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Malpractice sees Dr Lucinda Edwards (Niamh Algar – Censor, Suspect, Deceit) having the shift from hell when the drugs overdose of a young woman, Edith Owusu (Sherelle Armstrong), comes in, but so does gunman, having apparently shot a man who’s now on the floor and bleeding. Lucinda wades in like John Wayne, with him demanding she helps his injured friend, in a scene during which I wasn’t sure as to whether she was having some sort of meltdown.
However, we now have a situation where there’s two patients and only one bed, because the Tories have screwed the NHS over for years. She’s a very put-upon doctor, as are all the staff. While trying to work out who gets the bed, one of them ultimately passes away, so there’s a case she has to deal with, and will be formally investigated, as to whether her treatment of both was adequate, not least because Lucinda left the deceased patient in the hands of junior Dr Ramya Morgan (Priyanka Patel), with some rushed, and complex instructions.
So, did Lucinda dither over the patient, or was it all too much for her with the addition of the other situation?
Either way, you might forget about that a bit later in a separate scene, where Ramya has to insert a needle into a 12-year-old girl’s spine… Yes, this is spinal tap!
There’s a fair bit to get into here, and I had to watch the busy opening section twice in order to figure out exactly what happened, but are the bigwigs setting her up for a fall? Or is there a perfectly, rational explanation for everything that happened?
However, there’s much more that could come to light, if investigator Dr Norma Callahan (Helen Behan – Holding) starts digging… but then that is her job; and as was stated in Die Hard 2, don’t go pissing in the pool when you’re fresh out of chlorine(!)
Add in Oscar (Scott Chambers – Innocent Series 2), an over-enthusiastic junior doctor, plus James Purefoy (Momentum) as senior doctor Dr Leo Harris, and Malpractice is clearly a darker hospital drama than the recent Maternal.
However, at one point, there is a monumentally preposterous and clichéd moment which you can see coming a mile off. Obviously, no spoilers here, but apart from the fact it’s something that has been used in almost every other TV drama I seem to watch, it actually tarnished what could actually have been a sensible drama until that point. When it comes to both the writer and whoever signed this aspect off as “a good idea”, I can’t began to imagine what they have in their head instead of brains.
And now some final thoughts on the series, now it has fully shown on the tellybox:
Episode 1 review posted Sunday April 23rd 22:00
Final thoughts addition included Sunday May 21st 22:05
Malpractice continues next Sunday on ITV at 9pm, but is available to stream in full on ITVX now. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Director: Philip Barantini
Producer: Sophie Reynolds
Writer/Creator: Grace Ofori-Attah
Music: Aaron May, David Ridley
Cast:
Dr Lucinda Edwards: Niamh Algar
Dr Norma Callahan: Helen Behan
Dr George Adjei: Jordan Kouame
Dr Leo Harris: James Purefoy
Dr Ramya Morgan: Priyanka Patel
Dr Rob Thornbury: Douglas Hansell
Dr Mike Willett: Tristan Sturrock
Matron Beth Relph: Hannah Walters
Dr Oscar Beattie: Scott Chambers
Paramedics: Daniel Waterhouse, Charlotte Anthon
Edith Owusu: Sherelle Armstrong
Security Guard: Simon Naylor
Gunman: Shaun Fagan
Yussuf Al-Abdi: Twana Omer
Nurse Alison: Michelle Parker
Surgeon: Duggal Ram
Tom Edwards: Lorne MacFadyen
Abi Edwards: Liberty Miller
Amelia Wyatt: Kate England
Kathy Miller: Adei Bundy
Jane: Katie Bellwood
Carly: Megan Griffiths
Carly’s Mother: Rebecca-Clare Evans
Mr Verity: Darren Kent
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.