In 1995 ITV launched a series which told the story of a pioneering woman doctor in late Victorian London. I have a vague memory of having watched this when it was first released and recently I decided I would revisit it.

Created by Lucy Gannon, the 27 episodes take us through the challenges and tribulations of Dr Eleanor Bramwell, played by Jemma Redgrave. In episode 1 she is already qualified as a doctor and is working in a London Hospital. It is 1895. She is subjected to the ridicule of male colleagues and is the only woman doctor at the Hospital.

At home she has a well to do middle class family, and the house she lives in with her father is also his surgery. An ex-military man and widower he adores his daughter, as she does him, has funded her studies, and agrees to help financially support her project – a hospital for the poor in the slums of London, called ‘The Thrift’.

Eleanor Bramwell is a strong willed, intelligent woman, and is determined to make ‘The Thrift’ successful. She is ably assisted not only by her father but by Nurse Carr, and Dr Joe Marsham. We had first met him at the large London Hospital as an anaesthetist where Eleanor had worked. Every episode they face some new challenge, gory medical procedures, with some social commentary thrown in as well.

Women who wanted to study medicine and to become practitioners in late 19th century Britain faced a mountain of obstacles. Elizabeth Garret Anderson is known as the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon. Anderson started her medical career as a surgery nurse in 1860 and it took her long years of study, opening up a hospital of her own, before she was able to obtain a medical degree from the Sorbonne in 1870.

In 1890 Queen Margaret College for Women, Glasgow set up a medical school. In 1892, Queen Margaret College became part of the University of Glasgow, and women students were then able to obtain the same degree as men.

Many of the women who graduated with medical degrees were also active in the women’s suffrage movement, including Elizabeth Garret Anderson. The Orkney Women’s Doctors Research Group has been delving into the lives and untold stories of the women who were doctors in the islands. This important project is gathering information and recording details about the women who often made great sacrifices to practice medicine as doctors.

Back to the TV series. There are 4 series which were shown from May 1995 to June 1998. Having established the hospital and the main characters in series 1, series 2 takes us into a cholera epidemic (so another crisis to be dealt with) but also a serious love interest for Eleanor. The object of her passion is Dr Finn O’Neill who also becomes a bit of a villain, playing loose and hard with her affections and going off to America.

Series 3 and this time it’s a measles epidemic, some more social commentary, the importance of vaccination, and Dr Finn O’Neill returns – so more passion. Also having a love affair is her doting father, Dr Robert Bramwell, who marries a wealthy widow who owns a brewery. Finn O’Neill, the cad that he is, has a young American wife, but doesn’t tell Eleanor this until he has again had sex with her. It’s a roller coaster of emotion – and you are left wondering how the patients feel in a hospital so filled with public quarrels led by a doctor who just leaves in the middle of the day to sort out one of her many personal problems.

Series 4 consists of only 2 programmes. Several characters have disappeared with no explanation, including her father, who at the end of series 3 cantered off with his new bride on honeymoon, never to be heard of again. Britain is at war with the Boers and is full of soldiers. Jenny Agutter has appeared as a very able administrator for The Thrift. There’s some excellent story telling around this forgotten piece of history of the jingoism of The Boer War – also known as The Great South African War – in which my own grandfather fought. A precursor of what would happen in 1914.

However, a love interest in the manly form of Major Quarrie has entered the drama of Eleanor’s life. Although she is engaged to Dr Marsham she has sex with the Major whilst fireworks explode in the sky above. The two episodes in Series 4 has Eleanor increasingly emotional, becoming pregnant and finally getting her man in the form of Major Quarrie, who gives up soldiering (despite the fact the country is at war), and a quiet church wedding closes the series.

For me the ending was a great disappointment. Where has the character of Eleanor Bramwell got to from series 1 where we met a determined, pioneering woman doctor? Now we have an emotional car crash of a female, giving it all up to marry her soldier boyfriend. There were elements of this series which were really good, the social history commentary although at times laboured, let us see a side of Victorian Britain not usually highlighted. Supporting actors were excellent, particularly Kevin McMonagle as Dr Joe Marsham, Ruth Sheen as Nurse Carr, and David Calder as Dr Robert Bramwell. A special shout out to the costume design by Evangeline Harrison which is superb.

The early women doctors were pioneers in every sense of the word, and sadly this series did them no favours as it descended into soap opera drama with our lead abandoning The Thrift, settling down to marriage and a baby.

Fiona Grahame