Plan B Forum

A couple days ago, I was wandering around in YouTube, trying to find a bit of Downton Abbey. It has been advertised quite a bit lately and I wanted to see if it was worth storming the first few seasons to catch up. I never saw it before.

So after some hunting around, I THOUGHT I had found Episode 1, Season 1, broken down into 5 or 6 ten minute segments. It was a pain in the neck watching it that way, but I did it, and liked it, so I started looking for some way to get DVD's or download the first couple seasons, or whatever.

Now here's the wierd part. The episode that I watched was about a young woman in (I think it was) 1830 England, who had trained as a physician. Her father was a doctor as well, in private practice out of their home. Being a woman, she could not find a position in a real hospital, but as a favor to her father, a surgeon in a mid-city dispensary (or whatever they called it) was allowing her to do a bit of doctoring - which he did with great reluctance. Not surprisingly, she was a "progressive" thinker for the time, was concerned about cleanliness, skeptical about some of the more dubious surgical philosophies, and so on. One of the story lines was that a friend of hers had married a middle-aged executive, and he had given her syphillus (she thought she was pregnant). By the end of that first episode she has lost her position in the clinic, and was embarking on setting up her own clinic to serve the poor in inner-city London.

Now I know that I wasn't watching Downton Abbey, but I'm curious to know what the hell I was watching. It seemed like an interesting series that I would want to continue with.

Anyone know the story I'm describing?

This Dave?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111899/

In 1895, women were not expected to work - or even know about - medicine. Women were expected to work as house-wives, mothers, teachers and nurses. One women was determined to change that. Eleanor Bramwell works under Sir Herbert Hamilton's supervision. She isn't happy. After he stupidly loses a perfectly healthy young mother, Eleanor decides it is time to make her mark in medical history. Mocked by fellow medical students and questioned by her father, Doctor Robert Bramwell, Eleanor is soon given a renovated building - by donation of the kind Lady Cora Peters - and begins her own infirmary - The Thrift. But with all odds against her, will she survive? Will she make her dream come true? Will her colleagues trust her?

That was a good series, Bramwell. And the midwives one too.

That's definitely the one.

Thanks.

With the beautiful Jemma Redgrave, she's a girlcrush of mine.

She's now playing Kate Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who (Daughter of The Brigadier)

I've gone through the first several episodes of Bramwell. I thought it was a mini-series (i.e., going somewhere), so I may not watch all of them, but it is an interesting program, worth a watch.