Quacks, BBC Two review ★★★★★

Quacks, on BBC Two, is best described as six grown-up episodes of Horrible Histories. Don't be fooled by the fact that it was written by James Wood; he has dispensed with the biting social commentary and understated humour that defined Rev. Instead, Wood has produced a huge, bloated, gangrenous load of silliness. A surgeon is rather urgently required.

The plot follows a collection of idiotic Victorian doctors as they slice, poison, and misdiagnose the simpering upper-classes of London – all with medieval theatricality and self-congratulatory gumption.



It's amazing that the producers managed to shoe-horn so many of Britain's most prestigious actors into a second-rate TV show like Quacks.

Matthew Baynton, who was (surprise, surprise) one of Horrible Histories original leading lights, appears as a wide-eyed, bumbling and extremely misguided psychiatrist. Rupert Everett plays a sneering, be-cloaked Victorian gent – an identical character to his role in the badly reviewed Hysteria, a truly mad film about doctors who accidentally invent the vibrator. Rory Kinnear plays an arrogant, blood-soaked surgeon, Tom Basden plays a hapless anaesthetist, and Andrew Scott (currently on stage as Hamlet) appears in episode two as a sickeningly self-satisfied Charles Dickens.

Whether you'll enjoy Quacks comes down to a question of comedic taste. If you're looking for stinging British humour, you should forget about this show. But, if you like a good pantomime character, and can imagine enjoying an episode of Blackadder wherein the sharp-witted, clear-eyed Edmund Blackadder disappears and leaves Baldrick and George to bumble about without a punchline, then maybe give Quacks a try. It's just Horrible Histories for grown-ups, after all.