Summary

One in this ongoing series of dramas presented under the title of "Masterpiece Theatre," hosted by Alistair Cooke. This is first of ten episodes in this television adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel set in Great Britain during the 1920s. In this episode, idealistic young doctor Andrew Manson is overwhelmed upon arriving at his assignment in a Welsh mining village, where he encounters gross ignorance, incompetence, and corruption. Manson's troubles begin when he discovers that Dr. Page, the experienced physician he has been retained to assist, is bedridden and totally incapacitated -- the victim of a massive stroke. Page's forbidding sister Blodwen expects the young man to handle the practice single-handedly. Manson's first case concerns an outbreak of typhus that has managed to flourish, despite its early detection, due to bureaucratic corruption. Manson befriends the sardonic, hard-drinking Dr. Denny, and assists him in the destruction of the village's sewers in an effort to force the entrenched policy-makers to act on the typhus crisis. Manson also encounters Christine Barlow, an intelligent, sensitive young schoolteacher, whom he succeeds in alienating with his harsh manner and rigidly moral attitude.

This program contains a segment titled "Masterpiece Foot Notes: Black Bottom," a dance routine featuring Gary and Lori Pierce. The Pierces pay tribute to the thirties glamour of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, dancing in an elegant ballroom while arrayed in formal dress.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1997.