Episode #1.1

The first episode of Bramwell stars Jemma Redgrave as Eleanor Bramwell. She striving to be a doctor in male dominated Victorian Britain.

Bramwell has medical training, her father is a doctor. She is progressive but her ideas are mocked.

Bramwell is working in a hospital run by Sir Herbert Hamilton (Robert Hardy.) He tries to calm a hysterical woman by removing her ovaries. She dies at the operating table.

Later Bramwell manages to persuade Hamilton to let her treat a patient with a crush injury to his foot. Hamilton wants to amputate the leg, Bramwell could save it.

It all goes awry when Bramwell has a friend who has syphilis. If she ever gives birth, her child could have serious disabilities. Her husband is Lord Edward Carstairs. A powerful man who wants Hamilton to treat his wife's hysteria. She is angry at Carstairs for giving her syphilis.

In the end, Bramwell gains a financial benefactor allowing her to run a clinic in the slums of London.

The first episode is atmospheric. There are good scenes as Sir Herbert Hamilton talks to an audience while he operates. It then goes rather formulaic thereafter.

The series feels like a precursor to the popular Call the Midwife. It even has Cliff Parisi.