An epic BBC radio drama series set in the Welsh valleys, about medical life before the NHS

Based on AJ Cronin’s award-winning 1937 novel of the same name, which partly inspired Nye Bevan to create the NHS, this gripping dramatisation centres on Andrew Manson, a newly trained GP in 1920s Wales.

Young and idealistic, he is full of enthusiasm when he first arrives in the small mining village of Drineffy, where he is to work as assistant to the elderly Dr Page. But he soon encounters corruption, apathy and appalling medical practices, and becomes determined to storm the citadel of the medical establishment and make a difference.

In these six series, he befriends the cynical Dr Denny and helps him to deal with a typhoid epidemic; meets the love of his life, Christine; performs a remarkable doctoring feat in a crisis; takes a new job in a larger town; becomes caught up in the 1926 miners’ strike – and makes a desperate attempt to save the life of someone close to him…

Adapted by well-known scriptwriter Christopher Reason, this compelling drama about a dedicated doctor developing his career and family life against the backdrop of a country undergoing significant change stars Richard Fleeshman (Coronation Street, Call the Midwife) and George Blagden (Versailles, Vikings).


Written by AJ Cronin
Dramatised by Christopher Reason
Produced by Gary Brown and Pauline Harris
Directed by Gary Brown

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 October-3 November 2017 (Series 1) 5-9 March 2018 (Series 2), 9-13 July 2018 (Series 3), 17-21 September 2018 (Series 4), 15-19 April 2019 (Series 5), 7-11 October 2019 (Series 6)