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The story of Eleanor Bramwell , a pioneering female doctor in the late nineteenth century, and the struggles she has with her friends, her colleagues and society. Determined to take the medical profession out of the dark ages, her strongly held opinions often draw her into conflict with the chief surgeon, a man keener on tradition than he is on progress.
1995
The year is 1895, the place is London. Recently qualified doctor Eleanor Bramwell has an observational position in the East London Hospital, but faces resistance from the almost exclusively male medical profession, especially Sir Herbert Hamilton, the scalpel-happy head surgeon. As it happens, Sir Herbert has high hopes of securing funding for a new ward from Lady Cora Peters, who owns a property in Thrift Street. After agreeing to examine her friend, Lady Cora's sister-in-law Victoria Carstairs, who thinks she is pregnant, Eleanor makes a terrible discovery. The repercussions result in her banishment by Sir Herbert from the hospital, and it looks as if her only option will be to take private patients referred by her father. But Lady Cora is not the delicate flower Sir Herbert mistakes her for. She has seen Eleanor's success at saving the crushed foot of a labourer, Daniel Bently (and Sir Herbert's later erasure of this achievement), and is impressed as well by her efforts to save Vict
The Thrift is not yet fully operational, but an emergency patient, Frank Harrison, is brought in with a serious burn on his arm. When he returns the next day asking for more morphine, Eleanor realises he has a more serious ailment. He is suffering from a strangulated hernia, but turns violent when she asks to examine him. Meanwhile Robert provides his daughter with her first private patient, a Miss Peggy Heart, but Eleanor is not amused to discover that she is in fact a music-hall singer whom her father is seeing socially. When Harrison collapses in the street, Eleanor is at last able to convince him that he urgently needs an operation. She is eager to perform it herself, as she has not previously had any surgical experience (apart from amputating Daniel Bentley's toes), but requires the services of a qualified anaesthetist. Joe Marsham fits that description, and when Eleanor presents her case as an emergency, he agrees to assist, though he has anbitions to be a surgeon himself. L
When a woman, Clare Carter, arrives at the Thrift in labour, Lady Cora recognises her as her laundrywoman. Though she claims the father of her baby is a sailor at sea, a man soon arrives claiming to be her husband. The staff initially do not believe him, because he is black, and Clare is white. Clare has gone into labour a month prematurely, and it appears it will be a breach delivery, but soon the contractions subside, and Eleanor leaves her in Nurse Carr's care. At home, Robert has arranged a dinner party in honour of Eleanor's 27th birthday, but when word arrives from the Thrift that Clare's labour has resumed, Eleanor begs her father to come with her to assist in the difficult delivery. Lady Cora is left to explain to the other guests that Robert's wife had died in childbirth, delivering Eleanor 27 years ago today. The delivery goes badly, and Clare does not survive. Charlie Carter is devastated, but determined to bring up his daughter. Unfortunately, he is not only jobless and
A young boy, Tom, is brought into the Thrift with injuries suffered when he fell from a ladder after being sent down a sewer. His employer had abandoned him, and it was only one of the other workers who rescued Tom. The poor little waif soon has Nurse Carr completely charmed, but Daniel Bentley and Dr. Marsham have reason to believe that the little scamp is less innocent than he appears. Eleanor, meanwhile, is called in by neurologist Dr. Hunter to examine his housekeeper, Mary Warner. Eleanor confirms Hunter's diagnosis that Mary's heart is enlarged, and she cannot carry on with her normal work. Eleanor is flattered when Dr Hunter seems to be taking a personal interest in her. Later, when Dr. Hunter summons her to examine Mary again, they discover her in her room, dead. Lady Cora tells Robert that she has heard rumours that Hunter appears to be in distressed circumstances, and Hunter seems unusually anxious to get Eleanor's signature on the death certificate. Then at the club, Ro
Robert is pursuing research in electrotherapy, and receives the enthusiastic backing of an octogenarian member of his club, who not only wants to finance the experiments, but also to be a subject of them. While canvassing the East London slums looking for tuberculosis cases, Eleanor comes across a Bertie Armstrong, a costermonger living with a pregnant woman, Annie, whom Eleanor assumes is his wife. Bertie refuses treatment, though he is obviously very ill. Eventually Eleanor discovers that he is a member of a distinguished military family, the Stuart-Armstrongs. When Bertie collapses at the Thrift, Eleanor takes him to his brother, Andrew, who has not seen him for six years, and seems pleased and relieved to have him home again. Andrew also introduces Eleanor to Sylvia Stuart-Armstrong, Bertie's wife of eight years. When Bertie continues to act beligerantly, and demands to ""go home"" to Annie, Eleanor must make some difficult decisions.
The Thrift has been in operation for some months now, and the strain of too much work with too few staff is beginning to show. Lady Cora is acting as administrator, but she is feeling decidedly unwell. When a 16-year-old labourer, Wilf, is brought in to the Thrift after an accident and cannot feel anything, a broken neck is suspected. Lady Cora has learned of a contraption called an X-Radiography machine, and approaches Sir Herbert at the East London Hospital to beg the use of one. Sir Herbert is warned by the radiographer, but overexposes Wilf to the X-rays and burns him horribly, though Wilf cannot feel it. Back at the Thrift, Nurse Carr believes Wilf when he says he thinks he can feel his toes, but Dr. Marsham thinks he's imagining things, and this leads to sharp words with Nurse Carr. Lady Cora has called in Sir Herbert for help with the Thrift as well as for medical advice for herself. For Lady Cora he diagnoses, without bothering to examine her, a spastic colon and prescribes
Robert, not yet accustomed to his new duties at the Thrift, has forgotten to deal with the payroll. Instead, he has gone to a bare-knuckle boxing match at his old regiment, where he is trying to do some match-making for his daughter with young-ish Major Stuart Hyde, who is about to resign his commission and resume civilian life. When a Private Stebbings (who is being thrown out of the Army as a troublemaker) tries to interrupt the match, he is struck down by one of the boxers with a single punch. Dr. Bramwell cannot bring him round and Stebbings is taken to the Thrift, where it is discovered he has a brain injury requiring emergency surgery. Robert's matchmaking efforts are a success and, after a time, Eleanor accepts Major Hyde's proposal of marriage. Romance may be in the air for Kate, as well, when she catches Daniel Bentley's eye. Stebbings, however, whose temper has not been sweetened by brain surgery, brings everything crashing down when he attacks Eleanor at the Thrift. Though s
1997
It is the sweltering summer of 1896, and serious industrial accidents amongst the overworked, underpaid employees of the local brewery are on the rise, partly due to the fact that they are slaking their thirst while on the job. Eleanor is appalled to learn of their working conditions, but finds she must hold her tongue because the Thrift's chief benefactor, wealthy widow Alice Costigan, is not only the brewery's owner, but has also caught the eye of her father, Robert.Finn O'Neill suddenly returns from America, passing through London on his way to a six-week lecture tour on the Continent. Eleanor finds herself drawn to him just as much as before but, though he, too, claims to want to cement their relationship, there is a small political difficulty back in Chicago, where Finn's boss, Dr. Fraser, has ambitions to marry his 18-year-old daughter, Emmaline, to Dr. O'Neill.
Robert has been invited by wealthy Alice Costigan to her country house for a shooting party. He has high hopes of furthering his personal relationship with his hostess, but soon discovers that he has a rival for her affections, in the person of eminent Harley Street physician Aubrey Savier.During Robert's absence, Finn O'Neill returns to London for one day on his return route to America, and Eleanor invites him to stay the night. In the morning, they agree to marry upon his return next June.After returning to London, Alice stops by the Bramwells' house to return Robert's watch, which he had left behind. But her infant nephew Theo is clearly ill, and when Robert diagnoses an interseseption of the bowel he advises immediate surgery. Alice, however, is averse to the idea (her late husband had died ""under the knife"") and calls in Aubrey Savier, who suggests inflation of the bowel as an alternative. Next day, however, little Theo is worse than before and Robert, now with Eleanor's support,
Fed up with endless self-sacrifice and hoping to improve life for the family he has been neglecting, Joe Marsham has decided to accept the much better-paid position in Edinburgh he has been offered. But then he discovers a secret that his wife has been concealing from him (and which he would have noticed for himself if she hadn't been avoiding marital relations since the death of their infant son George, two years ago): she has developed breast cancer. Despite the utterly pessimistic assessment of Harley Street specialist Professor Osborne, he asks Eleanor and Robert to perform the necessary surgery on his wife--but is it already too late? She urges him to remain in London for the sake of their three daughters, if she should die.
It is June 1897 and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebration will be held in a few days, on the 22nd. The Thrift plans a party, but Eleanor is far more excited by the prospect of Finn O'Neill's return from America, so that they can at long last formalise their engagement. When he arrives, however, he brings with him something that Eleanor neither expects nor is pleased about. However, at the Thrift there is worse to contend with when a battered wife and her injured husband are both admitted and, as a result, a murder occurs.
Eleanor has fled to the country and so Robert finds himself temporarily in charge of the Thrift. At Alice Costigan's suggestion, and against the advice of Dr. Marsham, he hires a young trainee, Charlotte Adler. Her first assignment is to make a detailed inventory of the infirmary, from which Dr. Marsham discovers that bed-linen and, more seriously, opium, is going missing. Young Sidney Bentley is the obvious suspect and, despite his protestations of innocence, is summarily dismissed.Meanwhile, Ethel has her hands full at home with her aged and rapidly declining mother. When the kindly shopkeeper from across the street, Mr. Collard, offers to help, she refuses to let him in--probably because she has had to tie her mother up to keep her from wandering about. When Charlotte stops by with some flowers while nurse Carr is out, she discovers Till Carr tied up and drugged with opium, and the truth comes out.
Eleanor retreats to the country to recover from the emotional blow dealt her by Dr. O'Neill. She is hosted by old friends from medical-school days, the Kilshaws, whose outwardly blissful existence begins to appear to be concealing a disturbing secret. Their efforts to fix Eleanor up with a possible suitor, Mr. Jameson, is acutely embarrassing, but then comes a distraction with an outbreak of measles at the local school. The local schoolmaster, Mr. Herne, seems harsh and callous, but in the end proves a sound man.Sarah Mole, who is doubling as the Kilshaw's nursery maid and Mr. Herne's assistant, finds she can no longer conceal the fact that she is five months pregnant, but will not name the father. She is shunned by the entire village, but when she miscarries and Eleanor brings her to the Kilshaw home for care, she blurts out her secret to Eleanor. Seeing that Sarah cannot stay in the village, Eleanor decides to take her to London and find her a place training to be a nurse.
Robert has decided to open a Harley Street practice, to which end he borrows the necessary capital through his friend George Talbot, who arranges a very reasonable rate of interest from his banker father-in-law. Unfortunately, that is not the only interest involved, as Robert quickly finds himself having to fend off (without offending) his friend George's wife (and the banker's daughter), Laura. At the party celebrating Robert's new venture, he proposes to Alice Costigan, and she accepts him. Getting Laura Talbot to accept these circumstances is another matter.At the Thrift, Sidney Bentley seems smitten with a young burn patient named Florence. But despite Joe Marsham's encouragement, Sidney's bashfulness seems certain to prevent any relationship developing.
The apparently miraculous recovery of a hopeless goiter case causes Dr. Marsham to reconsider some of his fundamental convictions. He is reluctant to consider the possibility that a faith healer, Mr. Matthews, may have brought divine intervention, but his encounter with the man brings him to understand that healing is not something solely to do with the body. As it happens, Matthews is suffering from an advanced case of spinal tuberculosis. By all rights, he should be paralyzed and yet, by a supreme effort of will, is able to walk, though he is in terrible pain. Marsham, in despair over his recent bereavement, has sent his children away to stay with their Aunt Gwen, indefinitely, but Mr. Matthews gives him the courage to resume his life, and to forgive himself for his wife's death.Robert, meanwhile, is happily settling into his new Harley Street surgery, and has brought Kate in to help keep order.
When Dr. Finn O'Neill returns once again to London, he is famed for his pioneering work with immunization. As a human being, however, he has not improved at all. He sees no reason why he should avoid the Bramwells despite his shameful treatment of Eleanor, and even tries to resume their former relationship, even with his young wife ill in the same room.Robert, who has never liked Dr. O'Neill, suspects that Emmaline O'Neill's mysterious and increasingly serious illness may in fact be the result of some unspeakable experiment being carried out by the ambitious Dr. Finn to further his own career. A clandestine visit to the Irish doctor's laboratory reveals a damaging truth with which Robert could end O'Neill's career.As Alice and Robert's wedding draws near, Kate becomes convinced that her job is not safe, since Alice will be bringing her own domestic staff.
There is joy in the air as Robert Bramwell and Alice Costigan prepare to wed. Unfortunately for Eleanor, her father's impending move to Alice's sumptuous Kew residence also means that he will be withdrawing their support of the Thrift, threatening not only her livelihood, but also her developing relationship with Joe Marsham.
1996
On their way to an auction to bid for a building neighbouring the Thrift, Robert and Eleanor are caught up in a horrific train crash on the underground near King William Street station. Robert suffers a broken arm, and so is only able to direct Eleanor in amputating the crushed leg of a fellow passenger, in order to extricate him from the wreckage. Upon bringing their patient, Peter Mills, to the Thrift, they are surprised when his two younger brothers arrive on the scene and take up protective positions. It turns out that the Mills brothers are notorious local gangsters, and soon the grateful Peter produces the deed to the building Eleanor had presumed was lost. But there is a price to pay, and when Peter's wound turns septic with gas gangrene, he will not allow anyone but Eleanor perform the further amputation. His brothers are more than a little obstructive, and it quickly becomes apparent that they will not long mourn their elder sibling, should he shuffle off his mortal coil.
1998
It is October 1899 and the country is gripped by patriotism as the second campaign of the Boer War commences. Eleanor becomes the examining physician for the local Army recruiting station, to the annoyance of more than one officer, as well as Doctor Marsham, who does not approve of such duties for his fiancee. When a Dutch national is brought to the Thrift for treatment of injuries suffered in a racist attack by some British soldiers, there is staff dissention and further friction between Eleanor and Joe Marsham. When Eleanor meets the dashing young Major Guy Quarrie, she quickly falls under his spell.
The Thrift has now been in operation for over a year, and Eleanor thinks it may be time to move on. She applies for a part-time position at St. Jude's Hospital, where she runs into the expected opposition, spearheaded by the charismatic Dr. Finbar (""Finn"") O'Neill. Although she is clearly the best-qualified applicant, Dr. O'Neill's opposition appears to be insurmountable, until Robert intervenes by inviting the board chairman, Dr. James, to dinner. O'Neill is furious, and Eleanor discovers why: in the not-too-distant past, her father had engaged Dr. O'Neill in an acrimonious exchange of letters in one of the leading medical journals. Despite this disadvantage, Eleanor eventually manages to earn Dr. O'Neill's respect and, when his Registrar, Dr. Rolls, moves on to a better post, he offers the full-time position to Eleanor. She is flattered and nearly accepts, but when one of her Thrift patients, a 12-year-old prostitute named Lucy, arrives at St, Jude's in desperate need and is nearly t
Robert is celebrating his impending election as a Fellow the Royal College of Physicians, thanks to his old friend Sir William Fredericks. Sir William's son, Martin, plans to go to medical school and is being given the opportunity of observing Robert's practice and the Thrift. In the midst of the festivities, Robert's long-estranged sister Emily returns from India twenty years after eloping with a married man, an estate manager. Emily had taken with her not only all of her mother's jewels, but also 5000 pounds in cash--which would have been Robert's inheritance. Needless to say, Robert is less than thrilled to see her. Mr. Coxon, Emily's lover (whose wife had refused to divorce him), has died and, since she has no claim on the pension, she is now penniless. Eleanor tries to effect a reconciliation, believing that her aunt is now a reformed character, but Robert is resistant. Meanwhile, Marsham's two-year-old daughter Molly is admitted with a broken leg to the Thrift, where a child has
When Lord Palfrey, from whom Eleanor hopes a substantial donation, arrives for a guided tour of the Thrift, every patient in sight seems to be practicing projectile vomiting. Eleanor thinks it's food poisoning, but Robert diagnoses cholera. Eleanor is forced to notify Dr. O'Neill (who is the designated Medical Officer), who calls in the public-health inspector. The source of the infection is quickly determined to be an unsanitary condition in the immigrant colony at Jacob's Island, but the ill patients must still be treated.Dr. O'Neill, as it happens, is the leading authority on cholera, and has developed a pioneering though as yet unproven cure (called, somewhat unpromisingly, Compound 108). Eleanor authorises O'Neill to administer his treatment, though Robert is not convinced that it is safe.Two twin children are both doing well when one suddenly dies. Robert discovers she was given 12 grams of O'Neill's cure, which contains an arsenic compound, whereas the other was given only 4 gra
A Bramwell family friend (a former military colleague of Robert), Guy le Saux, returns to London from Canada with a new wife half his age, whom Guy had ""selected"" from a Canadian orphanage. Guy confides in Robert that certain aspects on the marital front have not as yet taken their natural course, but Robert and Eleanor soon suspect he is beating his wife. Meanwhile, Daniel Bentley's widow has a 10-year-old daughter, Lil, whom Eleanor wants to propose for Guy's programme for relocation to Canada. But when Mrs. Bentley catches her son Sidney thieving, she is all too ready to send him off instead. Unfortunately, the all-scientific Guy finds Sidney substandard, on the basis of skull measurements. Dr. Marsham finds Sidney substandard on quite different grounds, when Sidney nicks his razor (and, in the process, nicks himself, as well). Robert ejects his old friend from the house when he is convinced Guy has been beating his wife, but when Kathleen collapses and Robert must perform surgery o
It is February 1896, and a Valentine card arrives, addressed to ""Dr. Bramwell"". Robert assumes (wrongly) that it is meant for him, but cannot imagine who might have sent it. Meanwhile, old Nanny Pat arrives for a visit, and immediately takes a dislike to Kate who, after all, has only worked there for three years. Nanny is full of tales about the new job she is moving on to, but doesn't seem in a hurry to leave.Eleanor has secured a substantial donation for the Thrift, and decides to celebrate by taking Dr. Marsham to a fair in a nearby street. In the ""freak show"" there, they see a young woman, named Rose Tully, with an enormously deformed head, being displayed as ""the biggest brain on earth. When Rose is injured in a disturbance caused by dissatisfied customers, she is removed to the Thrift for treatment. Eleanor believes the deformity is a large cyst which could be removed by surgery, according to a recent paper by a Doctor Woolfenden, whom she consults in the matter. Rose is agreeabl
Charles Sheldon, a supplier of surgical equipment to the Thrift, arrives with an emergency casualty, a flamboyantly dressed young woman who he says ran out in front of his carriage. When Eleanor examines the patient, she is shocked to discover it is in fact a young man, Frederick Hackett. The other patients and staff of the Thrift are none too pleased to have a ""Marjory"" in their midst, but his injuries are too severe for Eleanor not to keep him in overnight.Back at the Bramwell home, Robert has been persuaded by widow Elizabeth Quail to entertain her ""spiritual leader"" Mr. Sullivan, a Sally Army zealot whom Mrs. Quail believes could be of advantage to the Thrift.The next day, Mr Beamish, a Thrift patient with an open wound, pops out of the infirmery for a pint and returns, roaring drunk and carrying a broken bottle, with which he slashes young Frederick Hackett before fleeing. Eleanor struggles to save Hackett, and gives her own blood for a transfusion. When Charles Sheldon pops in to
It is still late winter, 1896, and the Bramwells have gone to Eastbourne for a short break. Robert returns to London, but Eleanor stays on for a few days on her own. Or so she claims. In fact, she has (to every viewer's astonishment!) arranged to meet Finn O'Neill there, without telling her father. When others see them together, she introduces him as her cousin. Unfortunately, a Mr. Smythe is a patient of her father, and upon returning to London tells Robert about meeting Eleanor's ""charming Irish cousin"". Robert is not amused at his daughter's deception.Back at the Thrift, Robert has discovered the gas plumbing needs repair. Work is well underway when Eleanor returns, but the subsequent rift with her father requires that work be stopped, since Robert is suddenly unwilling to pay for it.Sidney is in a foul mood, and Nurse Carr wonders why, but Sidney won't talk to her about it. Eventually, it turns out that his mother wants him to leave home now he's 16. Nurse Carr reluctantly agrees t
Jemma Redgrave
Ruth Sheen
David Calder
Cliff Parisi
Kevin McMonagle
Jenny Agutter
Mrs. Bruce
