This rushed NHS history failed in its duty of care
The NHS: a People’s History (BBC Four) may well be the latest offering in a seemingly indefatigable run of programming scheduled to celebrate the institution’s 70th birthday, but it had the potential to be the most revelatory. Hosted by Alex Brooker, who has become one of television’s most prominent disabled broadcasters, this three-parter delved into the living memories of people who have witnessed the NHS’S most significant growing pains first-hand.
In its first episode, the documentary rattled through the first 25 years of the service. Those interviewed included June Hautot, a vociferous NHS campaigner who exhibited a lifetime’s collection of picketing boards in her toilet; she also presented her father’s accounting book as evidence of how doctors’ bills could cripple a family before 1948. Less positively, nurse Mary Hazard talked of the draconian horrors of the system after being one of the first brought over from Ireland to cope with the nationwide staffing shortage, saying that it was “worse than the nunnery” she had fled at 17.
This was an attempt to do away with nostalgia and show the realities of our health service in its early years. And the stories were undeniably gripping. The young NHS’S lack of understanding of mental illness was heartbreakingly highlighted through playwright Alan Bennett’s tragic memories of his institutionalised mother. Joan Hooley, who trained as a nurse before playing TV’S first black doctor on Emergency Ward 10, coolly discussed the racial prejudice flowing through Sixties Britain.
But The NHS: a People’s History struggled to string these stories together in a meaningful way. They were sutured with archive footage of hospital wards and dry footage of medical equipment while the focus on interviewees’ heirlooms gave the whole affair an unnecessary touch of Cash in the Attic. Ann Rossiter suffered barbaric treatment in A&E after a bodged backstreet abortion, and her account deftly exposed how moral judgment interfered with the provision of care – but it was cheapened by a bizarre fascination with her earrings.
And while the programme shone a light on both the NHS’S successes and less glorious moments, it would have benefited from giving each of its subjects the space that their stories deserved. The strength of their testimonies was weakened by the need to hastily dash through the decades. In the end, the people in this history were not quite given their due.
Since Donald Trump sailed into the White House, the issue of immigration has been at the heart of US politics. The second episode of fly-on-the-wall documentary Inside
the American Embassy (Channel 4) gave a sense of what daily life is like for those who decide who should be allowed into the country following the President’s controversial travel ban, which came into effect late last year.
The programme may have revolved around a lot of paperwork, but what unfolded was an intriguing study in bureaucracy through the eyes of the officials who can dash dreams with a rubber stamp. We were shown that “time at the window”, as it’s known inside the Consulate, is as persistently challenging for those making the decisions as it is nerve-racking for the 175,000 people who queue up outside the embassy for a US visa each year.
For those on the ground, Trump’s ban boiled down to a piece of A4 with guidance of what to do with visa applicants from the seven countries refused entry. A Syrian man was barred from witnessing the arrival of his US nephew, in spite of consulate official Mike’s attempt to let him through on humanitarian grounds. An elderly Iranian woman had to cancel Persian New Year. Anger and bafflement lingered in the air on both sides of the glass, and it was easy to understand the embassy’s resident psychiatrist when he compared working the window to military hazing.
Set against these heart-rending cases, there were lighter turns however. The most charming moment came not from the man granted permission to marry his American girlfriend nor baby Bernie, the six-week-old who slept through his citizenship application, but the visible cringe of Immigration Manager Jacob when Ambassador Woody Johnson asked him a challenging question about the new embassy building that he was unable to answer. Proof, indeed, that even the officials are human.
The NHS: a People’s History Inside the American Embassy: Trump’s UK Border