A Very Peculiar Practice

Let's face it, almost everyone who writes on IMDb likes to claim such-and-such is the best movie/TV series/mini-series etc. Well this is my pick. I can only assume that not many people have seen this because there are some fairly mediocre programmes getting the nod. This show was a dark black comedy with exquisite scripts and terrific acting. It's the best British show I've seen (Upstairs Downstairs is close and I accept The Singing Detective may be better than I found it). If you get to see reruns of this - make the effort. You'll never regret it or forget it.

Update: the first series is now available on DVD, which is great news. It's truly a programme to treasure. How many others do we buy that we never return to? This is such a literate and witty show that it's worth keeping. The only thing is, Series 2 was probably the best and it's not yet available.

I treated my husband to the DVDs of A Very Peculiar Practice Series 1 for Christmas, and it cheered us up enormously. Instead of watching the usual bilge dished up on British TV, we wallowed in Andrew Davies' witty scripts and the excellent acting of all involved. I can hardly think of a more perfectly cast show - Bob Buzzard is a truly stunning invention, played to perfection by David Troughton. And I doubt if Graham Crowden was ever better. Add to the mix the fragrant Barbara Flynn and you have perfection. The little boy lost look of Peter Davison is affecting, and Amanda Hillwood provides a very decorative foil (even if her accent is hard to pin down - I spent the first episode assuming she was Australian!). We were amazed how well it stood the test of time - my husband is a university lecturer and says things have hardly changed at all, just got worse. To anyone who has never seen this excellent series, give yourself a real treat. You won't regret it.

The early morning light struggles to penetrate the dark, litter-strewn walkways of the University Campus - no trees here, just concrete, tarmac, and murky glass windows that only reflect grime and misery.

Not the most obvious setting for a comedy, but it's fitting that the dark, forbidding structures of Lowlands University match the richly dark humour of A Very Peculiar Practice. We see the Medical Practice, with it's share of social outcasts (dour, drunken Scot Jock McCannon, self-centred, self-obsessed Bob Buzzard, and scheming, feminist man (and woman) trap, Dr Rose Marie). We see the University Chancellor, the inappropriately named Ernest Hemingway. We see the students, scared, drunk, clever, confused, horny - all finding their own way. And into all this, we see cast the misplaced and well-intentioned Dr Steven Daker, who is wonderfully played by Peter Davison. Daker is so out of his depth to start with, but slowly he managed to learn the way of survival, then life, then enjoyment, as he learns from his colleagues, his friends, and the lovely Lyn Turtle.

As has been said before, this is a story about life - as we all have to live it. It's superbly written, excellently played, and delightfully spiced.

Come on, BBC - release Series 2 on DVD!!!

Just saw a repeat of one episode on satellite channel Performance and what a good one it turned out to be, pure luck finding it on at all. All I could remember after all the years were star Peter Davison and of course the two mad nuns, a quirky running joke you looked out for (like a Hitchcock appearances in his films) when these were first broadcast originally. This had Timothy West as a literally manic professor consulting the campus Dr (Davison's character)and raging at him on a drunken rampage round the University while popping pills Dr Daker keeps saying should not be mixed with alcohol. It is a typically bravura performance worth an award I felt and shamefully lost in TV's vaults, what an example of top-notch acting, does anyone agree with me I wonder? A companion piece to his Brass efforts in my opinion. This or both series should be run again on a main channel to be seen by more people for all its plusses already cited here. And to see Troughton and Crowden at their very best which is very very good as is the terrific original writing of the great Andrew Davies. Frank

It is many years now since I saw this series, but I vividly and fondly remember David Troughton's performance as Bob Buzzard. Staggeringly selfish and self centred, he dominated the series. I loved him. One would expect no less from David Troughton, of course. Bob is up there with the other great TV monsters, Alan Partridge and David Brent.

It is bizarre that the series has never been repeated, nor, so far as I know, released on video. Any explanations?