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Episode one
As we join Michael Mosley for this new three-part series on this origins of the drugs we take for granted, he’s pushing a needle through his hand. It’s not the only moment in tonight’s opener when we offer up a silent prayer of thanks to the men who invented painkillers.
There’s also the painting of the man having his leg amputated, while surrounded by a crowd of curious but dispassionate sawbones. The close-up footage of cataract surgery. And the account of the first testing of ether, on a presumably grateful patient who was about to undergo a lengthy, agonising operation to remove a tumour from his neck.
Mosley is both as game and authoritative as ever: totally convincing on the science, but also understanding the imperatives of TV presentation – tonight’s stunt moment is his submission to truth drug Sodium thiopental. Next week: pus. Should be charming.