A Very Peculiar Practice [1986]

Amazon.co.uk Review

A satirical, surreal and acutely observed comedy-drama from the mid-1980s, A Very Peculiar Practice stars Peter Davison, who, following turns as a vet in All Creatures Great and Small and the Doctor in Doctor Who, here plays naïve Dr Stephen Daker, a profoundly nervous new addition to Lowlands University's medical practice. The distinctly eclectic team he meets is headed by the compassionate, incompetent, alcoholic and suicidal "Jock" McCannon (the gloriously theatrical Graham Crowden). Barbara Flynn is marvellous as the manipulative bisexual Dr Rose Marie, and David Troughton as Dr Bob Buzzard personifies the "greed-is-good" ethos of the era.

The seven 50-minute episodes here form an overall arc following Daker from sheer terror through romance with behavioural psychologist Lyn Turtle (Amanda Hillwood), to ethical conflict with the sociopathic vice-chancellor (played with relish by John Bird). Increasingly surreal (from strange nuns to stranger dream sequences--the second, even better series was more bizarre still), the series launches an acidic assault on the Thatcherite asset-stripping mentality that was then laying waste not just British universities, but the entire nation.

Written with an acute irony by Andrew Davies, whose move into more mainstream adaptations such as Pride and Prejudice (1995) was contemporary TV drama's greatest loss, A Very Peculiar Practice is a television landmark that, alongside The Singing Detective and Edge of Darkness, marks 1986 as one of the finest years in the history of the medium. --Gary S Dalkin

Customer Reviews:

Why not available in U.S.?.......2007-12-15

We loved this series, catching it when it was first broadcast here in the Washington, DC area. We've been looking for a VHS or DVD version for more than a decade so we can enjoy it again. Why no U.S. release?!?

a pleasant blast from the past.......2007-11-09

I remember watching this popular series with great pleasure in the 1980s. The scripts were sharp, the performances excellent and full of character, there was some satire, and in Peter Davison's Dr. Daker a very sympathetic, gentle hero. Highlights here include the wonderful characterisation by Graham Crowden of the senior partner in the University medical practice which is the centre of the series, eccentric, wise and bizarre by turns, the always excellent David Troughton as Dr. Bob Buzzard and the steely control of Barbara Flynn and Dr. Rose Marie. John Bird is grotesque as the university vice-chancellor. It's dated now, but that is only to be expected; it is also very enjoyable and brings back happy memories.

Wonderful stuff - we need Series 2 as well!.......2007-08-20

One of the best British campus stories. Script, situations and a cast to die for.

I went to university in the sixties, but I easily identified with the atmosphere portrayed here. The university practice is an amazing collision of RD Laing, Thatcherism and radical feminism, with the idealistic new boy trying to make sense of it all.

As another reviewer says, "Come on BBC, release the second series (and A Very Polish Practice) now!" Series 2 contains many gems such as Rose Marie's clinic for ... no, if you've seen it you'll remember, and if you haven't I don't want to ruin your surprise.

A Very Polish Practice is a somewhat disappointing postscript, but still worth watching - they don't make them like this any more.

It was like this.......2007-04-08

Being at University - the ultimate conception of the highest achievements of academia married to 'the therapeutic society' - diseased by the cancer of Thatcherite 'market-nomics,' - in the 80's, was exactly like this. I know. I was there.

Series 2 (the finale) projects the concept to its ultimate, logical, nightmarish fantasy conclusion - 'All educational endeavour must have only a strategic/military objective.'

Things are better now, of course.

And, being satire, it's funny too.

Ask your children.

Please release the second series.......2006-07-28

Have had Season One on DVD for some time now - still wonderful, but this has left me wanting more...

Come on BBC, release the second series (and A Very Polish Practice) now!

UK DVD:

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UK DVD