The Human Jungle

I don't recall seeing 'The Human Jungle' when it was originally shown on TV but its return on the excellent 'Talking Pictures' channel has provided much pleasure. In every respect, the production is very good, with credible storylines and characters, and crisp dialogue and photography. I have never found Herbert Lom to fail to deliver, whatever his role, and this is certainly no exception as he fits the part of Dr Roger Corder perfectly and acts it with aplomb. And he is invariably well-supported by the other actors, who are a veritable cornucopia of reliable stalwarts from the period - mostly well-recognised if not always easy to name. Fiction it is, but it is convincing as well as entertaining and it is perhaps a pity that Dr Corder is not in reality available for consultation - not that I am (yet) in need of psychiatric help!

Saw this - accidentally - on the Talking Pictures channel (old films, and TV from yesteryear). I was around in the early 60s, which this show dates from, but I don't remember it.

It seems a solid attempt to show a rather different sort of show, that early TV era had crime shows, and various dramas, but this seems to be an attempt to educate the public about mental health or psychiatric issues, rather ahead of its time?

The issues are put into some sort of drama, and played out, with Lom in the main role and lots of supporting talent.

It's not my subject matter, so I doubt I'll bother any more, but if nothing else it's a good look back at that era.

Oh, reviewer Gibbs says "Also don't talk about diversity - not a black actor in sight." . . .which may be one of the daftest comments on here, some achievement!

Back then, in the early 60s, most of the country had VERY FEW black people, in some country areas, a black face appeared about as often as Halley's Comet.

I am 72 years old now but still remember seeing this superb tv series on tv in the mid 1960s.For a while episodes had been shown on You Tube.com but were taken down presumably as Talking Pictures had bought up the tv series of "The Human Jungle"in their entireity.What a find as I was idly re-tuning my tv to go back to my youth to see these wonderful "Cholomdley- Warner" (to quote a Harry Enfield expression ) films again on this wonderful channel 81 ! tonight at 9pm I saw Johnny Sekka in "The 24 hour man".My favourite episode is "Solo Performance" (1964) starring the late Margaret Lockwood which I hope they will repeat.If so I will have to make a date to record these episodes on my old VCR.

Herbert Lom plays cool-headed, rational, Harley Street psychologist Dr Corder in 26-episodes over two series, made in 1963 and 1964. Each episode typically sees Dr Corder involved in a situation that requires that he leaves his consulting rooms and plays a more active role in helping to solve a crime and/or see that someone who is mentally ill is not punished unnecessarily and receives adequate treatment.

This series is over fifty years old now and the world has changed somewhat, in both public view of mental health issues as well as treatment approaches. Nonetheless the essential features of the series hold up pretty well and watching episodes from this series isn't just a nostalgia-fest, (although it obviously contains that element if you want it to).

On the whole this series is very well made, with an excellent and atmospheric theme tune and good production values. Dr Corder himself is slightly enigmatic and something of a pillar of strength, not having a wife to share his troubles with, and having a teenage daughter to look after; but then again despite seeming a bit of a flibbertigibbet she gets him out of the soup occasionally too. Whether the psychological diagnoses and treatments portrayed are/were accurate I cannot say, but I do note that the producers did employ a mental health professional as a consultant, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

The idea of the working life of a public health professional (typically going above and beyond the call of duty) being a backdrop for a drama series was hardly a new idea, even then, but I do wonder if the producers of 'Quincy' took a leaf out of this show's book when making theirs; numerous elements seem comparable to me. However, unlike Quincy perhaps, this show's mere 26 episodes mean that it is much less likely that watching one will leave you with the sensation of a dead horse being mercilessly flogged.

This series was well-cast, and has numerous small and cameo roles played by actors who went on to greater things, so nearly every episode is worth watching on this basis alone. At the time of writing, 'The Human Jungle' is being broadcast on 'Talking Pictures' UK TV channel at the antisocial hour of 4a.m. . Having caught a few episodes accidentally, my PVR is now set to record them.

Yes, it is something of a period piece, but it is more than just that, too.

I remember watching this series when I was a young boy. And I've always been dismayed that the series never made it to home video on either VHS, Laserdisc, or DVD. Fortunately, someone uploaded the entire two-season, 26-episode series in 480P to YouTube. And using Firefox download helper, I was able to download the entire series - which I'll shortly be converting to DVD format.

I've re-watched most of the episodes and am convinced this series was one of the best dramatic series of its time. That doesn't mean the content is always pleasing. In one episode, after his patient had undergone some drug therapy for an unreasonable fear of sunlight, Dr. Corder reassures his patient by telling him that "electro-shock therapy" will begin shortly. Yup, back in 1963, it was considered a viable treatment in the psychiatric community (now abandoned, thank goodness). But on the side of progressive thinking in a different episode, Dr. Corder didn't even bat an eyelash when a 62 year-old patient admitted that her guilt had come from a Lesbian attraction she experienced when she was younger. He treated her "guilt" as the problem, not her sexual orientation. And in 1963, the psychiatric community still considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder.

The writing was superb. The acting was superb. The settings and the stories were all very believable and, in many cases, riveting. You can't ask for much more than that in a dramatic series. If it's ever digitally remastered and released on DVD, I'll be one of the first people to buy it. Until then, I'll still enjoy the downloaded episodes on DVD - though some of them have a weathered look.

UPDATE!!! The complete series is being released on DVD but, so far, only in the U.K. The release is set for mid-June 2012.