Cardiac Arrest

Gripping, compulsive viewing. This series was the BBC at its best. It sits alongside the likes of Tenko, Edge of Darkness, Brideshead Revisited, This Life as the cream of British drama. Its dark, uncompromising humour never failed to entertain thoroughly. It was so good as it managed to be left field but not esoteric, funny but not soft, sexy but not gratuitously so. It remains Helen Baxendale's best work by a country mile.

This sort of drama has been lost to a seemingly unending tidal wave of reality TV banality. Series producers need to watch this time and again to understand what really works.

It died too soon.

I was a newly qualified junior doctor when this came out. It is totally realistic. The life of the junior doctor, the horrendous hours and the dark humour which was the only way of coping with it all

I was close to an individual working as a Junior NHS doc and they told me this was more like a documentary than a drama. I found it compelling and scary to watch. Its strength was watching individuals be subsumed by a monster of a system designed to care for the sick and how they survived.

Apparently the Royal College of Nurses complained about the portrayal of nurses as less than angelic, this combined with Helen Baxendale leaving meant a short but bitter sweet run.

See "Bodies" for more of the same from the script writer who is/was a hospital doctor.

This television programme is a black comedy about the goings-on in a British public hospital. Anyone who has worked in a public hospital based on the British-style (ie Commonwealth countries) will recognise the satirical barbs in this programme. Each episode made me laugh, and at the same time say to myself, "tsk, tsk - how naughty of them to put that in".

I'm surprised this comedy didn't last longer, or receive greater recognition. It's a bit like fine wine. If it came out on DVD I would instantly add it to my small, select collection.

Outstanding stuff! This is clearly one of the classic dark comedies. Why it's not more highly thought of is a mystery. It could be nostalgia, but I still think it's almost perfect...

There is a lot of great stuff in this. It is perfectly written - harsh but with enough edge to the humour to keep things in balance. I can't fault the casting either; Helen Baxendale hasn't had a better role since and the whole ensemble plays with panache. It sounds simple but so few people get it right - especially in the UK. You can make a darkly hued comic drama work, if you write it properly and cast it well.

Where is it's successor? Come to think of it (especially given it's current relevance) where's the DVD?