Season 13 - The Citadel (1983-1984)
The dubious Riley, Ace of Spies holds a special place in my heart. Why would this suspect series with Sam Neill playing "ace" spy Sidney Reilly hold any meaning for me with all the miniseries I have watched over the years? Because it's my most hated. Well, it was. Until now. The Citadel was looking towards just tying Riley, Ace of Spies and then I realized something, at least I got to watch Sidney Reilly die. I had no such luck with Dr. Andrew Manson M.R.C.P. M.D. Out of curiosity is there an acronym for egocentric monomaniac whinger who I really want to punch in the face? Because if not there should be. Or maybe anyone with those traits should just be called Dr. Andrew Manson? OK, so you're probably thinking, I mean, this is a miniseries adapted from the book by A.J. Cronin that helped inspire Britain to found the NHS so it can't be that bad? Oh, you naive child. You have not suffered through ten of the most miserable hours of television ever created so I will forgive you. And explain. Because I don't want to make you go search out this series to understand my ire, I watched The Citadel so you don't have to. Dr. Andrew Manson is fresh out of medical school and moves to a small Welsh mining village to be a medical assistant to a doctor who is incapacitated. He didn't know this when he took to appointment. So he feels very put out and rails against everyone and everything and how unfair his life is that he lies about being engaged in marriage to get another job in a bigger mining town towing along his now wife Christine who has been sucked into his moaning maelstrom. He's even more dissatisfied at his new job, because of course he is, as his good friend pointed out, he's a man who always wants to reach that pinnacle, that citadel of science up on the hill, and anything less than is viewed as beneath him. So Christine works her ass off and helps him get his M.R.C.P. and then he does some research to get his M.D. but the villagers have offended him and off he goes to London. Where his job isn't perfect, so he quits. He buys a practice, but it's shit. He finally becomes successful, but at what cost? It takes him nine episodes to ask that. At. What. Cost. Because here's the thing, he's not a bad doctor, he's helping to improve everyone's life along the way and the truth is a coal mining village in Wales needs him far more than the hypochondriacs of Harley Street. It's oddly kind of the Doc Martin dilemma, he eventually understands his place is Portwenn. The problem with Dr. Andrew Manson is the damage he inflicts to those he supposedly loves. The way he treats Christine is horrible. He yells and rages and he claims to love her yet because of his self-centered behavior she suffers a horrible miscarriage and can't have children. Then he cheats on her. For quite a while. Then, like she always does, she forgives him and then dies. Getting hit by a bus. While buying cheese he didn't need for his sandwich. FFS! And yet, it wasn't all these horrible things that lead to him realizing he was an ass, it was when his shoe cobbler died at the hands of a doctor he thought was his friend but wasn't any better than a back alley abortionist. I just can't with Dr. Andrew Manson. He is just such an infuriating person. He is a horrible person. I mean; "Flames. Flames! Flaaaames…on the side of my face, breathing, breathless, heaving breaths." Just thinking about him enrages me. The only ONLY mild piece of interest in this entire series is that it's obviously the inspiration for Bramwell. As at his first job there's an inept Dr. Bramwell who likes a sing-a-long, and, well, that, as they say, is history. Sadly I have a feeling Dr. Eleanor Bramwell and Dr. Andrew Manson would get along. All egos in it together.
Smoke and Ashes by Alexis Hall 
