Quacks

Quacks - Series 1 review

Upstart Crow-esque in its conceptualisation, Quacks is a humorous look back on the notably blasé approach to health and hygiene within experimental medicine that resulted in the gruesome deaths of thousands, and yet also lead to the advancements in modern medicine that we see today.

Preview - Quacks: The Bishop's Appendix

In the penultimate episode of the historic medical sitcom, we witness love, lust and bareknuckle boxing.

James Wood's comedy set in the days of experimental Victorian medicine continues to delight and engross, even at its most gross. Tonight, Caroline has her first curry, William is doubled up with abdominal pains from a bladder stone that Robert is eager to operate on, and Tom is writing narrative poetry on chloroform. The centrepiece, however, is Robert's recollection of his days stranded on a desert island, which involved turtle riding and pelican tackling.

The Victorian medical sitcom continues, with down-at-heel dentist John's largest creditor coming a-knocking. Elsewhere, Robert's attempts to climb the buttery social ladder founder without patronage from some loftier social strata, but moneyed misanthrope Lady Campbell might just offer a path to social betterment. And a put-upon Caroline aims to outsmart the patriarchal poltroons who pull the strings at the society of apothecaries.

Preview - Quacks: The Madman's Trial

The Victorian medical sitcom continues with a mixture of quackery, crossdressing and insanity.

When Caroline blags an invite to her hero Charles Dickens's dinner party, William also pretends to be a fan and goes along, too. Andrew Scott plays Dickens brilliantly as a doom-filled fop lapping up compliments while knocking back the sauce. Elsewhere, Florence Nightingale wants the surgeons to clean their instruments as she assists in the case of a woman with a haemorrhoid "perhaps the size of a Christmas walnut". Excellent fun.

I wanted to love Quacks, Rory Kinnear and Rupert Everett hamming it up with much snot, grist and ether, prat-slipping all over the ichor-soaked boards of Victorian London. But, if I didn't actually laugh once, does it deserve to be billed as a comedy? Still. It's written by James "Rev" Wood, has a winningly short title, and even Blackadder started pretty poorly.

Quacks: in need of serious surgery - review

I'm not quite sure what's gone wrong with Quacks, but it's in need of some serious surgery.

This rollicking medical farce set in a convincingly pungent Victorian London comes courtesy of James Wood, co-creator of Rev. A talented cast - including Rory Kinnear as a fame-hungry sawbones, Tom Basden as a cocaine-fuelled dentist and Mathew Baynton as a wide-eyed alienist - amp up their performances to match the fevered plotting, while hawkish Rupert Everett swoops in to steal scenes as mercurial royal physician Dr Hendrick.