DOCUMENTARY

BBC4, 9pm

A fascinating whistle-stop tour of the history of the NHS as told by the people whose lives it has affected.

The Last Leg comedian Alex Brooker presents, chatting to many remarkable patients and staff from across the country.

Tonight’s episode covers the first quarter of a century of the service, with access to artefacts from the time.

John Marks tells how he qualified as a doctor on the very first day of the NHS and was thrown straight into surgery, not fully sure what to do.

Actress Joan Hooley shares an episode of ITV drama Emergency Ward 10, where her role as a hospital doctor – who happened to be both a woman and black – sent shockwaves through society.

And the daughter of a GP unfurls an incredible scroll of records of every case of childhood disease he treated – fascinating evidence of the impact of the nation’s first NHS-funded vaccine campaign.