SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Well, I’ve seen it at last! I’ve seen ‘A Very Peculiar Practice’ on Britbox! This is a surreal black-comedy drama series that was shown on BBC TV in 1986 and 1988 with a TV movie in 1992. It stars Peter Davison – well-known for starring in the original ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ and ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

There’s also Barbara Flynn, who I’ve seen in ‘A Family At War’ and ‘The Barchester Chronicles’, and she’s been in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV story called ‘Flux’ with Jodie Whittaker and the Big Finish audio ‘Secrets of Telos’ with Peter Davison. There’s also David Troughton, one of Patrick Troughton’s sons.

And there’s Graham Crowden, who you may recognise for playing Soldeed in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV story ‘The Horns of Nimon’. ‘A Very Peculiar Practice’ has been a very peculiar TV series to check out (Yes, I know what I said 😀 ), but it’s enjoyable all the same in how the comedy-drama is presented. 🙂

The series depicts Peter Davison as Dr. Stephen Daker who works at the health centre of a British university called Lowlands University. As far as I’m concerned, Stephen Daker is the saner and more mild-mannered of the four regulars, as the rest of them have eccentricities that are beggar belief. 😀

Stephen is a young idealistic doctor whilst Barbara Flynn as Rose Marie is a bisexual ultra-feminist who schemes to advance her career. David Troughton as Bob Buzzard is the worst of the lost, as he’s brash and unempathetic. How he decided to become a medical doctor in his career, I haven’t a clue.

Graham Crowden as Scotsman Jock McCannon is a lot better than Rose Marie and Bob Buzzard, but he’s quite elderly and likes his whiskey a lot. 😀 I’m amazed Stephen Daker managed to put up with these doctors, especially when he took charge of the medical centre in Series 2. Yes, that happened!

Apparently, ‘A Very Peculiar Practice’ was written by Andrew Davies, who would go on to adapt works of fiction like ‘Northanger Abbey’ in 2007 and ‘The Three Musketeers’ in 2011. Andrew Davies was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick when he wrote this series.

Whilst I appreciate this series being a commentary on contemporary trends in education in the late 1980s, there are things that put me off it. This includes the sexual references and ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ featured throughout it. Peter Davison has a lot of bed scenes with women in the series. 😀

Speaking of women, Stephen Daker has two love interests in the series. There’s Amanda Hillwood as Lyn Turtle, a post-graduate policewoman. I like Lyn, who became Stephen’s love interest in Series 1. It’s a pity she left at the end of Series 1, though I’m glad she made a return appearance in Series 2. 🙂

There’s also Joanna Kanska as Grete Grotowska, a Polish academic whom Stephen falls in love in Series 2. At first, I wasn’t keen on Grete, especially in the first episode, but gradually I grew to like her and it was interesting to see how Stephen and Grete fell in love and they eventually got married.

The cast also includes Lindy Whiteford as Nurse Maureen Gahagan. There’s John Bird as Ernest Hemmingway, who is an antagonist in Series 1. There’s Michael J. Shannon as Jack Daniels and Colin Stinton as Charlie Dusenberry, who are two Americans that soon became the antagonists in Series 2.

There’s Takashia Kawahara as Chen Sung Yau, who became a roommate of Stephen’s in Series 1, and there’s James Grout (who I’ve seen in the original ‘All Creatures’ TV series) as Professor George Bunn. I must admit, the image of James Grout being naked in Series 2 was totally last on my mind. 😀

The series also features Elaine Turrell and Sonia Hart as the two Nuns. I have no idea what the deal is with the two Nuns. They even appeared in ‘A Very Polish Practice’, which is the 90-minute TV movie at the end of the series. Did Andrew Davies have a thing for Nuns when writing this TV series?

It was nice to see special guest stars like Hugh Grant in the series as well as Timothy West, Jean Heywood, Kathy Burke, Clive Swift, Trevor Cooper, Geraldine Alexander, Geoffrey Beevers, André Maranne, David Bamber, Mark Addy, Robert Lang, Perry Benson, etc. Quite a selection of guest stars. 😀

Just to talk about ‘A Very Polish Practice’ for a bit, it was interesting to see this 1992 TV movie depicting the lives of Peter Davison as Stephen Daker and Joanna Kanska as Grete in their married lives and having a son when living in Poland. I’m not sure if this was set up a new spin-off series. 😐

David Troughton makes a return appearance as Bob Buzzard, but interestingly, Barbara Flynn doesn’t make a return as Rose Marie. This is strange, considering she escaped with the Nuns at the end of Series 2 and was dressed up as a Nun. I’m quite surprised she wasn’t in Poland with the Nuns.

Sadly, Graham Crowden couldn’t return in ‘A Very Polish Practice’, since his character Jock was killed off at the end of Series 2. In terms of the rest of the cast, there’s Alfred Molina (Doc Ock in ‘Spider-Man 2’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (both film versions)) as Tedeuz Melnik, who is Grete’s former lover.

There’s Trevor Peacock, well-known for being in ‘The Vicar of Dibley’, as Reynard Krapowski. I’m glad that ‘A Very Polish Practice’ ended on a happy note, especially when Grete decided to stay in Poland with Stephen whilst Alfred Molina’s character left to board a plane. Bob Buzzard has a run of bad luck though. 😀

‘A Very Peculiar Practice’ (both the TV series and the 1992 TV film) have been interesting and enjoyable to check out. I can’t say this is a series that I would see again and again, but I’m glad I saw it, especially with Peter Davison, Barbara Flynn, David Troughton and Graham Crowden starring in it.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂