Patch Adams allowed Robin Williams to indulge in his two worst traits: which is to say, really hammy comedy, and vomit-worthy mawkishness. It hit big at the box office, but the film was critically reviled for its depiction of the real-life doctor who introduced clowning into his rounds at a children's ward. Laughter is the best medicine and all that. No less an authority than Dr Hunter Patch Adams himself hated the film. Partly because he only agreed to it because he thought it would help fund his hospital (it didn't), partly because he saw it as a gross simplification of his life and work, with the story being very loosely adapted from his own and mainly a vehicle for Williams' improvisation skills. Among the changes made to his actual life? He never had a girlfriend called Corrine that was killed by a psychiatric patient (his wife's name is Lynda and it was his male pal that was killed), he admitted himself for therapy after suicidal thoughts when he was a teen (not middle-aged), and the credits say the real Patch's hospital was built: but it wasn't, because they didn't have the money.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
