Essay: Your Life in Their Hands

The BBC was keen to consult the medical profession widely; a week before the first transmission, representatives of the Royal Colleges, medical universities, the Association for the Study of Medical Education, the Medical Committee of the Scientific Film Association, the medical press, and doctors who had advised on the series or were participating in programmes were invited to a conference at Lime Grove studios. [...] the BMJ condemned the series in a leading article headed "Disease education by the BBC", which led to a front-page headline in the Daily Mail stating "Doctors angry at BBC TV hospital scenes".