The Body in Question

I watched this series as a young guy training to be a Physics teacher. Miller's adult style, with wonderful rich language, captivated me. I bought the book and it stood me in great stead as a teacher, particularly when I ended up teaching Biology. I tried for years to buy the VCR of the series but to no avail. Eventually, through the power of the internet, I managed to get a rough copy. Enen though it is grainy and has poor sound, it was a treat to watch them all again. Thank you Mr Miller and all who contributed to making this groundbreaking series.

Perhaps it's his discussion of the mental process of deciding that we're sick that so impressed me, but waking up this morning to find that I had an outrageous cold, after having felt the throaty adumbrations yesterday, reminded me of this extraordinarily excellent series and sent me, not for the first time, to the Internet to see whether it existed anywhere for purchase (DVD, VHS, even in the inconvenient PAL format).

Miller might be misguided in some of his broader world-view perspectives, but in this series, he is brilliant and illuminating concerning his original area of endeavor (the human body, its disease and wellness, and our relationship to this vehicle that we coexist with until we die).

His point about deciding that we're sick is a subtle but important one: regardless of what the body is actually doing, we can be in denial or blindness concerning its happenings, and it's only when we actually make a mental course correction and declare ourselves "ill" that we can begin to move to the halfway point of liaising with the medical knowledge and technology that are available to help us and that can let us heal more quickly and effectively. On the other hand, we also surrender some of our control and autonomy when we become, to whatever extent we do, a "patient." So this morning I said "ah-hah!" and went back to bed after calling in sick.

It has been years since I've seen any of the episodes of Jonathan Miller's "The Body in Question", yet my memory of this series fondly lingers.

It's an examination of our changing knowledge of medicine over the ages. Miller takes us around the world, and explains in clear language just what went on. His sense of humour is sharp and ever-present, and is in the same vein as his "Beyond the Fringe" days.

Particularly interesting is a segment in the first episode, in which Miller walks the streets of London asking questions such as "How big is your heart?" "Where is your spleen?" "How would you die if your pancreas stopped working?".

Miller later (?) released a companion book. I'm waiting anxiously for this series to be released on DVD.

I watched this series first as a teenager, and it was instrumental in my choosing Medicine as a career. - Only to find that Miller had left medicine and moved into Opera Direction! But I remember my fascination with each episodes, my eager waiting for next week's installment, and Miller's wonderfully engaging, brilliant style and depth of knowledge. He leads us through the history of medical knowledge, from the earliest known treatment, through Greek theories of the body's workings, through the Medieval period and onto the explosion of anatomical and physiological investigation in the Renaissance. It's a fascinating story in itself, but Miller illustrates using quotes, architecture, art and archeology. A delight for the mind and heart; the effort of our species to understand our own inner workings is very moving.

A classic in documentaries, and an essential in the History of Medicine - and an essential TV documentaries to watch. On one's bucket list.