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Introduction: Work it, Girl! Read chapter Read first chapter

2024 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

6. Recuperating Women’s Care Work in 2010s Television Fictions of Nurses and Nursing in the Neoliberal NHS

Author : Hannah Hamad

Published in: Working Women on Screen

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter explores screen media depictions of nurses and care work in series produced and aired in the context of a UK political climate defined by neoliberal imperatives. It interrogates a selection of case study examples of British television fictions of nursing from the 2010s that differently depict nurses’ experiences of managing and negotiating the dilemmas for women of doing care work in a neoliberalised National Health Service. It does so with a view to arguing that the neoliberalism that informed and led to the passing of the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 [HASCA 2012] and its subsequent implementation, beginning in 2013, are key contexts in relation to which these depictions of women in the nursing profession must be understood. The chapter begins with an interrogative contextual analysis of the BBC sitcom Getting On (2009–2013), which lampoons NHS managerialism and bureaucracy, and culminates in a case study analysis of the issues raised by the depiction of nursing and care work in the first series of the BBC drama Trust Me (2017–).

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Footnotes
1
Andrew Marszal, “Call the Midwife Is the Most-Watched BBC One Drama in Ten Years,” The Daily Telegraph, February 20, 2012, https://​www.​telegraph.​co.​uk/​culture/​tvandradio/​9093475/​Call-the-Midwife-is-the-most-watched-BBC-One-drama-in-10-years.​html?​fb.
 
2
Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board [BARB], accessed September 12, 2022. https://​www.​barb.​co.​uk/​.
 
3
Derek Johnston, “Christmas Television,” Journal of Popular Television 6, no. 1 (2018): 81–84.
 
4
Louise Fitzgerald, “Taking a Pregnant Pause: Interrogating the Feminist Potential of Call the Midwife,” in Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Drama Television from The Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey, eds. James Leggott and Julie Taddeo (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 249–63.
 
5
Chikako Takeshita, “Countering Technocracy: “Natural” Birth in The Business of Being Born and Call the Midwife,” Feminist Media Studies 17, no. 3 (2017): 332–46.
 
6
Ros Jennings, “Ageing Across Space and Time: Exploring Concepts of Ageing and Identity in the Female Ensemble Dramas Tenko and Call the Midwife,” Critical Studies in Television 11, no. 2 (2017): 179–95.
 
7
Moya Luckett, “Women’s History, Women’s Work: Popular Television as Feminine Historiography,” in Television for Women: New Directions, eds. Rachel Moseley, Helen Wheatley and Helen Wood (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 15–33. See also Hannah Hamad “‘Take Four Girls’… and Diversify Them: The Evolving Intersectionality of Call the Midwife,” CST Online, January 5, 2018, https://​cstonline.​net/​take-four-girls-and-diversify-them-the-evolving-intersectionalit​y-of-call-the-midwife-by-hannah-hamad/​; Morag Martin, “Nostalgia for Spiritual Community Care: Midwifery as Religious Calling in Call the Midwife,” in The Nurse in Popular Media: Critical Essays, ed. Marcus K. Harmes, Barbara Harmes and Meredith A. Harmes (Jefferson: McFarland, 2021), 155–69; Josette Wolthuis, “New uniforms! Costume and the 1950s/60s in Call the Midwife,” in Substance/Style: Moments in Television, ed. Sarah Cardwell, Jonathan Bignell, and Lucy Fife Donaldson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022), 42–63.
 
8
Vicky Ball, “Forgotten Sisters: The British Female Ensemble Drama,” Screen 54, no. 2 (2013): 244.
 
9
Julia Hallam, Nursing the Image: Media, Culture and Professional Identity (London and New York: Routledge, 2000).
 
10
Hamad, “‘Take Four Girls’…”.
 
11
Hannah Hamad, “Contemporary Medical Television and Crisis in the NHS,” Critical Studies in Television 11, no. 2 (2016): 136–50.
 
12
Oliver Huitson, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” in NHS SOS: How the NHS Was Betrayed—And How We Can Save It, ed. Jacky Davis and Raymond Tallis (London: Oneworld, 2013), 150–73.
 
13
For a comparative take on this historical parallel, see Roger Taylor, God Bless the NHS: The Truth Behind the Current Crisis (London: Faber & Faber, 2013), 324–26.
 
14
Andy Miah, “‘This Is for Everyone’: The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony as a Cultural Celebration,” Culture @ the Olympics: Issues, Trends, Perspectives 14, no. 7 (2012): 44–57.
 
15
Nicholas Timmins, Never Again? The Story of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (London: King’s Fund, 2012).
 
16
Youssef El-Gingihy, How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps (Winchester and Washington: Zero Books, 2015), 1, 5, 7, 8; Jacky Davis, John Lister and David Wrigley, NHS For Sale: Myths, Lies & Deception (London: Merlin Press, 2015), 210–16.
 
17
Jeremy Laurence, “MRSA scandal,” The Independent, December 7, 2004, https://​www.​independent.​co.​uk/​life-style/​health-and-families/​health-news/​mrsa-scandal-23574.​html; David Gazet, “90 Hospital Patients Died from C-diff Superbug in at [sic] Kent Hospitals,” Kent Online, October 8, 2017, https://​www.​kentonline.​co.​uk/​maidstone/​news/​hospital-superbug-killed-90-patients-133296/​.
 
18
Robert Francis, Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry: Executive Summary (London: The Stationery Office, 2013).
 
19
John Lister, “Breaking the Public Trust,” in NHS SOS: How the NHS Was Betrayed and How We Can Save It, ed. Jacky Davis and Raymond Tallis (London: Oneworld, 2013), 17–37. See also Davis et al., NHS For Sale, 21–22.
 
20
Hamad, “Contemporary Medical Television and Crisis in the NHS,” 136–50.
 
21
Ibid., 136–50.
 
22
Erica Wagner, “How Call the Midwife Smuggled Radical Social Issues into Britain’s Living Rooms,” The New Statesman, January 7, 2018, https://​www.​newstatesman.​com/​culture/​tv-radio/​2018/​01/​how-call-midwife-smuggled-radical-social-issues-britains-living-rooms; Ben Dowell, “Call the Midwife Review—Cosy, Yes, but These Midwives Are Quietly Radical,” The Times, April 19, 2021, https://​www.​thetimes.​co.​uk/​article/​call-the-midwife-review-cosy-yes-but-these-midwives-are-quietly-radical-mffwthr29; Roshi Naidoo, “Small Axe and the Big Tree of 2020,” Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture 77 (2021), 9–22.
 
23
Estella Tincknell, “Dowagers, Debs, Nuns and Babies: The Politics of Nostalgia and the Older Woman in the Sunday Night Television Serial,” in Ageing Femininities: Troubling Representations, ed. Josephine Dolan and Estella Tincknell (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012), 53–68; Rosie White, “Miranda, Miranda: Feminism, Femininity and Performance,” in Twenty-First Century Feminism: Forming and Performing Femininity, ed. Claire Nally and Angela Smith (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 119–39; Hamad, “Contemporary Medical Television and Crisis in the NHS”, 136–50; Luckett, “Women’s History, Women’s Work”, 15–33.
 
24
Rather than a traditional sitcom, Getting On is instead a “comedy verité,” so called due to its adherence to stylistic characteristics of documentary, i.e. location shooting (it was filmed at London’s closed Plaistow Hospital) and fluid camerawork. This further anchored its critique of NHS neoliberalism to the present. Brett Mills, “Comedy Verite: Contemporary Sitcom Form,” Screen 45, no. 1 (2004): 63–78.
 
25
Re. sexist typologies of nurses see Hallam, “Angels, Battleaxes and Good-Time Girls: Cinema’s Images of Nurses,” in Signs of Life: Cinema and Medicine, ed. Graeme Harper and Andrew Moor (London: Wallflower, 2005), 105–19.
 
26
El-Gingihy, How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps, 8.
 
27
Beth Johnson, “Getting On: Ageing, Mess, and the NHS,” Critical Studies in Television 11, no. 2 (2016): 190.
 
28
Taylor, God Bless the NHS, 291.
 
29
Adam Kay, This Is Going to Hurt (London: Picador, 2017); Max Pemberton, Trust Me I’m a Junior Doctor (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008).
 
30
See for example Radhika Sanghani, “Trust Me: ‘Fake’ Doctors in the NHS Are More Common Than You Realise,” The Daily Telegraph, August 13, 2017, http://​www.​telegraph.​co.​uk/​women/​life/​trust-fake-doctors-nhs-common-realise/​.
 
31
Jacky Davis and David Wrigley, “The Silence of the Lambs,” in NHS SOS: How the NHS Was Betrayed—And How We Can Save It, ed. Jacky Davis and Raymond Tallis (London: Oneworld, 2013), 88–120.
 
32
Huitson, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” 150–73.
 
33
Taylor, God Bless the NHS, 325.
 
34
Emmanuel Idowu, “Why We Need More Diversity (including more men) in nursing,” University of Bradford, accessed September 12, 2022, https://​www.​bradford.​ac.​uk/​news/​archive/​2022/​why-we-need-more-diversity-including-more-men-in-nursing.​php.
 
35
Nursing and Midwifery Council, “Our Latest Information about Nursing and Midwifery in the UK: April 2021–September 2021,” accessed September 17, 2022, https://​www.​nmc.​org.​uk/​globalassets/​sitedocuments/​data-reports/​september-2021/​nmc-register-september-2021-easyread.​pdf.
 
36
Steve Iliffe, The NHS: A Picture of Health? (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1983), 65; Jane Salvage, The Politics of Nursing (London: Heinemann, 1985), 35, 37–41.
 
37
Salvage, The Politics of Nursing, 18–50; Philip A. Kalisch and Beatrice J. Kalisch, The Changing Image of the Nurse (Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley, 1987), Hallam, Nursing the Image; Hallam, “Angels, Battleaxes and Good-Time Girls,” 105–19; Hamad, “‘Take Four Girls’… And Diversity Them,” https://​cstonline.​net/​take-four-girls-and-diversify-them-the-evolving-intersectionalit​y-of-call-the-midwife-by-hannah-hamad/​; Marcus K. Harmes, Barbara Harmes and Meredith A. Harmes, eds., The Nurse in Popular Media: Critical Essays (Jefferson: McFarland, 2021).
 
Literature
Ball, Vicky. “Forgotten Sisters: The British Female Ensemble Drama.” Screen 54, no. 2 (2013): 244–248.CrossRef
Davis, Jacky, and Raymond Tallis, eds. NHS SOS: How the NHS Was Betrayed—And How We Can Save It. London: Oneworld, 2013.
Davis, Jacky, and David Wrigley. “The Silence of the Lambs.” In NHS SOS: How the NHS was Betrayed—And How We Can Save It, edited by Jacky Davis and Raymond Tallis, 88-120. London: Oneworld, 2013.
Davis, Jacky, John Lister, and David Wrigley. NHS For Sale: Myths, Lies & Deception. London: Merlin Press, 2015.
El-Gingihy, Youssef. How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps. Winchester and Washington: Zero Books, 2015.
Fitzgerald, Louise. “Taking a Pregnant Pause: Interrogating the Feminist Potential of Call the Midwife.” In Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Drama Television from The Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey, edited by James Leggott and Julie Taddeo, 249–263. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Francis, Robert. Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry: Executive Summary. London: The Stationery Office, 2013.
Hallam, Julia. Nursing the Image: Media, Culture and Professional Identity. London and New York: Routledge, 2000.
Hallam, Julia. “Angels, Battleaxes and Good-Time Girls: Cinema’s Images of Nurses.” In Signs of Life: Cinema and Medicine, edited by Graeme Harper and Andrew Moor, 105–119. London: Wallflower, 2005.
Hamad, Hannah. “Contemporary Medical Television and Crisis in the NHS.” Critical Studies in Television 11, no. 2 (2016): 136–150.CrossRef
Harmes, Marcus K., Barbara Harmes, and Meredith A. Harmes, eds. The Nurse in Popular Media: Critical Essays. Jefferson: McFarland, 2021.
Huitson, Oliver. “Hidden in Plain Sight.” In NHS SOS: How the NHS Was Betrayed—And How We Can Save It, edited by Jacky Davis and Raymond Tallis, 150–173. London: Oneworld, 2013.
Iliffe, Steve. The NHS: A Picture of Health? London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1983.
Jennings, Ros. “Ageing Across Space and Time: Exploring Concepts of Ageing and Identity in the Female Ensemble Dramas Tenko and Call the Midwife.” Journal of British Cinema and Television 14, no. 2 (2017): 179–95.CrossRef
Johnson, Beth. “Getting On: Ageing, Mess, and the NHS.” Critical Studies in Television 11, no. 2 (2016): 190–203.CrossRef
Johnston, Derek. “Christmas Television.” Journal of Popular Television 6, no. 1 (2018): 81–84.CrossRef
Kalisch, Philip A., and Beatrice J. Kalisch. The Changing Image of the Nurse. Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley, 1987.
Kay, Adam. This Is Going to Hurt. London: Picador, 2017.
Leys, Colin, and Stewart Player. The Plot Against the NHS. Pontypool: Merlin Press, 2011.
Lister, John. “Breaking the Public Trust.” In NHS SOS: How the NHS Was Betrayed and How We Can Save It, edited by Jacky Davis and Raymond Tallis, 17–37. London: Oneworld, 2013.
Luckett, Moya. “Women’s History, Women’s Work: Popular Television as Feminine Historiography.” In Television for Women: New Directions, edited by Rachel Moseley, Helen Wheatley and Helen Wood, 15–33. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
Martin, Morag. “Nostalgia for Spiritual Community Care: Midwifery as Religious Calling in Call the Midwife.” In The Nurse in Popular Media: Critical Essays, edited by Marcus K. Harmes, Barbara Harmes, and Meredith A. Harmes, 155–69. Jefferson: McFarland, 2021.
Miah, Andy. “‘This Is for Everyone’: The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony as a Cultural Celebration.” Culture @ the Olympics: Issues, Trends, Perspectives 14, no. 7 (2012): 44–57.
Mills, Brett. “Comedy Verite: Contemporary Sitcom Form.” Screen 45, no. 1 (2004): 63–78.CrossRef
Naidoo, Roshi. “Small Axe and the Big Tree of 2020.” Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture 77 (2021), 9–22.
Pemberton, Max. Trust Me I’m a Junior Doctor. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008.
Pollock, Allyson M. NHS plc: The Privatisation of Our Health Care. London and New York: Verso, 2004.
Salvage, Jane. The Politics of Nursing. London: Heinemann, 1985.
Takeshita, Chikako. “Countering Technocracy: “Natural” Birth in The Business of Being Born and Call the Midwife.” Feminist Media Studies 17, no. 3 (2017): 332–46.CrossRef
Taylor, Roger. God Bless the NHS: The Truth Behind the Current Crisis. London: Faber & Faber, 2013.
Timmins, Nicholas. Never Again? The Story of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. London: King’s Fund, 2012.
Tincknell, Estella. “Dowagers, Debs, Nuns and Babies: The Politics of Nostalgia and the Older Woman in the Sunday Night Television Serial.” In Ageing Femininities: Troubling Representations, edited by Josephine Dolan and Estella Tincknell, 53–68. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012.
White, Rosie. “Miranda, Miranda: Feminism, Femininity and Performance.” In Twenty-First Century Feminism: Forming and Performing Femininity, edited by Claire Nally and Angela Smith, 119–39. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Wolthuis, Josette. “New Uniforms! Costume and the 1950s/60s in Call the Midwife.” In Substance/Style: Moments in Television, edited by Sarah Cardwell, Jonathan Bignell and Lucy Fife Donaldson, 42–63. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022.
Metadata
Title
Recuperating Women’s Care Work in 2010s Television Fictions of Nurses and Nursing in the Neoliberal NHS
Author
Hannah Hamad
Copyright Year
2024
Book
Working Women on Screen

Print ISBN: 978-3-031-49575-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-49576-2

Copyright Year: 2024

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49576-2_6