A Very Peculiar Practice
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| A Very Peculiar Practice | |
|---|---|
 This is the main title caption that was seen throughout the series. |
|
| Genre | Drama |
| Creator(s) | Andrew Davies |
| Starring | Peter Davison Graham Crowden David Troughton Barbara Flynn John Bird |
| Country of origin | UK |
| No. of episodes | 15 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | 1986 – 1992 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
A Very Peculiar Practice was a BBC comedy-drama series, first shown in 1986. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.
[edit] Storyline
The series stood out because of its surreal humour. It concerned an idealistic young doctor, Stephen Daker (Peter Davison), taking up a post as a member of a university medical centre. The centre is staffed by a group of misfits including the bisexual Rose Marie (Barbara Flynn) and self-absorbed Bob Buzzard (David Troughton), and headed by decrepit Scot Jock McCannon (Graham Crowden). A central theme of the series is the increasing commercialisation of higher education in Britain with the Vice-Chancellor Ernest Hemmingway (John Bird) trying to woo Japanese investors in the face of resistance from the academic old guard. Hugh Grant made one of his first television appearances as an evangelical preacher; Kathy Burke also had a bit part. In the second series Michael Shannon appeared as the new Vice-Chancellor Jack Daniels, continuing the running joke of naming the VC after an American.
In the first series, Daker had a romance with a policewoman, Lyn Turtle (Amanda Hillwood), who rescued him from drowning in the university's swimming pool. In the second series (1988), she was replaced as love interest by a visiting Polish academic Greta Gretowska (Joanna Kanska). In a sequel film, A Very Polish Practice (1992), Daker went to live with her in Poland, where he struggled with the former Communist country's antiquated health service.
The programme was based on the University of East Anglia campus in Norwich, and it was the UEA campus which featured in the programme's title sequence. However, the outdoor filming for the programme was done at the universities of Keele and Birmingham[1]. This was put down to UEA's concern of being associated with a comedy programme, which might have cast the institution in a bad light. The selection of UEA by the producers was not unintentional as it was the base for Malcolm Bradbury whose development of the British campus novel the series is much indebted. The interiors were shot at BBC Pebble Mill (first series) and London (second), in the then common combined film/video format.
The theme tune, We Love You was performed by legendary UK singer, Elkie Brooks.
The first series was released on DVD (Region 2) in the UK in 2004. Davies novelised both series in two books: A Very Peculiar Practice (1986, Coronet) and A Very Peculiar Practice: The New Frontier (1988, Methuen).
