FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Cardiac Arrest - Complete Collection [DVD] [1994]

Cardiac Arrest - Complete Collection [DVD] [1994]
enlarge	Actors: Andrew Lancel, Helen Baxendale Studio: Cinema Club Category: DVD List Price: ~~£39.99~~ Buy New: £23.52 as of 28/11/2009 06:40 GMT details You Save: £16.47 (41%) New (17) from £23.52 Seller: great_entertainment Rating: 13 reviews Sales Rank: 10934 Format: PAL Language: English (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Number Of Discs: 5 Running Time: 807 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5014138305956 ASIN: B000MGB0X8 Theatrical Release Date: 1994 Release Date: April 16, 2007 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


Similar Items: Bodies - Series 1 [DVD] [2004] Bedside Stories: Confessions of a Junior Doctor Bodies The House of God (Black Swan) In Stitches: The Highs and Lows of Life as an AandE Doctor


Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 13 1 2 3 Next » Even better than I'd remembered April 19, 2007 Dr. Sarah Pennington (UK) 24 out of 24 found this review helpful I was a medical student when this originally came out, and thought it was great. Now I know it was actually superb. The blackest of black humour, and yet it so catches the flavour. I find myself cast back to those long weekend shifts, where the only time between Friday and Monday that you got to sit down was driving between the two hospital sites you covered, and the only food you had was a dried up sandwich you ate whilst driving. The best written medical drama ever. Pitch black medical satire March 17, 2007 russell clarke (halifax, west yorks) 35 out of 36 found this review helpful Medical drama's generally leave me colder than a naked Jamaican on the polar plateau .... chained to a fridge but "Cardiac Arrest" which ran on B.B.C.1 from 1994-96 was something else altogether and undoubtedly led the way for programmes like "Greys Anatomy " and "House"- shows which aren't fit to lick it's blood spattered boots. br /The programme was written by Dr Ged Mercurio -a junior house doctor at Drumchapel hospital on the outskirts of Glasgow - under the alias John MaCure (geddit?)and was largely based on his experiences working for the NHS. Actually filmed in Glasgow( A mate of mine living in Glasgow at the time worked as an extra on the series) Cardiac Arrest gave a less than positive slant on life within the NHS but received wide spread praise from within the medical world , well the junior ranks anyway, for it's swingeing accuracy. br /This is a world of deeply cynical , often incompetent carers with a pitch black humour and caustic sensibilities that belies the propagated media view of doctors as serious conscience ridden professionals . While it would never do to claim that all doctors are as contemptuous as the ones in Cardiac Arrest you just know that people like this do exist and probably more often than you would comfortably think. br /The cast are superb with Helen Baxendale in her breakthrough role as Dr Claire Maitland a vibrant, sexy and deeply misanthropic individual with a tongue as sharp as a diamond tipped scalpel and a carnal appetite that would make Paris Hilton blush. Andrew Lancel is Dr Andrew Collin, the rookie on the ward and the one who's idealistic view of medicine is gradually eroded by what he encounters- both patients and colleagues. My favourite is the cocky yet out of his depth Dr Rajesh Rajah played with charismatic glee by Ashen Batti who provides most of the series real slapstick moments. Dr Sarah Hudson (Selina Cadell) provides the bedside manner of a snake hypnotising a tree frog. Peter O'Brien better known for a role in "Neighbours "plays a typically (in my experience of Australians though not necessarily doctors) confident brash Australian doctor. br /People as duplicitous, negligent and downright lazy exist in all professions yet somehow, certainly up until this series we didn't think they existed within the NHS. Considering the enormous stress and pressure these people work under it's actually a miracle there aren't more like them. Cardiac Arrest should have been required viewing for those who profess to run the NHS but all that it did over it's three seasons is provide top notch relevant , highly entertaining drama and satire which when you think about it is what it was all about. If only there was a drama on contemporary TV half as enjoyable and bitingly wicked as every one of the 27 episodes featured here. br / "Casualty"? "Holby City"? Even "ER"? Not fit to mention in the same breath! June 4, 2007 R. Hook (Wiltshire) 25 out of 26 found this review helpful I was a final year Medical Student when the first series was shown, and a junior doctor for series 2 and 3. Only the same writer's "Bodies" has come close to really catching the world of the newly qualified and junior medics in the NHS. At the time there was an outcry over the portrayal of disillusioned, cynical doctors and especially the bitching and moaning of the nurses (who had never been shown on TV as anything other than "angels"), and I'm sure I remember the Health Secretary being questioned about it with politicians and journalists queueing up to denounce it. This usually means (and it certainly did here) that the satire is painfully accurate. The problem was that the institutionalized stupidity, sleep-deprivation, and continual confrontation with mortality and suffering which forged our camaraderie as junior docs can't easily be compressed into half an hour - it can appear too far-fetched to be credible for anyone who has not been there. Any one of the events shown, especially the infamous filling-a-catheter-balloon-with-tea incident, would have entered the junior medical folk-lore from which Jed Mercurio must have gathered them, but they would have occurred as moments of humour in long stretches of grinding fatigue and boredom that would not make great telly, not within 30 minutes! Watching this series again, I cannot quite believe it got made, but I'm glad it did, because I cannot think how else I could explain to anyone who has not experienced what we went through. It's the details that count, all the little bits of idiotic beaurocracy and pettiness which you spent so much time banging your head against that are so faithfully reproduced. They wouldn't mean much to a non-medic, but they give the programme such authenticity, though quite often they are almost in passing. It all came rushing vividly back! Swinging between high drama and farce with unexpected emotional sucker-punches, Cardiac Arrest distilled the whole hideous nightmare we loved and hated into the hard-hitting essence of the junior medic's experience, and as such it should be required viewing for all medical students. If you haven't been there you'll probably not believe it, but this is the closest anyone has ever come to catching the reality. Sooooooo good! February 9, 2008 Martyn Cowlin (Essex, UK) 4 out of 4 found this review helpful I hadn't seen Cardiac Arrest since it was shown on TV in the mid-Nineties and was delighted to find it available as a box set. Having watched it again now, nearly 14 years on, I have to say that it is every bit as good as I remember, if not better. My wife, who missed the series when it was shown and has experience of working as a nurse in the NHS in the 1980's, was very impressed with the level of authenticity and has been able to relate much of the on-screen happenings to her own experience. The writing is excellent, as are the perfomances of the actors in the central roles. Fancied Helen Baxendale (or was it Dr Claire Maitland?!) rotten when the series were first shown and realise now that I still do! Brilliant...... April 12, 2008 Scot Doc (Scotland) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful Still packs a huge kick as the most accurate, gut -wrenching, black medical drama ever. Should be compulsory watching for everyone in the NHS ( including managers and medical students) and the politicians meddling with the health service. Very sharp script and great cast. Showing reviews 1-5 of 13 1 2 3 Next »

CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.à.r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.