About this season
Dr Finlay's Casebook is a BBC television series that was broadcast from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's novella Country Doctor, the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s.
Episodes (26)
1. The Phantom Piper Of Tannochbrae
Aired 21 November 1965 • 50 min
Lord Moorcroft is trying to persuade the Council to put up a memorial to the fallen of the 1914-18 war. But there is a section of the community who feel that the money would be better spent on such necessities as street lamps than on what the local schoolmaster calls 'vast marble eyesores'.
2. The Champion
Aired 28 November 1965 • 50 min
Kevin McDonald is Tannochbrae's shot-putting hope for the Highland Games. He is big, handsome and good-natured, but something brings about a change in his temperament. Finlay's efforts to help him only earn him a black eye. The partners at Arden House each have their own theory but neither can convince the other that he is right. It takes a near tragedy to provide the truth.
3. The Draper Of Dumfries
Aired 5 December 1965 • 50 min
Robert Finlay visits his son Alan at Tannochbrae for the first time. Left to his own devices for much of the time he forms an association with Mrs. Hamilton. Mr. Finlay thinks her a kind and generous person: the Doctor thinks exactly the opposite.
4. The Longest Visit
Aired 12 December 1965 • 50 min
Alan Finlay is a poor sailor. So when he is called out to visit old Strachan, the lighthouse keeper, who has spiked his finger, he dreads the trip. But Strachan is far worse than anticipated and Finlay must be both doctor and nurse - cooped up with Strachan and two other keepers in a spot cut off by gales from the outside world. Dr. Cameron is equally displeased as he has to cope with both his own and his partner's work while the latter is stormbound.
5. Body And Soul
Aired 19 December 1965 • 50 min
Angus Hendry, like many others in Tannochbrae, has been out of work for three years. The partners at Arden House each have their own theory on the best way to help him. What begins as an academic argument soon becomes a practical test of who is right.
6. The Vision
Aired 26 December 1965 • 50 min
7. Miss Letitia
Aired 2 January 1966 • 50 min
8. They Do It In Africa
Aired 9 January 1966 • 50 min
Jamie looks to young Willie Kemp to help him over his bout of crematorium melancholia.
9. The Anxious Man
Aired 16 January 1966 • 50 min
10. Hear No Evil
Aired 23 January 1966 • 50 min
11. The General
Aired 30 January 1966 • 50 min
12. Free Medicine
Aired 6 February 1966 • 50 min
Dr. Finlay dreams of a free National Health Service, but Dr. Cameron is sceptical and fears the extra workload free health care might bring. But as usual the older man's attitude is not as rigid as it seems, and when a top consultant is summoned to Tannochbrae to see a rich hypochondriac Cameron is not above instituting his own 'Medical Service'.
13. The Seniority Rule
Aired 13 February 1966 • 50 min
The depression of the late 1920's was a time of sacrifice. Sacrifice for food, for principle and for solidarity.
14. A Matter Of Confidence
Aired 20 February 1966 • 50 min
Peter MacNab is a medical student of great promise who for one reason or another seems to have lost all confidence in himself. But this changes when Dr. Cameron asks him to examine an ailing Dr. Finlay.
15. For Services Rendered
Aired 27 February 1966 • 50 min
There are times when a private patient is more trouble than he's worth. Not many would dispute a doctor's moral right to be paid for services rendered, but how far should Finlay press this right in a case of a man whose wife has received urgent medical attention and does not feel inclined to settle the account?
16. To Err Is Human
Aired 6 March 1966 • 50 min
When Willie Campbell returns after supposedly serving in the Army in India he finds that his wife Jeannie has given birth to a child. Naturally there is a domestic explosion and Dr. Finlay becomes very concerned about the effect on the baby's health.
17. Better Safe Than Sorry
Aired 13 March 1966 • 50 min
Hugh Armitage decides to stay at Lochend Guest House for a nice long holiday because of its reputation as ""one of the healthiest spots west of Dumfries"". But when he finds himself in the midst of an outbreak of food poisoning his opinion of Tannochbrae changes completely.
18. O Sole Mio
Aired 20 March 1966 • 50 min
John MacEwan, one time concert singer and now professional loafer, comes into conflict with Aldo Narduzzi, an amateur opera singer. Caught up in the quarrel is young Tommy MacEwan, whose stubborn case of acne is causing Dr. Finlay a certain amount of concern.
19. No Subsidy For Sin
Aired 27 March 1966 • 50 min
Annie Laurie sets the tongues of Tannochbrae wagging when she takes in Willie Gillespie as a lodger.
20. Kate And Robert
Aired 3 April 1966 • 50 min
Dr. Cameron and Dr. Finlay successfully deliver Kate Sinclair's first child. Later Finlay warns Kate and her husband that it would almost certainly be fatal for Kate to have another child. The resulting marital problem is a particularly acute one.
21. Written With The Left Hand
Aired 10 April 1966 • 50 min
22. A Settled Man
Aired 17 April 1966 • 50 min
23. Crusade
Aired 24 April 1966 • 50 min
School doctor Fay Beresford targets the primitive toilet facilities at the local school, which she insists must be replaced by modern plumbing. It is a task at which both the Arden House doctors and Dr. Snoddie have failed in the past. However, Fay's forceful personality and good looks stir up unheard of activity in the town. Only Dr. Cameron seems to be sitting on the fence.
24. The Legacy
Aired 1 May 1966 • 50 min
Janet is preoccupied: it is the jam making season. Hordes of small boys are beating a path to Arden House bartering old jam jars for pennies while the air is thick with bees attracted to the jam, much to the discomfort of two physicians busy healing themselves.
25. The Decision
Aired 8 May 1966 • 50 min
26. The Uninvited Guest
Aired 15 May 1966 • 50 min
A girl is thrown from her horse and knocked unconscious trying to cross a river in which Alan Finlay is fishing. When she comes round her memory is gone. The partners decide that she must stay at Arden House while she recovers from her injuries and amnesia. Both men, Finlay in particular, are attracted to her, but Janet does not share their admiration for their uninvited guest.