The extraordinary story of Paul Downes, a 49-year-old businessman with bipolar disorder, who in 2009 invited 12 young Ukranian women, some of them part time models, to join him in a Jamaican castle.

What at first appeared to be an innocent fantasy rapidly became ever more bewildering as Paul at first invited a number of women to marry him, then all of them in an attempt to form a harem of 12. As time went on, Paul lost interest in the women and instead turned his attention to taking over the world, pacing about the castle and making proclamations like a villain from a James Bond movie as the women went about sun bathing and swimming.

Paul has bi-polar disorder and his behaviour in Jamaica was caused by an acute mania that developed whilst he was there. Paul is unusual in that his manias are frequent, and extremely severe. A full-blown mania is an event that has rarely been filmed and A Bipolar Expedition comes face to face with the extremes of his condition as events in Jamaica reach a crescendo. The programme goes on to explore the origins of Paul’s bipolar, and the impact that manias and the depressions that follow have on his life. Ultimately the film reveals just why manic highs are so addictive and so hard to moderate.