TV-14
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1961:-Suave Otto Powell is chief gynaecological surgeon at a London hospital, with his brash junior Richard Truscott about to marry former nurse Jean. Otto and his anaesthetist Charlie Enderbury are called upon to perform a lucrative but illegal abortion, which shocks new nurse Angela Wilson. Angela holds this over Otto to gain his help with buying time for Maureen Mulligan, a patient being forced into a loveless marriage. At her wedding gown fitting Jean confesses to Otto's wife Elizabeth and Lily, who is married to Charlie, that she is pregnant by Richard, hence the wedding. Charlie meanwhile has an interview for the chair of anaesthesiology but comes up against rival Dr Mehta and feels he has failed when Otto, part of the interviewing panel, has to leave to help Angela. Jean miscarries on the morning of the wedding but asks Otto to keep it quiet and the ceremony goes ahead. Inspector Mulligan visits the hospital and recognizes Otto, with whom he was in the army in Cyprus some nine years earlier.
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Charlie loses out on his promotion to Mehta whilst Richard, returning from honeymoon, is angry that Jean, with Otto's collusion, has kept her miscarriage secret and gone ahead with the wedding. At work he succumbs to the bullying Eric Smallwood, who is cheating on his depressed wife Valerie, by going along with Smallwood's suggestion that he gives Valerie tranquillizers, leading to Valerie threatening Eric's mistress. Jean, having been used to working, is not comfortable in her role as a housewife and yearns to return to nursing, even though married couples are not allowed to work together. To add strain to the new marriage Richard meets up with old flame Margaret. Otto finds himself attracted to Angela and comes to her house but she is not keen to get involved with a married man. Furthermore she is keeping it secret that she is Jean's sister, who has come from Portsmouth to look after their father Monty, whom Jean had told people had died in the war. Inspector Mulligan comes to the Powells' house to blackmail Elizabeth over her husband's actions in Cyprus nine years before.
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Charlie, Otto and Jean go to Soho to perform an abortion on young Megan Grieve but complications arise, requiring an admission to hospital, where Jean encounters Angela - who keeps quiet about her sister's involvement. The police are brought in and, whilst Otto successfully fobs them off, Charlie is anxious that they will be found out and, distracted, blames himself when a patient dies. Richard resumes his affair with Margaret, lying to Jean that he has been working late but she notices the lipstick on his shirt. Jean visits Angela at the house, where she is hiding Maureen Mulligan, confiding in her her fear about her husband's infidelity. Later she confronts him but he is customarily bland in his reply. Mulligan continues to hound Elizabeth Powell, putting pressure on her for sex in return for keeping silent about the death of a young boy in Cyprus for which he holds Otto responsible.
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Charlie faces an enquiry over the death of his patient, Miss Fairfax, and is quizzed by Mehta over his and Otto's recent involvement with the police though the panel exonerates him of professional negligence. Otto travels to Dorset with Angela and eager young student doctor Sam for an over-night hospital visit to an unmarried girl, raped by her father, who is giving up her triplets for adoption. Taking advantage of his absence Elizabeth also sends her son Thomas away on holiday in order to accommodate Mulligan. Whilst she is waiting for him Charlie arrives, confessing to nervousness about the abortions and also party to the events in Cyprus. After he has left Mulligan turns up for sex with Elizabeth though he fails to bring the promised evidence against Otto. Jean gives a dinner party for her in-laws and colleagues but it is a disaster and she runs to Angela for consolation.
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Margaret is admitted to the hospital with cervical cancer and, despite Otto performing a hysterectomy, dies. Otto suspects Richard's involvement with her and Margaret offers Jean words of domestic wisdom before her operation. Jean, confused and upset, visits Monty for reassurance but he is also wandering and attempts to drown himself, being rescued by Otto, who discovers that Angela and Jean are sisters but agrees to say nothing. Angela, seeing the Powells as a happy family on a theatre trip, becomes even more aware that an affair with Otto would be pointless whilst Elizabeth realizes that Mulligan has duped her into having sex and there are no saving documents as promised. He tells her how Otto failed to save his son in Cyprus where he first became smitten by Elizabeth, with whom he is now obsessed. Lily sees her with Mulligan but Elizabeth asks her not to tell their husbands though Lily has her own disappointment when Charlie tells her he has failed an interview for a better job in St. Albans.
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Disappointed over St Alban's Lily tells Charlie that she has met Mulligan and knows he has a hold over the Powells. Charlie explained that, back in Cyprus, Elizabeth was pregnant by fiancé Glen but Otto got drunk one night and caused a road accident, killing Glen though he made it look as if Glen was driving and married Elizabeth for the baby's sake. Mulligan was bribed to keep quiet about it but now confronts Otto at Angela's house where his wife prevents him from marrying off their daughter. After Elizabeth has told him about Mulligan's blackmail she and Otto confront the policeman, who pulls a gun on Otto but is injected by Charlie, who has followed them. Lily, anxious for a child and perturbed that Jean should be on the pill, accompanies her to Margaret' s funeral, where Jean and Richard reconcile whilst Angela's supposedly dead husband returns to her. Elizabeth tells Otto she may be pregnant by Mulligan but hopes that they can put events behind them and carry on with their lives.
Angela Wilson
Jean Truscott
Charlie Enderbury
Otto Powell
Richard Truscott
Elizabeth Powell
Lily Enderbury
Mrs. Johnstone
Sister Neville
Omprakash Mehta