Cardiac Arrest (TV series)
Cardiac Arrest is a British medical drama series produced by World Productions for BBC One. It aired from 21 April 1994 to 25 June 1996. The show focused on the lives and challenges of junior doctors working in a hospital setting and was known for its realistic and sometimes dark portrayal of the medical profession. The series was controversial owing to its cynical depiction of doctors, nurses and the National Health Service, although it has often topped polls of the UK medical profession as the best medical drama of all time.
Cardiac Arrest was created by Jed Mercurio, who wrote under the pseudonym John MacUre. Mercurio is a British writer and television producer and, before pursuing a career in writing, he worked as a doctor in a hospital in Wolverhampton. His experiences as a doctor in the medical field influenced the realistic and often gritty portrayal of the medical profession in the series. Mercurio's perspective provided a visceral, albeit wryly humorous, look at the NHS in the 1990s. At the time of airing, Mercurio was still a doctor. He later went on to create another controversial medical drama for the BBC in 2004, Bodies.
Cast
- Andrew Lancel as Dr Andrew Collin
- Helen Baxendale as Dr Claire Maitland
- Ace Bhatti as Dr Rajesh Rajah
- Jonathan Dow as Dr James Mortimer
- Michael MacKenzie as Dr Graham Turner
- Tom Watson as Mr Ernest Docherty, registrar
- Ellen Thomas as Sister Jackie Landers
- Jayne Charlton McKensie as Staff Nurse Caroline Richards
- Katy Hale as Staff Nurse Susan Betts
- Mandy Matthews as Staff Nurse Pam Charnley
- Pooky Quesnel as Dr Monica Broome
- Danny Webb as Mr Simon Betancourt, surgical consultant
- Melanie Hill as Sister Pamela Lockley
- Michelle Fairley as Sister Karen Teller
- Caroline Paterson as Staff Nurse Annie Mills
- Ivan Heng as Staff Nurse Trevor Costello
- Kate Hollands as Intensive Care Nurse Janice Walford
- Gavin Mitchell as Mr Alex Legg, hospital administrator
- Annie Treadwell as Enrolled Nurse Becky Reece
- Angela Chadfield as Enrolled Nurse Joy Makin
- Joyce Falconer as Staff Nurse Tricia 'Whitecoat' Williams
- Sheila Whitfield as Staff Nurse Lisa Dalton
- Cassie Stuart as Staff Nurse Jayne Dugas
- Terry Sue-Patt as Student Nurse Luke Harris
- Fred Pearson as Dr Barry Yates
- Frank Mills as Alf Grocott, hospital patient
- Nisha Nayar as Nasreen, Rajesh's girlfriend
- Nicholas Palliser as Paul Tennant, hospital administrator
- Peter O'Brien as Mr Cyril 'Scissors' Smedley, registrar
- Jack Fortune as Mr Adrian DeVries, surgical consultant
- Andrew Clover as Dr Phil Kirkby
- Jacquetta May as Sister Julie Novac
- Gabrielle Cowburn as Sister Debbie Pereira
- Angela Douglas as Mrs Isobel Trimble, Mr Docherty's secretary and eventual wife
- Peter Biddle as Charge Nurse Patrick Garden, son of Adrian DeVries and Debbie Pereira
- Caroline Trowbridge as Dr Liz Reid
- Selina Cadell as Dr Sarah Hudson
- Lisa Harkus as Student Nurse Kirsty Reilly
- James Healey as Ken, hospital radiographer
Premise
Series 1
Series 1 ran for six episodes between 21 April and 2 June 1994.Dr Andrew Collin, a junior doctor, starts his first day at work as house officer, and meets his new colleague, SHO Dr Claire Maitland. He deals with multiple situations over the months, and is increasingly dillusioned due to the expectations placed on junior doctors. He is also required to do a three-day and night shift on call, while Claire tries to shield him from his worst abuses in order to preserve his sanity.
Series 2
Series 2 ran for eight episodes between 19 April and 7 June 1995.Andrew returns to the hospital and is now an SHO. To his chagrin, the consultant physician Dr Graham Turner has a far better relationship with the new house officer, Dr Phil Kirkby, whose father went to school with Graham.
At the organisational level, a new hospital administrator, Paul Tennant, demands even more efficiency from the medical staff, which places Andrew on ENT duties even though he has no training for the skills required. Tennant also instructs Claire to abandon resuscitation of a hypothermia patient in order to fulfil her clinic duties.
While Claire is covering for Andrew one night in casualty, a haemophiliac man is brought in with a nosebleed. Since Claire is not trained in ENT, she is unable to stop the bleeding, which leads the man to bleed to death. Claire exposes the systemic failures to the media, but she is fired on an unrelated technicality.
The hospital soon attracts additional adverse publicity when the anaesthetist Dr James Mortimer is diagnosed with HIV, following a discovery that he has a Kaposi's sarcoma, but he is still permitted to work. The diagnosis is leaked to the media and a scandal ensues, and manager Paul Tennant pressures James to take a leave of absence.
Meanwhile, Phil is attempting to draw up chemotherapy doses for a patient during Christmas Day despite having no experience. He rings a drunken Dr Turner, who is the only one available. He advises Phil to draw up the treatment, but he gets the dose wrong and the patient dies of anaphylactic shock. He takes the full blame and denies that he sought Turner's opinion, but the inquest returns a finding of unlawful killing.
Series 3
Series 3 ran for thirteen episodes between 2 April 1996 and 25 June 1996.The hospital has another new house officer, Dr Liz Reid, who is constant trouble and Claire shows little respect for her. Their new boss, medical consultant Dr Sarah Hudson, reprimands Claire for frightening Liz, but Hudson also confronts her over the latter's habit of blaming her own mistakes on colleagues. Claire describes Liz as "mad" and breaks her pager in a fit of rage.
Meanwhile, Turner's position becomes less secure. Dr Hudson assures Claire that Turner's neglect of his duties has not gone unnoticed. Soon an audit into consultants' attendance begins, but the junior doctors quickly realise Turner was forewarned. When he advises Andrew to attempt the insertion of a temporary pacemaker, Andrew calls Claire in, who is off duty and slightly drunk. Due to Turner's negligence, Tennant cautions Turner about his approach to his duties.
Phil, now a surgical house officer, faces continual taunting from his new boss Mr Adrian DeVries. He begins to aggressively suggest to Turner that he should be the one facing manslaughter charges over the chemotherapy death. Phil confesses to Docherty and he brokers a deal in which records of the accident are lost so Phil cannot be charged, in return for Turner being removed as head of the committee.
Public scandals continue at the hospital, which puts pressure on James to resign. Sister Jackie Landers speaks on television about a patient and is severely reprimanded by Tennant, but Sister Julie Novac makes similar comments to other reporters, which leads Tennant to become suspended over her remarks.
After Tennant is reinstated, he attempts to have Julie's new partner, Scissors Smedley, fired over procedural errors he committed when asking a student nurse to administer medication to a critically ill child. When Julie finds out that Scissors had not told her about Tennant's manipulations, she breaks up with him.
James's HIV infection affects Andrew, who had begun an affair with staff nurse Caroline Richards : her ex-lover Luke was also a partner of James, and Luke had tested positive for HIV, putting Caroline at risk. She eventually reveals to him that she is pregnant.
Adrian DeVries's son, Steven, the result of a past relationship with Sister Debbie Pereira, is brought in seriously injured after being hit by a car. Devries and his team attempt to save Steven's life, but fail to do so, leaving Devries in tears.
In the series finale, Liz is in a psychiatric ward following a breakdown, with another patient murdering patients by drug overdose. He forces his way into Liz's room when Andrew visits her, and stabs Andrew with a needle containing insulin. Andrew is rescued by the casualty team, including newly reunited Claire and Scissors, and they head towards the resuscitation room, ending the series.
Themes
Although billed as a comedy, and darkly humorous in many respects, Cardiac Arrest explores several disturbing themes. It demolishes many cherished concepts of healthcare one after the other, and did not attempt to be politically correct. It attracted complaints from many quarters during its airing, although enjoyed huge support amongst junior doctors.Racism
Cardiac Arrest is stark in its portrayal of racist attitudes, which are depicted as endemic throughout the health service. In one episode, an Indian locum who is clearly incompetent is assumed to be so, not because of his deeds, but because he is Indian. In Series 3, Raj is not chosen for a surgical rotation on the GP training scheme to Docherty's surprise: DeVries calmly reveals that doctors with "foreign" names are never chosen.Raj is often shown arguing with his mother on the telephone about her desire for him to get married.