BRITANNIA HOSPITAL
Protest the NHS
RELEASED OUT NOW! 1982 | 15 | Blu-ray
Director Lindsay Anderson
Cast Malcolm McDowell,
Graham Crowden, Leonard Rossiter, Joan Plowright
The third in a loosely connected trilogy by the late Lindsay Anderson (following if…. and O Lucky Man!), Britannia Hospital was a total flop. Set in a sideways ’80s Britain where riots and bombings are even more commonplace, it sees a hospital beset by industrial action and protests on the day of a royal visit.
The problem, perhaps, was that the film’s scattershot satiric attack on the state of the nation sprays not just establishment figures but those at the coalface, with nurses and porters depicted as indifferent to the dying. It’s also lacking a protagonist who can properly guide us through the mayhem. Malcolm McDowell returns as Mick Travis, his character from the two previous films, but is a surprisingly marginal figure. Still, it’s blessed with moments of deliciously gruesome jet-black humour, thanks largely to Graham Crowden’s wild-eyed Dr Millar, whose outlandish experiments are pure Frankenstein.
Extras In lieu of a commentary, a 1991 interview with Anderson plays over the film; a seven-minute section discusses it. New interviews with actors Robin Askwith and Brian Pettifer and editor Michael Ellis (totalling 40 minutes) paint a portrait of a kind, collaborative director. Plus: trailers; gallery; booklet. Ian Berriman
Anderson was inspired by a 1974 dispute at Charing Cross Hospital, in which NUPE members refused to feed private patients.