Review of Quacks

When you hear dialogue like this from the lips of arguably England's greatest novelist it's plain you're in the company of writers whose effrontery is at near genius level. Dickens is shown as a man whose huge ego feeds voraciously on praise and totally ignores indifference towards his work,or worse,ignorance of it. There is no discernible plot to "Quacks,it merely being a series of anarchic and somewhat surreal incidents.For instance,Florence Nightingale has a stolen bracelet planted in her medical bag by a jealous surgeon and is forced to agree to an illicit tryst in order to "make it all go away". Doctors refuse to clean their instruments,there is competition to see who can saw off a lower limb the quickest,they self - medicate with all manner of narcotics and one of them,an alienist, seems indistinguishable from his patients. We are a long way in every sense from "Holby City" here. The cast seems to be having nearly as much fun as I did and camp is kept at a respectable level. It's late - night comedy with all of its virtues and none of its vices. I cannot recommend it highly enough.