The Consultants

BBC Radio 4, 2 and 9 January at 8 00 pm

In this radio documentary, producer Edi Stark has provided what appears to be a candid insight into the contemporary experiences of consultants working in medical and surgical specialties in Britain—in Glasgow and London specifically. The preview tape contained the first of two scheduled programmes, the focus of which is the cost to consultants' private lives incurred by massive undertakings within the NHS. Stark trails doctors along the corridors and up the stairs; she eavesdrops at handover time, and in small, untidy offices she samples the ambience of the confessional.

Though the narratives are compelling, and Stark's account is clear and unadorned, what …