Angels

The 1975 British/BBC television series ANGELS is a character-driven story centering on two pairs of student nurses wherein Fiona Fullerton and Erin Geraghty are new to the in-house hospital training program while Clare Clifford and Julie Dawn Cole have been working in the ward for a year... so neither duo are actual nurses quite yet, and each pairing are polar opposites that are individually cast-billed depending on who the episode centers on primarily...

As the pilot mainly introduces Fiona Fullerton and Erin Garaghty as Patricia and Maureen: the first being progressive, spontaneous, confident, experienced, entitled, proudly egotistical and insanely beautiful while the other's an Irish farm-girl so shy she can hardly lift her head from a curtain of stringy hair... allowing former ADVENTURES OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND star Fullerton to help the Catholic-raised Garaghty be more assertive (either at work or at play) while forced to learn (mostly through head instructor Faith Brook) that she herself doesn't know everything...

Then there's iconic WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY spoiled girl Julie Dawn Cole playing against type as an optimistic, hard-working nurse that every patient trusts while stern and uptight, spectacle-wearing manager Clare Clifford seems like a young Nurse Ratched...

One needs to become more professional while the other has to shed her narrowed over-professionalism: each episode banking off various problems either within the strict instruction classrooms or the busy, unpredictable hospital ward (where everyone eventually winds up)...

And, with a rocking opening theme song tougher than any 1970's cop shows, the hospital setting... while meaning everything in medical dramas to come... is merely a backdrop for what's one of the greatest character-studies into young women forced to stick together against the odds, and sometimes despite themselves...

Brilliantly enveloped in a binge series before there was such a thing as ANGELS (also featuring Lesley Dunlop, Debbie Ash and Janina Faye) only borders on the soap operatic template the series would wind up becoming after that classic first season cast (lasting two more seasons) were gone, but never forgotten.

Before 'casualty' there was "Angels". Ironically the title today would be regarded as sexist with an obvious reference to Florence Nightingale. However, soon the series got into the swing of women's lib because as the years progressed male nurses were brought into series just to square things up. Originally the series was a one-hour show per week and focused on six new SRN nurse trainees. The stories mostly centered on the difficulties of adjusting to the nursing profession, relationships with the opposite sex, tensions and character clashes between the various members of the staff as well as the stress of working shifts in the National Health Service. Some of the trainee nurses adapted and got promoted however some did not stay on in the profession.

By comparison to 'Casualty and NBC's 'ER' Angels was neither as gruesome or as fast paced as the more mundane tasks of nursing were focused on. Angels never intended to be as heavy on the political aspects of the national health with cuts and strikes as the later 'Casualty' but it was certainly held greater emphasis especially as the series progressed. As in any series cast members moved on and new ones were brought in and by about 1980 it was cut to a half-hour show but came on about 7.00pm at least two nights per week but it could have been three.

The series finally wound up in 1983 but many of the former cast members from Angels found themselves passing through Albert square when Eastenders started it's run in 1985!