23a. A Very Peculiar Practice

An A to Z of UK Television Drama

In this episode we celebrate the BAFTA-nominated A Very Peculiar Practice and explore 'the swamp of fear and loathing' that is Lowlands University. Starring Peter Davison, Graham Crowden, Barbara Flynn, David Troughton, Amanda Hillwood and Joanna Kanska, this is one of master adapter Andrew Davies's only original drama series and it is widely recognised as a masterpiece. Indeed, in 2010, The Guardian ranked the serial at number 5 in their list of The Top 50 TV Dramas of All Time. The first series, first broadcast in 1986, follows Dr Stephen Daker (Peter Davison) as he joins the unhappy team who staff the Lowlands University medical practice. They include the alcoholic head of the practice Jock McCannon (Graham Crowden), manipulative feminist doctor RoseMarie (Barbara Flynn), and public school-educated idiot Bob Buzzard (David Troughton). Daker quickly realises that his new post will present him with many challenges but also new opportunities, including the chance to fall in love again, with policewoman and behaviourist Lyn Turtle (Amanda Hillwood), and to overcome some of his personal foibles along the way. The schemes of the poisonous self-serving Vice Chancellor, Ernest Hemmingway (John BIrd) also regularly threaten Daker and his colleagues. A second series, which went out in 1988, sees Daker promoted and in charge of a new medical centre but a sinister new Vice Chancellor, Jack Daniels (Michael Shannon) presents him, his colleagues and indeed the entire University with even more serious problems than his predecessor. Thankfully his attention is diverted by a new Art History lecturer, Grete Gratowska (Joanna Kanska) who is terrible in bed and a self-confessed 'rude nasty girl'. The series was wrapped up in a Poland-set feature-length sequel A Very Polish Practice in 1992. The series was ably produced and directed by Ken Riddington and David Tucker respectively, who had previously teamed up on Tenko and Diana. Andy and Martin almost run out of superlatives as they uncover the series themes and concerns, especially as they find that it has so much to say about the world today and is more advanced in its attitudes and conceits than seems possible for a drama from the late Eighties. Next Time: The Woman in Black