Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ and I’m Tim Bradley!
Last night, I saw the second episode of ‘Harry Hill’s World of TV’, focusing upon the history of medical dramas. These are on medical dramas presented in the UK either on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. These all range from ‘Dr. Finlay’s Casebook’ to ‘Angels’ to ‘Doctors’ and to ‘Casualty’.
If I’m brutally honest, I didn’t quite enjoy this episode of ‘Harry Hill’s World of TV’ as I did with the previous episode. It might be due to the fact that I don’t watch medical dramas so much. Sometimes they can be repetitive when focusing on a situation set in a hospital that often gets a bit depressing.
Don’t get me wrong, I had a few chuckles from watching the episode. This includes comparing quiet subtle moments set in a hospital to incredibly insane lorry crashes in a hospital on the side of a building. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at those moments. They are just so ridiculously insane! 😀
There’s also the funny running gag that gets repeated in certain medical dramas like “Nice of you to join us”. D It’s amazing that Harry Hill can pick up on how many times that line gets used in medical dramas. He must’ve watched plenty of episodes of ‘Casualty’ and ‘Doctors’ in making this episode. 😀
I’m also shocked to discover that the episode title ‘The Ties That Bind’ gets used so many times in ‘Casualty’ and ‘Doctors’. How lazy is that?! Couldn’t they have found better titles than ‘The Ties That Bind’ every time? Were they running out of titles to give their episodes when making the series?! 😀
Didn’t anyone notice the repetition?! Apparently some of ‘The Ties That Bind’ episodes in ‘Casualty’ and ‘Doctors’ are by writers who worked in ‘Doctor Who’ including Stephen Wyatt, Catherine Tregenna and Joy Wilkinson. How ironic. And how more ironic that their episodes have similar titles!
But like I said, often the things that are seen in hospital dramas can be depressing. This includes people about to die in hospital and doctors and nurses trying to revive them. I felt this was a bit too sensitive, especially in today’s climate where hospitals are being used to tend seriously ill patients. 😐
Maybe I’m over thinking this issue and perhaps because these medical dramas are set in fictional environments, it shouldn’t be taken seriously. But sometimes the jokes Harry Hill delivers in his shows aren’t as funny as I thought they would be. Or at least, not in the way that he intended them.
It was fascinating to learn more about the history of the medical dramas like ‘Dr. Finlay’s Casebook’, ‘Angels’, ‘Doctors’ and ‘Casualty’. Some medical dramas didn’t even last beyond one year like ‘Dr. Finlay’s Casebook’ and ‘Angels’. I know Mark Strickson did some episodes of ‘Angels’ at one time. 😀
I’m sure I saw Paul McGann in one of the clips for an episode of ‘Holby City’. And I’ve met him in real-life at conventions. 😀 I’ve seen bits of one ‘Casualty’ episode with a single appearance of Sarah Sutton in it. Sadly, I didn’t see Sarah Sutton appear in the ‘Harry Hill’ episode last night. That’s a pity.
So far, I don’t find the guides Harry Hill gives on how to make your own ‘soap opera’ and ‘medical drama’ in the first half of the episodes to be funny as the second half. Maybe that’ll improve when it comes to future episodes of this series which may interest me. I hope Harry focuses on sci-fi soon. 😀
In conclusion, the medical dramas episode of ‘Harry Hill’s World of TV’ wasn’t as funny as the first episode focusing on soap operas. That may be due to me not knowing much about medical dramas and I may have found the medical drama subject too sensitive. But I’m glad that I saw the episode. 🙂
Stay tuned for my review on the third episode of ‘Harry Hill’s World of TV’ called ‘History Documentaries’, coming soon next week.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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