look forward to. He was just a wonderful man. There's not an hour when I don't think about him. When I found out about this poison I was just so angry. The lives that have been lost, it's just astonishing.' BALLARD, PRIME VIDEO This Bosch spin-off sees Detective Renee Ballard (Maggie Q) plunge into a web of murder and corruption as she hunts a ruthless serial killer and uncovers a sinister police conspiracy. She heads up the LAPD's newly formed but underfunded cold case division, after being forced to step away from the homicide team. But with her own demons nipping at her heels, Ballard must outwit both criminals and colleagues to bring long-overdue justice to the victims and their families. EASTENDERS, BBC1, 8pm In a double bill, the Panesars are in crisis mode as Ravi and Suki try to rescue the businesses. Desperate for cash, Ravi approaches Nicola to get a drug contact and she warns him of the dangers. Angry that Felix has left her in the lurch, Cindy berates Callum for kissing Johnny, only for Lexi to overhear. Lauren looks to Peter for reassurances about Jimmy's diagnosis. Ian suggests to Stacey that they reopen Martin's stall. She agrees it's a good legacy.
Irish Independent
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘The Trouble with Mr Doodle' review: Intense account of an artist who was taken over by his alter ego
Channel 4 documentary tells the story of how Sam Cox unravelled into psychosis – and it's like stepping inside a migraine Pat Stacey The Trouble with Mr Doodle (Channel 4, Thursday, July 10, 10pm) was he couldn't stop doodling. He just kept on doing it, for hours then days then weeks on end, often with little or no sleep, scrawling his squiggly black doodles over everything in sight. Paper, bed covers, walls, floors, household appliances, his own clothes, even the €1.5m house he bought in posh Kent. He had his uncle, a builder, strip the house to a shell and paint it white, inside and out, then covered every surface, every piece of furniture and every fixture and fitting with incredibly intricate doodles. One newspaper article described entering the house as like 'stepping inside a migraine'. Eventually, Mr Doodle, the fun (at first) persona artist Sam Cox had created for himself, doodled all over Sam's brain, practically erasing the kind, funny, thoughtful person he was and replacing him with an exhausting alter ego clad in black and white. This 90-minute documentary tells the story of a talent that became an obsession that caused Cox to unravel into psychosis. From the time he was a child, Cox drew from morning to bedtime, and often when he was supposed to be sleeping. 'I just let my brain fly away,' he says. 'It's almost like I'm not in control anymore.' Watching him draw, it's like his hand is acting independently. The other thing he loved was playing different characters (home videos capture his performances). 'He was never confident when he wasn't dressed up,' says his father Neil. It seems inevitable that Cox, part-visual artist, part-performance artist, would eventually create a character: Mr Doodle. He had videos made of himself capering around the streets in his doodle suit and hat, trying to sell his pictures to baffled passers-by for a pound or trade them for goods with wary shopkeepers. The videos are simultaneously funny, surreal and a little disturbing. 'I had visions of all these people looking and thinking he's just a lunatic,' says his mother Andrea. Cox was landing some paid commissions, but his career really took off in 2017 after a woman posted a video of him doodling in a pop-up shop in London. It went viral, clocking up 43 million views. Foreign news shows did reports on him. People all over the world started to buy his pictures. In Tokyo, one sold for a million dollars. The richer and more successful he became, the more Mr Doodle took him over. He was more animated, his voice had changed. 'You'd look at him sometimes and it just wasn't Sam,' says Andrea. 'That was when Mr Doodle started to become not quite the happy, jolly persona we thought he was.' That was when Mr Doodle started to become not quite the happy, jolly persona we thought he was Cox's wife Alena, a Ukrainian artist (when they met for the first time in Berlin, they instantly fell in love), says: 'He was going deeper and deeper into this weird state.' Cox was having a breakdown. After he'd been working for 36 hours straight, Alena persuade him to sleep. 'Two hours later when he woke up, he wasn't Sam anymore,' she says. He told her Sam was dead and he was now Mr Doodle. Sam had to be sectioned. 'I hated that character that he'd created,' says Andrea. 'I just wanted him to go away.' He was released six weeks later, but it was clear to everyone, including Cox, that he wasn't fully recovered. 'I couldn't control my brain properly,' he says. He was suffering delusions. He imagined he was friends with Kanye West and Banksy, that Donald Trump had asked him to doodle on his border wall, and that his mother was Nigel Farage (Andrea can see the funny side of that). Cox said he no longer wanted to be Mr Doodle and had no desire to draw. 'That didn't last long,' says Alena. He began doodling again. He was having a psychotic episode, but his doctors didn't know how long it would last. With its stop-motion animations of doodles and chorus of squeaky, babbling voices (a reflection of Cox's mental turmoil), the film also sometimes feels like stepping inside a migraine After a period of toing and froing between Cox and Mr Doodle, he regained his equilibrium with the support network of his family and old art teacher. His mother believes Mr Doodle doesn't exist anymore. With its stop-motion animations of doodles and chorus of squeaky, babbling voices (a reflection of Cox's mental turmoil), the film also sometimes feels like stepping inside a migraine. You may find the ad breaks, normally an irritant, a welcome relief from its sensory overload.
Daily Mail
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I was so obsessed with doodling I drew all over my £1.35m mansion - but after 36 hours without sleep I thought my mum was Nigel Farage and I had to be sectioned
A world-renowned artist who doodled all over his £1.35million mansion has revealed how he went from earning huge sums to being sectioned on a psychiatric ward. Sam Cox, also known as Mr Doodle, rose to fame in 2017 when a video of him using a marker pen to draw all over a shop was viewed 46 million times in one week on social media. Soon after, his doodles were selling for one million dollars each and he was being commissioned by big name brands such as Adidas. And in 2019, the 31-year-old's dream came true when he purchased a property in the quaint town of Tenterden, Kent for £1.35 million. He planned to draw all over the house, starting in the main bedroom with dream-themed doodles. The compulsive artist started working for 36 hours straight to finish the project, which he now thinks sparked a mental breakdown. Sam began to think that his mother was Nigel Farage and that President Donald Trump had asked him to graffiti his 'big, beautiful wall' between the US and Mexico. In a new Channel 4 documentary 'The Trouble With Mr Doodle', he reveals that he had to be restrained by six nurses after he was sectioned in February 2020. Sam told The Sun: 'I felt like I was in a game. You think health professionals and even family and friends are trying to hurt you. 'Donald Trump or other celebrities took the place of other patients in the hospital for me. 'I remember thinking my mum was like Nigel Farage.' Sam, who grew up in Kent, spent six weeks in hospital and has now fully recovered. Speaking about his 'Doodle House' project back in 2022, Sam said he was determined to finished it on his own. He told The Sunday Times: 'It's the longest project I've done. I wanted to say I'd done it all myself.' Sam left no surface untouched, with every wall and ceiling and all amenities - including the television, hob and bath - covered in monochromatic doodles. Despite admitting he did not plan any of his drawings, Sam gave every room its own theme. For example, the hallway was covered with Noah's Ark creations, while the stairs were decorated with Heaven and Hell drawings. Sam said: 'I had a rough idea of the theme but the individual doodles are spontaneous. 'My main inspiration still goes back to when I was kid watching Tom and Jerry, Wacky Races and SpongeBob SquarePants, and video games like Crash Bandicoot. I always wanted to draw characters for video games.' For the indoor doodles, the 31-year-old explained that he used black acrylic paint and a bingo marker-pen in four different sizes. Sam and his wife Alena previously planned to make the living artwork their permanent home in the coming weeks. The couple met on Instagram after Alena commented on one of Sam's videos prompting them to meet up in person in Berlin in 2018. Alena, who moved to the UK from Kharkiv, Ukraine in 2020, said she finds the monochromatic doodles 'calming' and even drives a doodled Tesla.
