The Royal - ITV
The Royal - Episode 3 - Winners and Loser
This episode three of ITV's televison drama the Royal was a real treat. Some difficult social issues were tackled, as well as providing some great entertainment.
The new locum arrives to stand in for Dr Jill Weatherill (Amy Robbins). She is called Dr Joan Makori (Kananu Kirimi) and originally from Kenya, although she has lived most of her life in London. Most are pleased to see her except Mrs Woodbridge (Penny Capper), who has brought her daughter Janie in to see Dr Weatherill. She objects to her daughter being treated by a coloured doctor and prefers to wait for Dr Goodwin (Paul Fox). Later Mrs Woodbridge accepts Dr Makori when she saves her daughter's life by correctly diagnosing and treating her daughter's condition.
Racism, whether in the form of open abuse, or this quiet suburban style, was prevalent in the sixties. These days Mrs Woodbridge's behaviour would have been totally unacceptable; in the late sixties it was a day to day occurrence.
Another issue of the day was poverty. A single mother with six children is dependent on income from her eldest schoolboy son, Jimmy. He is undernourished and overworked as a milkman's assistant, butcher's boy and paper boy. He collapses twice in one day; the second time in front of a car. Dr Ormerod (Robert Daws) is cutting in his rebuke of the mother when she says she cannot manage without her son's earnings - he tells her she very nearly had to.
Meanwhile Mr Rose (Denis Lill) has a horse, Royal Convenience, running at Elsinby Races. He cannot go, but gives Ken (Michael Starke) and Alun (Andy Wear) his tickets. Mr Carnegie (Robert Cavanah) is also there with Nurse Catherine Deane (Amelia Curtis). Ken takes several bets from colleagues for Mr Rose's horse, but instead he puts the money on a rival horse for which he has had inside information. Ken is metaphorically counting his winnings when the jockey mysteriously falls of, just yards from the finish line.
It turns out that the jockey, Liam O'Brien (Billy Mack) has been starving himself to make the weight and has passed out. He is taken to hospital. The trainer, Mr Chambers (Dennis Blanch) is furious. He thinks Liam threw the race.
When he finds out the truth, Mr Chambers apologises, but the racing career of Liam O'Brien is over. There partial consolation, though when Mr Chambers offers Jimmy, who is in the next hospital bed to Liam, a job as a stable lad when he finishes school in the Summer. Hopefully, this will ease his family's financial problems.
As the story ends as it looks like Dr Goodwin has taken a fancy to the new locum and they walk off arm in arm.
Oh, and you might have noticed the modern roller blind on the door to Janie Woodbridge's room.