The District Nurse ( A Matthew Lee Guide) - The Episode Guide Archive

A BBC Wales Drama Production for BBC Television and BBC-1 devised and created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland.

The proliferation of Welsh-based BBC Television in the early 1980s, with notable successes such as the comedy series Hi-De-Hi! And the potent drama serial Morgan’s Boy offering mainstream audiences a taste of country life (in one shape or another), continued unabated with the arrival in January 1984 of The District Nurse, a vehicle heralding the welcome return of popular actress Nerys Hughes, late of The Liver Birds. Devised and created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland (who would famously launch BBC Television’s most successful and enduring soap-serial, EastEnders, barely twelve months later), the programme proved to be the logical successor of the extremely popular BBC Birmingham serial Angels, which this series replaced in the schedules. Smith, who had contributed to the series in a production and direction capacity, came upon the idea for the programme whilst delivering a speech concerning the BBC Birmingham production. Approached by district nurses who queried the lack of a comparable equivalent to their profession on television, she embarked on a detailed research project before deciding upon the setting of South Wales for the series, which would find itself firmly rooted in a period setting in and around the 1920s and 1930s. The essential premise of the series would be the arrival of new district nurse Megan Roberts (Nerys Hughes) in the Welsh mining village of Pencuum in South Wales . Hailing from North Wales herself, she was treated with suspicion and scepticism by the local community, who took a great deal of time to warm to people they considered “strangers” from that part of the world, and she found her daily routine frustrated on a regular basis by their inability to accept her qualifications and abilities.

However, the series stretched its dramatic parameters above and beyond this standard “fish-out-of-water” premise, exploring a wide range of issues such as deep-set prejudicies in a tightly-knit community, the changing face of medicine in that particular period of time, issues directly impacting upon miners and their families, and the practice of medicine to serve the needs of a wide-ranging village and its populace (in much the same vein as A J Cronin’s The Citadel, which slipped quietly into the BBC Television schedules barely twelve months earlier). Such was the well-crafted character of Megan that Hughes was able to inject her natural enthusiasm, innocence and heart-felt care into the role in such a way that audiences and fictional villagers alike were able to empathise with her daily plight and understand some of the heart-rending decisions she would be forced to make over what would become an enormously successful three-season run spanning thirty-six episodes and three years. BBC Wales’ confidence in the success of the venture was never more so reflected than in the fact that a second series was commissioned prior to the first ever reaching the point of transmission, and followed in October the same year so as to sustain potentially high (and eventually solid and sustainable) audience figures. The programme, which provided audiences with undemanding period fare (in much the same ilk as Yorkshire Television’s Heartbeat), struck a chord with audiences seeking a healthy distance from the relentless production-line of detective serials and action-packed series, and additionally secured BBC Television’s first and foremost Welsh success story (in terms of its mainstream realisation on the English equivalent of their Welsh service). In support of Hughes in the cast were Freddie Jones, Nicholas Jones, Rio Fanning, John Ogwen, Margaret John, Bethan Jones, Deborah Manship and Philip Hurdwood. The series was produced by Julia Smith, Brian Spiby and Peter Edwards (with Smith acting as Executive Producer for the third and final season), with directorial turns from the likes of Paul Ciappessoni, Mary Ridge, Graeme Harper, Matthew Robinson (who would emerge as a powerful player in the EastEnders success story) and Frank W Smith. Script contributions from a predominately Welsh-based retinue came from William Ingram, Peter King, Frank Vickery, Juliet Ace, Gwenlyn Parry, Barry Thomas (who performed functions as Script Editor for the second season of the programme), Jane Hollowood and Rob Gittins (amongst others). The series was globally exported, becoming a particularly firm weekend favourite in Australia and New Zealand , but was never commercially realised.

Cast
Nerys Hughes as Megan Roberts
Freddie Jones as Doctor Emlyn Isaacs
Nicholas Jones as Doctor James Isaacs
Rio Fanning as Doctor O’Casey
John Ogwen as David Price
Philip Raymond as Hugh Morris
Gareth Potter as Bryn Morris
Margaret John as Gwen Harries
Bethan Jones as Lily Thomas
Beth Morris as Evelina Williams
Deborah Manship as Nesta Mogg
Ernest Evans as Will Hopkin
Elen Roger Jones as Sarah Hopkin
William Thomas as Gryp
Martyn Whitby as Jack Hudson
Philip Hurdwood as Doctor Charles Barclay

Music for the series was provided by David Mindel.
Script Editors for the series were Tony Holland (Series 1) and Barry Thomas (Series 2).

Series 1 was produced by Julia Smith.
Series 1 was directed by Paul Ciappessoni (Parts 1, 2 and 3), Mary Ridge (Parts 4, 5 and 6), Peter Edwards (Parts 7, 8 and 9) and George P Owen (Parts 10, 11 and 12).

Series 2 was produced by Brian Spiby.
Series 2 was directed by Mary Ridge (Parts 1, 2 and 3), Graeme Harper (Parts 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10) and Bernard Thompson (Parts 6, 7, 11 and 12).

Series 3 was produced by Peter Edwards.
Series 3 was directed by Matthew Robinson (Parts 1, 2 and 5), Gareth Jones (Part 3), Peter Edwards (Parts 4, 6, 9 and 10), Frank W Smith (Parts 7 and 8) and Ron Craddock (Parts 11 and 12).

Nerys The Nurse – The adventures of a district nurse, around the villages of South Wales in the 1920s stars Nerys Hughes. Here she tells Jenny Campbell about the Welsh wizardry that went into the making of the series: Nerys Hughes used the Welsh word hwyl as she talked about her new series The District Nurse. Only a Welsh-speaker – which Nerys is – can pronounce it properly, let alone understand it. “Untranslatable,” she kindly explains to Anglo-Saxons, “but it’s something like a lifting of the spirit, a magic in the air, another dimension … At times we felt it with The District Nurse. It’s a very Welsh feeling”. In plain English, things went well. Not surprisingly, there was some Welsh wizardry in the air, as all the actors were Welsh, save for one Irishman. And, naturally, the crew were all from BBC Wales in Cardiff . Nerys, like the district nurse she plays, was born in North Wales . “Rhyl, to be precise. My family are still there. They’re all farmers and doctors. And I even had an aunt who actually was a district nurse. It was a wonderfully secure background”. However Celtic the cast and its inspiration, our heroine’s adventures are down-to-earth and universal enough to be recognisable in any part of the British Isles . Megan, a district nurse, or Queen’s Nurse as they were known then, takes up a new job in a South Wales village. The time is the mid-1920s, when superstition was being overtaken by science, and women were beginning to enjoy a certain emancipation. But all this has hardly touched the small rural community in which Megan finds herself and there are many obstacles in the way of easy acceptance … the very fact that she is a single woman, uniformed and in authority. Coming from North Wales , she is treated with suspicion in the South. Megan must battle against ignorance and prejudice to win the community’s respect and friendship. But in the process some of the less attractive aspects of Megan’s character are honestly displayed. “She’s bossy, like me,” says Nerys, amused to see herself in the part. She has a disarming line in self deprecating humour. “Megan is strong-willed and determined. There’s a lot of Nerys in her. I absolutely see her point of view … though I know the way she bulldozes people isn’t always best. But this bossiness is born of caring. I understand that. I’m always throwing myself into the life of others. My husband Patrick thinks I diffuse myself too much, but that’s the way I am. Though I’m not all sweetness and light by any means”. The idea for the series came to producer Julia Smith when she was giving a talk about another series, Angels. A group of district nurses buttonholed her and said, “What about us?”. After reading the history of district nursing and doing detailed research, it was decided to set the series in the 1920s when medical and social problems were at their thorniest; The District Nurse, therefore, contains conflict without resorting to overdramatisation. By this time Nerys was definitely a twinkle in the producer’s eye, and when the writers – Welsh, of course – got down to scripts, the Megan-Nerys character had already taken shape. Location work was filmed in a village whose name even Nerys can’t remember. Troedrhiwgwair is half deserted, built on a mountain that was said to be on the move. The few remaining residents acted as hosts to the production unit. The abandoned cottages were used for sets, and the temptation to prettify them was resisted. Nerys was not prettied-up either. “No make-up. And one of the world’s most hideous hats and hairstyles,” she says wryly. “All my best points, like my legs, were well hidden. I’ve never really worried about my looks because I’ve never been a beauty you know. I’ve looked all right when necessary. But there’s still a little bit of vanity left. There I was with none of the usual Nerys things to hide behind. I’d see myself in a mirror and think, crikey!”. There’s objectivity for you. But hat and all, many people would be pleased to have district nurse Nerys pedal purposefully into their lives on her sit-up-and-beg bicycle, wearing a wondrously starched and trimly-waisted apron. “What helped me through,” says Nerys candidly, “was that the men around still made me feel like a sexy woman”. With everything – barring the hat – going for her, how could Nerys have felt anything but enthusiasm for the role? She was, in fact, torn apart in making the decision to play Megan. “The children, you see. Since Ben was born, and he’s nine now, I’ve never been away from home for longer than the odd night. I’ve turned down all sorts of super parts in the past because it would have meant being away. For this series I needed to be in Cardiff for months. And Patrick, who’s a television cameraman, is away a lot too”. Rehearsals were switched from Cardiff to London for her sake, and when filming in South Wales , Nerys got home whenever she could. Ben and five-year-old Mari-Claire visited the unit at half term, and with a rather harsh haircut, Ben appears in a scene. “I loved the work,” says Nerys. “It was very stimulating, dreadfully demanding … I don’t mind that. I am enthusiastic. I throw myself into things. I go over the top, I know. But everyone was wonderful, and I’m very reliant on my pals. My style of acting is what I give and get back from others. I can respond. I’m not a bad actress,” she says, seeking a truthful self-assessment. “No, I’m not. But even when you’re top of the bill, if you get to thinking that it’s you that puts bums on seats, that’s no good. Really it’s togetherness. Being part of a team”. (Radio Times, January 7, 1984 – Article by Jenny Campbell).

With Ian Saynor (Dylan), Martin Whitby (The Mine Manager), Ken Morgan (Teg), Kevin Francis (Billy), Esyllt Roberts (Mrs Sullivan), Darren Bowen (Bobby Sullivan) and Justin Bowen (Charlie Sullivan).

2. By William Ingram. Megan seeks the help of local preacher, Tom Cat, but this entails a fairly heavy session in the public house.

3. By William Ingram. Megan goes to Shamp’s Farm and is surprised to find her skills needed in an unusual way; the results of the water test arrive; and Megan is hauled in to front an angry charity committee.

4. By Peter King. Another rather nasty epidemic comes Megan’s way when she discovers most of the children have headlice.

5. By Peter King. Megan is physically attacked in the street by the mothers of the children with nits. And she has her first major nursing emergency … If she can pull her patient through a pneumonia crisis, then perhaps her standing in the community will improve …

6. By Peter King. Megan has to cope with a complicated pregnancy on a remote farm. She summons Doctor O’Casey but he refuses to come.

7. By Frank Vickery. The villagers close ranks against the angel of the valleys, Megan Roberts, when she tries to determine the real cause of some injuries.

8. By Frank Vickery. Megan receives a deputation from her employers who have received a number of complaints about her work.

9. By Juliet Ace. Megan, stung by the barrage of complaints about her, decides to leave Pencuum for a few days.

10. By Juliet Ace. Megan sets the village tongues wagging by moving in with Gwen and David.

11. By William Ingram. The mine owners are unhappy about Megan living with Gwen and David.

12. By William Ingram. The tragedy of the coach crash stuns the community. A cottage hospital is a necessity and someone offers to finance the project so long as the person who runs the place is of sufficient high moral standing.

Originally Broadcast: October 16th – December 11th, 1984 (Parts 1-9); December 18th, 1984 (Part 10); December 19th, 1984 (Part 11); December 20th, 1984 (Part 12)

Wheeling And Healing – Nerys Hughes dons her starched apron and climbs on her sit-up-and-beg bicycle for the second series of The District Nurse. Eithne Power watched as the cast and crew turned the clock back to 1925: Casablance was cooler than Cardiff that day, and fifteen miles beyond Cardiff, out in the former mining village of Troedrhiwgwair, it was hotter still. Striking miners sunned themselves outside their doors while they watched a 1920s bus full of sweltering actors in tweed suits and long skirts rehearse till their make-up melted in the July sunshine. The director of The District Nurse was delighted with the weather. The scene, after all, was a day in the Indian summer of 1925, when district nurse Megan Roberts (Nerys Hughes) sets off from Pencwm on a journey to Meidrim, beyond Carmarthen , with miner David Price (John Ogwen), his sister Gwen (Margaret John) and the village shopkeeper (Ernest Evans). Leaning against the railings that divide the village from a once busy mine, script editor Barry Thomas gives a laconic explanation of why five grown people have to sit stifling in a green Ford bus, talking about chocolate cake over and over again. “I’d originally put them in a train, but trains are too expensive and we’d have had to drag them miles to a suitable station, so here we are”. The director has a moment of compassion, and the sweating thespians totter out of the bus for a break. They’re all Welsh and they’re all laughing. This is the eleventh episode of the second series, and they know each other now like the backs of their hands. “Can we ask them now, Miss?” asks one of the children drafted in as extras from a school in Pontypool . “Can you take our picture, Miss?”. Miss – Mrs Fevina Thomas, chaperone to today’s four children – springs into action with the Kodak as John Ogwen, former footballer and boxer, poses with a small boy with short back and sides and hobnailed boots. The children bring an eerie atmosphere with them: in their pinafores and lace-up boots and long stockings they could be the children who played in this long, treeless street sixty years ago. “It’s funny,” says Mrs Thomas, “they don’t much need direction. They’re told to play and they just play; they take no notice of the cameras; every child in our school who wanted to has been given a chance to be in this series. We had a little boy the other day who got so nervous I thought he was going to be sick on the way over. He was in a terrible state. But the minute he met Nerys he was all right”. Nerys, the kindly heroine, is surrounded by press photographers: she promises them everything. She looks relaxed and happy; soon the long slog will be over and she’ll be back in Putney with her husband and children, nine-year-old Ben and Mari-Claire, five. Having been persuaded to take the title role in The District Nurse, riding a sturdy sit-up-and-beg bicycle, wearing a starched apron and bringing modern medical care to a conservative village, she still copes with interruptions good-naturedly. The question of another, third, series hangs in the air. John Ogwen grins an evil Welsh grin. “We were told by a man painting a house down there that there was going to be another series … he seemed to have his sources”. Margaret John, widowed herself and playing a widow in the series – “I’m a very careless actress, always losing husbands and children” – says: “Well, if there is, we’ll be the last to be told”. “No, you won’t,” says the script editor morosely. “I will, because I’ll be the first to start working”. There’s a call from the Personal Assistant, a pretty Welsh girl with the makings of a masterful Welsh-woman, and they all canter back to the bus, which now, to everyone’s amazement, begins to edge forward after a few vigorous twirls of the starting handle from the smartly-uniformed driver. “An action-packed morn,” murmurs the script editor, as the bus, having advanced a cautious two-hundred yards, then proceeds to go into stately reverse. A moment later we’re treated to the rare sight of a BBC director riding a push bike; he’s borrowed Nerys’ ancient vehicle to get back to the BBC truck parked out of sight round the corner. Before lunch, Nerys poses for the press. “Do I look all right?” she asks, tugging at her lisle stockings. “Total titillation,” says John Ogwen, licking his lips ghoulishly. Over lunch, sitting on the side of a Welsh mountain that’s supposed to be “on the move”, John Ogwen and Margaret John – they were together in The Archers and recently in Dark Mountain, a radio documentary about two terrible Welsh disasters – talk like old battle-scarred campaigners. They’re both Welsh speakers, and both are familiar with life in Welsh mining villages. They’re also both protective of the characters they play. “You get that way after twenty-three episodes,” says Ogwen, a scriptwriter himself for Welsh television, who often gets to write the odd line for The District Nurse. Both are vehement about what’s genuinely Welsh and what ludicrously isn’t. “Whenever I’m asked to say, `Look you, boyo’,” says Margaret John, “well, I find a way round it”. She smiles reminiscently. “My English,” says Ogwen, “was very brittle till I was seven. When my son was five, he looked at me one day and said, `When did you get your mouth nailed up so you could speak English?’”. The District Nurse is in good hands. (Radio Times, October 13, 1984 – Article by Eithne Power).

2. By William Ingram. “You were seen there, boy. Seen. Hanging about the back of that school not an hour before the whole place went up in flames … Admit it, boy! You started it, didn’t you?”. With Mostyn Evans (Sergeant Gomer), Denys Graham (Mr Pearce) and Emyr Wyn (Gaffer Edwards).

3. By William Ingram. “The fact remains, nurse. You simply haven’t got the qualifications to shoulder the responsibilities”; “And this young locum has the qualifications, of course?”. With Tudor Walters (Mostyn Gwyn), Glyn Owen (Shamps) and Glyn Jones (Dicon Grant).

4. By Gwenlyn Parry. “You? But you’re only a midwife, aren’t you?”; “If I was just that I wouldn’t be here”; “He hates doctors – can’t abide them … but I’ve a feeling he won’t mind you!”. With Meredith Edwards (Tecwyn Davies), Rachel Thomas (Elin Parry), Duane Phillips (Percy Richards), Dilys Price (Lisa Evans) and Islwyn Morris (Ephraim Hughes).

5. By Gwenlyn Parry. “I’ve never experienced anything like … Well! I don’t know! I shall see you tomorrow. Well … I may see you tomorrow. There is a limit to my duties, you know!”. With Meredith Edwards (Tecwyn Davies), Islwyn Morris (Ephraim Hughes), Dilys Price (Lisa Evans), Rachel Thomas (Elin Parry), Ifan Huw Dafydd (The Reverend Geraint Rhys) and Duane Phillips (Percy Richards).

6. By Juliet Ace. “Use your common sense, nurse. He’s no fool. You’ll never get him to come back here”; “Don’t you worry. I’ll get him. Even if it means I have to drag him back from London by his lovely head of hair!”. With Ifan Huw Dafydd (The Reverend Geraint Rhys) and Janet Aethwy (Eira Gwyn Jones).

7. By Juliet Ace. “Just a minute! One thing at a time … How have you persuaded him to come back here?”; “I’m afraid … it’s blackmail!”. With Janet Aethwy (Eira Gwyn Jones), James Greene (Cedric M Kennedy) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (The Reverend Geraint Rhys).

8. By Barry Thomas. “I know what’s grieving you. You thought this house would be the answer. Ready for us to move into. Make it easier for me to say ‘yes’”. With Eluned Jones (Mrs Beynon) and Pip Miller (Ted Beynon).

9. By Barry Thomas. “I’m sorry … we might have all been killed if that roof had fallen in. If it hadn’t been Ted Beynon … he reminded me of someone I once knew”. With Olive Michael (Mrs Probert), Pip Miller (Ted Beynon) and Jill Meers (Mrs Richards).

10. By William Ingram. “Megan. Look! Don’t do anything daft … until we get there. No out on your own! Promise now?”. With James Morgan (Scraggo), Padrig Jones (Billy), Harriet Lewis (Mrs Lias), Peter Johnson (Reg), Illtyd Harri (Dewi), Gwyneth Owen (Miss Griggs), Lorna Davies (Mrs Trehearne) and Geoffrey Morgan (Mr Lewis).

11. By William Ingram. “And no sooner the telegram come than Sergeant Gomer comes pounding on the door … matter’s been reported to the Carmarthen Constabulary and what have we got to say for ourselves?”. With Julie Davies ( Sian Thomas), Eirlys Britton (Ruby Thomas), Harriet Lewis (Mrs Lias), Lorna Davies (Mrs Trehearne), Roger Nott (Dics), Jill Meers (Beth Richards) and David Lloyd Meredith (Obadiah Richards).

12. By William Ingram. “Same offer. Same job. He’s willing to keep it for the end of the month … until I come to some sort of decision”. With Huw Ceredig (Rowlands), Dyfan Roberts (Shwn Rodway), Sue Jones Davies (Mary Rodway), Alan Downer (The Reverend Jarman) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (The Reverend Geraint Rhys).

Originally Broadcast: February 22nd – March 15th, 1987 (Parts 1-4); March 29th – April 12th, 1987 (Parts 5-7); April 26th – May 24th, 1987 (Parts 8-12)

By Michael Robartes. “I’ve left everything behind me … my job, my home, to start a new life in Glanmor”.