'Bramwell' Season 2 / Episode 6 / Part 2 of 4 * JEMMA REDGRAVE as Dr. E Bramwell

From the PBS Masterpiece Theatre series first aired far too many years ago. From Season 2, Episode 6, Part 2.

This remains one of my favourite Masterpiece Theatre offerings ever! Jemma Redgrave's Dr. Eleanor Bramwell displays many admirable qualities as she struggles to become a physician/surgeon in the male-dominated world of Victorian England, yet her Bramwell also shows some very human foibles, tool, giving the audience a more interesting, credible and sympathetic character. The re-creation of clinical scenes is also quite accurate (and occasionally not for the squeamish!).

SYNOPSIS :
In the finest tradition of period costume drama, BRAMWELL follows the fortunes of public health heroine Dr. Eleanor Bramwell (JEMMA REDGRAVE) as she takes on the medical establishment in Victorian-era London. Feisty and unconventional, Eleanor fights to take health care out of the dark ages, and the stories depicted in BRAMWELL are based on documented cases from the 1890s.

Season 2.
In the second season of BRAMWELL, Eleanor finds her private practice failing and faces tough choices ahead in her encounters with a case of spousal abuse, pre-teen prostitution, an outbreak of cholera, and a mysterious aunt with a secret to hide. Along the way, she falls in love with her handsome and charismatic new partner at work, Dr. Finn O'Neill (ANDREW CONNOLLY).

CAST :
Eleanor Bramwell . . . Jemma Redgrave
Robert Bramwell . . . David Calder

Written by Lucy Gannon
Directed by David Tucker and Laura Sims
Produced by Tim Whitby and Harriet Davison

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SEASON 2
EPISODE 6
At a street fair, Eleanor and Marsham are hugely entertained by the 'living curiosities' on display. But 'the Biggest Brain on Earth' draws gasps from the audience, faced with the genuine deformity of Rose, a young girl with an extraordinarily large head. In the melee at the tent, the two doctors manage to get Rose away and to the Thrift, where Eleanor believes she can operate to remove the large cyst and transform Rose's life. With the promise of a better life than Rose has ever enjoyed before, Eleanor and her father start the operation, just as Rose's keeper Percy Banks hammers at the Thrift doors desperate to retrieve his star attraction.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Eleanor
• Bramwell
• Jemma
• Redgrave
• David
• Calder
• Lucy
• Gannon
• Victorian
• England
• female
• surgeon
• doctor
• medicine
• Masterpiece
• Theatre
• series
• episode
• television series
• television show

[newbeequilter]

Rose is Mr. Banks meal ticket. If Rose doesn't have the cyst, he can't use her in the freak show. But then if Rose does have the operation, what will she do to put food in her mouth. Eleanor always sees the immediate way she can help, but doesn't always think of the long-term consequences for her patients other than fixing their current illnesses. I may have a love/hate respect for her. :-) and her often-expressed confidence / arrogance for thinking she can save everybody.

[fleendha]

Oh, I get it (I think...) - Eleanor is a freak, just like Rose, a misfit.

[sharonmary]

Thanks so much for posting these, I have been sick in bed and they have given me a lot of distraction and entertainment.