Quacks
Creators:
James WoodDirected by:
Andy De EmmonyScreenplay:
James WoodComposer:
Ian ArberCast:
Tom Basden, Mathew Baynton, Ed Gaughan, Rory Kinnear, Lydia Leonard, Alison Lintott, Kayvan Novak, Marcia Warren, Will Jennings, Lisa JacksonVOD (1)
Plots(1)
William has a bladder stone and needs Robert to perform a lithotrity on him - a grim genital operation. William has the unenviable choice of excruciating pain or taking John's potentially lethal new drug chloroform during surgery. In her quest to expand her medical knowledge, Caroline arranges for herself and William to meet Llantha Kapoor, a famous mesmerist. With John tagging along, the three of them meet the charismatic Kapoor at a local curry house for a demonstration of his hypnotic powers. Meanwhile, Robert is suffering from the shakes and having vivid nightmares of his time in the navy. All William knows is that something unpleasant happened to Robert. In a hammock. Believing in therapy as a form of treatment, William becomes determined that Robert should divulge his story to try to cure his shakes. (BBC)
(more)Reviews (1)
The series is fortunately still following the same tracks, and even though I wasn't too entertained by the Indian hypnotist, everything else made up for it. Poor William. From what I've seen so far, I have come to the conclusion that surgeons at that time were mainly men with a tendency towards sadism. I remembered the suffering of Al Swearengen in the series Deadwood.
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