Synopsis
The shocking story of health before the NHS. In the early 20th century, getting treated if you were ill was a rudimentary, risky and costly business.
- Programme: Timeshift
- Series: 12
- Episode: 01: Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery
- Channel: BBC Four
- Broadcast year: 2012
Licence: ERA Licence required
Free to watch for UK schools, colleges and universities with an ERA Licence
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
Add Notes
More clips from Timeshift
Art School | Timeshift
Art School | Timeshift
A look at the history of Britain's art schools, the engines of the 1960s counter culture which produced a generation of young go-getters who would tak...
Hair in Britain | Timeshift
Hair in Britain | Timeshift
A look back at the iconic hairdos of British men and women and why it was so important to the British public.
Is Marriage Patriarchal? | Timeshift
Is Marriage Patriarchal? | Timeshift
A short clip discussing the evolution and traditions of marriage and whether women still lose their identity through the process of marr...
Perm | Timeshift
Perm | Timeshift
The Afro inspired the Perm which appeared to unite different races and genders.
S07E02: How To Be a Good Prime Minister | Timeshift
S07E02: How To Be a Good Prime Minister | Timeshift
Andrew Marr and a panel of experts assess what it takes to be a successful British premier, based on the performance of t...
S08E02: How to Be a Good President | Timeshift
S08E02: How to Be a Good President | Timeshift
Helped by contributors including Shirley Williams, Douglas Hurd and Simon Hoggart, journalist Jonathan Freedland attempts to d...
S08E08: The North-South Divide | Timeshift
S08E08: The North-South Divide | Timeshift
Journalist John Harris travels around England to find out why the north-south divide is still an economic reality following the de...
S10E04: Nordic Noir: The Story of Scandinavian Crime Fiction | Timeshift
S10E04: Nordic Noir: The Story of Scandinavian Crime Fiction | Timeshift
Documentary which investigates the success of Scandinavian crime fiction, from Stieg Larsson's bests...
S10E08: Crime and Punishment: The Story of Corporal Punishment | Timeshift
S10E08: Crime and Punishment: The Story of Corporal Punishment | Timeshift
Documentary lifting the veil on the taboo that is corporal punishment, revealing a history spannin...
S10E09: Crime and Punishment: The Story of Capital Punishment | Timeshift
S10E09: Crime and Punishment: The Story of Capital Punishment | Timeshift
Documentary tracing the story of the ultimate sanction, examining such matters as the protocols of ...
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
S12E02: Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution | Timeshift
Robert Winston explores the extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian workhouse to modern c...
S14E06: Spicing Up Britain: How Eating Out Went Exotic | Timeshift
S14E06: Spicing Up Britain: How Eating Out Went Exotic | Timeshift
How postwar Britain went from a place where eating out was more of a chore than a pleasure to a nation of ...
S16E04: Booze, Beans and Bhajis: The Story of the Corner Shop | Timeshift
S16E04: Booze, Beans and Bhajis: The Story of the Corner Shop | Timeshift
Babita Sharma explores the growing and shifting fortunes of the British corner shop to discover why...
The Afro | Timeshift
The Afro | Timeshift
Marsha Hunt's appearance in Vogue magazine in 1969, she became a hair icon and put the Afro on the centre stage.
The Beehive | Timeshift
The Beehive | Timeshift
A look at the popular '50s beehive that was initially a response by the youth to step apart from their elders.
The Eton Crop | Timeshift
The Eton Crop | Timeshift
Twiggy famously popularised women in the '60s having ''boyish'' haircuts by getting an Eton Crop.
Vidal Sassoon | Timeshift
Vidal Sassoon | Timeshift
Vidal Sasson was a revolutionary hairdresser known famously for repopularising ''the bob''.
Wedding Rites: In Sickness And In Health | Timeshift
Wedding Rites: In Sickness And In Health | Timeshift
Documentary looking at how and why weddings are on the increase and divorce rates in decline in the UK, and if it's the ...
More resources about History of Medicine
05: Bloody Beginnings | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
05: Bloody Beginnings | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
Michael Mosley looks at how surgery dragged itself kicking and screaming out of the dark ages, transforming itse...
01: Black Death | World's Worst Century
01: Black Death | World's Worst Century
Was the 14th century the worst time in history to be alive? The population of Britain was ravaged by a plague that drove mankind to t...
02: Pus | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
02: Pus | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
Dr Michael Mosley explores our earliest attempts to tackle infection and how scientists, chemists and doctors...
The Great Plague
The Great Plague
The Great Plague of 1665 killed 100,000 Londoners - one in three of the people living in the city. While kept diaries have provided terrifying testaments to...
Black Death | Ken Follett's Journey Into the Dark Ages
Black Death | Ken Follett's Journey Into the Dark Ages
Ken Follett tells the story of the Black Death through the true stories of a monk in Winchester, a doctor in Florence ...
04: Fixing Faces | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
04: Fixing Faces | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
Series about the history of surgery continues with a look at the development of plastic surgery, which started over 4...
01: Into the Brain | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
01: Into the Brain | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
Documentary series looking at the brutal, bloody and dangerous history of surgery begins with the area of the body ...
The NHS: A Difficult Beginning
The NHS: A Difficult Beginning
The story of the birth of the NHS, revealing how close its opponents came to defeating it and why the some of the fiercest opposition came fro...
Medieval treatment and beliefs on the cause of the Black Death | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Medieval treatment and beliefs on the cause of the Black Death | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Simon Schama discusses the Medieval beliefs about what caused the Black...
S01E05: King Death | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
S01E05: King Death | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Simon Schama continues his look at British history with the Black Death, the horror of medieval Britain. Those it d...
The symptoms of Black Death and how it spread | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
The symptoms of Black Death and how it spread | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Simon Schama discusses the black death, explaining it's symptoms and how it spread.
James Simpson discovers chloroform | Medical Mavericks
James Simpson discovers chloroform | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley investigates the discovery of chloroform.
03: Scientists | Icons
03: Scientists | Icons
Chris examines the lives of Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Alan Turing and Tu You You. He explores some of their most famous discoveries - as well as t...
Discovery of penicillin | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Discovery of penicillin | Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine
Fleming initially discovered the antibacterial properties of mould that would lead to the disc...
02: Bad Blood: Stuarts to Hanoverians | Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History
02: Bad Blood: Stuarts to Hanoverians | Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History
Lucy Worsley explores how the health of monarchs has shaped the nation. She looks at t...
John Hunter conducts the first study of disease in a controlled experiment | Medical Mavericks
John Hunter conducts the first study of disease in a controlled experiment | Medical Mavericks
John Hunter conducted the first study of disease in a controlled experiment, w...
02: Bleeding Hearts | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
02: Bleeding Hearts | Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
The series about the history of surgery charts the development of heart surgery. Michael Mosley witnesses a breath...
How the Black Death changed social structure | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
How the Black Death changed social structure | A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Simon Schama explains how the Black Death changed Medieval social structures.
Robert Koch & cholera | Medical Mavericks
Robert Koch & cholera | Medical Mavericks
Dr Michael Mosley discusses Robert Koch's cultivation of cholera bacteria.
S01E04: Madness of King George | Lucy Worsley Investigates
S01E04: Madness of King George | Lucy Worsley Investigates
How did George's mental illness change Britain? Lucy Worsley uncovers Royal papers and explores how the attempt on...