The Human Jungle

Dated but enjoyable. Watched a few episodes and was unmoved, but stuck with it and was eventually drawn in by the interesting stories and generally great performances. It's a somewhat strange 1960s world, both familiar and alien to see. And I'm ready to to watch another episode and go back into that world.

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 loved this series and would dearly like to see it again. I used to watch it every week without fail and was so disappointed when it finished.

I used to enjoy the twists and turns of each story and the guest actors were well chosen for their respective roles.

This is indeed for me one of the most memorable television series of the sixties.

As an aside Mary Yeomans who played Herbert Lom's secretary was the mother of a school friend of mine but I did not get to know her until after the series had finished which is such a pity.

I first saw this excellent series when I was about ten years old back in the 60's, and even though much of the content went over my young head I found it fascinating. At the time, much of British TV was made up of shows like the Avengers, No Hiding Place, The Scales of justice, Gideon's Way etc, and although they were good they tended to be rather 'samey'. The Human Jungle was different, dealing as it did with the human condition, mental illness and relationships. I cannot agree with some of the comments disparaging the show for not falling into the same mould as those productions. Far from boring, I found Herbert Lom perfect in the role of Roger Corder, and the rest of the regular cast, although a little featureless and paper-thin were perfectly good. The film quality is very nice and in common with most other programmes from this period, every word uttered by the actors is as clear as a bell. Great viewing.

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.