The National Health Service (NHS) opened its doors on 5 July 1948 - for the first time everyone was entitled to free medical care. With its combination of modern treatments and unrestricted access, the new service quickly became a symbol of a new postwar society based on science and compassion. What is difficult to understand is why it took almost a decade for broadcasters to realise this could make for compelling TV drama.
Emergency Ward 10 (ITV, 1957-67) quickly captured the country's imagination, but the series which helped create the genre's blueprint was the product of a misunderstanding. Its creator, Tessa Diamond, was looking for a new programme concept when her agent suggested a series about daily hospital life. He had meant a documentary, but Diamond misunderstood and instead created a drama.
A range of medical drama soon followed, including the BBC's highly popular Doctor Finlay's Casebook (1962-71), set in a quiet, pre-NHS village practise in the Scottish highlands. Elsewhere in the TV schedules, other medical disciplines were entertaining audiences. Silent Evidence (BBC, 1962) featured a police pathologist, while Thorndyke (BBC, 1964) followed the adventures of a forensic criminologist.
The modern medical drama, typified by Casualty (BBC, 1986-), didn't arrive until 1975, when Angels (BBC, 1975-83) replaced bed rest and thermometers with the more complex dramatic elements of death and disease as seen through the eyes of overworked student nurses.
Broadcasters realised that their output had to match audiences' experiences of the NHS if their programmes were to succeed. As long as the health service remains mired in political debates there is little prospect of a return to the less critical world of Emergency Ward 10, where lying in was not only a universal restorative, it didn't create a beds shortage.
Anthony Clark
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