Series 2

Season 2 · 1996 · 8 episodes

In the Second Series, The Thrift attempts to survive without Lady Peters' guidance, management and financial assistance. A new character, Dr. Finn O'Neill is introduced when a cholera epidemic occurs in the area and Finn assists in the hospital.

1(201)On their way to an auction to bid for a building neighbouring the Thrift, Robert and Eleanor are caught up in a horrific train crash on the underground near King William Street station. Robert suffers a broken arm, and so is only able to direct Eleanor in amputating the crushed leg of a fellow passenger, in order to extricate him from the wreckage. Upon bringing their patient, Peter Mills, to the Thrift, they are surprised when his two younger brothers arrive on the scene and take up protective positions. It turns out that the Mills brothers are notorious local gangsters, and soon the grateful Peter produces the deed to the building Eleanor had presumed was lost. But there is a price to pay, and when Peter's wound turns septic with gas gangrene, he will not allow anyone but Eleanor perform the further amputation. His brothers are more than a little obstructive, and it quickly becomes apparent that they will not long mourn their elder sibling, should he shuffle off his mortal coil.
2(202)The Thrift has now been in operation for over a year, and Eleanor thinks it may be time to move on. She applies for a part-time position at St. Jude's Hospital, where she runs into the expected opposition, spearheaded by the charismatic Dr. Finbar (""Finn"") O'Neill. Although she is clearly the best-qualified applicant, Dr. O'Neill's opposition appears to be insurmountable, until Robert intervenes by inviting the board chairman, Dr. James, to dinner. O'Neill is furious, and Eleanor discovers why: in the not-too-distant past, her father had engaged Dr. O'Neill in an acrimonious exchange of letters in one of the leading medical journals. Despite this disadvantage, Eleanor eventually manages to earn Dr. O'Neill's respect and, when his Registrar, Dr. Rolls, moves on to a better post, he offers the full-time position to Eleanor. She is flattered and nearly accepts, but when one of her Thrift patients, a 12-year-old prostitute named Lucy, arrives at St, Jude's in desperate need and is nearly t
3(203)Robert is celebrating his impending election as a Fellow the Royal College of Physicians, thanks to his old friend Sir William Fredericks. Sir William's son, Martin, plans to go to medical school and is being given the opportunity of observing Robert's practice and the Thrift. In the midst of the festivities, Robert's long-estranged sister Emily returns from India twenty years after eloping with a married man, an estate manager. Emily had taken with her not only all of her mother's jewels, but also 5000 pounds in cash--which would have been Robert's inheritance. Needless to say, Robert is less than thrilled to see her. Mr. Coxon, Emily's lover (whose wife had refused to divorce him), has died and, since she has no claim on the pension, she is now penniless. Eleanor tries to effect a reconciliation, believing that her aunt is now a reformed character, but Robert is resistant. Meanwhile, Marsham's two-year-old daughter Molly is admitted with a broken leg to the Thrift, where a child has
4(204)When Lord Palfrey, from whom Eleanor hopes a substantial donation, arrives for a guided tour of the Thrift, every patient in sight seems to be practicing projectile vomiting. Eleanor thinks it's food poisoning, but Robert diagnoses cholera. Eleanor is forced to notify Dr. O'Neill (who is the designated Medical Officer), who calls in the public-health inspector. The source of the infection is quickly determined to be an unsanitary condition in the immigrant colony at Jacob's Island, but the ill patients must still be treated.Dr. O'Neill, as it happens, is the leading authority on cholera, and has developed a pioneering though as yet unproven cure (called, somewhat unpromisingly, Compound 108). Eleanor authorises O'Neill to administer his treatment, though Robert is not convinced that it is safe.Two twin children are both doing well when one suddenly dies. Robert discovers she was given 12 grams of O'Neill's cure, which contains an arsenic compound, whereas the other was given only 4 gra
5(205)A Bramwell family friend (a former military colleague of Robert), Guy le Saux, returns to London from Canada with a new wife half his age, whom Guy had ""selected"" from a Canadian orphanage. Guy confides in Robert that certain aspects on the marital front have not as yet taken their natural course, but Robert and Eleanor soon suspect he is beating his wife. Meanwhile, Daniel Bentley's widow has a 10-year-old daughter, Lil, whom Eleanor wants to propose for Guy's programme for relocation to Canada. But when Mrs. Bentley catches her son Sidney thieving, she is all too ready to send him off instead. Unfortunately, the all-scientific Guy finds Sidney substandard, on the basis of skull measurements. Dr. Marsham finds Sidney substandard on quite different grounds, when Sidney nicks his razor (and, in the process, nicks himself, as well). Robert ejects his old friend from the house when he is convinced Guy has been beating his wife, but when Kathleen collapses and Robert must perform surgery o
6(206)It is February 1896, and a Valentine card arrives, addressed to ""Dr. Bramwell"". Robert assumes (wrongly) that it is meant for him, but cannot imagine who might have sent it. Meanwhile, old Nanny Pat arrives for a visit, and immediately takes a dislike to Kate who, after all, has only worked there for three years. Nanny is full of tales about the new job she is moving on to, but doesn't seem in a hurry to leave.Eleanor has secured a substantial donation for the Thrift, and decides to celebrate by taking Dr. Marsham to a fair in a nearby street. In the ""freak show"" there, they see a young woman, named Rose Tully, with an enormously deformed head, being displayed as ""the biggest brain on earth. When Rose is injured in a disturbance caused by dissatisfied customers, she is removed to the Thrift for treatment. Eleanor believes the deformity is a large cyst which could be removed by surgery, according to a recent paper by a Doctor Woolfenden, whom she consults in the matter. Rose is agreeabl
7(207)Charles Sheldon, a supplier of surgical equipment to the Thrift, arrives with an emergency casualty, a flamboyantly dressed young woman who he says ran out in front of his carriage. When Eleanor examines the patient, she is shocked to discover it is in fact a young man, Frederick Hackett. The other patients and staff of the Thrift are none too pleased to have a ""Marjory"" in their midst, but his injuries are too severe for Eleanor not to keep him in overnight.Back at the Bramwell home, Robert has been persuaded by widow Elizabeth Quail to entertain her ""spiritual leader"" Mr. Sullivan, a Sally Army zealot whom Mrs. Quail believes could be of advantage to the Thrift.The next day, Mr Beamish, a Thrift patient with an open wound, pops out of the infirmery for a pint and returns, roaring drunk and carrying a broken bottle, with which he slashes young Frederick Hackett before fleeing. Eleanor struggles to save Hackett, and gives her own blood for a transfusion. When Charles Sheldon pops in to
8(208)It is still late winter, 1896, and the Bramwells have gone to Eastbourne for a short break. Robert returns to London, but Eleanor stays on for a few days on her own. Or so she claims. In fact, she has (to every viewer's astonishment!) arranged to meet Finn O'Neill there, without telling her father. When others see them together, she introduces him as her cousin. Unfortunately, a Mr. Smythe is a patient of her father, and upon returning to London tells Robert about meeting Eleanor's ""charming Irish cousin"". Robert is not amused at his daughter's deception.Back at the Thrift, Robert has discovered the gas plumbing needs repair. Work is well underway when Eleanor returns, but the subsequent rift with her father requires that work be stopped, since Robert is suddenly unwilling to pay for it.Sidney is in a foul mood, and Nurse Carr wonders why, but Sidney won't talk to her about it. Eventually, it turns out that his mother wants him to leave home now he's 16. Nurse Carr reluctantly agrees t

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