Hospital patients find themselves abandoned in corridors as they wait for surgery time in Channel 4’s upcoming docuseries 999: The Critical List. The Channel 4 series begins tonight, taking viewers behind-the-scenes at Royal Blackburn Hospital as doctors try to juggle various patients with increasingly urgent needs.
If that stressful yet important watch isn’t for you, Food Unwrapped’s Great British Grub airs earlier on Channel 4 – and this time they’re tackling one of the most important questions in British culture: how to make the perfect cup of tea. Meanwhile, Jill Halfpenny drama The Feud continues on Channel 5 as her character becomes obsessed with taking down her nemesis neighbour.
Here’s a full list of today’s top TV as recommended by Emma Bullimore – who is filling in for Sara Baalla this week.
When you’re lying in a hospital bed ahead of surgery, the wait can feel never-ending. But what you don’t see is the all-important ‘emergency list’ – a constantly changing priority order of unplanned, critical operations. Tonight, we witness the list in action at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, as theatre co-ordinator Nikki must decide who is seen first.
Filmed over a 72-hour period in January last year, we meet 65-year old Kevin, who was admitted to A&E with awful abdominal pains. Kevin, who finds himself abandoned in the corridor with no space available on the wards, reveals he’s scared of hospitals and just wants to get home. The doctors suspect he has a perforated colon, but he’ll have to wait until he reaches the very top of the list to get it sorted, as there’s one theatre allocated to emergency surgery.
Six-year old Freddie is suffering with a dental abscess, and while his condition might not seem as serious, he leaps up the list because of his age, and the fear the infection could spread. Meanwhile, drug user Tanzeen is waiting for a procedure to remove needles from his neck. The staff are used to triaging patients every day, but they explain that the pressure on the NHS is forcing them to make impossible decisions. They worry that the sickest patients will deteriorate as somebody else goes ahead of them, and they just can’t get through the list quickly enough. It’s the kind of work stress most of us can’t even imagine.
Our foodie presenting team is celebrating the best of British cuisine and answering one of the most controversial questions in our country’s history – how do you make the perfect cup of tea? You might think you know the answer to that one already, but what about the secret to a stellar Yorkshire pudding? Before that, former Great British Bake Off winner John Whaite grabs a hair net and takes us to a factory in the West Midlands to learn how suppliers prepare the perfect battered cod for our freezer drawers.
Fascinatingly, different parts of the country have opposing views on how they like their Friday night fish supper to be served, so the batter is made crispier depending on where it is being sold. John also does some digging to discover why beer-battered fish has become so popular in recent years, and takes part in all-important taste tests to decide which cod comes out on top.
We’re only halfway through this gripping series, and already it feels like you could cut the tension with a knife. A dispute over plans for a kitchen extension has escalated rapidly, and now Emma (Jill Halfpenny) is less bothered about choosing new tiles, and more concerned about threatening notes and dead magpies at her door.
Fixated on bringing down her nemesis neighbour, she starts installing CCTV at the front of the house. “We’ve become the people we hate,” complains her husband John (Rupert Penry Jones), which is rich considering he is getting frisky with the woman next door. As her marriage disintegrates, Emma can’t find any respite at work either, as her colleague Ian is on a mission to prove she lied in court. Meanwhile, her daughter Beth is walking into a trap, as she excitedly attends Andi’s new exhibition, only to be horrified by the photos on display…
After George blows Todd’s cover, Danielle is convinced that Sarah is having an affair with Theo. Meanwhile, Todd starts to worry that Theo will never tell his family he is gay.
Mick threatens Sean and warns him not to make trouble for Brody. Jenny advises Gemma to stay away from Mick and Lou.
Brian tells Roy he’s still in love with Julie. Dee Dee feels positive after a visit from Wes and Zoe, and decides to return to work.
Nigel is keen to cut loose from Phil, so he agrees to dress up as the Easter bunny for the Albert Square egg hunt. But he soon ends up in a spat with Harvey when he confuses Hope for Clare. Phil reveals the truth about Nigel’s dementia diagnosis, and later learns that Nigel is considering suicide if his condition worsens.
Teddy is forced to tell Nicola about his project with Junior. She begs him to pull out.
Priya worries about Avani.
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