Poster for Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

BBC Four 2008 1 season 5 eps Ended

Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

2008 1 season 5 eps

7.8

Season 1

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Season 1

60 min

S1 · E1 · Aug 20, 2008

Into The Brain Episode 1

A look at the area of the body where surgery has been most frightening - the brain. Just over 100 years ago, cutting into the brain was a terrifying prospect for both patient and surgeon. They could expect the result to be the surgeon bloodied and defeated, and the patient dead. From freak accidents involving crowbars through the skull to notorious lobotomies with icepicks, this programme reveals how, through mishap and misadventure, brain surgery has become the life-saving discipline it is today.

8.1 · You

60 min

S1 · E2 · Aug 27, 2008

Bleeding Hearts Episode 2

Michael Mosley has a go at heart surgery and meets a man with no heartbeat. With a family history of heart problems, presenter Michael Mosley takes a personal interest in these pioneers, who teetered on the scalpel-edge between saviour and executioner. Michael has a go at heart surgery, meets a man with no heartbeat and witnesses an operation where the patient is cooled until their brain stops and has all of their blood sucked out.

7.9 · You

60 min

S1 · E3 · Sep 3, 2008

Spare Parts Episode 3

Transplant surgery development, from a Nazi sympathiser to new life-saving operations. These days, transplant surgery saves thousands of lives every year and almost everything, from heart to eyes, can be replaced. But in the beginning, transplants killed rather than cured, because surgeons didn't understand that they were taking on one of the most efficient killing systems we know of - the human immune system.

60 min

S1 · E4 · Sep 10, 2008

Fixing Faces Episode 4

Michael Mosley examines plastic surgery, from 16th-century bondage to 21st-century botox. Thought of as a modern phenomenon, it actually started over 400 years ago with a spate of botched nose jobs. Since then, surgeons have been entranced with the idea that not only could they fix the body, but could even fix our sense of self-esteem. Presenter Michael Mosley undergoes both 16th-century bondage and 21st-century botox in his journey of discovery.

60 min

S1 · E5 · Sep 17, 2008

Bloody Beginnings Episode 5

How surgery was dragged out of the dark ages, transforming from butchery into a science. Presenter Michael Mosley finds out how the early days of surgery were dark and barbaric, when the surgeon's knife was more likely to kill you than save you, and invasive medicine generally meant being bloodlet by leeches to within an inch of your life.

5 episodes in Season 1

Some details come from TheTVDB.

From the pioneering work of Galen on Roman gladiators to the latest advances in plastic surgery, this five-part series illustrates the evolution of surgical techniques—a story as much of mishaps and misadventures as it is of successes and amazing advances. Filmed in America and Europe and presented by the charismatic and medically trained Michael J. Mosley. Contains surgical scenes of a graphic nature. A BBC Production. 5-part series.

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Cast

1 person

Michael Mosley

Presenter

Also in

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Total runtime 5h 0m · Episode length 60 min · Type Documentary

Show info

Premiered

August 20, 2008

Final episode

September 17, 2008

Status

Ended

Network

BBC Four

Country

United Kingdom

Type

Documentary

Episode length

60 min

Total runtime

5h 0m

Original language

English

Production

United Kingdom · United States

Produced in

Languages

Spoken on screen

English

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Some details come from TheTVDB.

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