An experiment so moving it caught me unawares
How would Generation Snowflake cope when put to work on NHS wards? This was the premise of The Big Hospital Experiment (BBC Two) and early signs were worrying, as pampered 21-year-old Erik admitted he didn’t know how to make tea or coffee – the fuel on which our health service runs.
“It’s complicated making a cup of tea,” he whinged. “So stressful.” “If you think that’s stressful, what will you do when someone has a cardiac arrest?” asked charge nurse Crystal, somehow resisting an eye-roll. Erik, at least, had the decency to appear suitably chastened. His treacly brown tea, however, still didn’t look terribly appetising.
This four-part series, inspired by a social care programme in Germany, saw 14 young adults aged 18 to 24 placed at Royal Derby Hospital to see if they had what it takes – and whether the potentially risky scheme could be rolled out across the NHS.
After a fortnight’s basic training, the rookies were thrown in at the deep end, looking after patients and assisting overstretched staff. Hapless 19-year-old Will let a full-time nurse overhear him saying the job was surprisingly easy. He soon found his workload had mysteriously doubled.
By the end of his gruelling shift, Will was complaining “My back’s killing me” like an old pro.
Nervous Deborah, 21, had a degree in Global Health & Social Medicine which was all theory, no practice. Sent to the Colorectal Ward, she was so squeamish that she wept when asked to empty a colostomy bag.
Gradually, though, these budding carers blossomed. Deborah successfully changed a bag and danced a jig of joy. She formed a sweet bond with a seriously ill 87-year-old who, with her help, fed himself for the first time in weeks. Even Erik, described by a sceptical Crystal as “too posh to wash”, ended up tenderly brushing patients’ teeth and doing their hair.
The volunteer initiative seemed an idea worth pursuing. Less pressurised than their harried colleagues, the youngsters were able to spend more time on pastoral care and boosting morale. In return, volunteers got rewarding hands-on work experience and a whole new outlook.
Sure, we hardly need yet another hospital documentary series but this one at least had an original set-up. Indeed, it was compassionate, transformative and so affecting, it caught me unawares on several occasions. As enthusiastic law student Charlotte, 20, concluded: “People are quick to judge my generation – presuming we’re all naive liberals who are more interested in our phones
– but that’s untrue. We can make a difference.” And with that, she was off to massage elderly Audrey’s legs while having a nice chin-wag.
The latest run of genealogy stalwart Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One) started on high, thanks to Daniel Radcliffe and Jack and Michael Whitehall. However, it sagged in the middle, with less satisfying films from Paul Merton and Kate Winslet. Would the penultimate episode see the series rally? Only partially, but no fault lay with its subject.
Sharon Osbourne – music mogul, talent show judge, wife of Ozzy and no fan of Jeremy Corbyn (she described the Labour leader this week as “arrogant and ugly, inside and out”) – delved into her maternal family history. Her mother, Hope, was a dancer but didn’t have exactly have willowy limbs. “I definitely got my legs from her,” said Osbourne self-deprecatingly. “Gee, thanks a lot, Hope.”
Osbourne’s grandmother Dolly, meanwhile, performed in a music hall trio with her husband James and younger sister Ira. All very jolly until we learnt that James left and Ira died of tuberculosis aged 18. Single mother Dolly subsequently struggled financially and Osbourne was shocked by the news that her mother and grandmother were arrested in the Twenties for stealing stockings.
Going further back, she was gobsmacked that her great-greatgrandparents had emigrated to the US. Sadly, it was a case of the American Dream gone wrong. Lured by the promise of work in a Massachusetts mill town advertised as paradise, they found the reality altogether harsher. Cue child labour, cramped living conditions, poor sanitation and premature death.
This low-key episode failed to uncover high drama or surprise twists. But instead it settled for sombre stories of suffering and survival, while Osbourne emerged with dignity. Your turn next, Ozzy.
The Big Hospital Experiment ★★★★ Who Do You Think You Are? ★★★