A Very Peculiar Practice
1986
This special collector's set includes the entire first season of the popular and critically acclaimed BBC television series, A VERY PECULIAR PRACTICE. Written by Andrew Davies, the show was a black dramedy about Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS) and its internal dramas and politics. Read more
| Starring | Peter Davison, David Troughton, Barbara Flynn, Graham Cowden |
|---|---|
| Director | David Tucker |
| Genres | Drama |
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Most helpful members' reviews (3)
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8 out of 8 people found this review helpful
You think he's joking?
Anyone who has ever worked in a redbrick university will immediately recognise the world of Andrew Davies' rapier-sharp satire on modern British university culture.
The wilderness of brutal concrete buildings (the exteriors were shot at Keele), the vicious infighting and turf wars among academics who are supposed to be colleagues, the demoralised, ground-down staff trying to do their best with a constantly-rising amount of bureaucracy, interference and massive pressure to publish at all costs.
An all-time classic of TV drama. Davies admits on the commentary that a few characters were based more or less directly on people he had worked with at Warwick, and I can well believe it. The only part of this series which has aged is the wardrobe - the rest is as true today as it was back in the eighties. -
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
A slow start, but mellows
The first episode in particular is slow as it establishes the characters, particularly the naive Dr Stephen Daker as he joins the university medical practice.
A naive character is always hard to play well, and Davison has some difficulty in being different from his character Tristan Farnon in 'All Creatures Great & Small'.
Nevertheless, as the actors and writers gain confidence, and the viewer gets more involved with the characters, the series grows on you, intruigingly combining some good comedy with surrealism (watch out for the nuns). Well worth watching. -
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Some things stand the test of time
Andrew Davies' satirical comedy drama, set in the fictional Lowlands university, stands up well to the passing of a couple of decades. The clothes and technology aren't the only things which date it - the pace and visual style are very much of their time, and as for the background music... - but it's still witty and fun. As entertaining as I remembered, and the nuns are still there, of course. A second chance to see stuff like this is what DVDs were invented for.
Now they just need to release the second series as well. -
Most recent members' reviews (2)
View all -
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Some things stand the test of time
Andrew Davies' satirical comedy drama, set in the fictional Lowlands university, stands up well to the passing of a couple of decades. The clothes and technology aren't the only things which date it - the pace and visual style are very much of their time, and as for the background music... - but it's still witty and fun. As entertaining as I remembered, and the nuns are still there, of course. A second chance to see stuff like this is what DVDs were invented for.
Now they just need to release the second series as well. -
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Classic Comedy that hasn't aged
I first saw this as a youth before I went to university. This comedy captures the essence of the british 'red-brick' university. It's isolated idiosyncacies and bizarreness. The characters are extreem and funny. Jock the alcholic philispher. Buzzard, the Tory computer wizz kid and Rose Marie, the manipulative bi-sexual. This comedy hasn't aged, except for the fashions, which in some ways adds to the comedy.
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8 out of 8 people found this review helpful
You think he's joking?
Anyone who has ever worked in a redbrick university will immediately recognise the world of Andrew Davies' rapier-sharp satire on modern British university culture.
The wilderness of brutal concrete buildings (the exteriors were shot at Keele), the vicious infighting and turf wars among academics who are supposed to be colleagues, the demoralised, ground-down staff trying to do their best with a constantly-rising amount of bureaucracy, interference and massive pressure to publish at all costs.
An all-time classic of TV drama. Davies admits on the commentary that a few characters were based more or less directly on people he had worked with at Warwick, and I can well believe it. The only part of this series which has aged is the wardrobe - the rest is as true today as it was back in the eighties. -
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
A slow start, but mellows
The first episode in particular is slow as it establishes the characters, particularly the naive Dr Stephen Daker as he joins the university medical practice.
A naive character is always hard to play well, and Davison has some difficulty in being different from his character Tristan Farnon in 'All Creatures Great & Small'.
Nevertheless, as the actors and writers gain confidence, and the viewer gets more involved with the characters, the series grows on you, intruigingly combining some good comedy with surrealism (watch out for the nuns). Well worth watching. -
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Some things stand the test of time
Andrew Davies' satirical comedy drama, set in the fictional Lowlands university, stands up well to the passing of a couple of decades. The clothes and technology aren't the only things which date it - the pace and visual style are very much of their time, and as for the background music... - but it's still witty and fun. As entertaining as I remembered, and the nuns are still there, of course. A second chance to see stuff like this is what DVDs were invented for.
Now they just need to release the second series as well. -
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
As good as I remember.
So glad to see this again, just had vague memorys of it. Being a lot older now I prehaps identify more with it and think I enjoyed it more this time round. Also seems like not a lot has changed under Blair, in fact most of the health/education issues seem to be worst now.
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Classic Comedy that hasn't aged
I first saw this as a youth before I went to university. This comedy captures the essence of the british 'red-brick' university. It's isolated idiosyncacies and bizarreness. The characters are extreem and funny. Jock the alcholic philispher. Buzzard, the Tory computer wizz kid and Rose Marie, the manipulative bi-sexual. This comedy hasn't aged, except for the fashions, which in some ways adds to the comedy.
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1 out of 2 people found this review helpful
A very Peculiar Practice
Great of the BBC to issue the series on the University of Lowland.
The series was so up to date when it first was released as the Thatcherite era was making universities pay there way. The series starts off with the naive Dr Daker and the medical team, and ends up being a 'blueprint' the failings of an economic model for higher learning, being a student then & now there are lessons and parallels to be learned!
The series is still a hoot, and brings back happy memories -
A rose tinted view on things.
Funny thing, nostalgia. You remember things one way, when actually they are usually another. I remember AVPP fondly but its nowhere as funny or quaint as i remember it. The music is particularly annoying, the worst of the 80's. AVPP was enjoyable but not as much as hoped.
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Beats me
Beats me what it is I love about this series I just do. There is no one thing I can put my finger on, but this is strange eighties TV at it's best. I can definately say it won't be for everyone, but if you like it a bit off the wall then give it a whirl what you got to lose.
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Lazy
I'm going to be lazy here, but see my review of disc one if you want my opinion.
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A comedy of flawed characters in Lowlands University.
This was a rather sweet TV comedy from the mid 80's (as your'll spot from the glasses and outfits). First time round I thought it was great and still do. Peter Davidson (All Creatures Great and Small, Dr Who) plays a GP in a campus university (Lowlands - or rather Keele for all the outdoor shots).
The dialogue scene are splendid and the charactors larger than life, and often flawed. The drunkard past great as the practice head (reminds me of Simon Callow in some respects - 3 weddings and a funeral), Peter Davidson's shy, bleeding heart GP, a manipulating extreme feminist and the private school brash, patient hating and self serving doctor.
Poorly described perhaps, and no doubt my rating has something to do with liking it so much first time round, but such a splendid show should you have a few spare hours.
Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop
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A Very Peculiar Practice
This special collector's set includes the entire first season of the popular and critically acclaimed BBC television series, A VERY PECULIAR PRACTICE. Written by Andrew Davies, the show was a black dramedy about Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS) and its internal dramas and politics....
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