The Body in Question(1978)
Overview
The Body in Question is a landmark British medical documentary series of 13 shows made for the BBC. It was a groundbreaking show, being the first to ever televise an autopsy (in the final show on 29 Jan 1979). Dr Jonathan Miller considers the functioning of the body as a subject of private experience. He explores our attitudes towards our bodies, our ignorance of them, and our inability to read our body's signals. The first episode starts with vox populi asking where various organs in the body are located. By the final episode we are left in no doubt. Taking as his starting point the experience of pain, Dr Miller analyses the elaborate social process of "falling ill", considers the physical foundations of "disease" and looks at the types of individuals humankind has historically attributed with the power of healing. The series was nominated for two 1979 BAFTAs: Best Factual Television Series and Most Original Programme/Series.
Loading episode ratings...
This may take a moment for shows with many seasons.
No imageThe Body in Question Season 1
13 episodes • 1978
The Body in Question Season 1
13 episodes • 1978
# | Episode | Air Date | Rating |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Naming of Parts | Nov 6, 1978 | 0.0 |
2 | Try a Little Tenderness | Nov 13, 1978 | 0.0 |
3 | How Do You Feel? | Nov 20, 1978 | 0.0 |
4 | Breathless | Nov 27, 1978 | 0.0 |
5 | Blood Relations | Dec 4, 1978 | 0.0 |
6 | Heart of the Matter | Dec 11, 1978 | 0.0 |
7 | Shaping the Future | Dec 18, 1978 | 0.0 |
8 | Sleight of Hand | Dec 25, 1978 | 0.0 |
9 | Native Medicine | Jan 1, 1979 | 0.0 |
10 | Balancing Act | Jan 8, 1979 | 0.0 |
11 | Brute Machine | Jan 15, 1979 | 0.0 |
12 | Heads and Tails | Jan 22, 1979 | 0.0 |
13 | Perishable Goods | Jan 29, 1979 | 0.0 |
Related Shows

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
2013In this "entertaining medical series" (The Sunday Times, U.K.), Dr. Michael Mosley shows how drugs have revolutionized medicine and changed the course of human history. Unfolding over a period of 200 years, it's an extraordinary tale of daring, self-experimentation, revelation, genius, and outright luck.

Body Invaders
2012No description available.

La macchina meravigliosa
1990A long journey in 8 episodes to discover the human body, with Piero Angela who closely observes our organism, focusing each time on a theme: the eye, the ear, taste and smell, the stomach and the intestine, liver, bones, lungs and heart. How does our "wonder machine" work? To make each explanation direct and clear, the program uses films, animations and photographs developed with the scanning electron microscope.

J'aurais donc dû, docteur!
2016Some people see their lives dramatically turned upside down because they waited for too long before seeking care. The documentary series showcases individual who should have rapidly consulted with a doctor when the first signs of illness appeared, before the situation became critical.

The Brain: A Secret History
2011Michael Mosley embarks on three journeys to understand science's last great frontier - the human mind - as he traces the history of the attempts to understand and manipulate the brain.

Fatal Experiments: The Downfall of a Supersurgeon
2016The series investigates Paolo Macchiarini’s claims to have invented a ground-breaking method to create new organs. His method using plastic tracheas sown with stemcells has been operated on patients in the US, Russia, Sweden and the UK. So far, unfortunately, the track record of his plastic organs is not very good. Almost all patients are dead. And several of his former surgeon colleagues in Sweden claim that not only does the method not work, but that his scientific claim to fame is based on falsified and misrepresented data. Some even claim that his patients have been used as human guinea-pigs.

Victorian Pharmacy
2010Victorian Pharmacy is a historical documentary TV series in four parts, first shown on BBC Two in July 2010. It was made for the BBC by independent production company Lion Television. It was filmed at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire. It is a historical documentary that looks at life in the 19th Century and how people attempted to cure common ailments. Since some of the ingredients of Victorian remedies are now either illegal or known to be dangerous, Nick Barber often uses his modern pharmaceutical knowledge to produce similar products without those ingredients. The other main presenters are Tom Quick, a PhD student, and Ruth Goodman, a domestic historian who also appeared in Tales from the Green Valley, Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm.

Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston's Casebook
2017Surgeon Gabriel Weston introduces us to people from across the globe with the world's most unique bodies.

Remaking American Medicine
2006Examining the quality crisis in our health-care system and exploring innovative solutions, this four-part PBS documentary provides a comprehensive look at the state of medicine in America today. Topics include patient safety, medical and medication mistakes, hospital-acquired infections, family-centered care and effective management of chronic disease. Moving personal stories highlight the problems and the people who are working to solve them.

Origins: The Journey of Humankind
2017Hosted by Jason Silva, Origins: The Journey of Humankind rewinds all the way back to the beginning and traces the innovations that made us modern.

From Handsaw to Scalpel
2023A fascinating insight into the evolution of modern medicine as we explore the medical treatments for certain issues from past to present, seeing just how much we have learned through trial and error. The series is also a chance to see how medical advancements are currently used to treat problems in the fields of oncology, ophthalmology, dentistry, neurology, obstetrics and orthopaedics, and to see what the future may hold.

Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery
2008From 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.

Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You
2015100 trillion cells. 280 days. One human life. A BBC Science series, produced in partnership with The Open University, exploring the making of you.

Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders
2025Who really laced Tylenol with cyanide? This true-crime series examines alarming theories behind the unsolved killings — and tracks down a key suspect.

Hur Jun, The Original Story
2013Drama depicts the dramatic life of historical figure Heo Joon, who wrote the oriental medical textbook "Donguibogam" and became physician for King Seonjo.

Kasaba Doktoru
2022Medical drama series, local adaptation of the Korean scripted format “Dr. Romantic”, centering on a genius doctor with an accomplished career who somehow ends up leaving it all behind to be a neighborhood doctor in a small town where he meets some younger doctors and becomes a mentor to them.

House
2004Dr. Gregory House, a drug-addicted, unconventional, misanthropic medical genius, leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey.

Professional Secrecy
2021No description available.

Good Sam
2022A gifted heart surgeon excels in her new leadership role as Chief of Surgery after her renowned boss falls into a coma. When her former boss wakes up months later demanding to resume his duties, Sam is tasked with supervising this egotistical expert with a scalpel who never acknowledged her stellar talent.

Parallel World Pharmacy
2022A young pharmacologist and researcher in Japan died from overworking, and was reincarnated in a Medieval Parallel Europe. He was reincarnated as a 10-year-old apprentice to a famous Royal Court pharmacist, had attained an inhuman skills of ability to see through disease, material creation, and material destruction. In a society in which dubious medical practice are rampant, price gouging thru the monopoly of the pharmacist guild, and good medicine aren't available to the commoners. He was recognized by the Emperor at that time and opened a Pharmacy at the corner of the town. He will wipe out the fraud that has swept the world, and deliver to the commoners a truly effective medicine that was developed using present day pharmacology. Thus the boy pharmacist will cheat by using his previous knowledge to create innovative medicines while helping the people of the parallel world, a story about living his new life to the fullest this time.