I can recall enthusing about Jed Mercurio's book of the same name when it came out, a year or two ago, but Barbe-searches have failed to yield anything on either the book or the Channel 4 series, now nearing its conclusion.
Mercurio (not his real name) is a disaffected-doctor-turned-writer: I endured my own House Officer year around the same time as his Cardiac Arrest, and I remember being excited, along with my colleagues, by how honest it seemed, bitterly black humour and all - how, next to cosily bland Casualty and histrionically poisonous ER, it was a breath of fresh air. It really felt as if he were telling it like it is.
Bodies, the book, is apparently semi-autobiographical, returning to many of the same concerns as Cardiac Arrest with less flippancy. C4's adaptation, while remaining broadly faithful to the tone of the novel, has, if anything, gone darker still. On the one hand, I appreciate anything which goes some way in countering the breast-beating medico-martyrdom of other hospital dramas; on the other, Bodies is almost too relentless in its bleakness. Nobody is motivated by altruism any more, or the urge to heal; in Bodies' NHS, doctors and nurses are routinely punished for idealism, while the cynical, corrupt and frankly dangerous thrive.
It's gripping stuff, and extremely well-acted. Patrick Baladi's incredibly convincing as incompetent-but-treacherous surgeon Roger Hurley, and Keith Allen is somehow perfect as his secretary-shagging counterpart. At least half of it's shot at night, giving a claustrophobic, sometimes Hellish feel - which is just how I remember hospital-based on-call.
Is anyone else watching this? I'd be interested to hear how it's perceived by those who don't work in the NHS... |
