This episode of Doug's show featuring an all-female cast is a terrific demonstration of that British attitude of "keep a stiff upper lip". Nora Swinburne, a nurse faced with the fact of her own mortality after she gets a fatal diagnosis of her own condition, gives a flawless performance, subtle, controlled and moving.
The story, written by American writer John Larkin, is reminiscent of Ulla Isaksson's screenplay for Ingmar Bergman's "Brink of Life", a movie shot in 1958 -three years later than this TV episode. That film was about three expectant mothers in a Swedish maternity ward, while here we have three ill women in a Canadian hospital. Swinburne is their highly efficient but stoic nurse, attending to the women's needs and foibles.
The ensemble cast is uniformly excellent in portraying quite contrasting personalities, with Swinburne the central character seemingly a hard-edge, steely woman who we gradually see is hiding her true feelings and frailty. The final scenes are immensely heart-warming, a tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit.
I have been an avid believer in the so-called Auteur Theory of the French critics and my colleague Andrew Sarris, that has guided me through filmgoing and even TV watching since the 1960s. This episode shows that theory's limitations, as I've seen dozens of its director John Gilling's movies, which are generally low-budget horror or adventure films, and wasn't prepared for this radically different approach. At least as far as television goes, this is a case of a director demonstrating great skill, but the writer being more significant in terms of the show's content -no surprise!
The story, written by American writer John Larkin, is reminiscent of Ulla Isaksson's screenplay for Ingmar Bergman's "Brink of Life", a movie shot in 1958 -three years later than this TV episode. That film was about three expectant mothers in a Swedish maternity ward, while here we have three ill women in a Canadian hospital. Swinburne is their highly efficient but stoic nurse, attending to the women's needs and foibles.
The ensemble cast is uniformly excellent in portraying quite contrasting personalities, with Swinburne the central character seemingly a hard-edge, steely woman who we gradually see is hiding her true feelings and frailty. The final scenes are immensely heart-warming, a tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit.
I have been an avid believer in the so-called Auteur Theory of the French critics and my colleague Andrew Sarris, that has guided me through filmgoing and even TV watching since the 1960s. This episode shows that theory's limitations, as I've seen dozens of its director John Gilling's movies, which are generally low-budget horror or adventure films, and wasn't prepared for this radically different approach. At least as far as television goes, this is a case of a director demonstrating great skill, but the writer being more significant in terms of the show's content -no surprise!