Ill Behaviour Archives

TV Review: Quacks, Series 1

October 2, 2017 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment

Quacks is a Victorian medical satire set in London, where the future of modern medicine is just beginning to stand on its own two feet. It’s gory, ludicrous and shocking in parts, but it seems that this is perfectly fitting with the plights of medical advancement throughout this period.

Written by James Wood (of Rev notability), the dialogue is smart and droll, with the relatively small cast working together well. The core cast in question is made up of British drama heavyweight Rory Kinnear, Lydia Leonard, and The Wrong Man‘s Mat Baynton and Tom Basden, and the dynamics within this group of colleagues and friends is relatively complex (though perhaps typical of Victorian Britain, where infidelity is common, with women being treated as objects for mens’ pleasure).

Quacks explores the work of various medical revolutionaries, from surgeons to dentists to psychiatrists (or ‘mad doctors’), mocking the Victorian folk psychological view towards health and self care, presenting concepts like tooth-brushing and hand-washing as groundbreaking and a load of unnecessary faff. And anyone with an eye for hygiene, or even those without, will surely have their stomaches turned by surgeon Robert (Kinnear), who conducts live operations in front of his captivated audiences, which are reminiscent of the frenzy and activity one might expect to see in a depiction of an Elizabethan crowd watching a Shakespearean play.

And many famous names are scattered throughout the storylines, as Charles Dickens is portrayed as an egotistical ponce and Florence Nightingale as the ridiculed revolutionary that she was. But, in keeping with the issues raised, prejudices are challenged by our female characters, particularly from Caroline (Leonard), whose wish to extend her passion for anatomy and medicine to a career as a surgeon is met with laughter and discomfort by her male counterparts, particularly her husband Robert.

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.

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TV Review: Ill Behaviour, Series 1

September 19, 2017 by Becca Moody Leave a Comment

Drastic and outlandish, Sam Bain’s Ill Behaviour is a punchy comedic rollercoaster that follows Charlie (Tom Riley), who is recently diagnosed with a non-Hodgkin lymphoma, as his friends Joel (Chris Geere) and Tess (Jessica Regan) kidnap him in an attempt to forcefully administer his chemotherapy, which he had previously been refusing in favour of a more natural, homeopathic approach.

Recently divorced Joel, our main protagonist, wants to control everything; he needs everyone to play by his rules. Because in truth he is reluctant to accept change, and is very much against the thought of his long-term friends moving on in their lives without him. Joel’s character reeks of a need to keep things exactly how they are, so that he can feel stable, and there is something endearingly childish about that, making him likeable, if annoying from the offset. It’s easy to forget that the cast is so small, as the characters are big and loud, filling the space with noise. Sex addict Nadia (Lizzy Caplan) is a particularly complex character, adding an interesting tension within the group by introducing a romantic interest for more than one of the characters.

An upbeat tempo paired with a core dilemma that is obviously rather wretched makes for a series that soon evolves from being a punchy sitcom to being a fairly complicated and bleak drama. This bittersweet storyline soon begins to feel like a film rather than a series, which gives it more emotional impact as the narrative reaches its dramatic conclusion.

And Ill Behaviour raises interesting questions: is this rejection of medicine, whether by our trendy juicing diets or perhaps the human body’s eventual rejection antibiotics, for example, really the plight of the modern age? Luckily for now, the rejection of treatment is only a matter of opinion, and not a physical necessity, so Charlie’s health can still be saved if everything goes to plan. But this is a comedy, after all, so why would it all go to plan?

CATCH UP WITH ILL BEHAVIOUR ON BBC iPLAYER